Giving expressed breastmilk question

yumyums

Hi all!
I'm a first time mum with a seven week old baby. Over the past couple of days I've expressed enough milk ready for my husband to give tonight so that I can hopefully get a lovely four or five hour stretch of sleep. Only thing I can't figure out is if I'm asleep for this long when I'd normally be feeding, will my breasts get too full and painful (as happened last time I tried this).

Does anyone do something similar in order to get some sleep, and if so, have you any advice to offer?

Thanks

katiechoc_2

My LO never really got the hang of bottles - He liked it fresh from the boob - so never really bothered expressing much, but I'd suggest giving him as big a feed as he'll take last thing before you go to bed then leaving the pump sterilised and ready to go if you're uncomfortable when you wake up. My LO struggled to latch if they were full to bursting so had to pump to relieve some of the pressure before feeding him direct.

Make-it-3

Yes, it could happen as you are trying to circumnavigate nature.

Try to time your sleep so straight after a feed and then see, have the pump nearby in case you wake uncomfortable.

I know how shattering it feels looking after a newborn on very little snatched sleep. Slightly off subject, but nature's way of doing this is for mum and baby to co-sleep. If you can get comfortable with it and do it safely you will hardly wake up when baby feeds and get a lot more sleep over the course of a night.

heretolearn_2

Try it and see. Yes your boobs will get a bit uncomfortable but it shouldn't be too bad.

If it doesn't work out - (I could never express) try having 'daddy nights'. He may not be able to give a bottle, but he can be the one to get up to babe in the night, either settle down or bring in to you to feed in bed (you don't even have to sit up, you can feed laying on your side and not wake up a whole lot) then take babe away again to change/settle back to sleep. That's what we used to do - have alternate nights 'on duty' and it helped a lot.

lazywife

I'd give it a go and see. The first time LO slept through my breasts felt full to bursting when I woke up, but resolved with a feed. So even if you skip one feed for the expressed bottle, the next one should only be a few hours away.x

yumyums

Not sure it was worth the hassle really! I had to express to relieve the fullness and I've still leaked so much that I've soaked the sheets. Wasn't expecting that as I don't normally leak. Might try the daddy nights idea as that should keep things close to nature. I have tried co sleeping but didn't really get on with it unfortunately

ymcas

heretolearn wrote: »

Try it and see. Yes your boobs will get a bit uncomfortable but it shouldn't be too bad.

If it doesn't work out - (I could never express) try having 'daddy nights'. He may not be able to give a bottle, but he can be the one to get up to babe in the night, either settle down or bring in to you to feed in bed (you don't even have to sit up, you can feed laying on your side and not wake up a whole lot) then take babe away again to change/settle back to sleep. That's what we used to do - have alternate nights 'on duty' and it helped a lot.

We did this too..... Can't recommend enough!

bylromarha

I used to put towels on my bed at night as I always used to leak.

DigForVictory

Check Dad wearing one of your baggiest Tshirts so the "Mummy niff" reassures little coot.
Some nights my husband couldn't do anything as little coot refused to cooperate as he smelled wrong. (Vexatious, but funny in hindsight.)

Metranil_Vavin

We are doing 'Daddy nights' here too. My baby is 9 weeks old, and we take it in turns to sleep in the same room as her.

On my nights off, I'll give her a feed at about 9pm and then head to bed, OH will stay up with her till her next (roughly every 3 hours) and bring her in to me, I'll feed her then drop her back to him and he'll settle her etc. It means I am still having to wake every 3 hours which is the killer, but at least I am getting some peace and quiet as DD grunts a lot through the night which also keeps me awake.

We tried OH giving DD a bottle of formula as her middle of the night feed a few weeks back so I could get more hours of solid sleep, but like you I woke up with really engorged and painful boobs, and actually I slept really badly and kept waking up thinking I needed to feed DD!

Haven't bothered doing that again since, but will maybe try giving her a bottle feed at night from about 12 weeks again.

I also find expressing a real chore, so although I have a decent breast pump from when I had my son, I have only used it twice as I just can't be bothered!

Wonder_Girl

What worked for me was to express enough through the day for a full feed. Hubby gave her this feed around midnight (I'd have already gone to bed after last feed) and after a few days my body knew I didn't do this feed anymore and my boobs weren't quite as full at the 3am feed.

We found the key was consistency, once my body recognised the pattern it soon adjusts to the new routine. If you stick to OH giving her the same bottle you will adjust. the first few nights will be uncomfortable but hang in there!

Good luck
WG xx