Breastfeeding questions

[bunhead34]

Hello,
Hoping those more experienced than me
Can help with my questions.

• baby is 6 weeks and I am exclusively

Breastfeeding, recently my boobs have been getting very engorged, especially Overnight and in the morning. I'm having to pump a little with my manual pump just to release the pressure (milk literally flies out of them!) when will this stop?

• when does leaking stop? When can I expect to stop needing breast pads? I find overnight they end up in the wrong place and I end up soaked.
• when should baby start going longer between feeds? At the moment we are on about 2 hours.

I love feeding my baby, but finding it hard going right now 😭

Supply has normally settled down by about 6 weeks. Are you pumping other than for comfort? When you're doing that really just remove enough to ease your discomfort, the more you pump the more milk your breasts think they need to produce.

I'm 18 months in and still need breast pads. I know plenty of people who only needed them for a short while though so it varies. What are you wearing at night? A soft nursing bra would keep them in place.

I've been pumping about 60ml in the morning, not everyday, every 2or 3 days, otherwise it's just for comfort, as I want baby to be able to take a bottle and I'm worried about leaving it too late.

I've been wearing nursing vest tops at night, maybe I need something better!

Lots of people say supply should settle around 6 weeks, but with both my babies then my oversupply peaked around this time (with no pumping).Settled down after about 9 weeks.

Just hand express for comfort and see if that helps settle it.

I don't think my supply actually settled until about 3 months, after the worst of the cluster feeding! My baby started going longer between feeds at around 5 months but sometimes picks up again when she's teething, having growth spurts, etc etc. And it doesn't help being at home a lot with Covid, it's like an all you can eat buffet 😂 I'm 8 months in and still have to wear breast pads, sorry!

Agree with above though, pumping is signalling to your breasts that you need to keep producing more milk. I used to hand express into a muslin (or you could use a cup if you want to save it for bottles).

I still leak at night at 6 months, and it's not just a little bit either, yesterday I soaked right through 2 tops and a folded washcloth while feeding DD. Didn't discover till she was done and I wanted to put her back, then discovered that her sleeping bag was soaked. Had to change that (and myself). I also leak at night when I'm not feeding, used to wake up wet. Pads move around too much at night so I tend to use wash cloths. They're thicker and stay put. That works for me most of the time.

My supply probably settled around 6-8 weeks, but I still became engorged the minute his feeding schedule even slightly differed from the previous day.
I'm 6 months in now and still have to wear breast pads, I use the lansinoh ones as they're the only ones I have found that don't leak.
I would say my son feeds every 2-3 hours in the day still but he is a snacker. At night he can go 3-4 hours now. We had a golden month at around 10 weeks where he would sleep through the night no dramas, alas this didn't last!

It can settle down anywhere between 6-12 weeks so could be soon or could be a little while.

I would not pump too much if you want to stop being ingorged, as this will just tell your breasts to produce more milk at that time. 60ml is quite a lot to pump.

Don't worry too much about making sure your baby takes a bottle, people always seem to say this is related but I think it's all anecdotal - plenty of babies never have a bottle and take one later just fine. Or take a bottle happily and then one day just refuse it. It doesn't seem to be related to what you've done at all, it's just random. So don't worry about bottles until you actually need/want them, especially if it's stressing you out.

Non wired feeding bra may keep your breast pads in place a bit longer. Leaking normally stops around 3-4 months in but if you have oversupply (which is possible) it could be more like 6-9 months.

When babies go longer - how long is a piece of string? I'm afraid it's not really an easy question. It is best to go with the flow on that one.

Do you have a breastfeeding support group local to you? I found mine invaluable because it was nice to feel normal and like other people were going through the same thing :)

Well done so far!

I was also a few months before it settled. I didn't stop wearing breast pads until about the 9 month mark either - but wasn't uncomfortable, just a bit leaky!

In fact, I think there was generally a big change after a few months. Bigger gaps between feeding, a bit more predictable. I would wake engorged in the early days as he would sleep longer stretches at night but that went down the pan as the 4 month regression hit. It did level out though.

Cluster feeding hits around 6 weeks as there's a growth spurt around then - all sounds normal and like you're doing a great job. I loved the Lanisoh reusable breast pads. I think I still needed them in the night until at least 9 months but not in the day past 12 weeks maybe? DD is now 18 months, just feeds first and last thing and so much of that first year is honestly a blur now