Pumping question

[Tigerlily01]

LO is 10 days old, and the pain from BF is wearing me down, so I've decided to pump and bottle feed the expressed milk for a couple of the night feeds to give myself a break. Our lactation consultant said she think this is reasonable and since LO has no trouble getting milk from my breasts she thought the risk of nipple confusion was low even though it's pretty early still.

My question is, do I have to pump during the time when OH is giving the bottle in the middle of the night, or can I transition at some point to pumping at some other time of day? I imagine I'll HAVE to pump during the bottle feed initially, or my breasts will get too full/uncomfortable, but is it possible to eventually skip emptying them during those nighttime hours? Or will I always be stuck doing it late at night? At the moment I start leaking like crazy and feeling uncomfortable every 2-3 hours, so I can't imagine not pumping during the night feed, I'm just looking ahead and hoping to save on sleep a bit, so only one of us has to get up in the night...?

 

[yellowglow]

I’ve always skipped night time pumping. It just seemed too inconvenient. However I always lost the ability to nurse around 9mos. I would have loved to go longer! Perhaps if I pumped at night I could have kept up my milk supply. I guess its hard to say – but yeaj skip the night pump and pump first thing in the morning.. before LO has a chance to nurse. That’s prime milk gathering time.

 

[Mwd1985]

Pump at night for a while. That is the most important for milk production. also, the milk is full of protein at night.