FertilityZone

clap clap well done you

Have you got some breast pads? They're not the most elegant of things but they should absorb most of your leaks. At night time maybe try sleeping with a small towel or muslin under you to absorb the majority of it. Or if it's a lot, maybe try one of those large maternity abosrbent mat things?

Mine settled down to be honest and I don't bother with breast pads now at all. I sometimes get a small leak if, as you say, she sleeps for longer then expected, but nowhere near as much as there was at the beginning. I have also been known to wake her to feed just to make me more comfortable!

Don't let it put you off going out and about though. Maybe take a spare top with you the first couple of times for that extra reassurance?

x

Well done! It can be very tough at first .. and the lack of sleep is something else isn't it?!

The fact that you have so much milk that you're worried about leaving the house actually sounds great to me but I can understand your point of view.

I used to hang a hand towel over the headboard and when I woke to feed I grabbed it and put it over my other boob to catch those lovely night time rivers of milk. During the day I quickly learned that black tops or white tops were ok, any other colour made it impossible to hide the wet patches. I also found that some breastpads were more effective than others so it might be worth trying other brands.

It does settle down once your body recognises how much milk you actually need and produces the right amount - at the moment you're probably over producing a bit (which is brilliant). Later on you might still find that your milk comes in a few hours after a feed or when you get really full. Oh the times I would run to the ladies loo and hand express down the loo to prevent a full scale milk shower!

Hey, I am currently b/feeding my 3rd child (he's 5.5 months) and I still leak most nights, as he is still a bit random about sleeping/feeding through the night - sometimes he sleeps all night, most nights he's up 1x, occasionally 2x. I put a towel down on my side, but sometimes the milk goes right through....I reckon I need to make a boob tube from some sort of super absorbent material for sleeping in at night! I find it too uncomfortable to wear a bra/pads in bed.
With Harri, he settled himself into a regular feeding pattern quite quickly and slept through the night from around 10 weeks and that time the leaking settled more quickly. I seem to have quite a strong let down too so have to use a pad in the side I am not feeding from - have got away with using a muslin or terry cloth on occasion, but doesn't always hold it.....tried various brands of pads but the only ones that work for me are the Tommee Tippee ones....also the most expensive ones of course! (I buy lots when they are on offer!). But daytime leaking, other than when feeding, hasn't been a problem for quite a while now so hopefully yours will settle too.x

The thing that I found helped me is that when you feel the let down happening, try not to put any pressure on the 'non-feeding' side. This can include how you hold baby as I found that if baby was next to it, she would get soaked...but saying that I never bothered with breast pads, just used to get changed on the rare occasions it did happen (and it was winter and could wear a big jumper!!)

Good luck x

mine have settled, no more waking up to soaking bed but they still spray Tobe, hang on a minute he is just eating more of it thankgoodness for breastpads whew

Kate x

it brings back memories of me rooting round in the midde of the night for something, anything to stop the soaking mess! I soon learned!

Well done you're doing really well xx

me too, i've only just started putting a muslin under my pillo when i go to bed so that when i feed my dd in the night she doesn't get covered. Good idea from Philippa about not putting pressure on the boob that you're not feeding from - my dd seems to like putting her hand on it whilst she's feeding which of course makes it leak even more (and soaks her if i'm fast enough with that muslin )

Well done on getting through those tough times and carrying on, it's so hard isn't it....but well worth it clap