Normal to feel so 'full' in the morning?

[momtoelise]

My baby is breastfed about every 4 hours during the day - the last main feeding coming around 6-7 pm.  I also still do the dreamfeed - was around 10, but have been doing it earlier & are now at 9:00 (in process of phasing it out).  She hasn't had a feeding during the night for 5 mos now.  My question is does your body ever adjust to that?  I'm still so full in the morning when I feed her (around 7:30 am), even leaking, & she can't empty them at that feed there's so much.  What will happen when the df is gone & I'm going even longer between those feeds?  Also, I'd like to eventually start weaning & get down to only bf for the first & last feeds of the day - I'm worried I'll have a milk explosion during the day!  :lol:

Thanks for any thoughts anyone may have!!

[teezee]

eventually your body should 'learn' whatever schedule ur lo is on and adjust, and, yes i am very full in the mornings too...that's when u have the most abundant milk supply.

[annamum]

Yes, your body will eventually adjust to that. That's usually problem with first time moms, they tend to have an oversupply and feeling full in the morning is normal. I think, I remember that I still leaked when dd was 6 months or more but after that only occasionally, when we skipped some feed due to special circumstances.

If you wean gradually and slowly, that means one feed per week or longer you should not explode :lol:.

[momtoelise]

Ok - I'll trust that eventually my body will adjust - I'm just surprised it's taken this long. 

On this topic, I've also been wondering about adding a feeding of solids to her day.  Right now we're doing them after the 11 & 3:00 bf's.  I think eventually I'll need to add one more, which I'm guessing should be in the morning, but how would that work if she has so much milk with me then.  Like I said in my orinigal post, there's a lot there in the morning & when she's done I don't feel empty.  It doesn't seem like she'd be hungry to eat anything after that.

Thanks for the help!

[teezee]

my lo has a FULL feeding before i give her any solids.  just wait 1/2 hour to 45 min and then they will have room to eat.  even when i fed dd immediately after a full feeding, she still ate her solids pretty well.  as a mod on here said to me, feeling full from milk is different than feeling full of solids...made sense to me when it was put like that!
i have my lo on 3 meals a day and she's a little bit younger than yours - small meals mind u.

[Lilah'sMommy]

Oh, I'm with you there!  Not until I weaned to 2 feeds a day at 1 year did I stop having very full, hard, leaking breasts every morning.  I suspect that I have very high prolactin levels, as I needed nursing pads all day long until about 7 months and af didn't return until 13.5 months post-partum-- about a month after weaning to 2 feeds.  Could be you have the same.  Your body will adjust.  And your baby will take what she needs from you in the morning and then take what she needs from the soilds at breakfast.  Trust your baby's appetite.

[momtoelise]

A very belated thank you Sabrina - it's helpful to hear your experience!