Sleeping through and supply

[Pastabee]

My DD is 8 weeks and exclusively breastfed. She has been sleeping 7pm - 3am - 7am but the last two nights she has slept right through.

I know this could be a fluke or she could regress and I'm worrying about my supply and wondering if I should pump before I go to bed to keep the supply up for when / if she goes back to waking.

She feeds 7 times in 24 hours and is gaining weight and is a very happy baby so I'm not worried she isn't getting enough to eat overall.

I wouldn't too much - you could express and that may then affect your supply if she doesn't wake after sleeping through iyswim?

I'd just go with it and if she needs more breastmilk, she'll feed more. Yes, it may seem as though she's feeding a lot more for a day or so but that's so she can increase your supply. Then. your milk will increase again to compensate for her wakings.

It may be that there's not that much change even if she changes her pattern; don't forget, by changing her pattern at night, she may also her pattern in the day. So your supply may alter anyway because of increased/decreased daytime feeds too. If you demand feed, there'll be no problem - your baby knows what milk she needs when.

Sometimes she'll want a snack and sometimes she'll want a three course meal but your supply will adapt .

You don't need too your body will adjust. My dd slept through and I fed til almost 9 months with no probes, enjoy!

Thank you.... You worry when they don't sleep; you worry when they do!!

Pastabee, I remember you from the Pregnancy threads! Looks like we made it then! :)

Waves at showtunes. I remember. We weren't very even tempered about being over due if I recall! She came without induction in the end and every time I whined that it 'really hurts' to DH he said 'you won't be pregnant anymore now push' which was the best pain relief ever!!

I am guessing your LO arrived too despite all indications you would be pregnant forever?!

Yes that's right. But I had to be induced and it was a 22 hour labour where I could only get to 9cm so had to have EMCS. :(

Still, she's here now and a love.

I was thinking of this thread this morning as DD went down at 1030 last night and then at 4am she still hadn't woken up for her usual feed and I was bursting so I dream fed her. She then went on to sleep another 3 hours before waking up for a feed and then off again until 930. She was cluster feeding like mad from about 2pm to 1030pm so now I'm wondering if she was actually trying to stock up to sleep through the night?

Oh no. That all sounds very you poor thing. As you say she is here now and that is the main thing. I hope you are recovering well. It must have made establishing breastfeeding hard with needing to sit up.... I complained enough about sitting up in bed on my embroidery!

Sounds like your DD was thinking about letting you have some sleep? DD doesn't cluster feed but does have a bath at 6 and then a massive feed (only time she wants both sides) through til 7 when I put her down. She basically falls down drunk into her basket, bit of a sing song and she's gone.

I'm the worst person to discuss this with though as I stopped analysing DD's general take on life weeks ago when I realised we were both happier if I let her decide on her own routine and I threw the books away. This heralded the end of the health visitor's much trumpeted 10.30 top up feed which seemed to make DD so cross and she slept until 3am straight off. I know for certain now that she does not approve of being woken!

Last week she started to look like she regretted waking for the 3am feed, feeding for only a few minutes and the next thing I know she's gone through. Maybe just try leaving her tonight to see what she wants to do and just hand express a bit if you wake up in pain?

I'm just keeping my cool about it all. The three nights she has slept have been amazing but I'm well aware from MN that they don't always keep doing this!!

We haven't even tried to put in a routine so far. The only thing I've been trying is to get her to nap a bit more in the day as she gets overtired. The whole newborns can't be up for more than two hours so does not apply to DD.

The problem is that I woke up myself at 3am automatically and she was still fast asleep! Anyway, I'm not so sleep deprived as food deprived as she wants to eat all evening and then I don't find time to eat all of my evening meal. I am so hungry all the time as I never seem to get time to eat!

Lol. Been through the 'oh, it's time for your nap now baby pasta' phase. See just blinks at me like I'm bonkers if I ever try to tell her when she should be sleepy. Completely agree that the two hour thing is nonsense!

I beat myself up for weeks about not having a routine but when I sat and thought about it I realised certain things did kind of happen at the same time as in feeding, going to bed, bath but not napping! I just felt like we didn't because there'd never been a point where I'd gone 'right, Gina Ford, what shall I do with my DD now'. It just kind of evolves and we muddle along together!

I'm now zen master of one handed eating. DD does sometimes get crumbs in her hair if I'm completely honest but I figure it's her food too so she'll have to live with that!