Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

what do you do?

last night Luce cluster feed for two hours, then fell asleep around 10 pm. I fell asleep a bit after 11 and he didn't wake up to eat until around 4.

he drained one side and fell asleep again. at the point, I got up and pumped on the other side b/c it was ROCK HARD and so full and painful.

I am not sure what to do...do I set an alarm to wake myself up to pump 'on schedule (or every 3 hours or less)?

I am just afraid this long stretches are going to mess with my (finally increased) supply.

if you dc sleeps for 6 hours straight, what happens to you and your boobs?

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

I go with it... I let Yael do whatever she wants, without intervening with a pump, so my body produces exactly what she's demanding.

With Alex, I would wake in the middle of the night and pump, and that ended up contributing to my major oversupply issues. With Yael, whenever she sleeps long stretches, I just let her feed when she wakes up. Within about a week, my body adjusted and still producted a lot of milk for her when she woke, but not to the point where I was engorged or in any pain.

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

I don't wake up to pump. I don't have a good supply though either. I used to leak, now I don't leak but do feel a little pain and full by the time she wakes up and I breastfeed.

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

i just go with my son - he cluster feeds in the evening and if he goes 7 hours i don't pump - he eats what he needs then falls asleep - i feel really full but it does not hurt - and i know my supply is ding well by him gaining 2 lbs in a month at his 3 month checkup

i just go with what he needs if he needs to cluster we cluster otherwise during the day he eats every three hours and in the evening i let him cluster feed -

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

but my problem is he only goes to one side...so the other side is about to explode. it was like I had a bag of stones under my skin.

and I've already had a plugged duct on each side. that HURT. I don't want to deal with that again.

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

Message edited 12/23/2009 3:39:56 PM.

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

When I have nights like you're describing he'll usually eat for less than 10 min once he does wake up because my flow is so fast, so I kind of "force" him to change sides after about 5 or 6 min on the 1st side and that relieves the pain for me on both sides.

When I feed him I hold my breast to him, so what I do on these nights is let go of it after about 5 or 6 min. The change in angle for him once I let go of it usually leads to his pulling away for a few seconds on his own so that he can try to "regroup" - and I use that opportunity to quick change sides. I don't burp him in between because he'll usually holler if I try - I just burp him when he's all done. Without fail he'll be ready to eat again in 3 hours after a long stretch like that, so this method relieves the pain/drains my enough to make it comfortably until his next feeding. Maybe something like this would help you?

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

Your body figures out very quickly what you need to produce. If you keep getting up in the middle of the night then you will continue to have too much. There is no need to pump in the middle of the night to keep up your supply.

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

regarding switching to the other side, he has a lactose sensitivity, so I am concerned getting too much foremilk will make him have painful gas...

ugh...I hate not knowing the best thing to do!

thanks ladies!

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

Ahhhh - sorry to hear that. Poor little guy Good luck working this out

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

I had the same issue - problem is, if you pump the other side, you'll be triggering your body to produce MORE, instead of LESS during those stretches.

If it gets really painful, I would pump, but only enough to relieve the pressure and absolutely no more. Keep doing that for a few days and your body will figure out the rest...

Re: Breastfeeding moms who's babies are starting to sleep longer

Definitely pump the other breast so that the production is consistent with his demand to feed. Thats what I used to do...Michael always took the right side...I had to pump that awful left boob...and it worked out great. He was fed and I had extra milk for later.