Introduction

[Catheleijne Berck]

Hi all,

I've been reading this newsgroup for a while now, but since I have now
'officially' promoted from m.k.p. to m.k.b., I thought i'd say Hi :-)

A lot of names are familiar from m.k.p. anyway, and some of you might
know me too.

Anyway, I'm Cath, I'm Dutch and live in the south of the Netherlands. 9
days ago, saturday the 5th of july, I gave birth to a girl, we named her
Fenna Sofie.

Nursing has been going quite well, I've been going through the usual
beginners troubles - my nipples still feel rather sore but I now
recognise a bad latch immediately and relatch even though madame does
not always agree with this.
Engorgement started last wednesday and was over by friday. I feel quite
confident I'm producing enough milk. Fenna was 3280 grams on birth,
which is, I believe, about 7.2 pounds. She lost about 2 ounces when
weighed last friday, but she was weighed again last sunday and had
regained an ounce in two days!

She does want to nurse constantly, and the pattern is still very
erratic. In the night and till the afternoon she will sleep quite a lot,
and there will be 2 to 3 hours between feeds. From about noon onwards
she will want to feed very often, with sometimes only 40 minutes between
the end of one feed and the beginning of the next. She'll keep this up,
hardly sleeping between feeds, till about 10 at night, when she'll have
her last feed of the day and sleep till about 2, nurse, and sleep again
till about 5.
Of course I've had my doubts about her daytime nursing 'pattern',
thinking her fussiness might be due to other causes since the last feed
was so recent, but she is then definately making the appropriate noises
and motions (you call this a rooting motion?), and feeding will calm her
down. She produces more than enough dirty nappies.
I suppose I need some confirmation that this constant drinking during
daytime is normal and I'm doing this right - I find new motherhood a
rather emotional rollercoaster - the highs are very high, but the lows
can get pretty darn low too :-)

By the way, when you measure time between feeds, do you measure from the
beginning of one feed to the next, or from the end of one to the
beginning of the next?

I got a lot of useful info from m.k.p, and I don't doubt that this group
will be at least as informative :-)

Cath
Fenna, born 07/05/03

[Leslie]

>By the way, when you measure time between feeds, do you measure from the
>beginning of one feed to the next, or from the end of one to the
>beginning of the next?

From the beginning. But really, it's much better not to look at the clock at
all. :-)

Leslie

[Catheleijne Berck]

Leslie > wrote:

> >By the way, when you measure time between feeds, do you measure from the
> >beginning of one feed to the next, or from the end of one to the
> >beginning of the next?
>
> From the beginning. But really, it's much better not to look at the clock at
> all. :-)
>
> Leslie
Good point - as she's doing fine anyway I think I'll just hide all the
clocks in the house.

Wow, typing while nursing now, I'm getting the hang of this :-)

Cath
Fenna, 07/05/03

[Chookie]

In article >,
(Catheleijne Berck) wrote:

> She does want to nurse constantly, and the pattern is still very
> erratic. In the night and till the afternoon she will sleep quite a lot,
> and there will be 2 to 3 hours between feeds. From about noon onwards
> she will want to feed very often, with sometimes only 40 minutes between
> the end of one feed and the beginning of the next. She'll keep this up,
> hardly sleeping between feeds, till about 10 at night, when she'll have
> her last feed of the day and sleep till about 2, nurse, and sleep again
> till about 5.

This sounds very good. Her longer sleeps are coming at night, so she doesn't
have her days and nights mixed up (some babies do -- very hard for the mother
to sleep!).

> Of course I've had my doubts about her daytime nursing 'pattern',
> thinking her fussiness might be due to other causes since the last feed
> was so recent, but she is then definately making the appropriate noises
> and motions (you call this a rooting motion?),

Yes -- also the word for how pigs and hedgehogs dig up the ground!

> and feeding will calm her down.

her behaviour is really the best guide to what she needs, as you have found
out. The more frequent feeds late in the day are very common, and nobody
seems quite sure of the cause. Some people think that a woman's supply
naturally decreases at that time; others think it is the baby instinctively
filling up for the longer sleeps. Anyay, Fenna is perfectly normal -- and
congratulations, by the way!

> By the way, when you measure time between feeds, do you measure from the
> beginning of one feed to the next, or from the end of one to the
> beginning of the next?

The beginning of one feed to the beginning of the next -- that tells you how
long she goes from *definitely hungry* to *definitely hungry*. Feeds can vary
enormously in length.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990