Evening feed - breastmilk not enough?

[DustyRusty]

My bf 10 week old DS is hard to settle in the evening. I bf him around 7pm, and put him down once asleep, he'll then wake frequently (approx every 20 mins) and I feed him each time. Usually around 9-10pm he goes down for the night. I assumed this was just cluster-feeding. We give him a formula dreamfeed at 11pm approx.

Last week I hurt my back and was taking strong painkillers. I dealt with this my expressing & discarding some of my breastmilk (if soon after taking a tablet) and giving formula. If he had formula at 7pm he would sleep straight through til the dreamfeed. Now I've stopped taking the pills & am bfing at bedtime he's gone back to the frequent evening waking.

Why do you think this is? Is my milk supply low in the evenings? Should I top-up with formula? I know demand should increase my supply, but it doesn't seem to be working!

It sounds like perfectly normal baby behaviour, to be honest - both my boys cluster fed in the evening exactly like your DS til they were about 4 months old. Doesn't mean you have "low supply in the evening", certainly doesn't mean you need to top up or he'll be hungry. Babies feed a lot in the evening to keep boosting your supply, and they do it A LOT in the first couple of months because they're growing so fast - it's not like they cluster feed a couple of times and then presto, your supply is increased and you're all done (or at least that wasn't how it worked for me). The formula bottle may have given him a load of milk all at once, plus formula is harder to digest, so could have made him go into a deeper sleep (much as you might conk out after a big roast dinner): doesn't mean anything about your supply or that it gave him any more calories. Though giving a formula feed instead of breastfeeding in the evening will ding your supply.

Personally, especially second time round, I just didn't even attempt to think about a "bedtime" until the first three months were over - just sat on the couch with box sets/Netflix, chocolate, occasional medicinal wine and let baby feed and doze until he conked out around 10, then usually got a good stretch of sleep after that. Gradually both of them started falling asleep properly earlier and earlier in the evening until we had a definite "bedtime" around 8.

The formula dreamfeed may also not be helping matters in terms of supply-boosting, I know during the first few weeks night feeds are particularly good for encouraging milk supply, before it switches to more of a straightforward supply and demand process (I think tiktok probably has the actual facts here rather than my vaguely remembered hand-wavey version, though).

I have to laugh when I hear of people who sat around with lovely dozing newborns watching boxsets and eating cake! My son was fractious and grizzly from 6pm onwards and as I'd been up all night the night before, by 8pm all I wanted to do was get him to bed so I could sleep too!

We started a regular bedtime from 8 weeks and it was the best thing I ever did. Within a week he was going down like a dream and still does now after his bath.

Well, I wouldn't say he was always a lovely dozing newborn, he was often fairly fractious as well, but usually managed a bit of dozing and feeding around it.

We tried a regular bedtime with DS1 at around 8 weeks and it just involved us running up and down the stairs to a screaming baby. Worked much better a few weeks later.

Breast milk gets absorbed by the baby quicker than Formula. Therefore, they need to feed more often.

In the evening and through the night your breast milk has a higher fat content than during the day, the baby needs to feed frequently and in doing so your supply is constantly adapting to their needs.

On occasion, for example a growth spurt, they will want to be at the breast all the time. This is their way of 'ordering' a bigger supply. They will settle into a less demanding feeding pattern, as your supply increases

A bottle of formula through the night will help baby sleep but will have a negative affect on the supply/demand balance. Im not saying you mustn't do it, only you know how best to organise your family life, but you may want to reconsider if it is having an effect on supply.

Around 10/12 weeks they do start to settle their cluster feeds so do persevere

What you describe sounds completely normal behaviour for a BF baby - you're doing great and she is doing what she's supposed to, worry not!

Apols! *He.

Thanks for the reassurance everyone. I bf my DD for 8 months and would love to do the same for DS - I'm just at that awful tiredness stage where the idea of formula feeding seems so very tempting, especially as it seems to equal more sleep for my DS (and therefore me!).