New mothers worry about milk supply decreasing when babies sleep longer

“My baby is thankfully a great night time sleeper who will either sleep through the night or will wake up to feed after 5 hours. However, my supply has not adjusted to this reality and I end up with aching and very leaky boobs whenever I have to wake up in the night either to use the bathroom or to help my older child with something. Once my brain is on even a little, the letdown is intense if I haven't fed the baby in less than 3 hours. I'd love some advice on how to handle this. s”

“Baby is 10w pp and sleeps pretty well overnight- right now it’s a crapshoot of when she’ll wake up for a feed: could be midnight, 4am, or not at all, and my husband handles her all night. I express milk about 8 times a day, 4 nursing, 4 pumping (average yield is 20oz/daily, baby’s bottle intake is around 10-15oz daily). I pump at 8:30pm, then 3am, then nurse around 6am. The 3am pump is religiously my best output of the day, but being up for the hour to pump, bag and clean up is killing me. Can I”

“Baby just turned 5 weeks old and my supply has been pretty normal. Light leaking sometimes but usually it’s not bad and I have little pain. Recently, she has been sleeping a 4-5 hour stretch and a few times now I’ve woken up in so much pain and leaking everywhere. I’ve tried to hand express into the sink for a few minutes to relieve the pain and finally last night used a manual pump and got 3oz in just a few minutes and was still feeling pretty full. I’ve seem advice saying it will go away as ba”

“My EBF baby is now sleeping 11-12hr stretches without waking to eat. He’s still gaining weight and has plenty of wet nappies so no concerns there. But my breasts haven’t caught on to his new schedule. I’ve been able to go almost 8hrs before my breasts are incredibly engorged and painful but he’s still asleep. What should I do? Do I pump for comfort or til empty? Do I do nothing and just wait it out? Should I hand express? submitted by /u/containedexplosion [link] [comments]”

“My baby girl is 3 months. I used to feed / pump about every 3 hours with the exception of one 5-6 hour stretch for the MOTN pump. I’ve transitioned back to mostly nursing, with 1-2 bottles at night. Currently, I nurse around 8pm and top up with 2-3 oz and she wakes 5-6 hours later for a 5 oz bottle which works out perfectly for when I need to get up for my MOTN pump. But the past few days, she’s gone another 6-7 hours (!) before I nurse her in the morning. I've been sleeping through the seco”

“Exactly what the title says... My baby is 4 months old and we co sleep. This was simply becsuse she wakes every 2 hours in the night for a feed. I know breastmilk digests quickly so I was wondering when she starts solids, in theory she will be fuller for longer so will go longer stretches, right? submitted by /u/kweeeeeeeeeen [link] [comments]”

“How long can a 15 week old sleep at night at a stretch? Is 9-10 hours too long? Our LO can do 9-10 hours, after which he stirs a lot so I feed him. He does wake up during the long stretch but often calms himself or just needs his pacifier back, his eyes aren't even open in these wake ups. I'm worried I'm starving my baby. He is formula fed, eats 29-34 oz during the day. submitted by /u/dr_sm_a [link] [comments]”

“My bay is 8 weeks old and just started sleeping from 930-630AM. I am not pumping during the time he is sleeping. Do I really need to? I mostly feed off the breast so it would be hard to tell if my supply dipped. submitted by /u/Appropriate-Sea-1802 [link] [comments]”

“My bay is 8 weeks old and just started sleeping from 930-630AM. I am not pumping during the time he is sleeping. Do I really need to? I mostly feed off the breast so it would be hard to tell if my supply dipped. submitted by /u/Appropriate-Sea-1802 [link] [comments]”

“My LO is 12 weeks old tomorrow and she has been cluster feeding in the evenings. Since I'm breastfeeding all day I think my supply in the evenings is low and she is still hungry after each session. I can tell she gets frustrated but she wont take a bottle right now for some reason. Is there a way to help with my production during the day so that I have a good flow before bed? Is it a matter of hydration or do I just need to start pumping a few times a day to increase my supply over all? It j”

“My 4 month old made his first 7 hours stretch with 7 weeks old, and one week after that he would do anything between 9 to 11 hours. Now 1 week ago the regression arrived and he is doing a 6 hour strech and after that more 3/4. No problem with the current night feed, I know it's part of my little baby growing, but wondering if he will comeback to his old self and sleep for longer before a bottle again. Obs: he can totally go back to sleep on his own, he usually sucks his fingers for it so I b”

“Baby is 2 weeks now. We introduced bottle feeding overnight early so that I could get some sleep, which is about 1-2 feeds pay night only. I'm pumping during those times that baby bottle feeds to maintain my supply, and I get 3-4 oz each pump session. The rest of the time I'm breastfeeding, usually starting around 6-7 am. We were going every 2-3 hours for feeds/earlier if he's hungry, so it was easy to know when the next feed/pump time would be overnight. Baby has now passed his birt”

“My 7 week old has started to give us some longer night stretches (6-7 hours). This is fantastic but I’m worried it’s a bit soon as I’ve heard supply doesn’t regulate until three months. I’ve produced a moderate oversupply until now but am concerned this will cause it to take a hit. I’ve only ever fed on demand but I do have a pump and use it occasionally to build a fridge/freezer stash. Should I start pumping overnight when my son doesn’t wake up? Also, I’m a bit concerned as he has started to o”

“I don’t want to jinx it, but our 5 week old started going a bit longer stretches at night— 4-4.5 hours, which is great! However, she only nurses on one side at a time so I’m not emptying a breast for almost 8 hours and I’m waking up engorged. Should I start pumping or expressing on the non-nursing side when she wakes up to feed in the MOTN? Maybe just enough to relieve pressure? How long do I have to do this for before I can just sleep through? I also don’t want to encourage an oversupply by pum”

“I’m EBF and baby is 11 weeks old and has been consistently sleeping 5-6 hour stretches since 8/9 weeks. My supply seems fine but I don’t actually know how much I’m producing because I don’t pump a lot. Over the past few weeks as we’ve tried to shift her bedtime a little earlier, she’s going longer stretches of 8-9 hour (going on almost 10 hr atm) Should I pump before my bed time and or when I wake up? LC said I shouldn’t go longer than 7 hrs without pumping. Should I pump a full 30 min? If I pum”

“My baby is 8 weeks old today 😭😭😭😭. We finally this week have decided to start sleeping longer stretches. I am an almost enougher— typically have to supplement 1-2 two oz bottles a day of formula. Well now we’re sleeping longer stretches Last night was almost 5 hours, tonight was 7!!! Should I be waking up to pump in there? I woke up this time in a puddle of milk on the bed that had leaked. I go back to work in a month. I honestly don’t want to have to do a MOTN pump unless we think that stre”

“We have a one month old baby who we allow to sleep for 3-4 hour stretches at night before we wake him for a feed. On a typical night he will wake up around 1.30am. I will change his diaper and pass to my wife. My wife will breast feed each side for 15-20 mins but then immediately after I will have to give him approximately 100ml+ of formula. Then I will try to get him to sleep. This take 2 hours+ every night and longer depending on how long it takes to get him back to sleep. This is pretty much”

“My daughter is 6 weeks old ebf. She sleeps about 4-5 hours at her first stretch during the night. She has about 8-11 wet diapers a day but I notice she doesn’t pee during her first sleep stretch she pees sighing 5-10 min of waking up and basically fills a diaper. Is anyone else experiencing this? submitted by /u/Lost_Environment_100 [link] [comments]”

“My 2 week old has been sleeping 6 hours - he's regained birth weight and our midwives advised we don't have to wake him up. But I didn't expect this length of sleep at this young age. I actually wake him up after 6 hours bc I get spooked. He is EBF - no bottles at all and I don't pump (yet). He's got appropriate output by way of # of pee and poop diapers. Will my overall supply be affected? Or will my body just adjust to not produce milk during these long stretches? Given its”

“My LO is 4 months old and wakes up every 2 hours (sometimes sooner) to eat. she drinks more than 33 oz of breastmilk over 24 hours (about 3-5 oz per feed). Is that normal? I’m barely keeping up with her demand right now. submitted by /u/BrightMechanic [link] [comments]”

“Hi! My 11.5 month old baby slept through the night the past two nights!! I'm thrilled - but I'm also realistic and know that this won't always be the case, with teething, illness etc. I've always fed her back to sleep when she woke up at night, and found that the easiest and quickest way to resettle her. Until now I've also been giving her a dream feed at 9.30pm, but lately she's not been very interested in that either. But if she keeps sleeping through the night for a wh”

“Baby is now sleeping through the night (10:30-5:30) and I’ll wake up with ROCKS from how engorged I am. I try to wake up and pump just enough to take the edge off but sometimes I will sleep thru by accident. Well, I was sharing my fear of mastitis (thank god I haven’t gotten it or even a clogged duct) and my friend said don’t worry about that worry about your supply dipping because it usually does around 3 months and if you’re not pumping overnight you’ll lose a lot for sure. Is that true? Can s”

“As title says, my 1 week old babe has good # of wet/poop diapers my supply is decent (I pump 3oz in 20min) but she’s been sooo sleepy during the day. Naps can go 3h+ and she falls asleep at boob no matter what I do (undress, cold cloth, talking, laying her down). do I need to pump to get the milk out and keep supply up? submitted by /u/DifferenceSome2701 [link] [comments]”

“What are we doing when our babies start sleeping longer stretches through the night (4+ hours?) are we waking up to pump at 3-4 hours? Waking them up to feed? Just sleeping when they sleep? Idk why but I’m terrified if I don’t feed her every 3-4 and/or pump that my supply will just tank. Baby is gaining weight just fine for context. Babe is 9 weeks submitted by /u/ReadingWithNargles [link] [comments]”

“Baby is 1 month and starting to average 4 hrs stretches at night. We got a 5.5hr stretch yesterday. Do I need to do anything to maintain supply as baby starts sleeping for longer stretches within the first 3 months? My supply is fine at the moment, I'm just being proactive about asking. I'm exclusively breastfeeding at the moment. submitted by /u/dreainprogress [link] [comments]”

“My 9 month old was recently sleep trained with Taking Cara Babies and did a fantastic job learning to sleep through the night after being nursed back to sleep every hour before. It was very evident he did not need any feeding overnight. I slowly weaned him to let my body adjust but it seems my milk supply took a hit after the first night I went 10ish hours without nursing. I was surprised because I did it gradually but after this night, my supply seemed lower. I was getting less when pumping and”