Engorged in the mornings. 10wk old regularly sleeps through.

[cantmakecarrotcake]

My 11 wk old ebf DD2 has been sleeping through for the last few weeks. disclaimer: this is not a stealth boast for perfect parenting, I just got lucky!

The only problem is I'm massively engorged and leaky by about 4am. The discomfort wakes me up and I can only lie on my back otherwise it's more uncomfortable and leaky. She'll tend to wake between 5:30 and 6:30 and feed.

My question is, does this pass? Will my boobs eventually get the message?

For info, she's feeding pretty much on demand with a bit of my convenience thrown in. Her last feed tends to be 7ish when she falls asleep on the boob. I'm not a big fan of expressing (too lazy and never got much) and kind of feel that doing so late evening would only increase my supply further in the long run.

TIA

I had the same, buty boobs didn't settle down, about 4 months old she started waking for a feed at that time and now they've settled down. Seeing as she wakes for a feed shortly after, maybe dream feed her when you wake, or at 10ish or whenever you go to bed?

I had this too. I agree that expressing before bed will probably just increase your supply. I found the only thing that works is to express a small amount when I wake up engorged, say about 30ml or so, just to get comfortable again then I go back to sleep. DD went through a phase of waking for more night feeds again so I just fed her and didn't need to express. I got mastitis previously so am a bit wary of being engorged in case it leads to that again.

I guess it's too much for boobs to be fed from every 2 hours during the day then go 10-12 hours without at night.

Thanks for your thoughts ladies, I suppose the answer is getting the milk out somehow. I find it so hard to bring myself to wake a sleeping baby! Maybe I'll try expressing the extra off given I'm waking anyway.

Ride it out your supply will adjust after a couple of uncomfortable nights. If it is v painful when you wake just hand express a v small amount to ease the most discomfort.

The enforcement tells your body to make less milk so you need to go through it so you will be comfortable again iyswim.

It's been quite a few nights of engorgement, McBaby but I live in hope of them settling. Hopefully they'll get the message soon!

At the BFing group I was at today they said that there is a hormone that builds up in your system when you don;t feed for long periods of time and tells your body to produce less milk at that time so your body should regulate the supply overnight to adjust for baby sleeping through after a while. However, mine has been sleeping through for some time and I still wake every night about 4am engorged so I guess it doesn't work for everyone.

How was last night?
Is she ever waking for food in the night?

It can take a few days but it really will get better one morning you won't get woken by it. (Untill they go through a growth spurt or teething then they feed in the night again!!)

I have had ovetsupply with both dds and have had to deal with lots of engorgement. You can also take ibuprofen or put cold compress on when you wake. I had boos shaped ones and they really helped take the edge off.

When this used to happen to me I just expressed some off with a hand pump. I didn't always use the milk (to save middle of the night sterile faff), I'd just get enough off each side so I could get back to sleep for an hour :)

Thanks for asking, McBaby. Last night was much better. Last feed at 7:30 and I woke feeling much more comfortable. About a week or so ago she did wake in the night, maybe 3 nights running, so looking back that's probably what upset things. Hopefully that'll be it until she picks up and drops night feeds again.

This happened to me when my baby started sleeping better. I had to express a few nights, but after a few days I found it started to get better and my breasts just caught up.

Night feed last night. Here we go again! Just when I thought my boobs had figured it out! Pesky babies! ;-)