Dropping a night feed - painful!

"steph" wrote in message
om...
My daughter is ten weeks old (but a big girl - she was 10 days
overdue), and feeds every 3-4 hours during the day, but then at night,
I feed her at 10, and then was feeding her at 3 am and then again at
7:30. She seems to be ready to drop the 3 am feeding; she was still
asleep and I was waking her because I was engorged and she was just
fidgeting, but she didn't seem to want to drink much. So, I skipped
it a couple of nights and she went through until 6 am with no problem
for her... and I expressed milk at 3 am. I'm finding it excruciating
to not pump at 3 and go to 6 am... and if I do both, my sleep is
worse, not better! Also, if I keep pumping at 3 am, won;t my breasts
never get the hint? So do I just need to tough it out and eventually
ti will get better?

I would pump, but just enough to relieve the engorgement and pump a little
less each evening until you can go through the night. You will find that
your breasts are still fairly full in the morning but it won't hurt nearly
as much. My DD (3.75 months) has been sleeping through since she was 1.5
months and my breasts are still quite full and leaking in the morning but
they don't hurt the way they used to.

I'm also wondering what to do during the day.... she is seeming to
want to sleep longer than the usual 4 hours... should I just let her
and stretch out the feedings until she wakes up? My fear is then that
if she feeds less frequently during the day she won't be able to go as
long at night... so am I doing the right thing by waking her up every
four hours during the day even when she seems like she wants to go 5
or 6 sometimes?

Personally I would just let her sleep. It's entirely up to you though. Maybe
you could try it out one day and see if she sleeps through the night.

Nadene

steph wrote in message
om...
My daughter is ten weeks old (but a big girl - she was 10 days
overdue), and feeds every 3-4 hours during the day, but then at night,
I feed her at 10, and then was feeding her at 3 am and then again at
7:30. She seems to be ready to drop the 3 am feeding; she was still
asleep and I was waking her because I was engorged and she was just
fidgeting, but she didn't seem to want to drink much. So, I skipped
it a couple of nights and she went through until 6 am with no problem
for her... and I expressed milk at 3 am. I'm finding it excruciating
to not pump at 3 and go to 6 am... and if I do both, my sleep is
worse, not better! Also, if I keep pumping at 3 am, won;t my breasts
never get the hint? So do I just need to tough it out and eventually
ti will get better?

When my DD dropped her 2 am feed, I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't
sleep. In the end I just held my breast over a sink and dripped. I wasn't
very good at manual expressing then, and I didn't have a pump. I just let
enough drip out to make myself comfortable. After a couple of weeks my body
got the idea, and the supply adjusted.

I'm also wondering what to do during the day.... she is seeming to
want to sleep longer than the usual 4 hours... should I just let her
and stretch out the feedings until she wakes up? My fear is then that
if she feeds less frequently during the day she won't be able to go as
long at night... so am I doing the right thing by waking her up every
four hours during the day even when she seems like she wants to go 5
or 6 sometimes?

Thanks for any advice...

No ideas on this one sorry. DD was a four hour on the dot girl for 2 weeks,
then was all over the place, but mostly between 2 and 3 1/2 hours. And if I
did wake DD if she happened to sleep longer (she did 6 hours one day), she
wouldn't feed anyway.

Cathy

(steph) writes:

for her... and I expressed milk at 3 am. I'm finding it excruciating
to not pump at 3 and go to 6 am... and if I do both, my sleep is
worse, not better! Also, if I keep pumping at 3 am, won;t my breasts
never get the hint? So do I just need to tough it out and eventually
ti will get better?

If only there were such a thing as breastmilk consignment shops. I'd buy!