Nursing

When do you start to feed on demand?

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Immediately!! Whenever babe is hungry, go ahead and nurse them!

Soon as!

From the moment they are born 😃 you can feed on demand and you can also offer when convenient.. for example if you are about to head out and want to ‘top baby up before you go’ responding to earlier feeding cues such as turning head to side, bringing hands to mouth etc will make it easier for your baby to latch as they won’t be too hungry ☺️

he’s 8 days old and has went above his birth weight so I was just curious bc I still wake him every 2/3 hrs😩

if he’s gaining weight you don’t need to wake them to feed, they’ll wake up when they’re hungry

From birth 😊

sometimes I have to wake him bc my breasts feel like they’re going to explode

Overnight just hand express enough milk off to be comfortable and let baby sleep

well done mumma! If baby is surpassed birth weight and they are having plenty of wet and dirty nappies/diapers then enjoy the rest. Ideally a newborn should eat 8-12 times in a 24 hour period but as long as the above markers are good enjoy the extra rest when bubba is asleep! Your breasts are just making milk currently so engorgement is very common at this time.. they will adjust and adapt around week 6 and the engorgement will settle. Hand express to ease some discomfort but avoid pumping as you don’t want to create an oversupply at this point 😀

I already have a oversupply 😩 he eats 1.5 oz and I make about 4-6 from each boob so I’ve been using the haaka but is there an amount of time he shouldn’t go past without eating when you’re feeding in demand? He loves his sleep and will hardly ever wake from it

I’m 11 weeks in and now my baby is doing longer stints some nights (some nights she does 4 hours some night she does 8) my boobs wake uo solid. But I just try and hand express to get them softer, I would not pump with an actual pump for a while because your milk works on a supply and demand and it doesn’t know that the pump isn’t your hungry baby so will then make more milk. So wait till your supply regulates a little before pumping just continue using your Hakka to collect letdown. One thing I would say is don’t lay on your front when you’re sleeping lol I learnt the hard way that sleeping on ur boobies causes the biggest engorgement ever. 8 days is still so small and little- so he’s going to sleoe loade and just wake when he is hungry. If he’s gone past his birth weight and has enough wet nappies don’t worry about waking him he’s doing amazing and your milk is everything he needs xxx

I never did. I always followed a schedule. It worked 90% of the time. Except when cluster feeding. Always feed a hungry baby. But if you get the schedule right you will be the one offering the food before they get crying hungry.

From birth

From day one.

Also you don’t have to wait till their “crying hungry” you will learn their cues.

yeah crying is the last resort of a baby being hungry! Harder when they’re not in the newborn stage and discover their hands properly as my little girl always is sucking on her finhers now and it’s like 🤨 are u hungry or just playing around haha 😛

From the very beginning.

in our community

Should I wake baby up to feed?

First time mum here, my baby is 2 months old today. Should I be waking her for night feeds? During the day she feeds every 2–3 hours, but at night she usually sleeps from around 11pm to about 3am, and I’ve been waking her then. Is that okay, or should I let her sleep?

Night time help!

Hi! My baby boy is nearly 6 months old and every night he wakes up anytime from 2am onwards and will be awake for well over two hours.
I’ve tried changing his naps during the day, changing his bedtimes and yet nothing seems to help!
Any tips that might help this exhausted mummy?
I don’t mind the wake ups if he would settle straight away but he views it as a whole wake window.

Newborn sleep for 9 hours

Hello mamas, my newborn is 6 weeks old. Last night she slept for 9 hours without waking up for a feed. The previous night she slept for 8 hours as well. During the day she had quite a lot awake periods and she was eating well. She also gained 1kg for a month which the midwife said it's very good. Is she okay like that and should I wake her up to feed her during the night?

Feel like I’m solo parenting

I’m so sick of arguing with my husband over this.

My daughter is 11 weeks old, and my husband works Monday to Friday. I look after her all day every day, and on the weekends and some evenings he goes out cycling. I don’t mind this, he gets extremely ratty and stir crazy if he doesn’t go out, and it drives me mad.

Lately. My daughter’s sleep pattern is all over the place in terms of the second stretch. She tends to go for 6 hours, then has a feed, then either goes for another 4 hours, or starts to fuss at about 5:30 am. (I realise this first stretch is a dream, please believe me I’m not complaining about that.

My husband starts work at 7 am from home, or leaves at 6 am if he’s going into the office.

This means that he comes home, feeds her once while I’m in the shower, while I handle all of the other feeds/ settling her off at night. I rarely go back to sleep after as I’m so wired. He also struggles to sleep once he’s awake, so when she fusses for her night feed, he’s up from around 4 am regardless of feeding her or not.

I see him for around 3 hours a day apart from weekends, and in that time I cook, he does the dishes and cleans the bottles. We then bath/wash LO, he feeds her, then we watch a film or show until her next feed at 9:30 pm.

He has gone up to bed early to try and get more sleep because he feels like he’s exhausted to the point of headaches. (I am too, but it seems like this isn’t as important because I don’t go to work. He acknowledges that it’s hard work looking after her all day, this isn’t the problem). I have stayed downstairs with her, because to me, disturbing a sleeping baby only to put her in a crib for 30 minutes after settling her again, to feed her and then have to restart the process is ridiculous when she’s asleep already.

I feel like I do everything. I feed and settle her every time. When he can’t calm her down within 10 minutes he passes her back despite me having her all day and him not seeing her.

I love my daughter more than anything, and my husband is lovely, I swear. It’s just a really tough time with her sleep, and I’m struggling to cope. I’m so, so tired. And he doesn’t seem to realise this, because he is. We have talked about this so many times, but it just turns into an argument. Please tell me this will pass?

Crazy MIL??

I’ve always found my mother in law tricky - she has a hideous nervous energy about her and finds everything absolutely hilarious which sets me right on edge. We’ve just had a baby and she came down to meet her. It was very soon after baby was born so we were pretty knackered and I’d suffered bad hypertension in hospital and had had to stay in for a week. She had wanted to come and see me there but I managed to get my husband to say no- she would have not made my blood pressure any better!
So she came to see the baby a couple of weeks after with her partner- who btw had a chest and they didn’t tell us.
My MIL was at her most hyper and difficult. She stayed hours and hours and held the baby all the way though- fed her her bottle (just took it off my husband) without asking and took photos and posted them without asking.
Then I was changing the babies nappy. Baby had terrible nappy rash at the time and was screaming with pain - making me want to cry. My MIL just sat there watching - hooting with laughter. 🫠
But the worst thing is she made these WEIRD comments - there was a photo of baby just wearing a vest and she said she “looked a hussy.” Then later when we were describing about the baby having phototherapy- which was horribly traumatic- my husband said how he tucked her into his denim jacket to keep warm - his mothers response was “ah so she likes a bit of rough???”
I think in her mind she was being really funny but I was appalled by her comments. In the end I made and excuse, went upstairs to have a shower and then sat there until they left. I used to feel fed up and weary at the thought of her but now I feel pure anger. It’s tricky as obviously she’s my husbands mum. She also gave us the deposit for our house and is generally generous in that way. She and my husband have a really odd relationship in my opinion- I’m super close to my fam and they all live nearby so we see them a lot
His mum lives in Devon and we’re in Kent which is something to be thankful for.
After they finally went she messaged my husband and asked to come and stay for a week. Thankfully he has the sense to say no. But Christ what is wrong with the women? Those comments have made me feel so hostile towards her. Should I just get over it??

Baby won’t sleep

Somebody please help me.
She’s crying, I’m crying. Idk what to do. Husband isn’t here rn and my mom’s asleep.
She’s not hungry, diapers freshly changed, she doesn’t seem uncomfortable in any way. She just seems tired but can’t fall asleep. She’s been doing this for a few days now, just fighting sleep. I refuse to let her cry it out and I’m doing everything I know and can do at this time. She’ll take the boob but keep stretching away every few seconds. She keeps chewing on her hand like she’s hungry but won’t eat cause she already did 30 minutes ago. I’m just at a loss and starting to get stressed. Nothing is helping.