Co-sleeping and leaking boobs / sick on the sheets

[allthemuslins]

I’m just wondering if there’s a better way of doing things. I have a three week old and circumstances mean we have to co-sleep. However I’m thinking there’s something I must be missing because virtually each morning we have to change the sheets. This is due to my leaking milk and DS posseting throughout the night. But isn’t the point that DS has free access to the boob? And I can’t stay awake all night to mop up any posseting? It just feels like I’m doing it very inefficiently- any advice please?

Hopeful bump

Haha, the things people don’t talk about before you have a baby! Leaking will slow down in the next couple of weeks so it won’t always be like this. You could wear a soft bra/support vest with pads in if you want? Or use a muslin to catch let down from the boob you’re not feeding with. Baby will hopefully bring up less milk as she gets older too - though I have thought myself that feeding lying might increase tendency to spit up. But needs must! To be honest, though, my standards have massively slipped and I just sleep in slightly milky sheets now…! It won’t always be like this…

Yeah what PP said, your milk production will stabilise over the next few weeks and you’ll find you don’t leak as much. I used to put a muslin down on the sheet and just change that each day. I also put a towel under the bed sheet to protect the mattress. I don’t think I leaked as much as others though. With spit up generally it was dry by morning so I’d leave it, it’s only a bit of milk and I wash my sheets regularly (not daily!) so it was never that bad!

Thanks both for the reassurance, I thought I was doing it wrong! 😁

I Used to put several (many lol) folded cot sheets on the crucial spot in the bed then through the night I would peel off the top one and throw it a laundry basket at the side of the bed.

We used to sleep on towels or a muslin, and as I did leak a lot at let down when my milk came in I would wear a vest top with hidden support and nipple pads to bed, which helped a lot.

Congratulations OP!

Have you got some breast pads? I used the reusable ones. It will settle down as your supply settles at around 6 weeks. In the meantime you could use a mattress protector so it’s just the top sheet that needs changing? Or put a washable incontinence pad under the sheet too?

I slept on a towel the first few weeks and changed it each morning, also had muslins over me all the time
and a good mattress protector
i wasn’t co sleeping though so I don’t know if all those extra bits are a hazard

Sleep bra and muslin. Also, slightly lower standards of cleanliness!

We used to call it the yoghurt pond 😛 my baby slept on my chest so I had a muslin under each armpit

I wore a hidden bra vest top that soaked up some leaking and a muslin under. And lower standards of cleanliness as a PP mentioned!

I slept in a nursing vest with reusable pads in, and we slept on a Little Green Sheep mattress protector. They are just flat, so don't have to be the same size and the bed, and the covering is soft and not crinkly. Then we could just wash the cotbed sized mattress protector as needed, not the king sized sheet and mattress protector.

yup those standards soon slip!