How to stop boobs exploding while baby sleeps through...

[bouncysmiley]

My 4.5 month old DD has started sleeping through 8 until 8. Whilst this is great I cannot take advantage of this newfound freedom to sleep as I wake up in the early hours soaked and with very painful boobs because i need to get rid of milk. I am now expressing after this happens for fear of getting mastitus which although boosting my freezer milk supply, i suspect is not going to resolve the problem. Any tips?

If you are expressing, you can try either expressing for less and less time (i.e. if you normally express for 20m, the next night express for 18m, then 16m or what ever works for you - slower might be better or quicker might be better) or expressing less and less milk (i.e. if you normally express 90mls, aiming for 80mls the next night, 70mls the next - or again what ever works for you).

The idea is to gradually get your body used to producing less and less milk, whilst avoiding a sudden stop and the engorgement that may well follow.

HTH

I just used to express enough to relieve the pain and after a week or so I stopped engorging at all.

Thanks! I'll give that a go. I still want to breastfeed for as long as she wants to but she just doesn't want any during the night anymore and this is all new to me!