For those whose LOs are not STTN
What does your evening/nighttime routine look like? When do you work in an extra pumping session (if you do)?
Right now we put DS to bed at 8. I do a dreamfeed at 9:30 and put him right back down. Then I get up to pump at midnight(ish). Then DS wakes anywhere from 3-5 a.m., though sometimes he does sleep through 'til 6.
Anyway, the nights I'm up twice (to pump at midnight and to feed at 3ish) suck because I'm basically only sleeping in 2.5-hr chunks (at most) all night. But I really do need an extra pump session to cover what he gets in his bottles and to continue building the stash.
The only thing I can figure out is to drop the dreamfeed, pump at that time, and then just get up whenever he gets up (I'm predicting around 1 or so). Thoughts?
Re: For those whose LOs are not STTN
DD goes to bed around 7:30/8. We don't dreamfeed, so for a while I was doing a pumping session before going to bed around 10 (lately I've been skipping that since we seem to be keeping up ok for now with just daytime pumping). DD wakes up anywhere from once to three times per night, so I can't imagine adding another time I'd have to wake up to that!
Since it sounds like your DS can go about 6 hours before eating again, if you just feed him before bed at 8, he may just wake up at 2 to nurse, then go back down for the rest of the night. so I'd definitely try skipping the dreamfeed and pumping at that time instead of at midnight. GL!
what about pushing your dream feed back some - say to 1030 or 11, and then cancelling out the midnight pump and just pump again as soon as he comes off of you at that point???
DS #2 isn't sttn yet, but for DS #1 we would put him down at 8pm, then do a dream feed around 1130pm and he would then sleep through to 6 or 630 each morning
There's no way I'd get up to pump just to build a stash. I probably wouldn't even do it to get enough for bottles. Sleep is very precious in my house.
I've found that dreamfeeding actually made DD wake up more often--I don't know if it made her unsettled and thus sleep worse or what. I would try skipping it and see how it goes.
When do you pump during the day? I have found that my best pump session is first thing when I get to work, even if I've nursed just a little before. So I try to pump then no matter what. I never get much when I pump in the evening.
Why are you getting up to pump?? Can you pump on the weekends instead? I used to pump on Sat and Sun mornings after DS first feeding to get a few extra ounces.
Sleep (or lack thereof) does affect your supply. I wonder if the extra sleep might increase your output during the day.
I'd rather sleep and supplement w/ a little formula instead of only sleeping 5 hours a night. That would get old really fast for me.