Engorged breasts overnight

[puddinpie]

Hi all,

DS is three and a half months and exclusively breastfed. He has just started sleeping through the night this week. I am in a bit of shock as he has gone from about 2 night feeds (around 10pm and 3am) to none in the space of just a couple of days. The last couple of nights he's gone down at 7 and hasn't stirred until I've woken him up at 7 :yelclap:. Dream baby!

Anyway, my problem is that I have been waking up at 3am in agony because my breasts are so engorged - can't roll onto my side and even the weight of the doona on my boobs is torture! They don't leak, just fill up like rock hard balloons. Last night I just lay there wide awake until 6.30 when I couldn't handle it anymore and woke up DS for a feed. Ah, the relief!

Will this all calm down soon? It's very annoying that DS is sleeping but I'm not! I've been expressing in the morning after the first feed to try and stockpile a supply of EBM and I didn't do it this morning - will this help? Is there anything I can do to avoid this (other than express at 3am) or will it settle down on it's own after a few more nights?

[Bubmum]

Because your baby is so young, his sleep patterns may still be unpredictable, and you, poor Mummy has to suffer. I would be up expressing as soon as you wake up feeling engorged, just to get some relief.
When DD was 8 months old, we went a day without her having a feed (well about 6 hours), as we were at a family party...and it was agony, so I couldn't imagine how bad o/nite would be. I have always shoved DD on, woken her, because I needed her to drain my boobs.
Your little man is so clever to be sleeping through :sunshine:. What a little champion he is.

[LittleBug'sMum]

For me, it takes about 2 or 3 days for my breasts to settle into a new routine. My DS did a similar thing, went from 2 or 3 feeds over night to none in a very short space of time. BUT he is now back to 2 feeds a night :hair:.
I would stop expressing in the morning until your supply has settled down. Or just express enough until you're comfortable.

[BabyPaparazzi]

I used to express just a little to make it more comfortable, I didnt want to stuff up and get an oversupply. DD was cluster feeding in the evening from 5 weeks, would have 4 feeds in 5 hours between 5 and ten pm, then sleep till 4am and have another huge feed from both sides. I could only make it to about 2 before they were sore.

Eventually my boobs slowly worked into her pattern, it didnt take long, they are quite clever things.

[moozle]

It should settle down in a few days. What I used to do was to express for comfort just before I went to sleep and then I could last through the night and although I woke up feeling quite full and engorged for a while, I could wait until DS woke up to feed.