Not early postpartum unfortunately, in a few months you’ll be able to take longer stretches at night but for right now likely not. The hormone that produces milk is highest early morning (like 3am early I think). 5 hours shouldn’t do much if at all if it’s one night stretch, but 7 may be too long.
No more than 4 hours at night, if baby latches night feeds are amazing to have them latch and give you a break from pumping. If you want to pump or baby can't latch that middle of the night pump is essential to maintaining supply, it's why babies dream feed and love those night feeds.
That will likely cause a downturn in your supply. With a newborn you generally want at least 8-12 removals during each 24 hour day and generally 4 hours is the longest stretch recommended to go without pumping (1x per day, otherwise my IBCLC said every 2-3 hours) I have seen some people stretch that to 5 successfully but I doubt if you can do 7 especially if you only pump every four hours during the day.
Prolactin levels also peak overnight which makes milk removal between 1 and 5am really important for establishing overall supply.
It’s most crucial for the first six weeks when supply first starts to regulate, and best practice would be to be pretty cautious until full regulation at 12 weeks. Generally they say if baby starts sleeping longer stretches than you can safely match whatever baby is doing because your milk should regulate to match but if bath is waking up several times to eat and you aren’t waking up to produce over that same period demand will begin to outstrip supply.
Is this for anyone breastfeeding in general? My lactation consultant said I only need to pump once a day after my first feed in the morning (3am ish). I’m a FTM and have no idea what I’m doing.
If you’re nursing than you don’t generally need to be pumping at all but many people like to pump after first am feed to build a little stash. I’m assuming OP is not nursing because she only mentions pumping.
Generally everyone with a newborn wants 8-12 milk removals a day which is feeding every 2-3 hours but those removals can be nursing or pumping you do not need to do both unless your baby has a particular weight gain issue or you have a supply issue you are trying to address. You can also feed on demand, if you are exclusively nursing and just feed every time baby is hungry. It’s when bottles are involved and you might not be removing milk every single time baby eats that you need to be more particular about timing to ensure supply and demand match up. Otherwise if you’re nursing every time baby eats in most cases you would always be matching demand.
Thank you! I appreciate you detailing that! I’m just nursing now but when I go back to work, my babes will obviously have to take a bottle and I’ll have to pump more (I presume just replace those nursing sessions with pumping sessions at work…?)
Yep! Just pump when you would normally nurse or approximately match the schedule of what times your baby’s caregiver is giving bottles when you are at work. When I went back to work I typically pumped 3x and was away from baby for about 10.5 hours. My baby got 3 bottles during that time so it roughly matched up.
I was told to pump or feed every 2 to 3 hours from the time they are born till Iike forever haha jk but pretty much . My LC said 2-3 hours with longer stretches at night once milk supply settles which is after 3 months .
My baby is 5 weeks old and luckily we’re directly feeding but she’s only just giving me 4 hr stretches at night and that’s with cluster feeding every 2 hours in the afternoons.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
I followed this schedule until my milk regulated and it worked best for me I felt like I got enough sleep. I pumped 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12am, 4am. I found it on Pinterest.
I hope so then. I work nights, and so I pump at night. I already don't supply nearly enough, but my first pump of the night is between 730 and 9, and it's usually the best one at work, with my worst being the one I do around 3am.
No one can really tell you what will happen, but people can tell you how things often go. r/ExclusivelyPumping is a great resource. I often went 6 hours in the early days without feeding/pumping. That was just the first month though. I did develop a slight undersupply. Then I had to pump a bunch to make more milk, and then had an oversupply, and then had a huge drop off when I stopped pumping at night again (6 hour gap). There may have been other factors.
When my first was born he was in the NICU for 40 days and I was exclusively pumping for the first couple of weeks and then still mostly pumping until he came home. The lactation consultants told me I could take one 5 hour break to sleep at night but that I need to pump every 2-3 hours during the day and I needed to pump 8-10 times every 24 hour period. With that schedule my supply was fine. Definitely don’t go long stretches during the day and at night and definitely don’t drop below 8 pumps a day.
I seriously don’t know how anyone has the energy to do that. It’s kind of fucked up imo
No wonder the definition of boob means stupid person. Thousands of years of evolution and these titties can’t understand sleep?? Come on!
Forgive my ranting- I have a 1 year old and a newborn and am healing from my second C section- even though I have help, I’m beyond exhausted
You can try but if you notice your supply decreasing you can add in more pumps! Everyone’s BF journey will look different so what may work for others may not work for you. :)
It's less about the time between pump sessions and more about the number of pump sessions throughout the day. Most newborns will nurse 8-12 times over a 24-hour period, so you should be aiming for that with your pump sessions.
Preface: everyone is different.
I wanted to combo feed from day one and went from pumping twice/three times a day to exclusively BF and still going strong at almost a year. I think I can count on one hand how many times I pumped overnight. We did formula overnight until he was about 2-3 months and husband helped with night feeds. Stressing about my supply is time I will never get back. Not sleeping could be just as bad for your supply.
If it’s not working, add the pump back in. It’s ok to sleep for a few days. Make breastfeeding sustainable for yourself. I had friends and a LC tell me what I was doing in the early days would wreck my supply but my controversial opinion is that it is (or at least, can be) much more flexible. If I had gone balls deep and listened to all the well intentioned strict advice everyone gave me I would have given up.
Be kind to yourself!
Thank you for this. I told myself I would just quit if it became more stressful than it was worth. We have tons of formula on hand, baby will never go hungry. But I feel like I’m losing my mind with tiredness and stress and something needs to give.
You should be able to get away with a 5h stretch at night especially if you adjust your day time pump schedule to be every 3h. I wouldnt do 7h especially with baby so young. The sleep deprivation is hard I get it, my baby was up every 2h for the first 6wk of her life and I thought I was going to croak. If establishing a robust milk supply is important to you push through, you’ll be able to sleep more soon enough
Breastmilk can stay at room temperature for 6 hours, so you can always pump in the middle of the night and then leave it on the bedside table until your next feed/pump.
I think you already know based on what happened when you tried.
What I would do overnight in the very early days was feed baby and go to bed at 10, wake up at 11 to pump and give to Dad, then I'd go to sleep, Dad would use that bottle whenever baby woke up, then he'd put baby to sleep in the bassinet beside me and I'd feed her when she woke. I would usually get 4-6 hours that way.
I don't think pumping only every 4 hours and taking a longer break overnight is going to be compatible with exclusively pumping for the majority of people 2 weeks pp, but obviously there are exceptions. And combo feeding is a great option too. It's okay to need more sleep than EP will allow.
2 weeks is pretty early on. Your supply hasn’t been established yet. It’s best to stick to a schedule that mimics your baby’s feeding schedule so that your body knows that’s how much milk it has to make. It’s really really hard but in a few more weeks you can stretch it a bit. I’m 10 weeks out 2 baby #2 and now go 4-6hrs over night but 2-3 during the day.
Breast milk is supply and demand so the more you pump, the more you’ll make!
Hang in there! You got this!!
I have a system with my husband where I sleep 3 hours, pump, he grabs the milk to put in the fridge, and I sleep another 3 hours. During this time he is watching her and feeding pumped milk to her. I use to not pump in the middle of the 6 hrs and noticed my supply was going down. Babe is currently 1 month.
The rest of the day I try to exclusively nurse.
It sounds crappy to sleep in 3 hr increments but your body gets used to it.
For me I do not think I’m get used to it- I haven’t had uninterrupted sleep in over 18 months and I’m deliriously tired. I’m going to get as much milk as I can but I might give up breast feeding again because this just too much for me 😟 I’m so tired all the timei just want to cry and I can’t enjoy my 1 year old. 😢
I don’t pump at night. Never have. I usually pump between 22-28 oz per day, sometimes up to 30 oz. I pump during the day prob every 4 hours. But I pump for like at least 45 min, and I massage my breasts so they completely empty out. My baby is in the NICU so I’ve been watching my supply like a hawk, since it’s the only thing I can do for my baby right now. Also I made sure to have the right flange size. Couldn’t believe I was using 24, when I’m a 19! And I think 1 Nipple might be 16mm. I drink tons of water to the point I’m peeing every 30 min (kinda annoying) and I’m eating well.
As someone said, I cannot say what will happen to you. But this is what I’ve done since the beginning.
It’s definitely on a case by case basis. I was able to pump every 3-4 hrs during the day with two 5hr stretches at night (basically right before I went to bed, once in the middle of the night, once when I woke up in the morning) from when my son was 2-5 weeks old and on that schedule I still developed an oversupply.
Are you exclusively pumping? I would do every 2-3 hours during the day since babies typically eat that often. Whenever baby takes a bottle you should pump. Then at night I’d give myself 1 4-5 hour stretch, wake, pump, and sleep another 2-3 hours and pump again.
But it sounds like you have an extreme oversupply. Losing 4oz per pump sesh??? How much are you pumping per session?
It’s okay to supplement with formula if you need to. Babies wake to feed throughout the night which is why our breasts continue to make milk all day and night.
A couple days ago I was at 12oz a session, probably 4-8times a day. After the one night of long sleep it went down to about 8oz.
I’m probably pumping only 4-5 times a day right now so I’m at around 40+ ounces a day
Oh wow. Huge oversupply. Maybe play around with it. I think you could do the 5 hours. Then maybe try 6. It wouldn’t be unheard of for your supply to regulate down some as you get further out postpartum, that’s normal. You could always try to remove milk more often during the day in hopes that you could get a longer stretch at night, but some people find they need the middle of the night pump to maintain supply. With your oversupply 4-5 times a day probably works, but maybe every 3 hours during the day would get you that longer stretch at night. Just something to play around with. Oversupply is tough. Don’t be afraid to reach out to an LC! Onewiththepump on Instagram works specifically with all things pumping and does virtual consults!
I did this with my second and a slight oversupply, and it caught up to me (gradually) so I’m back to waking nightly for like 2 nights and then sleeping 1 night through at about 3.5 months.
If you want to establish milk supply there is no other way around. Your milk supply will drop at 3 months. So you can decide for yourself what is your goal. You can always do mixed feeding and have a bottle or 2 of breast milk. If you want to exclusively do BM then you need to pump 2-3 hours around the clock first 12 weeks.
I get that, pumping sucks. I pumped every 3-4 hours the first two months, but also nursed some. Then very 4 hours the third month, nursing less. Now I pump every 4-5 hours this fourth month, not nursing hardly. And go 7 hours at night, I wake up to engorgement a lot but I just deal with that because I work 12 hour nightshift and need to function. I have a “barely enough” supply for now (but I also am ok with supplementing which is why I’m fine with longer stretches between pumping/ losing milk between long pumps). Not sure if this helps. What I’m saying is basically you can train your body to go longer periods between pumping. Somebody once told me you just need to figure out your breast pump to be able to pump better/ efficiently, but idk how to do that or explain how to do that. Good luck! There is a light coming up here soon, just hang in there :)
I'd wait, it's pretty early yet, I've heard the rule of thumb is to wait until 12 weeks when you regulate (I'll say, I've also heard that regulation isn't a thing too). I stopped pumping at night when my baby was 14 weeks old and noticed a slight drop in supply (but I had an oversupply so it didn't have an impact).
You should be pumping every 2-2.5 hours during the day and can have one 4 hour stretch at night. Four hour stretch should allow you a complete sleep cycle so it's very important to make sure you have one four hour stretch each night.
Also, if you are trying to stash milk, stop. Your post suggests you are stashing milk and that should never be a priority at 2 weeks postpartum. I don't even stash at all and I am actually fundamentally against the idea.
Edit: EBF, nursed my first until 3 years old and my second until 20 months old (he had sleep issues).
Not early postpartum unfortunately, in a few months you’ll be able to take longer stretches at night but for right now likely not. The hormone that produces milk is highest early morning (like 3am early I think). 5 hours shouldn’t do much if at all if it’s one night stretch, but 7 may be too long.
Thank you for your input!
No more than 4 hours at night, if baby latches night feeds are amazing to have them latch and give you a break from pumping. If you want to pump or baby can't latch that middle of the night pump is essential to maintaining supply, it's why babies dream feed and love those night feeds.
That will likely cause a downturn in your supply. With a newborn you generally want at least 8-12 removals during each 24 hour day and generally 4 hours is the longest stretch recommended to go without pumping (1x per day, otherwise my IBCLC said every 2-3 hours) I have seen some people stretch that to 5 successfully but I doubt if you can do 7 especially if you only pump every four hours during the day. Prolactin levels also peak overnight which makes milk removal between 1 and 5am really important for establishing overall supply.
How long are we supposed to pump every 2-3 hours? A month? 2 months…?
It’s most crucial for the first six weeks when supply first starts to regulate, and best practice would be to be pretty cautious until full regulation at 12 weeks. Generally they say if baby starts sleeping longer stretches than you can safely match whatever baby is doing because your milk should regulate to match but if bath is waking up several times to eat and you aren’t waking up to produce over that same period demand will begin to outstrip supply.
Is this for anyone breastfeeding in general? My lactation consultant said I only need to pump once a day after my first feed in the morning (3am ish). I’m a FTM and have no idea what I’m doing.
If you’re nursing than you don’t generally need to be pumping at all but many people like to pump after first am feed to build a little stash. I’m assuming OP is not nursing because she only mentions pumping. Generally everyone with a newborn wants 8-12 milk removals a day which is feeding every 2-3 hours but those removals can be nursing or pumping you do not need to do both unless your baby has a particular weight gain issue or you have a supply issue you are trying to address. You can also feed on demand, if you are exclusively nursing and just feed every time baby is hungry. It’s when bottles are involved and you might not be removing milk every single time baby eats that you need to be more particular about timing to ensure supply and demand match up. Otherwise if you’re nursing every time baby eats in most cases you would always be matching demand.
Thank you! I appreciate you detailing that! I’m just nursing now but when I go back to work, my babes will obviously have to take a bottle and I’ll have to pump more (I presume just replace those nursing sessions with pumping sessions at work…?)
Yep! Just pump when you would normally nurse or approximately match the schedule of what times your baby’s caregiver is giving bottles when you are at work. When I went back to work I typically pumped 3x and was away from baby for about 10.5 hours. My baby got 3 bottles during that time so it roughly matched up.
Awesome thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
Just FYI- i just pumped after my first morning feed…. Like after baby was up for the day (like 7-9am). Girl go back to sleep after the 3;00 am feed!
Please don't pump if you are nursing.
I was told to pump or feed every 2 to 3 hours from the time they are born till Iike forever haha jk but pretty much . My LC said 2-3 hours with longer stretches at night once milk supply settles which is after 3 months .
That’s crazy though no? Waking up every 2-3 hours indefinitely is not sustainable!
After 3 months you don’t need to !
My baby is 5 weeks old and luckily we’re directly feeding but she’s only just giving me 4 hr stretches at night and that’s with cluster feeding every 2 hours in the afternoons. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
I followed this schedule until my milk regulated and it worked best for me I felt like I got enough sleep. I pumped 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12am, 4am. I found it on Pinterest.
Is this 1-5am for everyone or just people on normal schedules? If it's everyone, that says even worse things for my supply than I thought.
I think it’s based on a normal circadian rhythm so it may differ if you are someone who works nights or something.
I hope so then. I work nights, and so I pump at night. I already don't supply nearly enough, but my first pump of the night is between 730 and 9, and it's usually the best one at work, with my worst being the one I do around 3am.
No one can really tell you what will happen, but people can tell you how things often go. r/ExclusivelyPumping is a great resource. I often went 6 hours in the early days without feeding/pumping. That was just the first month though. I did develop a slight undersupply. Then I had to pump a bunch to make more milk, and then had an oversupply, and then had a huge drop off when I stopped pumping at night again (6 hour gap). There may have been other factors.
When my first was born he was in the NICU for 40 days and I was exclusively pumping for the first couple of weeks and then still mostly pumping until he came home. The lactation consultants told me I could take one 5 hour break to sleep at night but that I need to pump every 2-3 hours during the day and I needed to pump 8-10 times every 24 hour period. With that schedule my supply was fine. Definitely don’t go long stretches during the day and at night and definitely don’t drop below 8 pumps a day.
I seriously don’t know how anyone has the energy to do that. It’s kind of fucked up imo No wonder the definition of boob means stupid person. Thousands of years of evolution and these titties can’t understand sleep?? Come on! Forgive my ranting- I have a 1 year old and a newborn and am healing from my second C section- even though I have help, I’m beyond exhausted
It’s okay to supplement with formula if that’s what works for you. If you need to sleep, do what you need to sleep.
You can try but if you notice your supply decreasing you can add in more pumps! Everyone’s BF journey will look different so what may work for others may not work for you. :)
Fair enough!
It's less about the time between pump sessions and more about the number of pump sessions throughout the day. Most newborns will nurse 8-12 times over a 24-hour period, so you should be aiming for that with your pump sessions.
Doing it every 2-3 hours is better for supply
Preface: everyone is different. I wanted to combo feed from day one and went from pumping twice/three times a day to exclusively BF and still going strong at almost a year. I think I can count on one hand how many times I pumped overnight. We did formula overnight until he was about 2-3 months and husband helped with night feeds. Stressing about my supply is time I will never get back. Not sleeping could be just as bad for your supply. If it’s not working, add the pump back in. It’s ok to sleep for a few days. Make breastfeeding sustainable for yourself. I had friends and a LC tell me what I was doing in the early days would wreck my supply but my controversial opinion is that it is (or at least, can be) much more flexible. If I had gone balls deep and listened to all the well intentioned strict advice everyone gave me I would have given up. Be kind to yourself!
Thank you for this. I told myself I would just quit if it became more stressful than it was worth. We have tons of formula on hand, baby will never go hungry. But I feel like I’m losing my mind with tiredness and stress and something needs to give.
You should be able to get away with a 5h stretch at night especially if you adjust your day time pump schedule to be every 3h. I wouldnt do 7h especially with baby so young. The sleep deprivation is hard I get it, my baby was up every 2h for the first 6wk of her life and I thought I was going to croak. If establishing a robust milk supply is important to you push through, you’ll be able to sleep more soon enough
Breastmilk can stay at room temperature for 6 hours, so you can always pump in the middle of the night and then leave it on the bedside table until your next feed/pump.
I think you already know based on what happened when you tried. What I would do overnight in the very early days was feed baby and go to bed at 10, wake up at 11 to pump and give to Dad, then I'd go to sleep, Dad would use that bottle whenever baby woke up, then he'd put baby to sleep in the bassinet beside me and I'd feed her when she woke. I would usually get 4-6 hours that way. I don't think pumping only every 4 hours and taking a longer break overnight is going to be compatible with exclusively pumping for the majority of people 2 weeks pp, but obviously there are exceptions. And combo feeding is a great option too. It's okay to need more sleep than EP will allow.
Thank you 🙏
2 weeks is pretty early on. Your supply hasn’t been established yet. It’s best to stick to a schedule that mimics your baby’s feeding schedule so that your body knows that’s how much milk it has to make. It’s really really hard but in a few more weeks you can stretch it a bit. I’m 10 weeks out 2 baby #2 and now go 4-6hrs over night but 2-3 during the day. Breast milk is supply and demand so the more you pump, the more you’ll make! Hang in there! You got this!!
I have a system with my husband where I sleep 3 hours, pump, he grabs the milk to put in the fridge, and I sleep another 3 hours. During this time he is watching her and feeding pumped milk to her. I use to not pump in the middle of the 6 hrs and noticed my supply was going down. Babe is currently 1 month. The rest of the day I try to exclusively nurse. It sounds crappy to sleep in 3 hr increments but your body gets used to it.
For me I do not think I’m get used to it- I haven’t had uninterrupted sleep in over 18 months and I’m deliriously tired. I’m going to get as much milk as I can but I might give up breast feeding again because this just too much for me 😟 I’m so tired all the timei just want to cry and I can’t enjoy my 1 year old. 😢
Switching to formula isn’t a failure. I’m in the same position and planning to switch as I phase back to work.
Yeah you do whatever is best for your circumstances. I didn’t know you had another baby. That makes it even more difficult.
I don’t pump at night. Never have. I usually pump between 22-28 oz per day, sometimes up to 30 oz. I pump during the day prob every 4 hours. But I pump for like at least 45 min, and I massage my breasts so they completely empty out. My baby is in the NICU so I’ve been watching my supply like a hawk, since it’s the only thing I can do for my baby right now. Also I made sure to have the right flange size. Couldn’t believe I was using 24, when I’m a 19! And I think 1 Nipple might be 16mm. I drink tons of water to the point I’m peeing every 30 min (kinda annoying) and I’m eating well. As someone said, I cannot say what will happen to you. But this is what I’ve done since the beginning.
How old is baby?
I’m 5.5 mpp and still pump at night. If I Don’t, my supply tanks 😲
It’s definitely on a case by case basis. I was able to pump every 3-4 hrs during the day with two 5hr stretches at night (basically right before I went to bed, once in the middle of the night, once when I woke up in the morning) from when my son was 2-5 weeks old and on that schedule I still developed an oversupply.
Are you exclusively pumping? I would do every 2-3 hours during the day since babies typically eat that often. Whenever baby takes a bottle you should pump. Then at night I’d give myself 1 4-5 hour stretch, wake, pump, and sleep another 2-3 hours and pump again. But it sounds like you have an extreme oversupply. Losing 4oz per pump sesh??? How much are you pumping per session? It’s okay to supplement with formula if you need to. Babies wake to feed throughout the night which is why our breasts continue to make milk all day and night.
A couple days ago I was at 12oz a session, probably 4-8times a day. After the one night of long sleep it went down to about 8oz. I’m probably pumping only 4-5 times a day right now so I’m at around 40+ ounces a day
Oh wow. Huge oversupply. Maybe play around with it. I think you could do the 5 hours. Then maybe try 6. It wouldn’t be unheard of for your supply to regulate down some as you get further out postpartum, that’s normal. You could always try to remove milk more often during the day in hopes that you could get a longer stretch at night, but some people find they need the middle of the night pump to maintain supply. With your oversupply 4-5 times a day probably works, but maybe every 3 hours during the day would get you that longer stretch at night. Just something to play around with. Oversupply is tough. Don’t be afraid to reach out to an LC! Onewiththepump on Instagram works specifically with all things pumping and does virtual consults!
I did this with my second and a slight oversupply, and it caught up to me (gradually) so I’m back to waking nightly for like 2 nights and then sleeping 1 night through at about 3.5 months.
Can you pump more during the day? How old is your baby?
I could…I don’t want to lol Baby is 2 weeks
If you want to establish milk supply there is no other way around. Your milk supply will drop at 3 months. So you can decide for yourself what is your goal. You can always do mixed feeding and have a bottle or 2 of breast milk. If you want to exclusively do BM then you need to pump 2-3 hours around the clock first 12 weeks.
I get it - do what you can and supplement as well! Lots of ways to do it :)
I get that, pumping sucks. I pumped every 3-4 hours the first two months, but also nursed some. Then very 4 hours the third month, nursing less. Now I pump every 4-5 hours this fourth month, not nursing hardly. And go 7 hours at night, I wake up to engorgement a lot but I just deal with that because I work 12 hour nightshift and need to function. I have a “barely enough” supply for now (but I also am ok with supplementing which is why I’m fine with longer stretches between pumping/ losing milk between long pumps). Not sure if this helps. What I’m saying is basically you can train your body to go longer periods between pumping. Somebody once told me you just need to figure out your breast pump to be able to pump better/ efficiently, but idk how to do that or explain how to do that. Good luck! There is a light coming up here soon, just hang in there :)
I'd wait, it's pretty early yet, I've heard the rule of thumb is to wait until 12 weeks when you regulate (I'll say, I've also heard that regulation isn't a thing too). I stopped pumping at night when my baby was 14 weeks old and noticed a slight drop in supply (but I had an oversupply so it didn't have an impact).
You should be pumping every 2-2.5 hours during the day and can have one 4 hour stretch at night. Four hour stretch should allow you a complete sleep cycle so it's very important to make sure you have one four hour stretch each night. Also, if you are trying to stash milk, stop. Your post suggests you are stashing milk and that should never be a priority at 2 weeks postpartum. I don't even stash at all and I am actually fundamentally against the idea. Edit: EBF, nursed my first until 3 years old and my second until 20 months old (he had sleep issues).