Increasing evening milk supply

[ScotGirl]

sorry for long post....

My ds (11wks) has been really hard to settle in the evenings for the last week or so. He used to go to sleep between 7 & 8 and stay asleep.

He is now sleeping on and off from 7pm, waking up crying and wanting a sook. It is nearer 10pm before we finally get him to sleep. My dh and me spend every evening try to get him to stay asleep.

Last night ds was wimpering at my boob (in what seemed to be frustration) and at 9pm I took out 4oz of ebm from the freezer. He chugged it down, fell asleep and slept 'till 2am.

I am concerned that my ds is going to bed hungry every night. I have managed to get another 4oz for him for tonight by expressing last night (when my boobs are like melons) and this morning.

I know that ds is probably going through a growth spurt and that my body is meant to make the milk my baby needs but I am concerned this is not happening. I am seriously considering giving hime some formula after his last boob feed at night. His dad is 6'7'' so his is going to be a big boy!

If you give him formula, it will reduce your supply. If you let him feed more often, it will increase your supply.

Pumping, when your breasts are full, and then feeding it to him when your breasts are emptier (they're never actually empty), can help, without reducing your supply.

(It's unusual for babies of this age to sleep for hours and hours at night, at least in my experience. I always coslept with them at this age, so at least I didn't have to get out of bed to feed them.)

You're doing well, just carry on doing the same thing.

not quite cockney is dead rigth.

Your little one is still quite little and I am sure someone more knowledeable than me will come along soon and give you some advice.

But I can give you some practical advice abotu using expressing to increase your supply
There are two things you can do.

What follows is cut and pasted from another thread about expressing at work but explains how you can use expressing to increase your supply:

As promised last night my expressing bible (Exclusively Expressing Breast Milk by Stephanie Casemore) suggests power pumping and cluster pumping. Power pumping means frequent pumping throughout the day - pump every 2 hrs around the clock (ahhh!) for at least 2 days. It is trying to mimic a growth spurt. Apparently some women will spend a weekend power pumping and will get family etc to care for the baby so that they can focus on pumping frequently.
Cluster pumping is pumping frequently but for shorter periods - eg pump every half and hr for ten mins. Do this for several hrs.

HTH

reading it back, not sure it is relevant at all to you but it may be

Popsy is that expressing with feeding as well? I'm guessing yes or it's just a load of work for something your baby could be doing!

Just feed, SG - it's hard work, but SO worth it.

It'd be less work to just do the same thing with the baby - try to feed him every 2 hours during the day. Oh, or go to bed with him for 24 hours, feeding him as often as he likes.

Letting a baby bf is much less work than pumping, and gets the milk out better, too.

hunker - it is expressing too......it is reallyt only relevant to established feeders i think, and more specifically to exclusive pumpers.....

cant type that phrase without a slight grin

hope someone with a better brain than I can come along and tell you if it is relevant to you...

NQC - yep much better idea

Thanks for the quick replies.

It only seems to be the evening that I run into trouble - I seem to have lots of milk during the day but ds likes a big feed about 4.30pm ish before he has a nap. Come 7 or 8pm there doesn't seem to be that much for him to take...

I used to feed him off one boob at 4.30 and save the other one for 7pm but I'm finding that he wants both boobs at 4.30pm now..

I would let him feed really often in the evening if he needs to. "Saving" milk up doesn't really work - the more he drinks, the more you make. The emptier your breasts are, the fattier the milk that comes out.

You may find he starts to feed pretty much constantly for a few hours, and then has a good sleep. This is really common, and what popsycal is talking about replicating with the pump.

ds2 used to feed tons around this time of day when he was 11 weeks....every 1.5 hours from tea time til 9pm ish.

You said he has a nap at 4:30?
Could you pump little and often during his nap? Obviously start with only a few mins at a time building up over a period of days? Dont worry about not having milk for him for his bed time feed as you will have ebm should you need it. Over about a week, you will have built up your supply and could stop pumping and have a nice big bedtime feed brewing?

also, have you tried expressing a little bit while feeding? double pumping (or feeding and pumping on the other side) is meant to be good for stimulating supply......

My dd2 is 17 weeks and sometimes she goes to sleep at 7ish and has a big sleep sometimes she wants to feed.

Your lo is probably going through a growth spurt - common about 12 weeks and therefore wants to cluster feed - mine also did this.

My advice is to not worry about getting into a strict routine and go with what your lo wants. Feeding at the breast is more effective than expressing.

My breasts often felt 'empty' in the evening but remember your breasts are never empty even after a huge feed.

You'll probably find that your lo will sleep more in a few days and then in a few weeks starts waking again - that's the thing with growth spurts and they have a lot of them in the first year!

Settle yourself with the remote or a good book/mags and let the lo feed - they will eventually cut down on the feeds and sleep more. HTH