Baby sleeping long stretches - engorgement and supply

[citymonkey]

My 13 week old son just slept 7 til 4 for the first time (very much a surprise) and when I woke my boobs were CRAZY hard (and bit lumpy???) and sore. He despatched one and took enough from the other to make it more normal (but it will be massive again when I / he next wakes).

How does supply work when you are going longer stretches at night? Does my body get to know I need a certain amount of milk in a day, or does it know that I only need most of it during the day and not the night? Am worried about supply if my son is not taking anything for such long spells.

Of course this could be wishful thinking off the back of a huge fluke, never to be repeated again!

My DD started sleeping through at about the same time. The crazy hard boobs settled down after a few nights and I can feed my DD frequently during the day no problem at all.

Enjoy the sleep while it lasts

Basically yes, just like a growth spurt your body will adjust. Ds 12 weeks went 10-7am last night, obviously not tonight, so tick to hard lumpy very tender breasts.

Hi, citymonkey - saw your name and remembered that you were so worried and tired in those early weeks, and very shell shocked with the needs of your baby....it's good to hear you are hanging on in there :)

What you need to know now is that supply is not fragile at this stage. In fact, a long gap at night is perfectly accomodatable (is that a word??) by a well-established bf production line. In fact, at this stage, supply is very responsive and much of the milk is made very quickly in response to the breasts having milk removed.

So supply goes up and down pretty readily and responsively without the general and overall down-sizing that characterises early bf. If you had a baby of say a week or 10 days who went 9 hours without a feed on several successive nights, you would almost certainly find your supply grinds to a halt....but not now.

If your baby continues to sleep this long (and he might or might not) your breasts would adjust, but I would still expect you to wake at 4 am with very full breasts but just not quite as uncomfortably hard.

You are fine, your bf is fine, and all is well :)