So first I have to say I am so excited to say I have made it this long breastfeeding, This is my third and I have almost tripled the time in which I have breastfed ( my little lady is 10 weeks old) and if you read my history this has not been an easy task. Anyhow I have gone from breastfeeding to pumping and dumping to pumping solely to doing a little bit of all and am now amazingly breastfeeding all day except one feeding at night. I find myself needing to pump twice, once before bed and then in the middle of the night usually around 4 or so. See My little princess goes to bed roughly 7 pm. Sleep till somewhere between 2,3,4,5; give or take the day, in the morning. I feed her last at 7 pm. pump around 10 pm just before bed, usually around 5 minutes or so just to relieve pressure, and then by the middle of the night feeding I am so engorged that my hubby ends up feeding a bottle while I pump. I hate making her cry (more then needed) and well my let down doesn't come fast when pumping so to pump to relieve engorgement at night takes too long. To top it all off in less then 10 minutes I get a good 8-10 oz. ( if you are confused I count the time in which milk actually starts to flo...) which if you do the math runs a good 2 or so ounces an hour. I have tried not pumping before bed and usually finding myself getting up around midnight in pain because of engorged boobies. One I would love to not have to make my hubby get up every night but two the pain of engorgement is getting to me. I really do not like it (Nobody does) but I find myself restless at night not wanting to get up to pump before the baby wakes up. ahh I guess I am just rambling and I will most likely call LLL on Monday to see what I can do to safely lesson the amount I make without loosing too much ( and please I know this is a blessing, really I do), but this constant feeling of engorgement has just not been fun, I have an issues with my left nipple not being stretchy enough so the pain of that is bad enough, so engorged boobies just makes it even harder for her to latch and suckle correct.
Also part of me feels that maybe I should just keep going like this and see what I need to do with donating milk, I already have a freezer full so I would love to look into seeing how this is done so if anyone knows that would be great, I just don't know if I can because I am on blood pressure medication.
Have you tried pumping at 10pm until empty and them going all night until she wakes for a feeding? It seems you are getting so engorged because you aren't emptying at 10pm.
Good luck.
The pumping is encouraging your body to continue to produce milk. The alternative that I prefer is to do breast compressions in the sink (or a towel) to relieve engorgement. This way I can relieve some of the pressure without signaling to my body to produce more milk.
FYI - Some women are able to go 6+ hours without nursing without it affecting their supply during the day. For me, if I don't nurse (or pump) for 6+ hours, my supply drops during the day. You'll never know until you try; however, if your supply does drop, be comforted in knowing that it will return in about 1 week or sooner if you resume nursing/pumping at night.
I know there is a place you can sell it. It has to be tested if you want to do that. I'm not sure where this is at.
I know they always say don't wake a sleeping baby but in this case I would suggest you do. If you know she is going to eventually wake up to nurse anyway, just wake her up a little earlier. I had to do this with my son as he started to sleep through the night right away but mommy could not deal with the pressure. After a few nights he started to wake early enough that engorgement was no longer a problem, & on the plus side he would then sleep a little later in the morning so we all benefitted.
If there was still milk after he was done I would then pump what was left for when I returned to work fulltime.
Good Luck!!
My second son slept for 9 hours from 4 weeks on and I was in PAIN! I am a big producer of milk. I nurse my 2 1/2 year old, 9 month old, and donate also.
What I did was hand express into the sink or into a diaper (we do cloth) just to take the edge off and make myself comfortable enough to sleep. It didn't take much to help me feel more comfortable.
The body is amazing and it will learn quickly how to accomodate your little one. I would guess that after a week or just a few days, you will be less engorged as your body adjusts.
Don't pump if you can help it, that will just maintain or build up your supply.
Congrats on breastfeeding! I think you are doing such a great thing for your baby!
Check out kellymom.com, they have great info. Here's their link on meds and nursing. http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/index.html
Good luck mama and hang in!
I was told by the lactation consultant that you make the most breastmilk between midnight and 5 am, so pumping during that time may actually be creating more milk. There is a difference between pumping for comfort and pumping to drain. When you drain your breasts it tells your body to make more and if you do that during the time when your body is most efficient, it may add to the problem. Maybe just try to pump a little bit off. Also, like another reader asked, are you pumping instead of breastfeeding in thev night? Maybe you could pump a little then feed the baby until it stabalizes. Call your lactation consultant and talk to them about it. Who knew breastfeeding could be so complex! They helped me a lot and I nursed my 1st for 14 months.
Are you pumping at night instead of nursing when she wakes up? It could help with the engorgement if you breastfeed instead- that way your body will know exactly how much to make.
Other than that, I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on sticking with and surviving the hard part of breastfeeding! You're doing amazingly, keep it up momma!
if she is having trouble latching because you are so engorged, it is a good thing, and ok, to pump or manually express some off the top in order to soften things up a bit to get her on.
im so glad that you are willing to work this hard for your child! :) :) congratulations!! and im sorry you have had so much trouble.
one thing i can think of offhand is to be careful with the pumping. everything sounds fine, but beware that pumping isnt the same as her sucking, it doesnt stimulate or empty the breast the same way, so you can end up either not getting enough of the hindmilk pumped (which can reduce supply - it doesnt sound like you have that problem), or you can end up just not being stimulated enough to make enough milk (again, doesnt sound like you have that problem!)
hindmilk imbalance can cause baby to have some issues; green stool that seems slimy and diarhea like, gassy, spitting up a lot, etc.
this would happen when fed the pumped milk that doesnt get enough hindmilk in it. the hindmilk is the fattier milk that comes after baby nurses for a little while. the foremilk is thinner, and sweeter to get her sucking actively. LOL
anyway, just a little description.
you might have to wake baby up to feed her. this is normal to have to wake baby, some babies just sleep harder than others. its important that you get her to be the one nursing as much as possible because the supply is more determined by her nursing specifically. so dont be afraid to wake her up a little bit to releive your engorgement.
a couple things to note; both breasts dont have to (and probably wont) supply the same amount of milk. one breast can do the job if you are having trouble with the other, or one breast can be the "leader". so if that left nipple gives you trouble, dont feel bad for not using the left breast as often. your right can do the job. ;)
you could research into donating milk. there are several places in the country that accept pumped donated milk. however, with your bp meds im not sure what the rules would be.
you could always offer it to a close friend though; if she couldnt or doesnt breastfeed; the order of "operations" for feeding a baby should go 1. mom breastfeeding 2. moms pumped milk 3. donated breastmilk 4. formula. so its always a possibility that you could offer a close friend the milk, but i mean, if you are comfortable asking then its nothing i would worry about.
you have a nice stockpile. nothing wrong with that! i wouldnt even hesitate to say that you or your husband could drink the milk, especially if one of you is sick or something. breastmilk is powerful stuff! also, it can be put on cuts and scrapes for fast healing. if you have pets see if they will drink some, it might actually be good for them as well. its all up to you. i just dumped my son's pumped milk that ive had for literally 3 years. it was hard to think about tossing it, but unfortunatly, i wasnt going to use it for anything and its about passed its expiration date! its liquid gold though! LOL.
anyway good luck. im glad you are in contact with the LLL because they are the best source of information around. :) awesome.
Let me tell youi i know what you are going through! I had a similar problem with my second born. He slept through the night at 5 wks old! my doctor told me that i should just take a warm shower instead of pumping, by pumping you're telling your body that youi "need" the milk. There for you will keep producing it through the night, once you stop pumping at night it will get better, it will take a few days but it will get better. also on monday call your doctor to here his/her answer. you never know with these things.
Have you tried pumping just enough to reduce the pain and then stopping. I know they will engorge again quickly but breastmilk production is a supply and demand figure. The more you pump the more you're telling your body you need to produce. Since you are slow to let down while pumping you are actually telling your body you need more. When I started my milk didn't come in right away and they told me to pump since I had a lazy sucker. They said it's not how much you're producing that tells you to produce it's the sucking hence the reason the pumping brought it in while he wasn't. Maybe all the extra sucking while pumping is telling you to keep increasing production even though you're not actually needing to. It sounds like you're pumping at least 15 minutes at night. I know my son had a really hard time latching when I was that engorged and that in itself was painful until he released the pressure but maybe try just nursing on one side then pumping on the other just to release pressure. If you do it as the same time perhaps the stimulation of her nursing on the other will trigger you to let down quicker on the pumping side reducing the time the sucking sensation is there.
A couple of things....
First, it sounds like you may be overstimulating your milk supply, which is find if you wish to stockpile or donate. I remember when my son was around 10 weeks old, I could not go six or seven hours without feeling engorged. At that stage, the thing that worked for me was to pump one side while feeding him on the other. Having him latch-on stimulated the let-down on both sides much faster than pumping alone. (I was stockpiling my milk since I was still working.)
Along that same vein, it seems to me if you are having issues with how long it takes your milk to let down pumping while your husband give the nighttime feeding from a bottle, why don't you give it to her straight from the tap, as it were? If you're going to be up pumping anyway, you can save your husband from having to get up and take care of the baby.
Also, be aware that a pump is never going to get you as empty as a baby will, for many reasons, and you really want your baby to get that good, rich "hind milk." When breastfeeding my son, I would swap back and forth. He nurses from one side while I use the pump on the other. When the pump couldn't get any more out of my, I switched and let the baby finish was the machine could not. Worked pretty well for us.
For all of this, make sure you have a comfortable place to nurse & pump that allows you to relax. If you let baby help out more, I truly feel you can get through a night without feeling like your breasts will explode. :-)
Best of luck to you.
Sometimes you just have to endure the discomfort so that your milk supply at night will go down. I remember the nights when my babies would sleep a couple of hours longer, and I'd wake up engorged and in pain. But, the only way for your body to produce less milk at night is to not create a demand for it anymore, which pumping does. If you do wake up to pump, try not draining your breasts. If you only pump six ounces one week, then only four ounces the next, and so on, you'll have decreased your night time supply.
