New Borns and Schedualing

if she wants to exclusively breastfeed, the best thing to do is go on baby's cues. she'll let you know when she's hungry and when she's sleepy. don't think of it so much as a schedule, but as a routine. doing things in a certain order.

only the baby can tell you how much she needs to sleep or eat. the only reason she wouldn't be able to is if there are other medical issues. but your pediatrician will be able to tell you that.

My daughter fell into her own schedule. However, that was not until about 6 months or so. Before that, she ate and slept whenever she felt like it. I have discussed this very topic with many of my mom friends and we have all come to the conclusion that babies will eventually develop their own schedule. Hope this helps:)

Hi, I have a newborn as well, and I pretty much let her set her own schedule. She is breastfed and some days will eat every two hours like clockwork, other days she can go as much as 3 to 3.5 hours between feedings. She's slept as long as 5 hours at night, but it's typically 3 hours...she's 8 weeks on Thursday. Does Mom want her to be on a schedule? Is she a first time mom? My best advice is to relax and not worry; follow your baby's lead and all should be well. Remember, as long as a breastfed baby has 4-5 wet diapers a day, she's getting enough to eat, regardless of how frequently she nurses. If she's really anxious, have her talk to her pediatrician. Hope this helps! :)

Hi there! I'm a lactation educator with A Mother's Haven in Encino and a breastfeeding mom too. My son didn't really start getting onto a schedule until he was between 4 and 5 months and he didn't sleep through the night until he 10 and a half months. Every baby is different.

As far as breastfeeding goes, at 1 month your grand daughter should be nursing every 1 1/2 to 3 hours. The length of each nursing really depends on what type of eater she is. Some babies are able to drain mom's breast in 10 minutes and don't want to nurse from the second breast until their next nursing session. My son nursed 15 to 20 minutes on each breast during each nursing session. Also something to keep in mind is that babies usually increase the number of times they nurse at 3 and 6 weeks when they have growth spurts. Because breastfeeding is demand and supply, it's their way of letting mom's body know it's time to produce more milk.

I would recommend continuing to nurse every 1 1/2 to 3 hours during the day yet, but if your grand daughter has been gaining weight well she could do on demand nursings at night. Mom can do a dream feed (like you did by waking your baby at 11pm) before mom goes to bed. She only has to wake the baby enough to get her to nurse, but that should help your grand daughter sleep a longer period at night. Instead of 3 hours she might go 5 or 6, depending on how much milk she takes in during the dream feed.

If you have any other questions or if Mom needs more help you can reach me here at through A Mother's Haven. They're number is ###-###-####. I hope it all works out and the new mom isn't too stressed!

Congrats to you Grama and to your daughter! I value my sleep, so getting my daughters on a schedule as soon as possible was very important for me. However, being able to breastfeed sucessfully was even more important to me. So during the day I was sure to breastfeed every 3 hours, even if it meant waking my girls. If they were awake and wanted to nurse more than that, than I would let them. At night, even at the very beginning, I would always put them down for bed at the same time, just to get them in used to having a "bedtime routine". After about the first month, I never woke them to nurse. I always let them sleep as long as possible. By about 1 - 1.5mo. old they'd only wake once, maybe 2x/nt, by 3mo. they both were sleeping through the night on a fairly regular basis.