Does your milk "come in" in full force on the third day if you still have milk from feeding your previous dc?

[Fakebook]

Sorry if the title doesn't make sense. I had a 4 year gap between my first 2 children so I hadn't breast fed for a good 3 years. When my milk came in, it really gushed where I was getting painful milk lumps under my armpits that only went away after 3-5 hours of hot compression with a wheat bag. My milk was spraying out so ds couldn't latch on properly the first few minutes that really made things difficult.

This time I'll have a 22 month age gap and I was still breast feeding my son at night up until last month.

So does anyone know if my milk supply will be calmer the third time with a shorter age gap between children? I've even been thinking of only breast feeding at night and bottle during the day to prevent a huge build up of milk. Not sure if this is a good idea though.

I definitely noticed my milk coming in because I started crying for no bloody reason but I didn't get engorged or uncomfortable. It did seem a lot calmer.

How far along are you?

Oh thats good BedHangar, just what I want to hear! I'm nearly 12 weeks so not far, but am far more worried about this baby and coping with a toddler as well, so am fretting about these things already!

I stopped feeding DS1 while pregnant with DS2 and definitely got the engorged ouchy bosom thing on day 3, but it was probably a bit easier than the first time round and I didn't have the oversupply problem I had with my older son.

I had six or seven months between nurslings (DC1 weaned at about 9w pg with DC2) and still got the mad milk.

Am 11+ weeks now and DC2 is going strong. I don't know what would/will happen if he is still feeding when baby arrives - supply has dwindled and gone more colostrum-like so I daresay I would have Milk Hell Day regardless

I had nearly 3 years between breastfeeding my 2 (so not the close gap you've asked about), but 2nd time round it did not feel as bad my milk coming in. Not like with ds1 when I woke up looking like Dolly Parton and couldn't move my arms without crying. Infact with ds2 I didn't really notice my milk coming in.

I think it was less with dc2, still feeding dc1. I do remember a couple of uncomfortable days but not as bad as dc1.

I wasn't half as leaky second time round either - hth!

Thanks for all the replies. It's good to hear other people's experiences.

WouldBeHarriet, thanks for that link, there's some really good points in there that I will hopefully try. My DS slept 6 hours at a time the first 4-5 days and I didn't wake him up for a feed, so will be waking baby up for a feed this time and also, it says that warm compresses INCREASE swelling?! Argh! No wonder it took hours for the underarm lumps to go down! I figured I should give it heat to push the blocked milk down to the breasts! Another thing to keep in mind!

I have a 23 month gap and a 6 month gap between nurslings. My milk came in on day 3 but it wasn't as bad as with my first baby. My supply settled down after only a couple of weeks too whereas it too months with my first. All in all its been much easier and less messy than last time. I woke to feed during the day this time but let DD2 sleep when I could and didn't suffer too badly.

Should have been clearer - I'm tandem feeding, so no gap between nurselings!