Night time let down very slow (no milk yet this morning)

[SurreyArmyWife]

Hello, I'm breastfeeding my son (5 months). Recently I've been sleeping very badly, and am tired/shaky when I wake up. Previously my let down has happened very quickly and I can hear lots of sucking. But recently (night time only) it has been taking much longer. This morning after nearly an hour it still hadn't happened. Do babies get any milk before let down? He seems to get enought eventually over the course of a day, and is still a healthy weight. I'm going to try again after having another glass of water.
Thank you.

It's normal to feel letdown less as your baby gers older. This article explains in more detail and offers advice. Is he swallowing at all? Maybe he's just got very efficient?

Sorry you aren't sleeping well. I have a cup of tea and a biscuit on waking every morning which seems to help with that overtired shakiness and letdown too.

think if your ds is happy then things she probably ok, think as you say staying hydrated is important, so sorry to hear you are sleeping badly. are a few early nights possible?

she should read are!

I bf DD1 till 22 months and DD2 still going strong at 12 months. Between the joined 32 months I think I have felt let down about 5 times and my girls ere frequent feeders.

If ever I was unsure I'd give my boobs a squeeze and watch the little jets for confirmation and have an infantile giggle to myself

Flibbedy if DH annoys me I squirt him in the face

Thank you. He hadn't really been swallowing, so I assumed he wasn't getting any milk. I got up, had a drink and something to eat and tried with my breast pump, milk came out so I quickly popped him on - a few seconds later I heard him start swallowing. But this has taken 2 hours! It's worse after I've had a bad nights sleep. I really want to keep breastfeeding, so I hope things will get back to normal soon. Now that I'm fully awake things feel more positive :-)

Even if you don't feel the letdown, you should still have milk. Some women barely ever feel it at this age, if fact by 5 months I only got let down if I'd had .

By this age your supply should be well established but if you are still concerned, I'd talk it through with a BFC, have you got the helpline numbers?

If you're not sleeping, is there something else going on that we can help you with?

Kellymom has a page about speeding up let down that could be worth a look

kellymom

Thank you. I've found that when I have had very little sleep my baby doesn't seem to feed well, lots of sucking, but only occasional swallowing. When I'm fully awake, warm and had breakfast things improve. But at 5am, I'd prefer to stay sleepy and possibly go back to bed!

I have been to the doctors, and they prescribed Amitriptyline. This has helped, last night I slept very well, and there were no problems with feeding this morning.

I feel so much more positive when I'm properly rested and feeding easily. But after a sleepless night I feel dizzy any difficulties seem much harder to deal with.

I'm sure there will be more bad nights ahead, the kellymom link had lots of things I can try. Thank you.