Evening breast feeding a 6 weeks old - low supply

[Sempai]

Looking for any advice/guidance.

I'm breastfeeding my first newborn and evening feeds have become somewhat of a nightmare the past few weeks because my supply is so low in the evenings. I need to resort to feeding him an expressed bottle in the evening to effectively 'knock him out' for a few hours at around middnight. I keep reading that my supply should eventually catch up, but any experience on how long this takes or tips on how to increase it? Am I expressing too much during the day?

How do you know your supply is low? Cluster feeding is very common in the evenings.

It sounds like cluster feeding, not low supply. Most babies I know go through a period in the evening where they feed constantly. It’s nothing to do with your supply!

It does get better soon, Dd stopped cluster feeding so much at about 8 weeks or so.

It’s normal for them to cluster feed in the evenings. We called it the witching hour.

kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/fussy-evening/

This website is the gold standard for breastfeeding btw

This is cluster feeding and it’s completely exhausting but completely normal. It has no implications about your supply at all. If he is gaining weight well, peeing and pooing then your supply is fine. A lot of babies have a witching hour(s) in the evening where they are unsettled and want to breastfeed a lot. It’ll pass x

My health visitor said that supply is at it's lowest in the evening but is full of the hormones they need so they want loads. It's also known as the witching hour where they have been taking in so much info over the day and they're tanking up for sleep. I'm the same with my almost 3 week old, from about 7-10 feel like I'm just constantly feeding with her napping 30 mibs between, the milk is coming out but boobs don't feel as full as they do during the day.

Are you getting regular wet / dirty nappies? If so, that shows baby is having enough milk. It can really feel like you have “low supply” in the evenings but it’s totally normal for your body to make different amounts of milk at different times of day - it’s not a sign there’s anything wrong. Cluster feeding is a really intense stage but it’s important - probably having a growth spurt and just wanting to be on you all the time. Get on sofa, Netflix on and just go with the mammoth feeding sessions. It’ll pass. Also are you eating enough? 3 good meals every day, plus a pudding was what the midwife told me to eat when breastfeeding. It can really make a difference to milk supply.

Just to add to @Snowpaw’s excellent advice - make sure you are drinking enough. Tons more than you think, a pint every couple of hours at least.

With breastfeeding the most effective way to judge supply is how well your baby gains weight and dirty / wet nappies - everything else is inaccurate. Even expressing milk isn’t accurate for telling you what your supply is like.

Sorry for not replying at the time (life has been a blur!) but all these were very helpful replies :)

DD is now 4 months old and I can very much say the 'witching hour' chapter passed by the time he hit 3 months. I think a lot of the advise here was right, I didn't have a low supply and it was just a case of him being frustrated and tired at the end of the day. I just learned that I'd need to grin and bare it for a few more hard weeks. I'd settle us down on the sofa of an evening after dinner; husband would bring me tea/water/snacks and I'd binge some Netflix and snuggle with my wee terror :) He's still breastfed, so some nights it was just a case of husband taking him and giving him an expressed bottle earlier in the evening so I could get a chance to recharge for an hour or so.

Thank you so much for the update! Amazing to hear you had a positive outcome and you are still breastfeeding - well done you!! I think my mind has purposely blanked out the witching hours stage as it was so so hard. So glad you are out the other side xx

This is great to hear. Well done for sticking at it. Breastfeeding can feel very frustrating at times, but you just have to trust the baby is getting what it needs. I felt like I was just a feeding machine in the early months. It all settles down though eventually.