Just curious as to what everyone did or does? I tend to feed on demand with my babies. Mason has been a great sleeper from day one and will easily go 5-6 hours, but sometimes 4 to wake for feeding in the night. During the day though, if we have nowhere to be and he wants to nurse, I let him and I don't worry about a schedule.(Sometimes it's every hour) If we are out and about, he usually falls asleep on the drive. He does have his 2 bottle feedings at specific times, but sometimes he wants to nurse an hour after he's eaten....

Just curious. I have not even thought about a schedule yet or worried about him sleeping through the night. It seems to be what everyone asks about though.

By Sunny on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 04:55 pm:

I always nursed on demand.

By Hlgmom on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 05:18 pm:

I always nurse on demand!

By Andi on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 05:21 pm:

Always nursed on Demand (and I have to perfect children), Teehee!
I've been meaning to call you and catch up...I'm going to try and do it this week! Hopefully I will get a chance to talk to you soon.

By Tink on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 05:29 pm:

I fed on demand when they were younger but, with my ds, I had to change to a schedule when he was about 6 months or he would have nursed through every one of my meals, my shower, my cleaning and my sleep. He never wanted to stop and he was almost 20lbs so he should have been able to go several hours. We started stretching it out and he did fine when we did move to a schedule.

By Enchens on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 05:35 pm:

Ditto, Tink. My older ds was a night feeder(?) I think that's what it's called. Basically wanted to nurse through the night. We coslept and dh was working like crazy and needed sleep so he would beg me to "plug ds in." It go better after we started him on a schedule (around 6 months).

By Karen~moderator on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 06:10 pm:

I always nursed on demand as well. And Jeff demanded to nurse every hour. LOL

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 06:12 pm:

I nursed on demand, but I know with Sarah, that it pretty much was on a schedule anyway! LOL!

By Heaventree on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 07:30 pm:

I nursed on demand or what I thought was nursing on demand, however, everytime Matthew or Cameron made a peep I would nurse them. I was nursing way too often. Cameron is 5 months old and weighs almost 20 lbs.

I started putting Cameron on kind of a schedule and have been stretching him out over the past two weeks to a 3 hour nursing schedule. Sometimes I can get him to 4 hours. I will nurse him more often if he is really fussy. The problem I had was that he was grazing all day long and never really hungry, but he was used to eating constantly so he would wake every 2 hours to nurse around the clock.

I found this article and starting following the advice, except I do not wake him at 10 pm to feed him, I give him cereal at 7 pm instead. Now he sleeps until 3 am, then 6 am. Much better than waking every 2 hours. I'm hoping we can drop the 3 am feeding in the next month.

Eliminating nighttime feedings

It has really helped us so much.

By Kaye on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 08:36 pm:

I was somewhere in between. I liked having some clue as to when he was going to eat, but worried about making sure he was full. What I started doing at about 3 months is make sure that nursing is what he wanted. I know this sounds stupid, but it is so easy to pop a boob out I bottle fed my oldest two, I would NEVER think of giving them a bottle an hour after they had just eaten a full bottle, so it did seem a little silly to do that while nursing. So I really tried to calm him first without nursing. As long as he had eaten well the meal before. I got to wherei just knew when he was in a growth spurt. He always rooted initially because hey, i did smell like milk Kind of like us and choc chip cookies, you smell them bake you want to eat them, but you might of just had a really great meal and not quite be ready to eat.

Anyway, my point is if he is really hungry feed him, but don't forget other avenues first.

By Pamt on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 09:28 pm:

Like Kaye, both. I generally followed a loose schedule, but fed on demand when sick, going through a growth spurt, etc. I had a loose schedule though because I went back to work at 8 weeks with my first DS and I had to figure out when to pump and when he would get a bottle. With my 2nd DS I only worked 8 hours/week, but I still like to have a basic feeding schedule in place and it also helped with DH and I going out on dates. I would always nurse right before we left and then we were good until the morning. I think babies thrive on schedules because they learn what to expect when. Also, both of my breastfed babies were chunky and sleeping through the night (9-6) at 8 weeks. When they graze all day they don't get the fat and nutrient filled hindmilk that is so important. Like Kaye, I would nurse as a last resort, but would try other ways to pacify them if they had just nursed. DH always complained that he couldn't just whip out a boob if they got fussy when he was alone with them--LOL. I will say that when I started back to work with my oldest DS that I did nurse on demand in the evenings and on weekends, because my milk supply would be lower at the end of the week with the stress of work and being away from my baby during the day. He was on a schedule during the day though---every 3 hours from about months 2-5. Every 2-3 hours as needed during those first couple of months.

By Jewlz on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 11:23 pm:

I breastfed both of my kids on a schedule of every 3-5 hours depending on thier age. Tho I had plenty of milk( enough for a baseball team I swear) Id be in a store and another kid would cry and out comes the milk. rolls eyes ... any ways i think a schedule was so I could keep my sanity to have some time to myself and do things that had to be taken care of inbetween feedings.I waited till the babies were 6 weeks old or so. With the schedule I was able to tell if they were sick and fussy or what was going on with them more so I feel cuz if I had just fed them on demand then they would have just nursed and clung tot and keept me on the couch nursing and I feel i wou ld have enjoyed it less and maybe resented being tied down.

By Unschoolmom on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 07:05 am:

On demand. The schedule thing never made snese to me personally.

By Karefl on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 09:10 pm:

On demand here. Mine were pretty regular at 3-4 hours though. More often during growth spurts. They slept throught the night at around 8-12 weeks too.

By Kym on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 09:51 pm:

100% on demand, and seems like it was demanded 100% of the time as wellLOL

By Melanie on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 10:30 am:

On demand here as well.

By Eve on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 06:17 pm:

I'm going to try to stretch out some of his feedings this weekend, but he can never make it more than 2-3 hours during the day. At night he does pretty well--no complaints from me. My boy eats a lot! I'm glad to hear there are so many others feeding on demand as well. Thank you.

By Juli4 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:51 am:

I fed on demand. I also had to work during some of the kids being nursing age so when I was at home they were at the breast making up for lost time. Sometimes I would nurse almost all night because I was gone all day. My oldest daughter when I first started working would actually fast until I got home. She wouldn't take anything from my husband. At first it scared me, but eventually she learned to take a bottle.