Nighttime feeding for breast feeding baby

bhenley9478 · October 2015

Hi all! Question for you, FTM here, baby is 2 weeks old. During the week dad works and stays asleep for all night time feedings/diaper changes etc. On the weekends, he wants to help and do the nighttime feeding with pumped breast milk. She usually cluster feeds between 5-10pm, then will finally go down around 10-12am, during which I exclusively BF. Then around 3 am she wakes up and dad wants to bottle feed her (she usually takes about 3 ounces) and then sleeps until 8-9 am. We did this last night and man I feel amazing with all that sleep after a long week of short naps. However I woke up and thought "crap! My body didn't breast feed ALL night long?!" If dad wants to do the bottle feed should I at least pump?

valerie1132 · October 2015

Yes you absolutely should pump. It kind of sucks because you just want to stay in bed for such glorious, uninterrupted sleep, but drag yourself out of bed and pump. Especially in the beginning as it helps establish your supply. In a few weeks you can start to lengthen the time in between pumpings/feedings. I'm 8 weeks pp and I go about 6 hours at night now.

Lalala2326 · October 2015

At 2 weeks old definitely. Once baby is at least 6-8 weeks old I'd consider stopping as long as my supply was good and I could pump enough for that feeding still another time. The first 6-8 weeks though is really important for establishing your supply.

annaw14 · October 2015

Yeah, with the baby only being two weeks old your body is still establishing its milk supply so I'd say you should pump at least once during the night. I was told early on not to go more than four hours without pumping or breastfeeding.

jlm684 · October 2015

Yeah like pp said don't go over 4 hours. My LO is 11 weeks and is sleeping longer stretches at night and I still don't like to go over 4 hours, FTM here too.

tracij12 · October 2015

Agree with all that you should pump. I follow the general rule that if baby is eating I should be either feeding or pumping. If baby starts sleeping longer stretches I wouldn't get up to pump unless I was in pain.
I know it sucks - for dad too if he is really eager to help - but I honestly find it easier to just feed at this age. Getting up just to pump always frustrated me.

Good luck!!

delujm0 · October 2015

Definitely pump. I just started phasing out MOTN pumping if LO is sleeping through. LO is 4 months, and I have a large surplus (about 500 ounces) in my freezer. At 6 months, I'm also going to phase out one of my daytime at work pumping sessions (going from three to two).

I nurse on weekends and in the evenings/at night but during the week LO is bottle fed in the mornings by DH and at daycare until about 5pm.

MelHay · October 2015

Yes pump! We did this a few times too; dad bottle feeds, I sleep. But then my husband said since I have to get up to pump anyway, he suggested that he feeds our son in the evening giving me a break from being feeding all day rather than in the middle of the night and having to get up anyway, or not waking up with my boobs in my throat from engorement. I still pump in the middle of the night but my baby only does one MotNF now and it's to relieve the engorged milk (and I don't mind it; it's quiet and I get some time alone, and at this point I've had about 5 hours of sleep straight so I feel pretty good to stay awake for another 15 minutes)

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