My daughter went for her two month appointment and while she gained weight, not as much as we hoped. She's always been smaller since she was 3 weeks early but she dropped from the 24 percentile to the 15th. I see so many posts on here about how much babies are eating and my LO is simply not eating that much. I pump and bottle feed AND breastfeed.

Anyway, the doctor said I should try to actively feed on each breast for 10 minutes then top her off with an ounce of breast milk from a bottle and that it should only take 30 to 40 minutes for the whole process. She said she didn't know how I was getting anything done with how often my LO was feeding on top of pumping. The thing is it was working for us. I was in tears yesterday because I just simply couldn't meet those requirements and I felt like I was doing something wrong because my LO wasn't gaining weight as quickly as other babies.

Feeding my LO has always been a process. Sometimes it takes 45 minutes for her to just eat 10 minutes total. She usually only takes 1.5 to 2 ounces of milk from the bottle at a time. I try everything from stripping her down to her diaper, tickling her, etc. to get her to eat and she just isn't interested and won't do more. I don't know how to get her to eat more. So because she doesn't eat a lot at a time, she's eating more often, but it still doesn't seem as much as others. Oh and she's a happy, content baby and still has 6 or more wet diapers a day. I think she just likes to graze.

Then my parents, husband, and grandparents tell me she will eat when she wants to eat.

Any tips about getting her to eat more or should I just let her eat when she wants which is basically what I do. When I try to get her to eat when I think she should, it's nearly impossible. I'm just stressed because she didn't gain as much weight as we hoped, but get frustrated and discouraged trying to MAKE her eat which I don't think is healthy or helpful.

Thanks for any insight ladies!

Edit: also she suggested a pacifier. We have yet to use a pacifier because we have easily been able to comfort her without one. She said it would help make her suck stronger but I don't know that that is the problem. My little one has also found her thumb and can suck on that. Ideally we don't want her doing either. I guess I don't understand when I would give her the pacifier because in my mind that you give it to them to help them calm down but we can usually just get her to calm down by picking her up and singing. any advice on that would be helpful also. When do you get out of pacifiers? Why do you give a pacifier?