am I breastfeeding enough?

hi there, this may seem like a strange question but do you think I'm breastfeeding enough? I have an 8 week old baby girl who is 6kg, so in the 97th percentile for her weight. She only feeds 4 times per day which goes against all the books which say you must feed 6-8 times daily. She is a great sleeper, sleeps 9-10 hours at night and has settled into a feeding routine approx as follows - 8am, 12pm, 5pm, 10pm and then sleeps through till around 8am the next morning. She has had all her checks with the health nurse and doctor and is gaining weight very well - is even on the large scale for a baby girl. You may call me paranoid, but with my first child, I seemed to have him on the boob every few hours, she just seems too content? Is that weird???? She is alert and has hit the usual milestones - ie lifting her head, smiling etc, so there don't seem to be any problems there.

I think your doing wonderfully, if she was hungry there is no way she would be that content.
Go with your gut, she's having plenty of dirty/wet nappies, she's content, she's meeting milestones and putting on weight.
If she starts to drop or is lethargic and not happy then i would worry.

Keep up the great work, sounds like your blessed with a happy little bub.

gaining weight and wet nappies if yes then it seems fine to me :)

thanks for the responses. It's strange, we're so conditioned by society to expect that our babies will conform to a certain way and keep us up day and night wanting fed etc but I guess I should be happy that she gets all she needs from the feeds she demands. Who knows - she may have changed by next week!!

It is a low number of feeds compared to average, but it's always best to take a holistic view - if everything else looks good then she may just be an incredibly efficient feeder. Lucky you!
I'd keep an eye on her output and weight gains, to be sure, but otherwise it's probably ok.

Hun, being a parent can be very stressful at times, can't it!! It is a good question because the average number of feeds for a baby that age is actually 8 - 12 (I wish the books would get it right!!). However, all babies are different and it sounds like your little one is an exception to the rule! The best way to tell that a baby is getting enough milk is from the nappies - she should be having 5 heavily wet disposables (or 6 - 8 pale wet cloth nappies) in 24 hours. At 8 weeks the poos can sometimes slow down, but up till now you would be expecting at least 2 soft or runny poos a day as well. If the nappy count is good, the weight is good and she's healthy then it's all good. Relax and enjoy!! (and don't worry if it changes again, these little critters keep changing the rules on their unsuspecting parents ;) ).

There is no way of telling how much she is actually drinking. DD1 had a lower than normal feeds per day, we discovered at 3 months that she was drinking 280mls, by 5/6mths over 300mls when she had ebm and she was only 50th percentile, people were telling me not to give her so much :rolleyes: They will have what they want and thats that, nothing we poor worrying parents can do about it.