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You should always seek medical advice from a physician or other qualified health provider for any questions pertaining to breastfeeding and milk storage. Any information found in this post, on this blog, and shared on any resources created by Mom Wife and Everyday Life is based on my personal experience as a mom and should not be taken as professional advice. The contents of this website are for general informational purposes.
Gaps between nursing sessions are unique to your baby. Some babies will be hungry every hour or two. Other babies will happily go for 3 or more hours.
Your baby’s need to nurse will change over time. They go through so many phases.
For now, let’s focus on what a real two-month-old is doing as far as her feeding schedule.
How Often Should a Two Month Old Breastfeed
So the question remains, how often should a two-month-old breastfeed? They should breastfeed as often as they are hungry.
Short gaps in feedings are not a concern. They are a chore, but that just means your baby is either very hungry or they nurse for comfort.
Breastfeeding is not always roses and daisies, if you are struggling and don’t want to feel alone check out my article The Unexpected Emotional Challenges of Breastfeeding: How to Find Balance and Joy.
What you need to worry about are the long gaps. At two months old your baby is still pretty little. In general, most experts are going to advise you to not go longer than 3 hours between feedings.
As you will see below in my example, at 10:30 AM my baby nursed, had awake time for an hour, and then napped for 3 hours. Resulting in her next nursing session being at 2:50 PM. This is incredibly rare for her!
I actually woke her up because her nap was going extremely long and creating a huge gap in her nursing schedule. I was also getting concerned that maybe she thought it was nighttime. I don’t let any nap go beyond 3 hours.
For the moms out there who can’t imagine waking a sleeping baby or getting a 3-hour nap, I get it. My first baby was an expert at taking 45-minute naps. 3 hours was completely unheard of!
My baby is in the 90th percentile and has zero concerns about weight gain. If your baby has struggled with weight gain you may want or need to wake them up. For more specific answers on your baby ask your pediatrician.
The general rule of thumb is your baby should only go 3 hours between feedings during the day.
Night Time Feedings
One goal I have is to avoid nursing my baby to sleep. It happened with my first child and was exhausting to never be able to ask my husband for help. If possible avoid directly feeding your baby to sleep. To learn more about this check out my article 5 Reasons Why It is Important to include Your Partner at Bedtime.
Make the last nursing session very close to bedtime though that way you get the longest stretch of sleep possible.
Sometime between months 2 and 3, my baby stopped pooping at night and we quit doing nighttime diaper changes.
This of course is a personal choice.
If you find that after feedings you are having a difficult time getting your baby back it sleep it may be that the diaper change is waking them up too much.
If you are going to do a diaper change do it before feeding them. This way their full tummy will lull them back to sleep.
A huge benefit of breastfeeding is the ability to quickly get your baby fed. You don’t waste time fixing a bottle or getting it to the right temperature. For more on this you can read The Top 17 Advantages of Direct Breastfeeding Over Bottle Feeding.
At 2 months old, your baby may be able to only wake once or twice during the night, but they also could wake more frequently. If they are gaining weight appropriately and are wanting more than 2 night time feedings try responding a bit slower during the night. Just because your baby stirs a bit does not mean they have to eat.
Give them a chance to put themselves back to sleep.
Morning Feeding
You may try to wake your baby at the same time each day or simply go with waking up when they have a morning feeding.
For example, if your baby nursed at 5 am you likely will put them back to sleep. Then it is up to you. You may choose to let them sleep until they naturally wake up again or specifically wake them up at the same time daily, such as 7 AM.
If you want to work towards getting on a schedule I recommend you try to start the day at the same time. However, if you prefer to sleep as much as possible I completely understand sleeping in while your baby sleeps.
I’m not perfect about routine, but a great tip is to start waking your baby at the same time each morning. This will help create consistency in your daily routine.
When you do wake up for the day, it is important to make sure the room is bright and your baby realizes it is morning time.
2-Month-Old Feeding Example
Breastfeeding an infant can be stressful. It is easy to worry if they are getting enough nutrition. Let’s dive right into how often my two-month-old breastfeeds. This is a real day in the life breastfeeding schedule.
Just to be clear I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am just a mom sharing a real day with my 2-month-old.
Let’s kick it off in the evening, go through the night, and complete the next day.
7:45 PM Evening Nurse
8:15 PM Go to Bed
1:30 AM Nurse and Diaper Change
7:00 AM Nurse and Wake Up
10:30 AM Nurse
2:50 PM Nurse
5:30 PM Nurse
7:00 PM Nurse
This is not necessarily a perfect schedule, but what really is? At this age, your baby could be doing very different things from my baby. It is perfectly ok for our baby’s to be unique.
One thing I learned after breastfeeding my first baby was to not force a schedule on them. You can work towards routine and consistency over time, like my suggestion to start the morning at the same time. This will result in the first feeding being consistent every morning. This can then make the second feeding fall into a likely window of time each day.
Do not spend too much time trying to perfect a schedule. Every few weeks your baby is changing. They will start to go longer between naps and feedings and throw everything off.
How Long to Nurse
I briefly want to touch on how long you nurse your baby during a single session.
This is very dependent on your baby but a good average is between 10 and 25 minutes. There are some babies out there who can be done after only 5 minutes and some that will eat for 45 minutes. Those are unique though.
Somewhere around 10 to 25 minutes is very standard for an entire feeding. This could be split between both breasts or only for a single breast.
I choose to only feed from one breast per nursing session and go back and forth throughout the day.
Tips to Consider
1. Feed your baby close to bedtime. This gets you as much sleep as possible.
2. Consider a dream feed. Sometimes I go in and pick my sleeping baby up for a 10 PM dream feed. It normally goes quite well. She eats, has a quick burp, and goes right back to sleep.
3. Try feeding your baby more during the day to see if maybe they can go longer at night between feedings. It is important to make sure they still get 7-9 feedings in 24 hours.
4. Make nighttime feedings dark, calm, and quiet. Do not turn on the overhead light or talk to your baby.
Pro-Tip: Not long after writing this, around the 3 month mark my baby really enjoyed making eye contact…this is a problem when rocking to sleep. If needed close your eyes while holding or rocking your baby to sleep. It will encourage them to do the same!
Conclusion
The most important thing in regards to breastfeeding your 2-month-old is to ensure weight gain is happening. This is how you know you are on the right track.
Breastfeeding and raising a baby involves constant change. Your baby is growing and with that comes new challenges, routines, and systems.
Constantly look for what is working and what is not. Adapt along the way as needed.
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