When did your baby start nursing less often?

[Deleted]

I think DS still nurses 8 times a day

Around 6-8 weeks is usually the point where moms start feeling like they can get on with life. It's a combo of baby going a bit longer between feeds and eating faster. You said your DD is still taking half an hour, right? Even if the frequency keeps up, the length should start decreasing within another few weeks.

[Willis Jackson]

I remember telling the pedi at DS's 4mo checkup that he was still nursing every 2hrs around the clock, so that would be 12 feedings/day. He had terrible reflux, though, and wasn't growing well.

I don't remember with DD. I know she never went more than 3 hours between nursing sessions until we sleep trained at 6mo. She still nursed every 3hrs during the day, though. She basically clusterfed all night from 5mo-6mo which is why we ended up sleep training. I was going nuts.

[Willis Jackson]

Yeah, that was DD's m.o. but unfortunately she's the second kid and life goes on so she just had to deal. I think she nursed all.night.long. because that was the only time she could have me to herself.

[jackpackage]

DS is 4 months, and he nurses 4-6 times between 8am-8:30pm and wakes up once or twice to eat. I keep worrying that it's not enough, but he's growing well. 3 months really was a magic age for him, but I'll pretend it was 8 weeks. He would stay latched forever too, but I would take him off, make sure I felt empty and distract him with something else.

[Saudade]

DS is 8 months and still nurses every 2 hours around the clock but each feeding is less than 5 minutes. It's not that bad. He never spent a long time nursing because I have an overactive letdown and he chugs 2-3 ozs in that time. He never took a paci and didn't take a bottle until around 6 months.

[zeewifeandmama]

I had a " power nurser" in my dd....I swear she nursed 10 times a day until like 18 months! But around 2-3 months with her, she became more efficient/ predictable. Hang in there, mama!!

[jena]

Dd nursed 8x a day still at 12mo. The good news is that she got SO much faster. Fewer times would have been nice, but super short nursing sessions made it doable.

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[karinothing]

At 11 months DS really cut back. On the weekend he essentially only nurses before nap and bed and then over night.

[knitty]

Have you tried breast compressions or switching sides when she's just hanging out? She could either be waiting for more milk or just enjoying herself. I had a high sucking need baby who didn't take a dummy and she preferred an "empty" breast.

How does she go with bottles if she won't take a dummy?

[Deleted]

when I am home with him, DS nurses about every two hours, so it ends up being about 8 times a day, typically more bc he has been nursing at night lately.

[bunch]

Dd settled on a 7,9,11,1,3,5,7, 4a about 4 months and kept that until 9mos when she was eating a lot more solids.

[gibbinator]

Ds has always nursed every 2.5-3hrs (more during a growth spurt) and he's 5months today.
The feedings did reduce in time somewhat around 4months - more like 10min per side than 20mins

[mrshandy]

Every baby is different. I honestly don't remember DS' schedule month by month. All he remember is he nursed so often that I never really kept track of it.

Maybe around 5 or 6 months it stopped being every 1-2 hours and more like 2-3 hours.

[eddy]

Around 3 months when I went back to work. We got out of the habit of him needing the boob 24/7, which was awesome.

I weaned at 5 months.

[jr009j]

DD moved to a 5 time a day schedule right around 10 weeks. I think it was partially she became a more efficient nurser and partially we had learned her cues enough that our solution was no longer to give her the boob every time she fussed. She is now almost 8 months and that has held pretty steady, other than the occasional growth spurt or clingy stage.

[Ashley&Scott]

Around 6/7 months he started spacing his feedings out a little more during the daytime, 2.5-3 hr instead of every 2 hours. He cluster feeds in the evenings.

His total daily nursing time has always been 1.5-2.5 hours (low on daycare days because he gets bottles, high on weekends w/o bottles)

[loskadoodle]

DS is 4 months and we are on an every 3 hr schedule from 730a-7p, then he gets up usually twice over night. The middle of the day sessions are usually pretty short (10 mins?) but the over night ones are 20-30 because i let him fall asleep and pull himself off.

[Deleted]

DD is 2 months and nurses 7 times a day most days, every 3 hours with one 6 hour stretch overnight usually. She cut down her feeding time from ~25 minutes to ~15 minutes (only one side per feeding).

ETA: She was nursing every 3 hours or 8 times/day from the time she was discharged from the hospital, aside from growth spurts and random boughts of cluster feeding. I consider myself pretty lucky.

[satsuma]

DS still likes to nurse often - before and after he falls asleep, sometimes in between. He's fast, except when falling asleep at night when it takes forever to put him down. It also got easier because when we're out and about, I know that even if he wants to nurse right that minute, he can go longer. When he was younger, I was much more nervous about that, but we had some breastfeeding issues. Hang in there.

[MamaMaui24]

I feel like things changed a lot at 12 weeks (which was also when I returned to work, so duh - less nursing) but also growing out of the "4th trimester" thing.

I did end up unlatching DS after 30 minutes.

[badtzmaru22]

DD got noticeably faster at nursing around 4 months. When I first went back to work at 3 months, I still had to get up ungodly early to make sure I'd have enough time to feed her. She stopped clustering at night around that time as well, but she still ate at 5:30pm, 7 and 9 for a long time. Now at almost 9 months, she is on the boob at 5:30 and 8 (she decided on an earlier bedtime now) and she also gets some solids when we eat dinner around 6/7.

Hang in there! Even if she doesn't want the paci, will she let you unlatch her? Sometimes I had just HAD ENOUGH and had to get her off the boob to give myself a break, even if it meant handing a fussy baby to DH. It gets better!!

[Deleted]

12 weeks ended the 24/7 nursing.

[Deleted]

Man do I feel lucky that DS has nursed 4-5 times a day since he was about 4 months. Usually 8, 12, 4, and 7:30.