7 month old nursing issues? milk supply lower??

[twins+1]

It seems like in the last few weeks my milk supply is guzzled down so fast, that I wonder if I should buy some herbs or something? I eat oatmeal 1x a day, drink a lot, nurse on demand and thru the night still.
He goes to sleep by 6pm and he wakes to nurse at somewhere between 12-3am and then again at about 6am. Sometimes I pump one side before bed, but then it seems I have less milk the next day if I pumped. I am worried that if I had him start sleeping thru the night and not nursing him that my milk supply would drop quickly. Is waiting 6-12/3am too long? Should I pump at about 10pm or something?
There are sometimes that he will drain one side and almost drain the other side (usually I nurse him one side for a time, and the other side the next time). Do I need to nurse him on both sides every time to build up more supply?


And does it ever get easier with babies this age flipping around to see every single dingle noise behind them when they are nursing. lol I am begging my twins to tiptoe and about plugging my baby's ears when he is nursing to keep him drinking. Ha ha!

[Latte Mama]

If he starts STTN, your supply should adjust. I wouldn't worry too much about doing any extra pumping unless you need a stash for some reason.

[twins+1]

So if he nurses on one side at about 4pm, then the other at 5:30pm and in bed by 6pm and doesn't nurse until about 12/2am (and then nurses on one side) and the other side doesn't get drained until he wakes again at about 5am, isn't that kind of long? Would it be safer to pump at 10pm and then nurse thru the night when he wakes up? Just curious if thats too long to go without nursing him? speaking of.... off to nurse him. lol

[phrogger]

Your body adjusts to what the baby is actually taking in. If he seems to be doing fine, wetting enough, doesn't seem starving, is gaining weight, it should be totally fine. Is he eatting a lot during the day?

If your baby were sttn, like say 9 pm to 9 am, he would be going 12 hours without eatting and it would be no big deal as long as he was eatting enough while he was asleep, and your body would just adjust and make sure you had enough milk in the day and slow down at night.

[lactatinggirl]

If he eats less at night, he'll eat more during the day. That's one of the beauties of breast milk—your baby regulates it just by eating.

What makes you think that your supply is down?

On a side note. I wish my daughter slept for 6 hours straight. :-P

[twins+1]

So my milk supply will regulate to produce more in the day if he sttn? Right now he generally nurses 2x in his night sleep which is usually 6pm to 7:30am. My twins were SSTN at this age for 12 hours (but I pumped for them and put the expressed milk in bottles). At this point, Aaron seems actually hungry at those 2 feedings and he doesn't even really wake up - and goes back to sleep immediately. So, I don't mind nursing him at night still.


Oh, I have noticed a drop in supply if I drink caffinated coffee, so I avoid that now. Took me a few days to figure that out unfortunately.

[3girls1boy]

Maybe it's time to think about solids? Remember, nurse first though.

As far as distractability, while I don't think a mom needs to use a blanket when nursing in public, for a couple months I did use one with my son (my 4th child) just to create a dark, quiet atmosphere so he could settle down and nurse.