A big sleep then lots of feeds...

[{sarah}]

I'm trying to demand feed Juliette, but wondered if this is normal & ok for her to do.... She's a great sleeper & overnight goes for quite a long time. Last night she slept from 10pm until 6.15am when I had to wake her to feed because my boobs were killing me. She fed for around half an hour on one side & went back to sleep. She woke up an hour later hungry again. Since then (so for about 4 hours) she has been on & off constantly, maybe half an hour feeding, half an hour dozing or looking round & then repeating. Se's fallen asleep now & is in bed. I figured because she had such a big sleep she was extra hungry this morning so feeding more. Is this ok for her to work like this? I have no problem with it, but wondered if it's an alright way of feeding.

[Barb Glare]

Hi,

We hear that babies need 8-12 feeds in 24 hours, - and then our adult brains do the maths and decide that a baby will feed every 3 hours or so (we live in hope that it won't be 2 hourly!) But, what is more normal is that babies will have one "longish" sleep in 24 hours. At this age 3 hours might be as good as it gets. 4 hours would be great, especially if it is overnight, but this is not necessarily likely! You seem to have hit the (very rare) jackpot.
At another time of the day or night, babies will tend to have a cluster of feeds over a few hours. This is completely normal. At other times they will space their feeds out a bit more.
have you had the little darling weighed yet? It can be reassuring to see they are gaining wieght. But otherwise, if there are plenty of wet and dirty nappies it's a good sign all is well

Regards
Barb

[{sarah}]

She was weighed a week after she was born & had lost only 200gm (birth 4485gm, 1 week 4265gm) and then she's going to be weighed again on Monday. She has heaps of week & dirty nappies, so no concerns there.

[MantaRay]

Sounds great to me Sarah. Enjoy that sleep - your bbs will adjust soon and you won't feel so full. FWIW J did the same thing - a long overnight feed and cluster feeds during the day. Didn't do him any harm!!

[Zee]

Sarah in the 1st week that DD was born and I was able to BF I did demand feeding with her and she would have 1 really big nap somewhere in 24 hrs so she would want to cluster feed after that big nap. Sounds like you are going well.

[mbear]

My older two girls were great sleepers right from day 1 (another story with DD#3....). anyway, they always slept good chunks in the night, therefore in the day i seemed to always be feeding them - i guess they were stocking up for the night....ive always fed my girls on demand, and never let them go longer than 2 hrs.....