Do I time the next feed from the start or end of the last one?

The smallest question we asked

When you're calculating feeding time, do you count from when she finishes or when she starts?

One line. No follow-up. And it reorganised more of our week than most of the big questions did.

From the start

Feeding intervals are counted start to start. A feed that begins at midday, on a three-hour plan, means the next one begins at three. Not half past three because she took thirty minutes.

We had been counting from the end, and every feed was landing a little later than the one before. Over a day that's an hour or more of drift, and we'd been quietly wondering why the schedule kept sliding away from us and whether something was wrong with her.

It was us.

Why it's worth getting right

It changes the number of feeds in 24 hours, which is what actually matters. It keeps the night feeds roughly where you planned them and makes your notes useful when someone asks how often your baby is feeding.

We kept a physical pen-and-paper feeding journal beside the cot. If Papa took over, he could see exactly when the last feed started without waking Mama or relying on a half-asleep memory. Very basic. Completely worth it.

What we didn't do

We didn't fix problems by moving the timings.

When feeds were taking unusually long, Ari wasn’t finishing them, or she was hard to wake, we spoke to her doctor or nurse instead of quietly changing the schedule ourselves. It was tempting. In those early weeks, the schedule felt like one of the few things we could actually control.

And if there's a written plan, that plan beats any general rule, including this one.