Combination nursing and pumping but baby is confusing me

TRIGGER WARNING: Nursing

I have an almost 3 week old. I know everything is new and we’re both learning still. After some difficulty in the beginning, she is now nursing and taking pumped bottles. During the day we do a mixture of nursing and pumped bottles. At night we do bottles because she nurses forever and I worry about falling asleep with her, and also so my husband can help via bottle.

When I nurse her during the day, she will nurse for 20-30 minutes or longer if I let her. Halfway through I stop hearing swallowing consistently, so I try to keep her awake and focused to nurse for food rather than comfort. Sometimes she will then take the other side but usually she won’t or only will for like 2 minutes. But while she seems content right after nursing, she will only last a few minutes to maybe an hour and then is giving hunger cues again. If I give her a bottle, she will drink 1-2 oz. When she drinks bottles at night, she usually does 2.5-3 oz every 2-3 hours.

I pump every time she has a bottle (like when we start out with a bottle off the bat, at night), and I have oversupply so I make 4-8 oz every pump. Should I be pumping every time she takes a bottle after nursing as well?

Today she’s nursed already like 4-5 times only about half hour apart, and I know she’s not getting enough because she then took 1 oz in bottle offered. I know I’m making enough because I can hand express milk after she’d decided she’s done, but she’s not getting it yet! We’ve had her looked at by lactation consultants and ped for any ties, nothing noted, and they said just keep offering her and supplementing until she gets more efficient, but I don’t know what kind of timeline to expect and also what to do on the pumping side.

Thank you for any help!!

Posted Nov 28, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

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