dropped df - do I need to pump before bed?

[Jadynsmom]

Ok.  So I finally dropped the df as of last night and she slept through til 7:15am and I had to wake her. :shock:  I pumped before I went to bed around 11pm, but I was still pretty full this morning.  I guess I wanted to know should I pump or just go 12hrs without feeding??  Won't that tell my body to start decreasing milk supply?  I am bfing 7am, 11, 3:30pm & 7:30pm now.  Does your body adjust without any problems??

Thanks for any input or your experiences.

Kathy

[annamum]

I think that since your baby is over 7 months old, dropping a dreamfeed is a part of weaning process. In fact, introduction of solids is a weaning, too. You don't need to pump unless you want to relieve some of the pressure but not to keep your supply. This would be a problem with a younger baby but now your supply is established and demand will rather be lesser and lesser over the time.

Sounds great if your lo slept 12 hours!

[branwen]

Congrats on the long sleep!- my dd too sleeps 12 hrs. My body takes about 3 to 4 days to catch on.

Here are my thoughts-

I still pump before bed otherwise I too wake up very full and leaky and sometimes it can hurt a bit.  But this has worked great for me because instead of trying to grab a second to pump during the day when my supply is so low I just do a quick pump before bed and I now have a constant supply of expressed milk for cereal and the occassional bottle my dh gives. 

The other reason I pump is that sometimes when I don't I feel it affects the morning feed, as in I have so much milk that it seems it takes the whole day to reestablish my personal balance.

[Jadynsmom]

Thank you Monika & Branwen!!  I think I will just pump for about 5mins before I go to bed, just so I won't leak all over our bed.  I also like having some extra milk for the times I do work (very very few).  I end up wasting half of the milk since she doesn't like to take the bottle. :?

Kathy

[annamum]

Whenever I pumped I also wasted it as Anna never wanted it either  .

[branwen]

I hear that! My dh hasn't given a bottle in awhile and it always makes me so sad to throw it away, but alas I will keep up my pumping schedule (excpet maybe for tonight- I'm enjoying a beer heehee )