Milk rather lacking in the evening

[Fibilou]

As it says on the tin ! I usually have loads of milk, but in the evenings it seems to be in rather short supply. DD is coming up 17 weeks and supply has never been an issue before, we've coped with the growth spurts so far with no great difficulties. Last night I had to feed her a bottle of EBM hastily defrosted as I just didn't seem to have any milk at all to give her

Any tips ?

same thing is happening to me! i too don't know what to do either...drink more water?

Breasts are never empty. They may feel lighter and less full, but they are producing milk all the time. See here. If you have just come over a growth spurt, then its possible your supply may be readjusting?

feeding when there isn't any milk there (although there is) will make your body produce more milk within a few days. iirc DS around this age fed every 1.5hours periodically - the milk would the increase a day or so later. also, the milk is really really thick and creamy off an 'empty' breast.

Why do you think you don't have enough milk?

Research suggests babies rarely take all the milk available at the time of feeding.

As Ruby says, the 'emptier' the breast, the thicker & creamier (& so fattier & more calorific) the milk is. When I used to feed DS into complete unconsciousness at bedtime, he would fall off the nipple with a huge globule of milk sitting at the side of his mouth. It positively shone in the darkness of the blacked-out room, whereas milk from a full breast would look very pale and roll straight off his face.

Many babies do go through a spell of feeding (and waking) more frequently at this age - they are busy working on a developmental spurt (also known as the 4 month sleep regression).

It's just that she fusses and cries, if I try hand expressing to see if there is milk there none comes out.

She has been waking a lot more (only ever used to be a 1 time a night girl, then went through from 8 weeks until about 12 when she would wake again once in the night. Now she wakes up every 2-3 hours)

She has started rolling over, doing tummy time very well and becoming a lot more mobile so I hope this is just feeding her development and we can be back down to once a night (or all the way through) soon.

4 months is a normal time for sleep regression, see www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html

Fussing and crying is normal growth spurt behaviour & doesn't necessarily suggest you've not got enough milk. Expressing isn't a good indication of how much milk is available for the baby, either. Probably your supply has increased (or is in the process of increasing) so it just meets her demand. I found growth spurts very confusing at first - I expected DS to feed more often, but not to be as fussy as he was!

See here for info on fussy babies.

It does sound exactly like the 4 month sleep regression to me - more links about it here, here, and here.

Hang in there, it will pass. DS is 5 months and we seem to have got back to roughly the same number of night wakings that we had before the sleep regression made him wake multiple times a night.

There is always milk there, best way to get more is to get baby to feed for longer. I have noticed the same about the creamy/thickness of milk from empty breast.

However I had this problem with both DD and DS at 4 months.

I fed DD practically non stop for a few days and then I had loads of milk.

DS however wasn't prepared to suck for slow milk and just starting biting me. I did give him a bottle at bedtime which he prefered, it was quicker but I stopped BF a few weeks later.