12wk sleeping through after FF at 11pm. can i drop 10pm-11pm express?

[munteria]

Hi there

My DS is 12 wks. at 10 wks I intro a FF at 11pm (long story, but needed to). Anyway I have continued to express at 10pm as didnt want my supply to be affected esp as he dropped the middle of the night feed. My HV has said i can drop the expressing now (which is taking an hour). Do you think this would be ok to do?

even though I am not feeding in the middle of the night (which I understand to be important for supply) i have plenty of milk for DS in the day and dont want this to be affected. HV said that DS will eventually drop the 11pm feed anyway (when he is weaned) and breasts will re-adjust then so wont hurt to drop it now.

What do you think?

could you not swap the 11pm formula feed to a breastfeed instead? that way you win all round

no need to express
no need to buy formula

Hi

I need DS to sleep as well as possible as I suffer from insomnia and anxiety, and cant get back to sleep after middle of night breast feed. Even if he wakes at 6am. I still wake up before so the FF at 11pm helps me get to bed earlier as DP can feed him at 11pm.

Will dropping the 10pm express affect my supply? The HV said it wouldnt (see above) but wanted to check with the mums on this topic.

Thanks

TBH I would not rely on your DS sleeping through from now on. It would be unusual (not unheard of, of course) and you still have the big 4 month sleep lunacy phase to get through yet It is true that your DS will stop wanting to feed at 11pm and in the night at some point, but 12 weeks is far too early to make predictions.

If you do not express at 10pm you are looking at a long gap between feeds, a lot longer than most BF babies would go for at this age. If it was me I think I would carry on expressing, though you needn't do it for an hour - 15-20 minutes would be fine. It is the stimulation you are looking for, rather than the amount of milk you get out IYSWIM?

thanks for this. good point about the stimualation. I will cut down the time expressing - although you can get a bit obsessed about how much you fill the bottle up! i will certainly limit it to 10 mins each side from now on.

btw what's the 4 month sleep lunacy phase you mentioned??

If you had a double pump you could express more efficiently and get into bed quicker

Have a look at the sleep board to learn about the hell that is the four month sleep regression. Basically, a lot of babies who have previously been sleeping very well return to almost newborn amounts of wakenings. It is very hard (obviously!). A lot of people are advised to try formula "Your milk is not enough for him any more", or weaning onto solids "Your milk is not enough for him any more" - but what the baby needs is just more milk and cuddles. It seems to be a developmental thing. My DS2 was sleeping like an absolute angel at 12 weeks but has had a bad couple of weeks...thankfully I still think he is one of nature's sleepers and he is starting to sleep better again, with no formula or baby rice needed.