[minidiamond]

16 wko DS wakes for a feed 1-2 times a night and while he's generally a great bub, the waking up is taking its toll on me. I'm someone who's always needed a lot of sleep and I just feel a little frazzled. I know advice is to nap during the day if I can but for various reasons its not very easy.

Anyway we are going on holidays soon and I'd like DH to do some night feeds while he's not working (he works away a lot and is in a very high pressured job so I do night feeds normally, plus I have the boobs hehe and not really keen to express although I have before)

Anyway I am wondering - how long could he feasibly do this for before my night supply slows ? I have no idea if its 2 days or 2 weeks ?! If he fed 2 or more nights in a row would that work ?

This post has been edited by Liltuss: 27/11/2012, 08:41 PM

[Mummy Em]

I'm not exactly clear what you are asking, do you want to decrease your supply? If you are expressing that feed them your supply probably won't drop because supply = demand and you will still be removing the same amount of milk (demand).

[WaitForIt]

Would those feeds be formula? If yes, I'm not sure.

If ebm I think it would be fine, my bub slept through for a while then started waking again and she never complained.

[minidiamond]

I don't want to decrease supply I want DH to temporarily do night feeds, probably ebm for the first formula for the second but possibly formula for both.

So if he did 2 weeks of night feeds, what effect would that have on my supply ? When we are back from hols, I'd return to me doing overnight feeds direct from the breast

[summermama]

I'm pretty sure it would deplete your supply quicker than 2 weeks. I have always found my body responds within a couple of days to increased or decreased feeding. But maybe you could research ways to rebuild supply after your hols? Not sure how feasible that would be?

What about your DH gives you sleep ins and naps to catch up on sleep in the day instead?

My DS is the same age as yours and if he feeds only twice a night I consider it an easy night! I have considered trying formula feeds at night out of sheer exhaustion too, but I remember about 4 months is when my DD started to ease up at night so hopefully it calms down soon for all of us!

[meggs1]

Anyway we are going on holidays soon and I'd like DH to do some night feeds while he's not working (he works away a lot and is in a very high pressured job so I do night feeds normally, plus I have the boobs hehe and not really keen to express although I have before)

You are in a high pressured job and need sleep too.

I sometimes skipped a night feed by doing the bedtime feed at 6.30, then expressing at 7.45 and going straight to sleep at 8.00. Then my mum would do the first feed and I'd wake again and do the second (3ish) so at least I'd have 7 hours straight of sleep.

I felt pretty full by the second feed and I could hear DS going "gulp gulp gulp", but I never had any problems with mastitis from doing that.

Later on (around 9 months) I stopped night feeds for about 6 weeks (to try to fix a sleeping problem) then started again for 6 weeks (due to a series of ear infections) then stopped again and had no issues with supply either way. Do you feed lying down? Would it help to have your DH bring your son in for the feed and then settle him, so you can feed without even waking up 100%.

Anyway good luck and be prepared for your cycle to come back. When I stopped overnight feeds my cycle came back straight away - I was on holidays and I was not prepared at all.

This post has been edited by meggs1: 28/11/2012, 09:37 AM

[minidiamond]

Just to clarify - I don't want to give up night feeds altogether, just have a little rest.

If that means one night on, one night off for 5 days or 7 days, or even one night out of 5-7 days, that would be nice. Meggs, do you think my cycle would come back in this scenario (hard to say for sure I know !)

Meggs, I could try what you're saying, I normally feed him around 6.30pm anyway, sit up in bed. He's in with us any way, and if I'm feeding him I find it hard to not wake up altogether.

summermamma, I'd really like to have that unbroken night sleep for one or two little 'treats' and since we're on holidays overseas prefer to be a little more energetic during the day to do a few things. Of course I know bubs will rule the roost in terms of what we can do :-)

[Bluenomi]

My night feed supply never stopped until I stopped feeding completely. DD could go a week or more without a night feed but there was always milk when she needed it.

It didn't effect my cycle either, DD went for 7 weeks without night feeds before starting again around 16 weeks and my period didn't come back until she was 1 year old.

[Dylan's Mummy]

My bub slept 12 hours a night for about 1 month when he was 3 months old. When he started waking during the night again I had plenty of milk for him.

Be prepared that when you wake in the morning after not giving your baby a BF during the night your boobs will feel pretty sore and full. Be sure to wear breast pads to bed because you will probably leak too. Because I was so full in the morning I did express from one side a few times and there was plenty left for him in the other side.

You could also try expressing before you go to bed so that there is some fresh milk for when he wakes up.

This post has been edited by Dylan's Mummy: 28/11/2012, 01:43 PM

[KRT]

If it were me, I would probably only have every second night for a sleep-through. It is much, much harder to go back to getting up for feeds if you've had a big block of good sleep. It would also be good to take advantage of your DH being around and get some good naps and sleep-ins, where your DH takes the baby out of the house so you can actually relax.

We did have a few nights where DH tried to settle DS without a feed. I found it did nothing for my sleep, since I would wake when I heard DS and then found it harder to go back to sleep than when I BF DS. I really did find that a breastfeed would help me go back to sleep more quickly. Your DH might also find that your DS will take more work to settle - so make sure he's prepared for that!

I wouldn't worry too much about supply dropping - since DS has started sleeping through, I've only had to feed him on about five occasions, and he's always obviously had a good feed.

My cycles returned at around 13 weeks after DS had about ten days of sleeping from 8-4. He then went back to 2, 3, 4 feeds a night up until 8 months. For me, I found the return of my period also meant a sudden drop in supply, which was restored with some motilium and some expressing. However, I think my experience is quite unusual.

Enjoy your holiday.