Where does all my time go? | MVP Mama
Have you ever wondered as a new mama where all your time goes? Or if you’re expecting, why new parents always seem to haggard and run down?
Newborn babies have to eat on average every 3 hours. This means that for each 24 hour period, you’ll be feeding your LO about 8 times no matter which method you chose until they are about 3 months old.
At the hospital, you’ll see nurses feed newborns in 15 minutes. Figure in a few minutes each for changing, burping and putting them back to sleep and the whole cycle can be completed in about 30 minutes.
On the contrary, at home things can take a lot longer. We’ll discuss reasons for this a little later, but for now let’s assume that each cycle can take from 45 to 90 minutes.
If each cycle takes 30 minutes, that’s 4 hours / day. While this may be a significant amount of time, it hardly seems daunting. At the other end of the spectrum, we’re looking at 90 minutes or an hour and a half. Do the math, and you’ll see that this translates to 1.5 / 3 hours or 50% of each cycle, cumulating in a whopping 12 hours / day. Yeesh, it’s no wonder new parents are exhausted! If one person is handling all the feedings, the worst case scenario means that caregiver would only ever get 1.5 hours of sleep at a stretch. Even for people who need very little sleep (I used to sleep 3-5 hours in my twenties and felt great) this is a stretch.
Nurses at the hospital are only responsible for feeding the newborns, while mamas also handle milk production. So if you are either breastfeeding or pumping, you’ll need to figure the time for this in as well. Here are the options of how you can feed:
Option 1 - Breast feeding your newborn can take 20-45 minutes. While not always possible, this is often considered the “golden” standard since it gives you bonding time with baby in addition to providing the “liquid gold” for your LO.
Option 2 - Bottle feeding a newborn breast milk requires both time for pumping (10 - 15 min) and time to feed the little one (15 - 20 min). Since this method allows you to outsource the actual feeding, your active time may be less than with option 1. Even if you chose to feed him or her yourself, mama / baby pairs that have a hard time latching may find this to be a good option.
Option 3 - Formula may be the most time efficient since there’s no production time involved, and the feeding can be outsourced.
The good news?
According to many doctors, even a relatively small amount of breastmilk to have immune benefits. So a mixture of options 1, 2 and 3 does work! Just remember that you’ll have to do some trial and error to ensure baby gets enough since there’s no great way to understand just how much breastmilk baby is getting if you are using Option 1.
As the baby grows, he will start having larger meals. Larger meals equal to longer sleep cycles so there this naturally makes for fewer cycles in a day. While the exact timeline varies from baby to baby, there definitely a light at the end of the tunnel!
If your ideal scenario involves breastfeeding, but baby doesn’t latch initially, don’t fret! This skill can develop over time and nighttime feedings are often a great time to reintroduce this concept, something I saw with my first.
Happy Feeding!