3-month old breastfed baby sleeping through the night and engorged breasts?

Question

My 3-month old is turning into a wonderful sleeper. She is sleeping 10+ hours straight a night.
Unfortunately, my breasts seem to be used to her former 3-4 hour
interval feeding schedule. As she is sleeping soundly, I am in major discomfort with engorged breasts. I let her sleep as long as I can, until I can't stand it any more. I am not really getting much sleep as I get so uncomfortable after just a few hours.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Answer 1

Once you start to become very uncomfortable I would pump a little to help ease the pain. This may mean that you pump several times a night, but it will be short lived. Only pump a little because your body will regulate itself. What is not being used will not be made. Even if you manually express some of the milk it will help with your comfort level.

Answer 2

Congratulations on your baby and that she is sleeping through! My babies all started sleeping through at about this age too, and although it is very painful it is only temporary (maybe 2 nights?). I never used a pump as it can just stimulate more milk production and you will be stuck pumping every night. That full feeling is your body's way of telling the brain to make less milk.

Some people take a paracetamol if it really is painful, or you can just express a bit in the shower so they are not so full.

Hang in there... it will probably be gone by tomorrow night! :-)

Answer 3

Use a pump during the time that your baby would have normally breastfed. Start by doing it the same amount of times and start doing it less and less. That will make the breast milk not produce at night when the baby does not need it and you can start freezing it for when you may not be home.

Answer 4

When my kids started sleeping though the night,I had the same problem. Although it is quite uncomfortable for a little while,your body will adjust to the feeding schedule,but by no means should you express the milk. The more you try to relieve the discomfort,the longer it will take for your body to adjust to the new feeding schedule. I breastfed all 6 of my kids,,including twins,so I speak from a lot of experience in this matter. Good luck with the new baby.

Answer 5

Pump, pump, pump!

Just pump the breast milk and put it into the proper bags for storage until your daughter is ready to feed.

I give you this advice because you didn't make it out to be as though you were wanting to officially stop nursing. If you are wanting to stop nursing and want to know what to do to finish up the milk production, then that is a completely different route.

Congrats on your new addition!!!

Answer 6

You should pump. If your baby sleeps so long and you don't use the milk, your breasts will realise this and make less. Unfortunately, this will happen during the day as well as the night and you will find they make less milk overall, possiblt leading to milk production stopping. You may not need the milk you express if you continue to make the amount needed during the day. You can either donate it to special breast milk banks ( ask your midwife) or freeze it for when you may need it in future. However I don't know how long you can freeze it for.

Answer 7

When it gets uncomfortable and there is still time before the normal feeding schedule, use a breast pump to give yourself some relief. Just don't overdo it to where you are lacking when it comes time for her feeding. you can save the breast milk or just dispose of it if she is not going to need it. This way you give yourself some relief.

Answer 8

buy a breast pump to store milk for daytime feeding. this will also allow your engorged breasts to go down. Hope this helps.

Answer 9

try pumping out some of the milk,you can freeze it for later good luck

Answer 10

when you get in pain try just squeezing a little out to releive the presure so you can get some sleep