sleeping through and breastfeeding

[Jen27]

Hi for the past week dd has started to sleep 8-9 hours at night (shes 8 weeks old today). Will this affect my supply or will my breasts adjust with her? everything seems ok at the moment. she feeds approx every 3 hours in the day (or maybe its every 2?. I will have to keep a check tomorrow!).

is it likely that I will get AF back!?

also I am wanting to express and only have a manual pump. can anyone reccomend an electric one? and where is best to buy? just trying to build up a supply of ebm to put in the freezer but it seems to be a very slow process with the cheap manual pump I bought.

thank you

[Barb Glare]

Lucky you! 8 weeksis very early for babies to sleep through - but ultimately babies feed and sleep the way they want Rogers and sleep. your breasts will adjust to this new regime, but if you find youself becoming uncomfortably full wake your baby for a feed or express for comfort.
Before Xmas, Mothers Direct had medela swing pumps for about $235 with your ABA members discount. Mothersdirect is the online store of ABA so you can always be sure of great after sales service.

[Miss E]

Glad to hear you are getting a good nights sleep! I've got the Avent electric pump and I love it! I find that when my DS sleeps through my boobs are so full in the morning that he only wants to feed from one, after that he is satisfied. So I express the other side and get enough for a full feed. Over the last three or so months I've been able to build up a great supply of EBM by just doing this one express each day. Yes, my boobs may not have adjusted to him sleeping through because of it, but it means there is always milk there for him (and I also haven't got AF back!). Anyway, thought I would share what we're doing cos it works really well for both of us. GL

[Indadhanu]

Yep we did what Miss E does. Jazz 'slept through' 9pm to 4am from 8 weeks to 4 months, and I'd feed from one side and express the other. If you don't want to, or have trouble, expressing, don't hesitate to wake her up. You don't have to wake her up too much, just enough for her to latch on.

I assume your boobs would get used to it, but I'm not really sure since I expressed. Oh and I got AF back at 8 weeks but she disappeared for a few months once Jazz started waking through the night again.

[Jas]

That is wonderful that your baby is sleeping through longer periods.

ds2 was sleeping through 8+hrs from 3weeks old and I just got af back on the 23rd of this month (he was 8months old on 28th) and has been sleeping 11hrs for the last 2+months so nope doesn't neccessarily mean af will come back, also even if it does I think its worth it for the extra sleep lol

I agree wake baby to feed or express, personally I would express to encourage extended sleeping at night, If you don't want to have to continue pumping at night I would just express until you are uncomfy so that your body adjusts to needing less milk at night.

This won't mess with your supply, it sounds like your dd has been feeding really well through the day. Remember you maybe will be having less feeds but not less milk, she will just drink more at a time as she gets older and then the amoutn starts to cut down as she gets a fair bit older. But don't worry she knows what she is doing all by herself and will drink what she needs when she needs it, you are doing a great job!!

I have the medela mini electric (I think it was about $150) and I really like it

[beckoes]

Hi, DD started sleeping through quite early on, i would end up so full id have to get up and express in the night so they didnt explode!! i started to express just before i went to bed and that worked great for me.
Unfortunatley it didnt last, after a few months she started waking in the night again. So make the most of it!!!
Didnt seem to affect my supply and i only got AF back two months ago (DDis 16 months) so didnt affect that either!