Replacing night feeds whilst ill

[YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut]

I've got a nasty virus at the moment which I've been battling for a week - hideous cough, temperature yo-yo-ing about etc. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my 5.5 month old, and have carried on through the illness. We've got some frozen expressed milk, and my DH has given her the odd bottle of that during the day, but I've carried on doing night feeds. She still wakes a few times a night.

I'm exhausted, and would love to move into the spare room and just have one full night of sleep. At this stage of the game, if my husband gave her expressed milk for one night of feeds would it damage my supply? Would I just end up unable to sleep for engorgement anyway?

Hi, I have a 5.5 month old as well and am ebf. She went to stay with MIL and I expressed at midnight and woke up an 6am quite engorged, had to express for an hour and then went back to bed :)
It didn't affect my supply at all, and it was nice to have a block of sleep.
Go for it and feel better soon x

As I suspected that doesn't sound like a great solution. I'm not sure I could cope with pumping for an hour at 6am! I guess I'll just keep muddling on.

Do it, have a break! Get a good chunk of sleep. If you wake up in pain from being engorged then grab baby and feed or just hand express enough for comfort, you don't need express for an hour or anything, and you may not wake up because you are uncomfortable.

At 5 months your supply should be fine.

Do it! How many times are you feeding overnight? At 5.5 months you shouldn't be terribly engorged in the morning, though you will be glad to feed when you wake up, I expect. Sleep on a towel and double up your breast pads and enjoy a whole night's sleep!

Try it the only thing I would say is be prepared for her to not take the bottle in the night, it'll be more for comfort that she's feeding and she may not like the bottle. What I would say is try and get some sleep in other ways, could you nap in the early evening? It seems brutal when you're ill and feeding at this young age but you will get through it. I've been through food poisoning, tonsillitis, gastroenteritis and numerous coughs and colds over the years while feeding mine and it really is tough but you will be ok

It won't harm your supply at 5.5 months.

I have done this a few times and just had my expressing machine all set up next to me. When I (inevitably) woke in the early hours, I expressed for ten mins and then went back to sleep. Totally worth it for a long stretch of sleep! If your baby is happy to spend the night with her dad you should totally do it!

This has been somewhat superseded as I've ended up in hospital with a lung infection. Baby and DH allowed to stay with me on a mattress though so we're coping. Pretty awful though.

How many times are you feeding at 5.5 months? At 3 weeks by DH took over one feed (with a bottle of formula!) just so I could get some sleep for 2 nights (the one that gave me the longest stretch of sleep). That did wonders for me! And had no effect on my milk supply. I am still bf at nearly 2yo.

Good luck in hospital though. Hope you get better and don't be too worried about stopping some feeds to get some rest. AS my HV had said (when she recommended the above) a happy and rested mum is much better for the baby than anything else.