Will This Hurt My Supply? When babies reach their birth weight and can sleep for longer stretches at night, the time between nighttime feedings gradually lengthens. Letting your baby sleep for longer periods during the night won't hurt your breastfeeding efforts.
What will happen to my milk supply when my child starts sleeping through the night? Most people will stop making as much milk in the middle of the night. Because your baby will probably be drinking more milk during the day when they drop nighttime feedings your breasts will adjust and make more milk during the daytime.
Between the age of 2 to 3 months old, healthy babies are often able to sleep for six hours without feeding. Research suggests that about half of babies are able to sleep at least six hours without a nighttime feed by 3 months of age.
If you don't nurse (or pump) that often, your body will assume you need to produce less milk, and your milk supply may decrease.
Ultimately, if your baby has reached its birth weight and you're pumping enough milk during the day, it's okay to sleep eight hours without pumping at night. Keep in mind there is an adjustment period for your body as it begins to acclimate to the decrease in overnight milk removal.
Avoid going longer than 5-6 hours without pumping during the first few months. When pumping during the night, milk yield tends to be better if you pump when you naturally wake (to go to the bathroom or because your breasts are uncomfortably full) than if you set an alarm to wake for pumping.
If You Miss a Night Pumping Session
If you accidentally miss a pumping session now and then, there is no need to fret, as it most likely will not harm your supply — especially if you can squeeze in another session at a different time of the day.
If you're feeding throughout the night, you may not need to pump at all. However, if you're exclusively expressing or if your baby isn't breastfeeding at night but you want to maintain your milk supply, it's important that you plan on breast pumping at night.
Breastfeeding, even just once a day, is worth it.
Your body is regulating your hormones and your endocrine system with stimulation. Second, the baby receives that contact, that transfer of energy from the parent, and being skin to skin continues to support heart rate, respiration, glucose levels and temperature.
Trying not to go more than 4 hours without pumping/nursing is a general breastfeeding rule while breastmilk is being established. It's best to wait until after the first 12 weeks to start eliminating pumping sessions.
Here's how: Reduce the time your child feeds by 2-5 minutes every second night. For example, if your child usually feeds for 10 minutes, feed for 8 minutes for 2 nights, then 6 minutes for the next 2 nights, and so on. Re-settle your child after each shortened feed with the settling techniques of your choice.
Although your body produces milk on a supply-and-demand basis, the fact is that skipping a single feeding on rare occasions won't have much of an impact on your overall supply (though it may make your breasts ache). The danger of decreasing your milk supply lies in skipping feedings frequently.
The majority of exclusively breastfeeding or exclusively breastmilk fed babies under six months old eat every 3ish hours with maybe one or two longer stretches overnight. They can't safely go 8-12 hours without eating.
Babies don't need to be fully awake to breastfeed, but they do need to be alert enough to remain attached and to transfer milk. Additional suggestions for waking a sleepy baby include: remove a layer of your baby's clothing. change your baby's diaper.
Most lactation consultants will recommend one stretch at night that is 4 hours between pumping sessions while keeping the rest of the sessions every 3 hours. What is this? After your milk supply has regulated around 12 weeks postpartum, pumping every 4 hours at night should not be a problem.
Pumping milk burns the same amount of calories that nursing burns. Pumping milk burns anywhere from 200 to 600 calories per day. This will also vary from mother to mother, pumping session to pumping session, and the number of pumping sessions per day.
At that point, you can gently wean from the middle of the night pump session. However, every mother is different and every breast has a different storage capacity. A few moms might be able to go 10 to 12 hours between their longest stretch, while others can only go 3 to 4 hours.
A decrease in milk supply is completely normal! In fact, milk supply can vary from day-to-day, or week-to-week. As long as your baby is continuously asking to feed and is getting milk at each session, dips in milk supply are not a reason to worry.
You can stop pumping every three hours when your baby is around 3 months old. As they grow, they will take more at each feeding, but go longer between feedings. As long as your milk supply is plentiful, you may be able to go longer between pumping sessions, as well.
You're not getting let down. If your breasts feel like they're full but you're not able to get the milk flowing out when you pump, it could be that you're not achieving let down. The let down reflex releases your milk from the milk ducts. This only occurs when you're either breastfeeding or pumping.
If you're pumping for a freezer stash or to store milk for a future separation from your baby, try pumping shortly after you finish nursing – maybe 15 to 30 minutes. That way, your body will have an hour and a half or so to replenish breast milk for your next nursing session.
If there is a continual delay in letdown from the breast it can lead to reduced milk supply. Babies are also really in tune with how their mother's are feeling. Your baby can totally sense when you are sad, stressed, or anxious.