Feeding FAQ: 8-12 Weeks – Breast Feeding

I am wondering if my 9 week old daughter is getting enough breast milk?

I am concerned as to if my daughter is receiving enough breast milk. She is generally happy, content and rarely cries, but, during her lunchtime sleep, she usually wakes after 45mins. Sometimes she will resettle, sometimes needs to be fed and is genuinely hungry, despite not wanting to have any more milk at her 10.30am feed. This is our main problem.

She also cries very hard as she falls asleep, at each daytime nap, just for a minute or two.

She is often quite sleepy after feeds, and has longer daytime naps than recommended.

My daughter wakes at 4am, with hunger. I am wondering how I can encourage her to be sleeping through, as I am up until 11.30pm with her, doing the late feed, then, feeding her at 4am. I have also got a toddler to care for during the day, so I am getting very tired.

She seems generally content, but I am concerned in case she is not getting enough milk, although I know I have a fast letdown and I am producing lots of milk. How do I stop the waking from hunger during her lunchtime nap, when I can’t get her to take anymore at 10.30am?

At present she is fully breast fed. She takes full feeds of 8-14 minutes at 7.10am, 10.25am, 2.30pm, 10.20pm and 4am. At 1pm she may take 4mins, 5pm 4mins and 6.15pm 7mins. She weighs 15lbs.

My daughter naps at 8.25-9.45am, 11.20-12midday, 1-2pm, and 3.30-4.45pm. She settles at 6.30pm.

Your daughter sounds as if she is generally doing well with being fully breast fed. It is quite usual for a baby of this age who is breast fed to still be waking for a feed in the night or early morning. Breast milk is digested more quickly than formula so many mothers will find it does take a little longer for their baby to “sleep through” to nearer 7am. A sign that she is ready to cut back on this middle of the night feed would be a reluctance to feed at 7am. If this begins to happen you could, very slowly, cut back on the length of time you feed her in the night. Sleeping through the night is also dependent on how much a baby has fed at 10pm.

To check how much milk your daughter is getting at 10pm you could express before the feed and offer it as a bottle feed. This would give you an indication as to how much milk you are producing at this time of the evening. With two children to care for you may find your supply is lower at this time. You could perhaps turn this feed into an expressed one every night, if your partner was willing to give it. This would enable you to get to bed earlier to help with your tiredness. Breast feeding can be very draining, especially with your second baby. It is not so easy to catch up with your sleep or just to rest in the day. Sometimes it is better to accept that your baby will be given one bottle feed of expressed milk a day enabling you to sleep more. This means you would be able to continue to breast feed rather than becoming so exhausted you have to give up completely.

If you still want to feed your daughter at 10pm and you feel that your supply may not be so good at this time of day, then consider giving her an expressed top up feed afterwards to make sure she has really taken enough. This may mean she still wakes between 5am/6am but, as explained above, that is totally normal in a breast fed baby of this age.

Some mothers find splitting the feed at 10pm can help a baby sleep on a little longer at night. Consider offering her a feed at 10pm from both sides before you go to bed. Your partner can keep her up until 11.15pm and then offer her a top up feed of expressed milk before settling her. This is described on page 138 of The Contented Little Baby Book. Although your daughter is sleeping to 4am, splitting the feed at 10pm/11pm will allow her to take in more milk than she may be doing at present and so help her push on a bit in the night. As she is quite sleepy in the day a longer spell awake in the late evening may mean she sleeps longer during the night.

As the problem during the lunchtime nap does seem to be related to hunger, feed her at 10.15am and then offer her a top up feed just before going down at 11.30/11.45am. Keep going with this until she has been sleeping through her lunchtime nap for at least a week. You can then begin to cut back on the top up feed providing she continues to sleep well at this time.

By offering her a feed before she settles at her lunchtime nap she may well be able to get into the habit of sleeping nearer 2 or 2.5hrs before waking. This would help you have time with your older child and take a well deserved rest before the next feed.

The amount of sleep a baby of this age needs in the day can vary and many do need to have slightly longer naps than others. Providing your daughter is settling well at 6.30pm and during the night, even though she still needs one feed early in the morning, her daytime sleep needs are being met.