[carang]

ok... my almost 3 month old has always been a great night time sleeper. when we first brought her home, she'd sleep minimum 4-6 hours at a stretch at night.

the last couple of nights, that has stretched to 8-10 hours.

she is exclusively breastfed. i know that the more you feed, the more milk you produce.

she feeds seemingly non-stop during the day, some days are worse than others. in a way, it's ok as i know that she's getting all her nutritional requirements met (she'd doubled her birthweight by 8 weeks).

my question is, if i sleep through the night too, will this diminish my daytime supply to the point that i'll have to start supplementing?

does my body get into a "rythym" that will produce more at one time of the day over another?

up until now, i've never had any problems with bf...

[LLL_Sarah]

Dear Cara,

During the first six weeks of breastfeeding the body needs to have the hormones as well as the milk removal to maintain the milk supply. But after about six weeks of breastfeeding the body replaces the milk that is removed and the part played by the hormones has much less influence.

When your baby removes the milk your body will replace it. Thus you will make less milk during the night as less is being taken out and more during the day when more is being taken out.

It is important not to allow your breasts to feel too full. If they begin to feel too full take some of the milk out – this can be done by pump, by hand but by baby is usually the easiest way. Leaving your breasts feeling too full not only causes your body to reduce the milk supply but more importantly tends to cause plugged ducts. If you are feeling comfortable then all is fine.

Most babies still need between 8 and 12 feeds in 24 hours at three months. So if the baby is sleeping a lot at night I would expect the baby to be feeding a lot during the day.

One thing you may have found is that your baby is having lots of small feeds during the day when your older son is around. This is very common with second (or third) children. The reason is because it is very difficult to sit down for 30 to 40 minutes with the baby and entertain the older child at the same time. Thus the baby very quickly learns to have short feeds and because they are short asks for lots of them.

Best wishes,
SARAH

[carang]

great to know, thanks so much sarah!