Breastfeeding and Sleeping conflicts

In time they will adjust to her new sleeping habits and when it is time to feed. If it bothers you enough to keep you up, try pumpimg and freeze the milk for a later date.

pump! I had to do the same thing and that was the only thing I could do, especially since I wanted him to start sleeping through the night. It's a life saver!

you'll need to tough it out for a few nights without feeding her. your body will realize it needs to produce less and adjust, but if you keep waking her to feed her, your body will keep producing more.

I would let your daughter sleep. If you are waking up with engorged breasts, I would either hand express until you feel relieved or use a breast pump to do the same. If you want, you can pump the entire breast and store the milk for use at a later time. If you exclusively breast feed and she is getting adequate feedings during the day, just pump/express until relieved so as to maintain rather than increase your milk supply. She still will be experiencing some growth spurts, so this may not last very long.

L. Kandell, MS, RD, IBCLC
Registered Dietitian/Pediatric Specialist
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
AFFILIATED NUTRITION CONSULTANTS, LLC
Scottsdale, AZ
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When I had this problem, I pumped just enough to relieve the pressure, but not so much as to affect my milk supply (think <1/2 oz. total). It worked for me. Also, some of the other women are right in that if you are planning on leaving your daughter with a sitter (or grandma or dad) for any length of time it will be beneficial for you to have a good stock of frozen milk. Frozen milk is also helpful if you will be traveling in the car for long periods of time (I had to drive 8 hrs. home for a funeral when my daughter was an infant and it was easier to feed her a bottle of breast milk and pump on the road than to pull over and nurse every time she was hungry-- one of those travel bottle warmers that plugs into the cigarette lighter is great for this). If you do freeze some for bottle feeding just remember that however many ounces your daughter is bottlefed you must match (by pumping) within 24 hrs., or it may be very difficult to get your milk supply back. Hope this helps.

Yeah yor milk supply is good and this is great but creates aproblem when they sleep longer stretches of time! I had this problem with my 2nd and sometimes I would wake her or another option is to pump and freez it. I pumped alot and would just save the milk for a later time by freezing it. A 3rd option is to do neither and your milk supply will decrease. This of course is very uncomfortable and you risk losing your milk supply but it should increase the more the baby eats. I personally am a big fan of pumping and I hate pumping but that milk supply come s in handy! Sleep well good luck with that its hard to get sleep when your so uncomfortable! Well good luck.

J.,

The baby dictates how much milk your breasts make this is why we childbirth professionals call this supply and demand feeding. If they baby nurses a lot, you will make more milk. When the baby does not nurse as often, you will make less milk. The first few days are painful, but your body will adapt. If you want to store you milk, you could pump the milk, but you would have to continue this night pumping schedule for a long time. It is better if you put up with a little bit of pain for a few nights, let your breasts adapt and then you will get sleep again. You are better off to pump during the day, if you want to store milk. This way, you have enough milk during daytime feedings and your breast will not make too much milk (or pain) during the night. Good luck!

A.

First off, get a good electric pump for yourself and use it to store milk. You can create milk baggies which you freeze and can keep for up to a year. Trust me, these come in handy later on. Also, a hot shower before you go to bed will help to losen the milk glands. You can usually "hand express" in the shower by taking both hands and gently squeezing from the base up to the nipple, thus ridding yourself of excess milk.

get a pump and pump before you go to sleep it will help.

I remember having the same problem!! After about a week your breasts will get used to not getting used that often throughout the night and they won't produce milk at that time anymore. Otherwise, if you want to relieve pressure and not wake up your baby (which I wouldn't suggest ever doing unless absolutely necessary) I would either use a pump or take a hot shower and squeeze to release the pressure.
Good luck, and congratulations on the little one!
~J.

Try to pump at night so you dont have to wake her up. Which will also help in the sleeping through the night process. If you continue to wake her to feed her she will get into the habit of eating at night and not sleep through the night.

Get a medela breast pump-if you cant buy one on your own i know they sell them on ebay or you can even rent them.
Pump before you go to bed and in the middle of the night- that way baby gets the sleep she needs and you arent exploding!!

I think it's best not to wake up your baby. Your baby is trying to tell you that she does not need the midnight milk anymore. That's what happened to me. I would wake up leaking, but hand expressed/pumped it out (as much as I could). After a while my body was regulated again to what my baby needed. Once you're regulated again, you'll get more sleep.

Hi J.,

You might want to try pumping after your daughter eats. That way you can make sure you have emptied your breasts as completely as possible. You can always freeze that breastmilk as well (just in case). Hope that helps!

-D.

hey there, i know exactly what you are going through and its painful. i have a 6 1/2 month old. the best advice i can give you is to never wake up the baby at night...you pay for it in the future and if the baby is conditioned to getting up in the middle of the night to eat she will continue to do so. for me the pain only lasted a few nights and then your body gets used to it and it started to produce less milk during the times that you don't nurse. i made the mistake of pumping for a few weeks in the middle of the night to relieve the pressure instead of waking the baby up and then it just got to be ridiculous b/c like you the baby was sleeping but i was not. after a few nights of true pain and discomfort your body adapts. now my baby sleeps 12 hours a night: i don't leak at all and although my boobs are full in the morning, its not painful b/c my body has adapted. hope this was some help to you! good luck, J.

My 3 month old is feeding at 8pm and then sleeping until 4am. First of all I am pumping at 10pm(going back to work soon, need to stock up). I did ask my pediatrician, I was concerned that I was going to start to dry-up, she said your body adjusts to what your baby needs. She is correct. My baby girl continues to feed every 3 hours during the day and at 4am, I am a bit full but not uncomfortable.
Try pumping once during the night so you don't have to wake her up.....

Have you consider pumping instead of breastfeeding and introducing your baby to a bottle, like avent which is similar to the breast nipple? Also, at night do you wear a tight sports bra to bed with pads, which I found to work the best. It is a little painful at first but you get used to it. You shouldn't or don't want to wake up your baby if you don't have to, because believe it or not you have a great gift-the gift of a sleeping baby at such a young age. Trust me-- the sports bra works with pad, but it will be a little uncomfortable a first, but it will work out great!

try wearing a sports bra or a comfotable bra with some pads to help the leaking milk part. your breast will start to adjust and will prouduce less milk during the night since your little one does not need all the feedings. Good luck

I had a similar experience with my son at 3 months. I have to agree with the other moms. Try to get your daughter to nurse really well before she goes to bed and then try to tough it out in the night. I made a ton of milk, and even for me, it didn't take that long for my body to adjust to fewer night feedings.
Good Luck.
-J.

If you want to you can pump, I do so my husband can feed our now 6 month old son,too and it has been a great experience for him and given me some tome for myself. If you dont want to pump just wear a good bra and pads at night and you might be uncomfortable for a couple of nights but then you body will adjust and you will start producing less milk at night. If you don't want to keep having to wake her up to feed then just pump or handexpress a little bit so you can sleep but not all of it that should gently help you decrease your milksupply and get adjusted to babys new sleep scedule. I used to leak a lot too and the best breatpads I fould are the Medela. They are kinda hard to find though and just about as good are the Lansinoh breastpads that you can get at Walmart, they might be a little more expensive but they really keep you dry and turn the leaking milk into a gel and they're worth the money.

Wear a sports bra to bed w/ some nursing pads! This was the best thing I ever did to prevent leaking.

Also, the more you nurse or pump the more milk you will produce. It all works on supply and demand. So maybe cutting out that extra night time feeding that may not be necessary will help level out your supply.

Try wearing the sports bra to bed and hopefully you wont be too engorged or uncomfortable. If you are you can try to pump off an ounce or so off each side and try to deal with your swollen breasts for a night or 2. You will start to level off and hopefully get some sleep.

T.