You need to know what is normal weight loss for the first 4 days. You need to learn what is normal weight gain the first 2 weeks and beyond. New mothers need to know what babies act like when they are exhibiting normal newborn breastfeeding behavior. You need to learn what normal output is. So many times I hear parents tell me that their babies doctor is okay with several days of no stooling. As long as the baby is peeing several times a day. For my regular listeners I know I sound like a broken record. We get new listeners every day to this show and I feel this bears repeating. If your newborn baby is not stooling every day, this is a major concern. Saying that it is okay is bad and inaccurate information, which can be very harmful to the mom and baby.
Andrea thought breastfeeding was going to be fairly easy. And yet, she realized she did not know what she was doing and felt lost in the early days of learning about breastfeeding. She had a good friend who was a breastfeeding mom, explain to her all the details of early breastfeeding. This happened before she had the baby and things were different once her baby was born. The first few days in the hospital, it seemed to be going well
When your baby is latched on well, if there are no other medical or anatomical or supply issues, breastfeeding should not be hurting and your baby should be spending a majority of his time at breast nutritively sucking or what I also like to call power nursing. You have also heard me say: it is not so much of importance on how long they are at the breast, but it is also important to note what they are doing at the breast. Is a majority of their time at the breast actively feeding with great interest or is most of the time spent in a sleepy, lackluster behavior.