How do you cope when baby starts sleeping through??.

[Mummabubbles]

Ebf 10week old dd has been asleep for 9hrs, still sleeping soundly. I think my boobs are going to explode!

How do you cope when your baby's start sleeping through?? Or do you wake them for feeds??

fuck no! Dont do that. Either hand express a bit or just wait it out. It might be a one off, but if not, your boobs will adapt

I know that expressing stimulates milk production, but I used my breastpump the other night to relieve the pressure, and got about 240mls in 10minutes! Popped it straight in the freezer, then went back to bed feeling much more comfortable!

What's sleeping through??

Make the most of it and thank god you have one that sleeps expressing helps too

I remember the first time really well. Not only are your breasts heavy but you worry something has happened to them as they've never slept that well before. Pumping is a good idea if you have one then put milk in freezer for a day when you get a lie in!

I've woken her! ( Oooooooh, relief!!)
Had to do it, I've never expressed so not really sure how to and touching boobs to try brought tears to my eyes!
Will buy a pump for future use

Also annoyed myself massively when reading back op. babies, not baby's

Manual expressing was a faff for me (although useful to get the knack of for emergencies).
I really recommend a good pump.
What may be useful to you is to use this time to get a really good stock of milk for the freezer and then once she's settled down and you know she will be sleeping through more often than not you can adjust to dropping that feed. Good firm support is helpful but it is going to be a little uncomfortable. You will have various phases of adjusting as she grows.

I expressed as it meant that going out never had to have pumping time budgeted in and I could chuck the post booze milk down the sink with no worries it gave me quite a lot of leeway sharing feeds with DH and more than a few lie ins so worked very well for us!

I'm off to recover from the by proxy shock of intentionally waking a sleeping baby .

Learn to hand express to relieve discomfort, there are videos on YouTube. My DD started sleeping like that at 4.5 weeks but fed hourly through the day to make up for it. Enjoy the sleep, it can all change back, as it did for me when she got to 17 weeks. She only just started sleeping through at 17 months but it's bliss!

I tend to wake up soaking! I'm just used to it now!

Yep, I just wake up in a sticky pool of milk, then have to go and poke DD to make sure nothing has happened to her.

My mornings aren't stressful at all

It only took a couple of nights of full, leaky boobs before mine settled. I did hand express a bit, not lots, just so when he did wake up it wasn't jetting uncontrollably down his throat.

Pumping loads and emptying the breast won't help in the long run because your body won't get the message that not so much milk is needed at that time. When your breasts become full a hormone known as FIL (feedback inhibitor of lactation) kicks in and tells the milk making cells within the breast to slow production. Expressing enough to relieve discomfort is fine but not too much if you want to feels less engorged the next night.

My DS didn't sleep through (more than 6 hours) until 11 months. By that time I'd been breastfeeding so long there was no feeling of engorgement or pain.

I put a folded Muslin down the front of my top at night for a few weeks (one of those ones with the sort of built in bra shelf thing) I've stopped now as realised the leaking had stopped but rather miss having it to hand when doing the morning feed