Okay, I know many of my readers aren’t interested in learning about how to be successful at breastfeeding a newborn. I am always forgetting what I did in the early days, and what I did this time (under the advice of nurses and lactation consultants) was very successful. The best way I know to keep track of it is to put it here in my blog for reference. So bear with me as I use my blog as my memory!
The first day or two in the hospital I nursed on demand. She did do a lot of cluster feeding, probably because she had to nurse often to get enough colostrum to satisfy her. After the first 2 days, I fed her every three hours night and day, even if I had to wake her up.
It is also probably useful to mention that you cannot use wet and dirty diapers to determine whether the baby is getting enough to eat during the first few days. They are only expected to have 1 wet diaper for each day in age for the first 3 days.
Once she reached her birth weight, I was able to feed her on demand as long as she wasn’t going more than 4 hours in the day or 6 hours at night without eating. She reached her birth weight very quickly using these guidelines! And she is now a little over the 50th percentile for weight, length and head measurement!
