Ds is just short of 6mo and exc bf. I've also been expressing daily since he was 3do, as he had to be fed through a tube for a few days, and have kept it up ever since.
Ds, by the way, has not had any feeding problems whatsoever since then, loves his milk and is growing splendidly (along the 98th centile), so no worries there.
He's fed on demand but is an extremely predictable feeder, so for the past few months (the odd growth spurt/poorly spell aside) the pattern has been:
7am-ish bf, plus i express (a bottle-worth, 6oz)
9.30am-ish bf
noon-ish bf
4pm-ish bf
6pm-ish bf
8pm-ish bf and bed
11pm-ish dp gives him a bottle of EBM; prior to this I also express another 6oz.
Ds then tends to sleep through the night, so no bf-ing again till morning.
For the past 2 weeks, ds has been unwell and waking in the night for a feed. As I find the evening expressing such a PITA - not uncomfortable or anything, just boring and a faff - I've been dropping that and just bf-ing him at 3am or whenever, so I figured it wouldn't really affect my supply.
However, he's now better and back to sleeping overnight SO the question is, if I drop the evening expressing altogether, will it muck up my supply?
Another factor is that ds tends to be a one-sided feeder, so that could potentially mean one side going from 6pm to 7am without a feed. Or I suppose I could try to ensure he always takes something from both sides at 8pm?
This has only been a couple of nights so far, and I've not been engorged or uncomfortable, but I really don't want to risk compromising my supply as I plan on bf-ing till he's at least a year. And we're introducing solids in the next couple of weeks, so I have no clue how that will affect things either.
Am confused. Help!