Nurse as soon and as often and as long as your baby likes. You might feed them many times a day or for very long stretches. After the first long nursing, the baby may want to settle in for a long nap. This is normal. After this initial long nap, your baby may want to spend most of the waking time at your breast…and may be awake much more than you expected (especially if the birth is unmedicated).
Remember, a newborn’s stomach is no bigger than the size of a small marble. This is why you should expect and encourage a whole lot of nursing during the first week, even if you have to tell visitors to come back later. As your baby becomes bigger and more skilled, their efficiency will improve. Expecting babies to nurse only once every few hours causes much of the engorgement (overfull painful breasts) we see in our culture.