Breast Engorgement

Hi Heather,

Yes, your body will adjust to his schedule. Your milk supply will slow at night and be normal during the day. Don't expect him to sleep through the night though from here on out either...7 weeks is early! But it does happen! Mine were both 9 months old. :(

To help the spit up issue you can pump or hand express a little "off the top" before his first feeding in the morning. This will also help him fill up with good stuff and not so much foremilk which can make him spit up and is not filling and may leave him still hungry and wanting to feed again in two hours.

Best of luck and happy dreams! :)

Heather,
Your body will automatically respond to the baby's needs.
However it may not always be pleasant for you. It usually took about 2-3 days for my body to make the adjustment.
What I also did though was pump one side while they nursed the other so I could have a small supply in case of an
emergency.

W.

Your body is totally going to adjust to the babay's feeding schedule. One bit of advise I have is that you make sure he fully emptys one breast before moving on to the next. If you only allow him to nurse for say 10 min. at one engourged breast then move him onto the next. Then he is only getting foremilk, which will not keep him full long, plus he will have more tummy troubles. At that age my babies would only have enough tummy room for one breast at a feeding, then I'd be stuck with one painfully engourged breast. So I would pump the other breast and freeze it for babysitting times. Mind you I only did this when I was engourged.

Good for you for getting a whole nights sleep so early! Your body will adjust to his new feeding schedule. As long as he is gaining weight at a steady rate after six weeks you no longer need to stick to the every 3 hour feeding schedule during the night. My favorite expression at this age was "do not wake a sleeping baby". This does not apply if he is not gaining enough weight though. (Your pediatrician should be keeping you updated on whether or not his weight gain is adequate.) Your milk supply should be fine as long as he continues to eat regularly during the day etc. My son (also named Ethan) ate every two-three hours around the clock until he was 4 months old (and didn't sleep through the night until 7 months, but by six weeks, my daughter usually did a four to five hour stretch at some point during the night, and by 3 months was sleeping completely through. It didn't effect my milk supply at all, and I continued to breastfeed her until she was almost 15 months. It is also normal for your son to get too much when you are engorged. Sometimes it helps to pump just a little bit before you feed him so it doesn't come out so fast. Also normal for him to spit up since he is very hungry from the long stretch that he is eating faster and usually therefore swallowing more air. As his stomach gets bigger he will slow down on that first feeding and usually spit up much less. My daughter used to get too much and start coughing because it came out too fast. It never hurt her, but it was pretty scary a couple of times. Pumping just a little bit first seemed to help.

i had the very same problem...my breasts were practically engorged for about a week and a half. and this is what i did, i pumped for several weeks, and the gross part about engorgement is that i woke up in the morning and there would be milk all over me and all over the bed.
yes your body will eventually adjust to his feeding schedule, i know my body took, i think about a month and a half to adjust.
i think it is ok for you guys to go over 3 hours at a time.
good luck and congrats on your little one!!!!!