A couple of questions about demand feeding.

[~clover~]

In the early days babies do need a minimum of 8 - 12 feeds a day for hydration. They'll usually average every 2 hours, then may go a bit longer over night after a few weeks if you're lucky Some do start with the standard 3 - 4 hours though (not mine!)

I let my babies decide re swapping sides. I started out feeding on both sides, but within the first few weeks they settled in to one side each feed.

I think demand is more about not holding out, rather than not waking. They need that minimum amount of feeds

[~ Mylitta ~]

I let my babies decide re swapping sides. I started out feeding on both sides, but within the first few weeks they settled in to one side each feed.

That's exactly the same as I've done for all three of my babies. My little one generally just takes one side, but if she starts fussing I generally know that she wants to swap sides. I usually means I've accidentally put her on the side that her brother or sister have already drained, lol.

[Beach Mama]

I always offered both sides too but they only wanted one side per feed, pretty much from birth so let bub guide you there and just keep offering. As for sleeping, I found that the more they fed during the day, the less they fed at night - but again it really depends on the baby, mine cluster fed from 4-7 ish each night early on as well. I also found even if I left them they wouldn't' sleep for more than 4 hours during the day generally anyway but if they did on occasion they would have a big feed once they woke up. I can't see how old your bub is though hun, if she is under 6 weeks old though I would be thinking that 4 hours would be a limit and would be gentle stirring at that time for another feed if she hasn't woken. HtH. xoxo

[Novella]

My first two were early so I needed to wake them a minimum of three hourly to feed to start (although I only needed to do it a handful of times with DD2 little piggy). My midwife also said to try and feed at least 3-4hrly for the first few weeks apart from one longer stretch as they need a minimum of 8 feeds a day to start. All my bubs have had breastfeeding jaundice and there was a concern to begin with the jaundice may make them too sleepy to feed.

I had terrible engorgement so once my milk came my girls were drowning in the milk from one side, I had to express the second side but offering both was not needed. Sometimes I block fed (one boob each feed if bubs fed more than 3hrly which helped my supply issue and meant bubs wasnt getting heaps of fore milk which was giving her bad wind)

I must admit I tend to wake my babies during they day around the three hour mark as I prefer them to have their longer stretch at night, so Im not areally demand feeding although I never try and stretch their feeds out. All my girls have had massive cluster feed sessions in the evenings, feeding up to six times in a couple of hours.