Usually, when she is hungry she focuses and empties the breast quickly. If she cannot focus on nursing than I figure that she is not very hungry and we try again later. She has also developed signals that she wants to nurse. She will twist herself into nursing position and fuss excitedly. Although she cannot sign yet, it seems like she does recognize the sign for milk. Her response to the sign is to wave her arms and kick her feet while making a very earnest facial expression and excited sounds. Occasionally she will grab at my top in an attempt to gain access to the breast. I imagine that in the next month or so she will figure out how to help herself, like her brother did.
I have made some attempts to not let her fall asleep while nursing especially during the day. However, night time feedings, while minimal, are an entirely different story. She only wakes up one or two times during the night to nurse. Since she sleeps with us, she will roll herself to the closest warm body. Then she uses her feet and hands to determine whether or not this warm body is the body. Once her hands feel her daddy’s facial hair, she rolls to the opposite side and usually kicks me in the back until I roll over to face her whereby she quickly positions herself and latches on for her night time snack. From my perspective her night time feeding(s) seem very efficient; within minutes (it seems) she is sound asleep.
She is still usually content with one breast per nursing session. However, when she hits a growth spurt she will demand both sometimes even twice in a row. She is definitely a pro now. She knows what she wants, she communicates what she wants, she gets what she wants, and she is done. I still strive to enjoy our nursing moments together knowing that they will be gone before I know it!