My baby is sleeping through the night!

Do I need to wake them up?! Do I need to pump?!

These are very common questions. My short answer is, hopefully not. I'm a big fan of sleep, especially for moms.

There are some situations where you might need to wake baby up: if there are any weight concerns in the first few weeks, in which case you would be working with your pediatrician and/or a lactation consultant. (I'm available to work with you if you don't have a lactation consultant!)

If you are trying to relactate or seriously increase your milk supply, you might wake up to pump, but not just to increase for building a stash-only if you seriously need to increase your supply, in which case I also recommend working with a professional.

Other special cases might involve waking up baby or waking up to pump.

In general though, if your baby is healthy and starts sleeping through the night, you get to too!

As long as you continue to feed on cue, your baby is going to keep getting what they need. You don't need to wake them up, you don't need to wake up to pump, and you aren't going to lose your supply.

If your baby starts sleeping through the night or a longer stretch suddenly, you may wake up in the middle of the night feeling full or engorged. In this case pumping would not be recommended, because that is going to make your body keep thinking that it needs to produce that much at that time.

Instead, you could hand express just for comfort, not to empty. If you are desperate you could pump, but just know that you are going to keep having to pump.

If it's first thing in the morning and you are up before baby, you could pump-this is a great time to pump once a day to build a stash (this is assuming you are at least 3-4 weeks postpartum).

You might notice after a period of time that you wake up feeling not as full or engorged. Lots of times this causes moms to worry that their supply is decreasing. It's not! This is part of the adjustment process as your baby gets older and your body figures out exactly what they need, when they need it.

Notice how there were a lot of "if, but's and "assuming.."s in this post? It's because babies and families are so unique. This is why it's great to work with someone individually. If you are unsure whether your baby is getting enough or having trouble managing your feeding routine, I would be happy to help. Click here to check out my calendar.