Having a short break from b'fing and the effect on my supply

[Tillyscoutsmum]

DS is 7 weeks and fully bf'd. He is a really large baby (off the top of the charts) and feeds, at the very best, 2 hourly day and night and quite often much more. Last night for example he fed at 9, 11, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8. This is fairly typical and he's been like it since birth. I had a hideous pregnancy and 5 day labour so, needless to say, I'm fairly tired.

We had our post natal check at the GP's this morning. My GP is worried about PND. I don't think I'm depressed, just exhausted (I have a toddler as well). GP was pushing to prescribe anti-d's but I don't really want them (yet). She then suggested I should allow DH to take over all the night feeds occasionally (she suggested once a fortnight) to allow me to get a full night's sleep to rejuvenate myself. I love the idea of it (who wouldn't ?!) and DH is willing but there is no way I could express enough milk (I get 2 oz per day, max). GP suggested formula and didn't seem to think it would effect my supply. I'm not convinced. I am not totally anti formula (dd was mixed fed from about 4 months) but I don't want to do it if it will spell the beginning of the end for my b'fing.

Any thoughts please ?

Your supply should be fairly robust at this stage, it would take a few days to dry up completely. You may find though that the first night you sleep through your breasts will feel very full as they would be producing to feed your ds through the night.
Firstly, I would get some info from the Breastfeeding Network as there are ADs you can take while you are bfeeding, and the consensus is that stopping bfing may not reduce the PND - because bfing helps to stimulate oxytocin levels, which help lift your mood.
You can try to boost your supply by expressing on a more regular basis to try to get more for the night feeds. Also,bear in mind your ds is very tiny and so he won't be feeding this frequently forever!

tilly - sounds just like my DS! he drastically improved at 8 weeks, going 4 hrs some nights between feeds, although back to 2 hrly this week (he's 19 weeks tomorrow)

DP has helped calm him between night feeds a few times - so I feed, then try to sleep, and if DS wakes up, DP shushes him back to sleep. if it takes more than about 15 minutes, I am woken up to feed - last week he managed 6 hours - best night in months! used to manage 4 hrs, but that was lovely too

you could try that, so you get a wee bit more sleep maybe, without compromising your supply?

Your dr's solution seems to be a bit of a sledgehammer approach. At 7w pn, with a toddler as well, it's very difficult to be anything but knackered and therefore very low. Definitely a good idea to try and reduce the load on you, before going for ADs.

Rather than dropping all night feeds, (which could make you quite uncomfortable by morning!) what about getting your dh to do just one feed every 2nd or 3rd night? IME the 4/5am feeds are the toughest on you, because you have no chance of getting a decent lump of sleep afterwards. So if he does one of those, you get to sleep longer during the most tiring part of the night.

Hi, with all 3 of my DCs for the first 8 weeks I had a night nanny come in one night a week. She would arrive at 9pm and stay until 7am and would do all night feeds, settling etc so that I could get a full nights sleep - i.e. exactly what the GP is suggesting your DH does for you.

In order to do this I would express every day (best time would be after the first morning feed when my milk was reasonably plentiful. I would get a couple of oz and freeze it. I also regularly used a breast shell on the breast I wasn't feeding from and would collect and freeze that milk too - so I could generally get a few oz a day. On the day the night nanny came I would do the early evening feed as normal. She would take over the baby at 9pm and I would express a full feed at about 10pm and go to bed with ear plugs in so I wouldn't be disturbed. She would have the supply of milk I had expressed over the course of the previous week (defrosted!) and the milk I had expressed at 10pm to get through the night. I also left a couple of cartons of ready made formula in case she needed it in the night to top up the expressed milk I had left for her (although this was very rarely needed).

In the morning my breasts would be enormous and exploding and in some discomfort and I'd need to feed straight away. I would also be able to express loads after that feed too (in order to stock up for the following week).

My milk supply was entirely unaffected by this and it worked brilliantly for me - one night's sleep a week was just about enough to keep me sane.