Milk supply throughout the day

[sorpresa_bea]

I'm interested in how milk supply fluctuates through the day. In my case it's most abundant from about midnight to mid morning. Then gradually less and the worst time seems to be from 6 pm and into the night, which is when my 6 week old baby wants to feed the most unfortunately!

So I've been expressing in the middle of the night and early morning, to give him a bottle in the evening when he wants to feed every hour but milk supply is low. Also, during the night he doesn't demand so much and doesn't empty my breasts at all. So I express also to be sure breasts don't become too engorged.

How does it work for others?

 

[Rose83]

I was told that a woman's milk production is at its highest between 12 and 4am because of the hormones at work at that time so you are right to be expressing if he isn't drinking then. Also it is normal for production to decrease throughout the day x

 

[OMGbabyno3]

Mine seems to be best mid-late morning.

Gabriella also feeds at similar times to your LO.

How much I can express also depends on my mood, and if I'm warm or cold!

 

[tinkerbell13]

I found the best time to express is early morning. If lo wakes between 5 - 7 I normally offer one breast then express from the other. I can normally get 5 oz BUT if I express later in the day then get hardly any. Don't be concerned though as the amount you express is no reflection on the amount of milk you produce and what baby is getting.
When you say baby wants to feed in the evenings the most mine was the same and around this age it's probably cluster feeding, I'd keep offering the breast as this is the way your body knows that it needs to make more milk, but giving baby expressed milk at this time will mean that your body doesn't know to make more. Hope that makes sense and sorry of I'm telling you something you already know. X

 

[sorpresa_bea]

Thanks Tinkerbell. This evening has been a perfect example of his cluster feeding. He wanted to feed at 16.30, so he had a pretty full feed from both Breasts, the he wanted again at 17.30 and 19.30, and again pretty much drained both breats. He was even getting frustrated and pulling my nipples presumably because he wasn't getting as much as he wanted. After that he wouldn't settle, and he was still hungry. Offering him the Breast again was useless and I hardly had any milk. So out comes the expressed milk bottle

Unfortunate to further complicate things i have nipple thrush which means the more he sucks, the more pain I'm getting and after so long of continuos feeding without much of a rest, my nipples are red raw and very sore. The thought of feeding him again at 20.30 and 21.00 as he demanded was just excruciating

I'm aware that by cluster feeding he's in a way creating the demand my body needs to produce more milk. But despite my efforts to offer him the boob whenever he demands in the evenings (tried many evenings before) we both get frustrated because I cannot seem to keep up with how much and how often he wants to feed in the evenings. Annoyingly, from midnight I prosuce a lot of milk until early morning, but he feeds little and only twice in the night. This makes me engorged and that's when I need to express

Seems my milk production cycle is a bit broken. :-/

 

[Maud]

It's really hard in the early weeks, but try not to get too worried about how much milk you produce. Cluster feeds and long periods suckling even when there is no obvious milk are really normal and don't mean that you aren't producing enough milk. If you can grit your teeth and get through this difficult stage it really does get easier. Do you have a supportive OH to make you food and look after you in the evenings?

 

[sorpresa_bea]

Yes, luckily my OH is extremely helpful in the evenings and there's been days when he has been even spoon fed me my dinner whilst I'm constantly feeding baby!

Thanks Maud for the support. At 7 weeks I would have expected bf to get easier already. We've had a rocky road to get here including bad latching, poor suckling and falling asleep, blocked ducts, blisters and early mastitis. Now suffering with nipple thrush so it seems never ending :-/

Tinkerbell, you mentioned yours also "used" to cluster feed. At what age do their evening feeds stabilize? The best I can manage to pump out is about 100 ml in the middle of the night, usually after he has fed, but average is 80 ml. I've never pumped before feeding him as I'm worried he will want to feed right after pumping and I won't have enough!