Sleeping through and milk supply...help!

[makemeamammy]

So my LO has started sleeping 8 hours at night. She usually goes down between 8-9 and will sleep until 4-5. She then has an expressed bottle through the night (as milk from breast was making her very windy at this time) and I pump. She then goes down again usually until about 7-8. I know I am incredibly lucky and I want her to stay in this routine. She is gaining weight and is very content so I am not wanting to wake her up more often for feeds through the night.

The only problem is I have noticed my milk supply doesn't seem to be as good now. LO feeds every 1.5-2.5 hrs during day and feeds for between 30-45 mins each time but when I pump I only seem to be getting about 2oz a side despite previously getting 4oz and my LO drinking 4oz when bottle fed. I usually only feed from one side at each feed due to having a lot of foremilk.

What do people normally do to avoid their supply going down once baby starts to sleep through the night? Really want to keep feeding but scared my milk will just disappear altogether at the rate it's decreased lately xx

 

[Rachel_C]

I would either feed her directly from the breast when she wakes at night (babies do often get less windy as they get older so I'd try again if you haven't for a week or two as she may not have a problem with it any more and you are probably better at burping her now you've had some practise anyway!) or express overnight even when she's not waking. A pump/hand expressing is never as efficient at getting milk as baby would be, so one lot of expressing while she has one bottle will not remove as much milk as her feeding from you once. I'd try expressing twice for every time she wakes for milk in a bottle.

Apart from that, just feed on demand. Sometimes when feeds decrease at night your body assumes it doesn't need as much milk when really it needs the same volume just at different times (baby will make up for it during the day). Feeding on demand for as long as baby wants should help your body realise when milk is needed and start making more at the right times.

Also, don't expect your LO to stay in the same routine forever. It may do, but it very well may not! It's great if it does but I'd not let myself come to expect it until LO is a LOT older, just so you're not disappointed if/when her needs change

 

[Noo]

I'd pump around midnight as it is in the middle of LO's sleep yet not the middle of the night. Increase your oat intake and maybe supplement with fenugreek - though your supply is probably regulating to your LO's dropped night feeds. I'd nurse in the night rather than EBM.

 

[makemeamammy]

I have been taking lots of oats for about a week now and always feed on demand (not entirely sure how you go about not feeding on demand without having a screaming baby on your hands to be honest!). I could try giving her breast again for that feed but I'm wary of this as it was only when I started to give her bottle that her bowel movements finally turned the right colour so if they started going green again and she started struggling with wind again I would probably go back to the bottle for that feed.

I had thought about trying to give her a dream feed at around midnight but not sure how to go about it

I don't expect her to stay in the same routine forever and have never forced a routine on her. She has always been a good sleeper at night (doing 5 hours at 2 weeks) and only usually takes catnaps during the day. My health visitor says it's absolutely fine for her to sleep that long as her weight gain is so good.

 

[Noo]

Beware...My baby regressed from nice stretches to feeding every 90 minute to 2 hours overnight!

 

[makemeamammy]

Beware...My baby regressed from nice stretches to feeding every 90 minute to 2 hours overnight!

Why do you say beware? Like I say, I don't expect her to stay in this routine forever and if she does start waking more then that's fine but at the moment she is sleeping and I need to keep my milk supply up.

I guess it's even more important I do this incase she does start waking more so that I've got plenty to keep her going if/when she does.

 

[Hope83]

My ds had an episode of sttn for a couple of weeks fairly early on.
I used to get up at 2 am to pump to keep my supply up. It worked and I was able to build up a nice little freezer stash.

 

[Noo]

Beware...My baby regressed from nice stretches to feeding every 90 minute to 2 hours overnight!

Why do you say beware? Like I say, I don't expect her to stay in this routine forever and if she does start waking more then that's fine but at the moment she is sleeping and I need to keep my milk supply up.

I guess it's even more important I do this incase she does start waking more so that I've got plenty to keep her going if/when she does.

Because you get very used to the extra sleep very quickly which makes getting up so frequently so much harder than if they'd never given you that sleep... I was pretty ratty and resentful for a couple of nights and so much more tired in the day. Fine now though! Just those initial couple of nights.

 

[Grateful365]

My LO also started sleeping in very long stretches (7-11 hours) around 1.5 months. The doctor told me to go ahead and let him sleep. I give him his last feed around 9 pm and then I wake to pump at 2 am and I double pump for a good 20 min. LO normally wakes around 7 am and gets a morning feed then. This has worked well for him as I have just let him take the lead on the feeding/sleeping schedule.

I was worried about my supply but I think pumping in the night at 2am has kept it up just fine so far.