How Long Can I Go Without Pumping at Night?

If you are a mom with a newborn, you may know how hard it is to stay up so you can pump milk for your sweet baby. Have you ever wanted to skip the nighttime pumping sessions? Are you even allowed to do that? What would happen if you just slept a bit longer?

How long can you go without pumping at night?  Most lactation consultants suggest not to go more than 4-5 hours without a pumping session so that you don’t decrease your milk supply. 

If you are exclusively pumping, it’s highly recommended that you not skip a session until after 10 – 12 weeks postpartum. If you are nursing, you can skip your nighttime pumping session if you are nursing during that time instead. 

“Watch your baby, not the clock” is a phrase often used when talking about breastfeeding. Pumping every two hours is a great way to keep your supply up, but your baby may not need to eat that often, or they may need to eat more frequently.

Read on to find out how often you should pump during the night.

Should I Sleep or Pump?

When you have a newborn at home, sleep can be hard to come by, and you want every chance you can get to close your eyes. Unfortunately, if you are pumping for any reason, you don’t get to pick and choose convenient times to pump.

Even if your baby sleeps through the night, you need to wake up and pump every three hours or at least twice through the night to make sure you are keeping a milk supply that will support your baby. 

Supply and Demand

The good news is, one night of missed nursing or pumping sessions will not cause enough issues with your milk supply for you to notice. However, it is recommended that you don’t make a habit out of skipping your sessions, especially in the first few months. 

Breastfeeding, whether you are nursing or exclusively pumping, is a perfect example of the supply and demand model. The more you pump or nurse, the more your body will produce.

If you skip a few sessions, or if you start to skip the same session every day, your body will think you no longer need to make that milk, and your supply will decrease. 

The recommendation by most lactation consultants is that pumping between 1 and 4 AM is the best time to pump. Your body is going to have the best output at that time, given that most babies will wake up at least once during those three hours.

However, your body will also get used to whatever schedule you decide on.  So, if you want to pump at 10pm, 12am, and 4am, after a few weeks, your body will adjust, and it will be the normal rhythm of things. 

Some of the risks of skipping pumping sessions include:

• Decreased milk supply
• Uncomfortable and painful engorgement
• Clogged milk ducts
• Mastitis – an infection that brings flu-like symptoms and requires antibiotics
• Abscesses resulting in draining, IV antibiotics, and possible hospitalization
• Let-down issues when nursing after skipping a session which can cause reflux issues in your baby
• Blood in your breastmilk the next pumping session
• Latch issues due to engorgement

The First Weeks Postpartum Compared To 6+ Months

Between your baby’s first few weeks and when they are six months old, they change and grow.  What most women don’t realize is that your pumping habits should be able to change with your baby, too. 

Some changes you may experience with your baby’s feeding experience include:

• In the first two weeks(sometimes 3 or 4), your baby will want to eat every 2-3 hours around the clock. 
• If you are exclusively pumping, you should copy this schedule until you notice your baby going longer between feeds. 
• After six months or so, you can begin to introduce real food. At that point, it is reasonable to go longer in between feeding sessions. 

However, this is where you can also tweak the pumping schedule to allow yourself a bit more freedom from the pump. You may be able to drop one or two night sessions if you feel comfortable.

The nighttime sessions are the ones most moms drop first because sleep is something they need desperately. 

Here are some things to remember when dropping or skipping sessions:

If you choose to drop a nighttime session, it is recommended that you drop the middle of the night but still keep one before bed and one in the early morning. You will be able to empty everything before and pump immediately in the morning. 

Pro Tip: Before going to bed for the night, put one or two haakas on your nightstand. If you end up waking up to feed your baby and use a bottle, you can use a haakaa to collect any leaking milk at the same time.

If you have to skip a session, one thing you can try is to only pump enough to relieve the pressure or engorgement, then stop.

You won’t be telling your body you need all of the milk, but you also won’t be uncomfortable the entire time until you have to pump again. 

Slowly reducing the pumping time each night instead of skipping will help your body adjust quicker. For example, if you usually pump for 25 minutes at 2am, start by only pumping for 20 minutes.

Gradually move the pumping session you want to skip towards the one before that to keep your supply up but pump less. Eventually, it will just be one more extensive pumping session. 

Practice Self-Care

While being able to feed your baby with your own body is one of the best things you can do for your little one, it is also hard and demanding, as well as emotionally and physically draining.

If you are noticing that you are feeling dehydrated, dizzy, or starving all the time, it’s probably a sign that you are not eating or drinking enough to keep up with your pumping output.  

Taking care of yourself is a huge must when you have a newborn that depends on you.  So, here are some self-care tips for you to remember:

• Pay attention to your mental, emotional, and physical health. You can’t take care of your baby if you are not well. 
• If you can’t shower daily, then try to shower once every other day while someone else watches the baby. 
• Take at least 10-20 minutes each day to do something for yourself that is uninterrupted. 
• Find something that makes you feel normal and do it every day, i.e., putting on make-up, taking a drive around the block, or taking a walk.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you need sleep, tell someone. 
• Don’t be afraid to say no to visitors. You need to rest, and the baby needs sleep too. 
• Be okay with not doing everything. Order take-out, do minimal laundry, etc.
• Drink plenty of water, and don’t forget to eat. 

Boosting Your Supply

Thankfully, most women can use certain foods to boost their supply if you have a decrease, or you need an extra stash in the freezer. There is a list of foods that are said to increase your supply when eaten regularly, and while it may not work for every woman, it’s usually worth a shot. 

Some foods you can consume to boost your milk supply include:

• Coconut Water
• Flax Seed
• Oatmeal
• Mothers Milk Tea
• Fenugreek
• Protein-rich foods

You can also increase your supply by including extra pumping sessions in your daily routine when you usually wouldn’t pump. 

This will tell your body that you need extra milk, and after a few days, you should start to see the increase in supply.  Of course, this also means you need to increase your intake of food and water. 

Read more about my favorite milk-boosting drink here.

This is also a surprising snack that some moms swear by to boost their milk supply.

More Tips

When you have a baby, the thing you usually want most is to keep them safe.  The second thing you want is sleep!

The issue is, whether you are pumping or nursing, you will have to wake up throughout the night to feed your baby, have a pumping session, and put your pump up.

However, you can usually skip a session now and then with little to no consequences after you are 8 to 12 weeks postpartum. 

Most experts discourage skipping a pumping session in the early months of the breastfeeding journey because of its ability to affect your supply so much.  Your schedule will need to match your baby’s eating schedule, so you know your body is keeping up with their intake. 

Sources:

https://kellymom.com/ages/newborn/nb-challenges/maintainsupply-pump/#:~:text=Avoid%20going%20longer%20than%205,alarm%20to%20wake%20for%20pumping.

https://www.seattleschild.com/to-pump-or-not-to-pump-real-talk-on-breast-pumping/

https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/weaning-from-pump/

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