Community› The Bump Message Boards› Success after IF
Success after IF
New Discussion

How to deal with engorgement overnight?

epphdepphd member
in Success after IF

Ahhh the boob saga continues. 

Good news -the nipple injury is almost healed and my supply is back up on lefty.

Bad news - both lefty and righty are going haywire overnight.  I think it is because DH was sick and I got back into doing all feedings (instead of DH giving a BM bottle overnight), and Sam had a minor growth spurt (or at least eating spurt) during that time.  Last night I fed Sam and 9 and 11 and at 3:30 when he woke up I was in intense pain from engorgement AND I had leaked through my nursing pads, bra and clothes. There was no way he could eat as much as I was producing so I spent the rest of the night in pain because I was too tired to get up to pump. I fed him again at 6 and when I pumped at 7, I pumped 8 ounces.

So - should I just suck it up and let it downregulate as feedings become less frequent?  Get a manual pump to easily remove some pressure? I get nervous about letting the engorgement go on given my history of mastitis and plugged ducts.  Right now I'm leaning toward getting a manual pump to keep in the master bath to quickly express a little.

Thanks, as always!

image
image

I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Report Reply to Post

Re: How to deal with engorgement overnight?

  • GypsyEsqGypsyEsq member
    A manual pump isn't bad - I keep a Medela Harmony at home for this reason after having dealt with these continuous plugged ducts.  Also - if you are leaking through like that you can probably just hand express into the sink or a cloth diaper.  But if you start pumping off ounces at night you'll just perpetuate the problem, which I'm sure you know.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • ejgballerinaejgballerina member
    I had major oversupply issues for the first 4 months, especially overnight engorgement.  I was terrified of getting mastitis, so I felt much better about relieving some pressure with a manual pump versus just letting it go.  I would only pump for like two minutes, just enough to take the edge off versus emptying them completely.  I'd say after about two weeks or a little less, they evened out.  Now, I'm able to feed DS if he wakes up hungry or go the entire night without a feeding and they feel the same with either scenario.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • CardsfanSMCardsfanSM
    imageepphd:

    should I just suck it up and let it downregulate as feedings become less frequent? 

    That's what I did.  But, I should add that's before all my mastitis issues.

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • AvaLikeLavaAvaLikeLava member
    I used to wakeup every night at 1am to pump. it was my most productive pump of the day and i could get 7-10oz out in that session. I used my nighttime engorgement it to my advantage and build up my milk stash. If you're OK w/ doing the same, go for it.
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"