My baby has been giving me 4-6 hour stretches at night of blissful sleep but I wake up so so engorged!!! He only eats for about 10 minutes a side during the day but at night has been feeding for about 20 minutes on just one side before going to bed. During the day he starts to tear at me which is why we switch sides. But I’ve been waking up so completely engorged during the night in both sides. What do I do?? He’s not up and feeding so I don’t want to pump and make my body think I need more milk but I’m in so much pain!! We’ve tried waking him for shorter stretches but he’s not interested in nursing when we wake him so then we’re both just miserable. The lactation lady I saw before we left the hospital wanted me nursing after every feed. The only feed I’ve pumped after though is in the morning between 7 and 11am to start my stash for going back to work and I usually pump about 4oz after that feed total from both breasts.

Our typical day is nurse at 7, pump for 10 minutes, he’s usually awake for an hour or so before falling asleep here. And then we spend the rest of the day with him beginning to nurse about every 4 hours. His last feed before bed around 9:00 he will nurse for 20 minutes off of one breast only and then sleeps for 4-6 hours. When he wakes up again he only wants to nurse from one side and then falls asleep for his next stretch which is usually only 2.5 hours and we start all over.

Do I pump off of the side he doesn’t feed from before bed? Do I try to force just feeding from one side?