I triple-fed my newborn for weeks. A lactation consultant friend finally stopped

Breastfeeding session with my little man once we figured out our routine.

I need to tell you about the triple feeding.

For those who don’t know what that is; it’s when you nurse your baby, immediately pump after, and then offer what you pumped on top of that. Every. Single. Feed.

I did this for about 1 weeks.

Not because someone told me to. Because I was a clinician in new mom mode trying to quantify everything and I could not turn that off. I needed numbers. I needed to know how much he was getting. I needed to feel like I had data.

What I actually had was exhaustion. Spectacular, unsustainable exhaustion.

My son went to the NICU after birth. I delivered via C-section and he needed minimal respiratory support for about a day. Because I had gestational diabetes; diet-controlled, the team monitored his blood sugar closely. He received some formula in those first hours while they got his levels stable.

I made the decision to allow it. I was not going to compromise his ability to come home with me over those first feeds. If formula kept him regulated and got us home together, that was the right call.

Once we were home, I was committed to breastfeeding. And then my milk came in at the front door and I panicked, called my lactation-certified friend and colleague, and spent the next several weeks trying to manage supply, track intake, and optimize every feed like I was still at the bedside.

My clinician hat was fully on. My new mom grace was nowhere in sight.

My friend, the lactation consultant looked at what I was doing and said something I needed to hear:

You are not at work. He is not in the NICU. Just feed him on demand.

That was it.

I stopped triple feeding. I stopped trying to quantify every ounce. I started reading his cues, feeding when he asked, and trusting what my body was doing.

Once I made that shift, breastfeeding became one of the most natural parts of our rhythm. I breastfed my son until he was two years old.

The same overcorrection that had me triple feeding is what drives most new parent anxiety. We are trying to manage something that is not meant to be managed that way. We are applying metrics to a process that is meant to be responsive.

The AHEAD Method™ is not about control. It’s about attunement. Reading your baby, responding to what they’re actually showing you, and building enough predictability that you can relax into the process instead of gripping it.

Feed on demand. Watch the cues. Trust what you’re already seeing.

That’s not just breastfeeding advice. That’s the whole framework.

If you want to go deeper on feeding, on rhythm, on the system behind all of it, the workshop is where it lives.

Because your baby doesn’t need a perfect routine. They need a regulated parent with a plan.

With care, Kelly-Ann MSN, APRN, CPNP

| Pediatric Nurse Practitioner | 16 Years in Pediatrics | 9 Years, Infant Cardiac ICU | Founder, CubConvos | Creator, AHEAD Method™