Nursing on Demand w/ Newborn

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My baby spent the 1st 5 or 6 weeks nursing all the darn time except at night. he's definitely slowed down a lot. Well, he's going through a growth spurt right now, but it's still not nearly the constant nursing of the early days. Hang in there. The first 8 weeks are so so hard, but things got sooo much better and easier for me at least.

Nursing every 45 mintues sounds pretty normal to me and there are going to be times when it goes to every 20 minutes and times when you have 3 hours. Around 3 or 4 months my daughter had to nurse ALL the time! I would nurse in the car, go into a store and after 10 minutes she would start demanding to nurse.

I don't think that the intro of solids made any difference to her nursing schedule, I think getting older did (she is 14 months now).

Good luck guys and remember it is so worth it and will be over before you know it so enjoy the long, cuddly nurses while they last.

I agree with the PP's but just wanted to add, the reason your baby sleeps for such long stretches at nite is probably because he is nursing so much during the day. From the beginning my DD was an every-45-min kind of gal, and I actually posted here just like you are doing and asked if it was normal. Now I feel I was very lucky b/c DD started sleeping long stretches at nite from an early age - I personally think because she gets so much nursing during the day. In the beginning it was every 45 min, now, at 5 mos, it is more like every 2 hours, but sometimes still more often. At nite, she sleeps for at least 5-6 hours and often more.

Hang in there - I've BTDT too.

She ate every hour and slept for four hour stretches at night for three months.

That must sound more appealing than every two hours around the clock!

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Nah, you just need to learn how to nurse while walking and you're free!

It gets so much better (and more fun), I promise.

Two positives that I tried to focus on when I felt the constant nursing might never end:

1) I had a good eater. The last thing I had to worry about was him eating or gaining, and that's a serious concern for many people.

2) I didn't have to worry about my supply. I had enough milk to feed the entire US and some of Mexico.

Try to focus on these when you feel a little over it.

Hang in there and YAY to getting 4 hours in a row at night (I don't even get that still and my DS is almost 8 months!)

I gets SO much better! Hang in there! The first 6-8 weeks are a real bear, but if you can make it that long it's all downhill from there. DS is 14 weeks now and he goes 3 hours during the day with one big 6-7 hour stretch at night.

Don't mean to sound discouraging, but mine will be 6 mo on Thursday and she still nurses very frequently during the day (but 45 mins would have sounded great to me when she was a newborn!). Her pattern now at night is 4-2-1, that's 4 hours from 8:30 12:30, 2 hours at a time between 12:30 and around 4:30, then she wakes every hour till 7. She has never slept more than 4 hours. And the other night she never slept more than 10-15 mins at a time without latching back on.

She won't be starting solids any time soon, I don't think.

You do get used it to, though!

When I was pregnant, I attended a breastfeeding preparation class. There are normal growth spurts at ten days and three weeks.

Even knowing that my baby was going to want to nurse extra during those growth spurts didn't stop me from saying "Oh my God, I'm nursing all the time! Forty minutes out of every hour!" etc.

After he was a month old, it calmed down significantly.