a breastfeeding question or two

well, I'm bound to have many of these over the next few months.
1. I have heard so many conflicting statements about this: how long do u feed your baby on which breast? Some people have told me to empty the first one (which makes sense cuz then the baby can get the hind milk), and some have said that you need to change every 15 minutes.
2. Now, this brings on my next question: how do you know when your boob is emptied? With Leane, I would wait until it felt kinda floppy, but when I squeed it, more milk would come out (confused)
3. When the baby starts to fall asleep at the breast, are they done? Or do they need to be burped and put on the next boob? Or back on the same one again? (I am seriously confuzzled here!!! CAN U TELL???) LOL
4. I know that demand feeding is best, but if this baby just by chance takes nothing after his sister and actually sleeps, do I need to wake him up for feedings, or just let him direct it?
*edit* I also have a very very very strong let down that choked leane all the time. She would suckle for a minute and scream.
Ok, that's all for now. There are more, but these are the ones on my mind at the moment.
Thanks

 

i was an overproducer with an overly strong let-down reflex, and put my baby and family through hell. the poor little thing. i ended up, with the second child, feeding exclusively from each breast for about a 4 hour time frame. with my previous child, i emptied each breast. my child was satiated, calm and happy. seems to me those are very good signs.

 

oh, and i never woke my child up if they feel asleep at the breast, except for burping. neither of them starved. mainly it comes down to your child's preferences and habits.

 

1. Generally you nurse the baby until he comes off the breast himself, burp him, then offer the other. I have oversupply so I just always offer the same. We only ever feed off one breast at a time. Never give yourself a time limit to switch. They used to say 10 mins at breast then switch (or something like that) but that is just bad and outdated advice. You want to make sure baby gets plenty of hindmilk, and if you switch too often all he will be getting is the foremilk.

2. Your breast isn't ever entirely empty. He could be finished feeding and you still may be able to express a bit. It's just how the breast works. Always producing.

3. I let my DS fall asleep at the breast. I don't burp him or try to get him to eat more once asleep (if he was an overly gassy baby or it seemed to bother him I would have burped him, but we didn't have that problem). If he's hungry he'll wake up later and want to eat. Letting them get to that nap or nighttime rest is important. Many babies like to nurse themselves to sleep. I nurse mine to sleep every night and often for naps during the day.

4. I'd start out feeding him at least every 3 hours while you are building and regulating your supply. Once supply is well regulated (different for everyone) and baby is gaining weight well and haveing a normal number of wet/dirty diapers then just let him sleep. I was letting DS sleep after 2 weeks - he had surpassed his brith weight by 2lbs by then and I had oversupply and didn't have to worry much about not producing enough breastmilk. I've read it can take 4-6 weeks to regulate your supply.

When breastfeeding you'll soon stop watching the clock or counting the number of feedings. I used to document everything, but soon learned with feeding on demand that baby is perfectly capable of regulating his food intake and all I needed to do was make sure he was gaining weight and having plenty of wet/dirty diapers. Now we just go about our day and he eats when he eats for as long as he wants, and it works well for us.

 

Is there a local La Leche League anywhere near you? they can be a HUGE help....and answer many of your questions...

also check out www.mothering.com/discussions and www.mothering.com and www.apunited.com

 

thanks for the replies so far everyone!!!
I also added at the top that I have an over supply and a very active let down. Leane would start to suckle and would pull away screaming...I had no idea what was going on until maggie sugar (what happened to her anyway???) suggested over active let down, and it all made sense. But that wasn't until she had been on formula for 6 months, and it was too late to start all that over again.
But yeah, it seems that the "rules" are kinda changed for moms with this over active let down and over supply, eh?

oh, and there is a LLL branch here....a few I believe, but at the moment I can't get into see them. I will contact the branch closest to my home and see what I can line up. Thanks for suggesting that, LLL seemed to have slipped my mind.

 

I would feed my babies fully off of the one breast before offering them the other, and alternate which side I started with first... it just worked easier for me

As for how I knew when one side was empty... they let me know. If there's nothing there, your kiddo will either stop trying or start REALLY trying to pull more milk out; either way, they're just a bit fussier and you'll KNOW.

I would let my babies fall asleep at the breast too. They didn't end up overly gassy or anything, and were generally just more content that way. Sometimes they're done, but some babies are... I guess more interested in sleeping than eating?!? Either way, most people tend to agree that it's slightly insane to purposefully wake a sleeping newborn... they seem to do so little of that as it is! And that goes for feeding them too. You can't exactly force a baby to eat if they're not hungry anyway, so I just fed them as soon as they woke up.
love,
mom

 

btw, maggie_sugar saved my life and my marriage on this topic.

 

If your baby is sleeping for long periods of time and is a newborn, do wake him to feed within the first week or two. But if he falls asleep at the breast he has gotten enough and there's no need to wake him.

 

I gave my guys 10-20 minutes on the first boob and let them finish on the second, then I made sure I started on that side next time.
You can put a diaper pin on your bra to help remember which one you left off at...

 

1. I have heard so many conflicting statements about this: how long do u feed your baby on which breast? Some people have told me to empty the first one (which makes sense cuz then the baby can get the hind milk), and some have said that you need to change every 15 minutes.
It depends on how much milk you produce. If you want to get the flow going it's good to change every few minutes, if you have enough or too much just offer one breast first.

2. Now, this brings on my next question: how do you know when your boob is emptied? With Leane, I would wait until it felt kinda floppy, but when I squeed it, more milk would come out (confused)
Your boobs usally never get completely emptied, because as long as the baby drinks it keeps making milk!

3. When the baby starts to fall asleep at the breast, are they done? Or do they need to be burped and put on the next boob? Or back on the same one again? (I am seriously confuzzled here!!! CAN U TELL???) LOL
I never woke Nora up when she fell asleep, I just waited till she woke up again.
4. I know that demand feeding is best, but if this baby just by chance takes nothing after his sister and actually sleeps, do I need to wake him up for feedings, or just let him direct it?
I would let the child decide, as he/she knows best if he/she is hungry. And if the baby has enough wet nappies (about 5 a day) and puts on weight I wouldn't worry.
[/QUOTE]

 

I have always been very relaxed about breastfeeding and just let my children dictate. I let her eat on one side until she is done, then offer her the other one, sometimes she wants it sometimes she doesn't. If she falls asleep on the boob, I lay her down, I don't burp her. I would NEVER wake a sleeping baby just to feed them. I think that if they are sleeping well, their tummy must be full.

My second was complete opposite of my first, she actually sleeps! My son didn't sleep thru the night until recently and he's 4. He was a boobie baby, loved it and could be attached to it all day and night. My Ayla is nothing like that. She eats very quickly, gets right down to business and she's done. Now at almost 9 months old, it is hard getting her to get a complete nursing, she is just too busy.

Good luck!!

 

My LC directed me to the www.kellymom.com website for breastfeeding info. Now I'm a kellymom addict! It's a great site, I would check it out. Any question you may have in answered in articles and they have message boards too. The website is a goldmine of bresatfeeding and AP info.

 

wow, thanks for all the replies everyone!
my midwife was telling all of us in our group session the other day that we all need to relax and just "do it," and not to worry. I over think things way too much....I even get in trouble for that in college....when sometimes I should just go with the flow of things.