Supply question when sleeping through the night

[blondewithbump]

Hi
My 11wo DD has started sleeping for longer periods at night. She goes down at approx 10pm and wakes between 4am and 6am for a feed, and then goes back to sleep until 9am ish.

The first few mornings she did this my boobs leaked a lot and were HUGE and painful in the morning. Recently though they are not as full in the morning and I have noticed that I have less milk in the evenings so she is a bit more fussy in the evenings than before. But then again, she must have a fairly full belly at bedtime to be able to sleep for so long

I have always had a great supply up to now, a little too much if anything, I was constantly leaking! So is this my body just adjusting to her needs, or should I be trying to up my supply? I am just worried that if she has a growth spurt I will have nothing to give her

Thanks

Breasts are very clever - they will adjust to what your baby asks for. If she's happy, eating well, still got plenty of wet and dirty nappies, its fine.

RE growth spurt - when she does (and beware the 12 week growth spurt ) your boobs will again, adjust to meet what it is she wants.

Don't worry :) Relish not waking up in a soggy top

She has definitely got lots of wet and dirty nappies and she is putting on weight (busting out of her 0-3 months clothes already ), so I'll try not to worry!
Thanks!

Its so easy to worry about everything isn't it? :)

Sounds pretty normal to me
I think the same thing happened with DD about that age. It completely freaked me out because I was terrified supply would diminish because of the lack of night feeding (prolactin being nice & high at night), but in hindsight it was more my supply & her demand just fine tuning themselves. I remember being able to give up the breast pads then & didn't need to sleep on a towel anymore.

At the risk of sounding like The Voice Of Doom, she started waking again at 4 months - classic growth spurt time, so enjoy it while it last

My DS2 has slept from 10pm until 7.30am since 8 weeks old. He's now 17 weeks and still EBF. Initially I was waking at 5am totally full but after a couple of nights it passes and I am ok until 7ish. Last week he had a few nights with night wakings so again the first night he slept through I felt really full in the morning. Its fine.

I was extremely lucky and my three slept through 7pm to 7am from approx 8, 10 and 12 weeks respectively. Like you, initially when they started sleeping through longer periods I had enormous, painful, hard boobs. Within a few days I was totally fine. Supply and demand is brilliant. Actually I would say that with each child I knew that bf was properly established and working perfectly when I never at any point had swollen, painful, leaking or hard boobs. When you hit a growth spurt your body will catch up in no time.

I agree totally normal, it never ceases to amaze me how boobs just seem to 'know' what your baby wants and when!
Trouble is once boobs stop being hard and full all the time, you realise that you might be tucking them into your waistband before long!!!

My dd is now 18 weeks and has been sleeping for 8-10 hour stretches through the night since she was about 12 weeks old. Some mornings my boobs still feel really hard and when she starts to cry they leak alot. It has got better though. I don't feel that my supply has been affected, though it is a bit slower in the evenings. Think this is normal for alot of women though. I have worried about supply before but have been reassured by mumsnetters that my breasts will adapt quickly to changes in demand. They have always been right!

As Nelyl says, as you get further down the line you'll find that engorgement becomes less of a problem - the breasts stay pretty soft all of the time.

Very of all these sleeping babies, though - my 7.5 m.o. DS rarely does more than a 4 hour stretch most nights nowadays.

Same here DS2 has been doing 8pm till 4am and then until 8am for a long time (with the occasional blip), at first boobs were loaded for the 4am, now they are full but not really full.

Always nice and soft through the day now as well (unless I miss a feed or something).