Few Questions here too, Please Help

hi all experienced mums,

i've been bfing my DS exclusively for 2 months now and am wondering if i
should 'train' him to develop a more 'social' feeding and sleeping pattern.
From birth, he's been nursing almost hourly. at about 3 weeks old, he had
settled to nurse every 2-3 hours, even at night.
at first he nurse about 15-20 mins at each breast but now he's doing ~30
mins, which means that now each feeding session lasts about an hour. is
this considered prolonged feeding? but if i were to detached him any
earlier, he would normally cry or show signs of hunger...

as for sleeping pattern, my DS has *never* slept through the night. i'm
pretty *jealous* when 2 of my friends told me that their formula fed DD
clock a whooping 12 hrs of night sleep. is it possible for a breastfed baby
to sleepthrough or at least train him to last longer in between feeds? i've
been given the suggestion of letting him cry to sleep or to 'chew off' his
feeds; but he's still so young and i do not have the heart to do so. please
advise.

another concern of mine is the amount DS consumed. when my mum or DH gives
him EBM, he takes about 5 oz and is hungry again 2 hours later. is this a
bit too much for a 2MO? i don't think i'll be able to pump enough at
work...what should i do to keep up with his demands?

btw, my DS was born at 36+ weeks, weighing 2.6 kg and of length 47 cm..
does this contribute to his v frequent feeding? he's currently gaining
weight well. weighing in at 5 kg and of length 55 cm. also active and alert
when awake. poop and pee are normal too.

lastly, this is on me: i was 47 kg pre-pregnant, gained 11 kg during
pregnancy. after delivery, i was down to 50 kg in one month's time, and
the number has been stagnant since. any luck that i'll get it down again?

thanks in advance for any advice u can provide.
Wendy Tay

"Terence Low" wrote in message
...
hi all experienced mums,

I don't know if I count as 'experienced' but I have one DS who's now almost
10 months old (born at 34 weeks)

i've been bfing my DS exclusively for 2 months now and am wondering if i
should 'train' him to develop a more 'social' feeding and sleeping
pattern.

Ha-ha you can try :-) Sorry I don't me to be flip there - it's just that I
had hopes of 'training' DS but he's not as easy as our puppies were ;-)

From birth, he's been nursing almost hourly. at about 3 weeks old, he had
settled to nurse every 2-3 hours, even at night.

That's a good feeding period.

at first he nurse about 15-20 mins at each breast but now he's doing ~30
mins, which means that now each feeding session lasts about an hour. is
this considered prolonged feeding? but if i were to detached him any
earlier, he would normally cry or show signs of hunger...

No I wouldn't say that's prolonged feeding, nor would many of the Mums on
here. He's going through big growth spurts at the moment. Think how much
you'd eat if you were doing marathons every day.

as for sleeping pattern, my DS has *never* slept through the night. i'm
pretty *jealous* when 2 of my friends told me that their formula fed DD
clock a whooping 12 hrs of night sleep.

Don't be jealous - formula is much harder for their guts to digest and is
nowhere near as nice and body friendly as breastmilk. Just be quietly (or
noisily) proud that you are giving your little one a much better start in
life. Afterall, they only get one chance at this and they can't make their
own decisions right now so you and Dad have to be good guardians of 'the
right stuff'.

is it possible for a breastfed baby
to sleepthrough or at least train him to last longer in between feeds?

Again ha-ha. Our lil one tricked us for a wonderful 10 weeks of sleeping
through from 7pm to 7am from about 8 weeks old but it all suddenly changed
for no apparent reason. But he's grown masses, is happy, well developed,
doing 'all the right things' and I guess we'll live to tell another tale
(though more sleep would be nice)

i've
been given the suggestion of letting him cry to sleep or to 'chew off' his
feeds; but he's still so young and i do not have the heart to do so.
please
advise.

You obviously have a big heart and that's a good sign :-) Letting them cry
to sleep is easier said than done and really pulls at your heart strings and
makes you all stressed which in turn spoils you letdown reflex and makes
everything worse. In our experience it's easier to settle a baby that's
been crying for 5 mins than one that's been crying for more than half an
hour. Besides, their only way of 'talking' to you is to cry, so if they cry
and you don't listen I reckon it might make them less likely to talk to you
and wouldn't you rather have them know you'll always be there for them (gosh
what an advert for AP I've become - me, the Iron Lady!!!)

And 'chewing off' his feeds - that sounds scary.

another concern of mine is the amount DS consumed. when my mum or DH
gives
him EBM, he takes about 5 oz and is hungry again 2 hours later. is this a
bit too much for a 2MO? i don't think i'll be able to pump enough at
work...what should i do to keep up with his demands?

Well I don't know how much is too much. But when the flow starts from a
bottle it's kinda sink or swim so I think they just keep swallowing. DS
used to take a bottle of EBM and I had the same concerns as you that I
couldn't pump enough to keep up and that I obviously wasn't producing enough
so he was hungry so that's why he was always wanting more food. But now I
know better. Your body is wonderful and works more in tune with your baby
than a pump (goodness knows why) and will always produce enough so long as
you're looking after yourself too, eating right, drinking lots of water,
getting fresh air, and trying to get as much rest as you can find time for.
As for the work bit, I've read that babies will just take extra when Mum
gets home so maybe weekends might be a bit of a feeding festival but, hey,
you can take DS wherever you go and still snuggle him up under your jumper
so your funtime shouldn't be compromised.

btw, my DS was born at 36+ weeks, weighing 2.6 kg and of length 47 cm..
does this contribute to his v frequent feeding? he's currently gaining
weight well. weighing in at 5 kg and of length 55 cm. also active and
alert
when awake. poop and pee are normal too.

Great growth - and all thanks to you - well done :-)

lastly, this is on me: i was 47 kg pre-pregnant, gained 11 kg during
pregnancy. after delivery, i was down to 50 kg in one month's time, and
the number has been stagnant since. any luck that i'll get it down again?

This where I butt out. There just isn't enough room for my personality in a
Kate Moss style body so I'm going with what I've got :-)
Crikey, I've got writer's cramp now ;-) sorry

thanks in advance for any advice u can provide.
Wendy Tay

i've been bfing my DS exclusively for 2 months now and am wondering if i
should 'train' him to develop a more 'social' feeding and sleeping pattern.

In a word, no. :-) At 2 months, you *might* be able to develop a bit of a
predictable routine by paying attention to the times of day he usually gets
hungry and falls asleep and trying to make those times more consistent, but you
have to work with what nature gave him; you can't just impose an arbitrary
schedule that works for you or the outside world.

From birth, he's been nursing almost hourly. at about 3 weeks old, he had
settled to nurse every 2-3 hours, even at night.
at first he nurse about 15-20 mins at each breast but now he's doing ~30
mins, which means that now each feeding session lasts about an hour. is
this considered prolonged feeding? but if i were to detached him any
earlier, he would normally cry or show signs of hunger...

That all sounds well within normal range. My DS nursed for an hour every three
hours, some babies nurse for 10 minutes every 45 minutes -- they're all
different.

If you want to encourage him to sleep longer, try feeding him *more* in the
evening and right before you go to bed at night. You might be able to get him
to "tank up" enough to last 5 hours or so before waking in the wee hours.

as for sleeping pattern, my DS has *never* slept through the night. i'm
pretty *jealous* when 2 of my friends told me that their formula fed DD
clock a whooping 12 hrs of night sleep. is it possible for a breastfed baby
to sleepthrough or at least train him to last longer in between feeds?

It is often possible with an older baby, but not with a 2-month-old. (Of
reputable infant sleep experts, even the most authoritarian cry-it-out training
advocates say don't start before 4-6 months at the youngest.) For the moment,
focus on finding ways to maximize your own sleep. If you haven't been bringing
your baby into your bed at night, try it. Chances are good that both of you
will sleep more. Nap during the day as much as you can.

And you might pick up copies of Elizabeth Pantley's book _The No Cry Sleep
Solution_ in preparation for some gentle sleep training efforts in a few
months' time.

another concern of mine is the amount DS consumed. when my mum or DH gives
him EBM, he takes about 5 oz and is hungry again 2 hours later. is this a
bit too much for a 2MO? i don't think i'll be able to pump enough at
work...what should i do to keep up with his demands?

Are they giving a 5 ounce bottle, or are they giving a 2-3 ounce one first and
then a second 2 ouncer because he still seems hungry? If the former, try the
latter. He may or may not need the "top up" bottle. Right now he's taking all
5 ounces because when you put a bottle in a baby's mouth, the milk flows out
even when he's not sucking. And most babies will just go with it rather than
spit it out, even when they're not all that hungry.

As for keeping up with him when you're pumping, try not to fret about it now.
Start pumping whenever you can in order to build up a freezer stash, which will
cover any day-to-day shortages that happen in the first week or two and then
from time to time. (But don't give too many bottles now -- one every couple
days is probably sufficient to keep baby "in practice" and your body needs the
stimulation of nursing as often as possible now in order to help maintain your
milk supply when you return to work.) Remember that you almost certainly will
be able to pump more milk in less time when you are pumping in replacement of a
nursing session than when you are pumping in between nursing sessions!

When the time comes, post again if you have pumping-related questions or
problems. Lots of us here have BTDT and can help you.

btw, my DS was born at 36+ weeks, weighing 2.6 kg and of length 47 cm..
does this contribute to his v frequent feeding? he's currently gaining
weight well. weighing in at 5 kg and of length 55 cm. also active and alert
when awake. poop and pee are normal too.

I have no idea how to translate kg and cm but it sounds like he's doing fine
and no, his birth weight and length don't really have anything to do with how
often he eats. All newborns need to nurse frequently.

lastly, this is on me: i was 47 kg pre-pregnant, gained 11 kg during
pregnancy. after delivery, i was down to 50 kg in one month's time, and
the number has been stagnant since. any luck that i'll get it down again?

Yep. I didn't get back to pre-preg weight until DS was about 6 months old, but
I did lose the weight and then some, even though I wasn't doing anything
special to encourage it. I do know people who plateaued at 5 or 10 pounds over
pre-preg weight and couldn't lose that last bit for as year or so, or until
after the baby was weaned; oddly enough, this seems to happen more often to
women who were in better shape to begin with.

Holly
Mom to Camden, 3yo
EDD #2 6/8/04

"Terence Low" wrote in message
...
as for sleeping pattern, my DS has *never* slept through the night. i'm
pretty *jealous* when 2 of my friends told me that their formula fed DD
clock a whooping 12 hrs of night sleep. is it possible for a breastfed
baby
to sleepthrough or at least train him to last longer in between feeds?
i've
been given the suggestion of letting him cry to sleep or to 'chew off' his
feeds; but he's still so young and i do not have the heart to do so.
please
advise.

It all depends on the child. When DS was born, he was BF'ing every 2 hours
or so around the clock. On her first night home from the hospital, DD slept
5 hours straight. She's also BF'd. She still goes for longer between feeds
than DS at her age, but she tends to wake up once a night now. Things
change as they grow, so even if you get your DS on some sort of schedule, it
will likely change within a month or two. Making a hungry baby cry is just
cruel.