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The First Months
Your 3- to 6-month-old Baby
By Ann Haarman
As the baby becomes more interested in the world around her, new breastfeeding challenges may arise. She may be distracted during feedings. And she may even whip her head around to look at something across the room – without letting go of your breast first! "If distraction becomes a problem, try to be in an environment with as little distraction as possible when you nurse," says Carol Dittbenner, R.N., a lactation consultant in Roseville, Minn.
Mothers who are returning to work and pumping breastmilk face another set of challenges. Angie Larson, of Minneapolis, Minn., went back to work three days a week when her daughter, Madeline, was 5 months old. She tried to pump, but ran into difficulty. "I'd send her with two or three bottles to day care and then try to pump, but she was running out of milk at day care and I couldn't keep up," Larson says.
Larson's problem is a common one, Dittbenner says. "It's a delicate supply and demand between the baby and your milk supply," she says. "Normally the baby would be eating more often if [he needed] more, and if you're still pumping twice at work when it should be three times, then you start getting behind." Good communication with your day care provider about when and how much your baby eats is essential. And you need a good quality pump, Dittbenner says.
By 6 months, most parnts will find that the worst of the sleepless nights are behind them. Lott's Georgia sleeps from 9 p.m. until 8 a.m., usually only waking up once.
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