Please help my nighttime bowling ball boobs!

[OlivesIncubator]

I am ebf-ing my 12 week old DD. I feed her at 6:30 then put her to bed, then give her a dream feed at 10:30. She was waking for a feed at around 2, but is now at the point where she is stretching this out to 3:30am and then sleeps until 7am. This is great for my sleep, but my poor boobs arent coping well with the extra stretch. I am already getting pretty hard and full by 1am and by 3 I have two painful bowling balls attached to my chest. I really don't want to be getting up to express to relieve them, but am lying in bed waiting for DD to wake up and worrying about Mastitis. I am also pouncing on her to feed as soon as I hear her stir so she doesn't ever get the chance to demonstrate if she would sleep through the night.
Is this normal? Will it ever settle down? Is it normal to fill up faster and fuller at night than in the day? Is it possible to go right through the night without bfing?
Sorry for all the questions!

Hi
I was having the same problem (DD is now 18 weeks and EBF)
My supply did seem to dwindle after a while of her stretching out feeds although for a couple of weeks I was getting up twice a night to express the plus side to this is that I now have a freezer stock which will be useful for heading back to work
We now feed at 8pm (can take 45 mins though!) and then DD isn't up until between 5am and 7am and I'm not having to express in the middle of the night. I think if you can just persevere for a few nights your supply should adjust, it is uncomfortable but it should pass.
Good Luck!

I've had much the same. DD is now 19 weeks and did 10 consecutive nights of 14 hours. I was in lots of pain and not sleeping well past 4 am ish. Anyhoo they've just started to calm down and adjust, still full come morning but not so bad. Last night she woke and fed twice so I bet I'll be back to square obe(should she ever sleep through again)

Oh ok, sounds like I just need to stick it out then. This might sound stupid, but is it ok to let the boobs get to bowling ball proportions? I would like to leave DD to sleep as long as she will, but don't want to put myself and others in the room in any danger. Ha ha.

14 hours straight sleeping! How amazing. The pain would have to be worth it. :)

It won't last. She's lulling me into a false sense of security so that just as I get used to it she can hit me with a growth spurt / teething / cold and being up all night will hurt even more

It's all just a phase. Even the good bits

You could try hand expressing (just a little to take the 'top' off so to speak) as if they are very full they will probably just let down easily. You could catch it in a towel and go straight back to sleep rather than getting the pump out and all that fuss!

Oh and the boobs. Mine have always been Pamela Anderson esque. I make LOADS of milk and they're pretty full after just a few hrs. They are certainly starting to regulate themselves more now but after a sleep marathon they stay pretty full until she's had a couple of good feeds from each, so until midday or so

I'm really leaky and squirted all over a friends new expensive sofa yesterday

I was the same with DS 2 and am a bit more laid back as I didn't get any problems, mastitis etc with him so in pushing through the engorgement with a view to my body learning what it needs to do

Thanks for the advice. I have been hand expressing (useless with a pump) into muslins when not too scared to touch them for fear of an explosion, will continue with this.
Sorry to hear about the sofa LOL! I never leaked in the beginning and thought I had sidestepped that little inconvenience, but unfortunately have begun to in recent weeks. Seems like with this whole breast feeding malarkey, as soon as you get the hang of one thing something else steps up to try you. Next thing will be dealing with teeth!

See - you knew what to do all along! It will get better with time and anyway babies do like to change things up on you!