Breastfeeding and Sleeping Through the Night

So, when you are breastfeeding, having your baby sleep through the night is a double edged sword . . .

James fell asleep last night around 9:30, after eating at maybe 9 or so . . .

I woke up at 5:15 am to a dark, quiet, room and a silent, deeply asleep baby.

"Wow," I thought, "this is some serious sleeping through the night!"

And about two minutes later my boob exploded all over the sheets. :-/

So I got up to pump--I usually do about one or two pumping sessions a day, and one of them is usually after James' long stretch of sleep. He eats one boob and I pump the other one. Since he had slept so long, I figured I would pump before he ate, instead of after.

And I pumped SIX ounces out of ONE breast!! The normal amount to be able to pump is about .5-2 ounces out of BOTH breasts, so six out of one is pretty ridiculous.

We knew that I had oversupply issues, which I spent several weeks trying to correct by block feeding (one side only for several hours before switching to the next side). It worked and my supply regulated about six weeks post-partum, and James started to want both sides at each feeding. However, it was only about 5 days or a week of this, and my supply went right back up.

Ah well.

After I had pumped these six ounces out of one breast, James-the-husband came downstairs with a screaming James-the-baby, who promptly emptied the other breast for me.

Anyway, it's funny when you are breastfeeding because even if the baby sleeps through the night, you can't really because you get seriously engorged! I suppose as he gets older, I might be less likely to get engorged--maybe?--I hope. But it makes sense--to go eight hours without feeding him when normally he eats every two is a big change-up for the breasts. ;-)

But still? Woohoo for sleeping through the night!!