Are you too tired to pump at night? Once your baby starts sleeping for longer stretches, you might wonder how to stop pumping at night. Here’s a step by step plan for how to drop middle of the night pumping sessions, including what you should do if you’re prone to clogged milk ducts, and whether you should worry about your milk supply.
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Concerns about Dropping Middle of the Night Pumping Sessions
When you’re thinking “when can I stop pumping at night?” the two biggest concerns are usually milk supply and clogged ducts. Here’s what to consider when dropping your middle of the night session (also known as the MOTN pump).
Will My Milk Supply Go Down?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to know for sure. Anything can happen when you drop a pumping session – your supply might drop, it might stay the same, or it might even increase due to the extra sleep you’re getting.
Your best bet to mitigate the risk of losing supply when dropping a pumping session is to add the time from the dropped session back to your remaining pumping sessions, so that your total pumping time in a day stays the same.
Factor #1: Prolactin Levels
With regard to dropping a middle of the night pumping session in particular, many women worry that they may lose supply since prolactin levels are higher at night than they are during the day.
For example, you may have noticed that you pump more milk in the early morning hours (between 1am and 6am) than you do later in the day.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that your supply will go down when you drop the middle of the night session, though. I personally did not lose any supply when I dropped my middle of the night session; I just got more milk in the mornings.
However, as I said above, every woman is different. It’s a good idea to monitor this as you drop your night time session and immediately afterward. If you notice your supply dropping, it’s a good idea to weigh the benefits (sleep) with the risks (less milk) of continuing.
Factor #2: Return of Menstruation
The other risk is that after you drop your middle of the night pumping session, your period will come back.
Breastfeeding frequency is an important factor in fertility after having a baby; if you stop pumping overnight, your period may come back sooner than it would have if you hadn’t because of the reduced frequency in lactation.
Menstruation can be associated with a loss in milk supply, though there are some steps you can take to try to minimize or prevent this.
What if I’m Prone to Clogged Ducts?
Dropping a pumping session – especially the middle of the night one, where you’ll be going longer between pumping sessions than you have before – can be really scary if you’ve had clogged milk ducts or mastitis before.
Here are a few extra steps that you can take if you’re prone to clogged ducts:
- Go slowly. In the step by step plan below, I explain how to drop your middle of the night pumping session quickly and how to do it at a slower pace. You should pick the slower pace.
- Consider using cabbage leaves. Putting a cabbage leaf in your bra while you’re moving a pumping session back can help keep the milk from getting stuck and prevent blocked milk ducts (more info on how this works here). Note that if used too much, cabbage can negatively impact supply, so don’t overdo it.
- Try starting lecithin before you start dropping the pumping session. Lecithin may help make your milk less sticky, which also makes it less likely you’ll get a plugged milk duct.
- Try to fully empty your breasts at the session before the one you’re dropping (in most cases, the last one before bed) and the next one (your second middle of the night session or the first one in the morning). This might mean pumping a little longer at these sessions.
If you are really worried, you can also get a lactation massager before you start dropping the session so that you’re prepared to quickly get any clogs out that do appear.
(*The lactation massager I recommend is available on amazon, but you can also get a 10% discount buying directly from LaVie with the promo code EPUMP.)
The Best Way to Drop a Middle of Night Pumping Session
There are four ways to drop pumping sessions, which you can read more about here.
For dropping middle the night sessions, I prefer the fourth method, where you move pumping sessions until they are closer together and you can drop one of the them.
What you want to do is slowly move the pumping session back until you get close enough to either the next middle of the night session or the first morning session that you can drop one of the sessions.
This is because usually, when you’re dropping a night time session, you’re training your breasts to go longer between pumping sessions than they have before. It’s best to do that slowly to allow your body to adjust.
Step by Step Plan for How to Drop Middle of the Night Pumping Sessions
Here is how to drop the middle of the night pumping session in four easy steps.
1. Write down your current pumping schedule.
If you have a firm schedule – like 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm, 1am, 5am – you can skip this step.
This is more for moms who pump at night whenever their babies get up to eat, or who pump a certain number of hours from their last pumping session. The idea here is to understand where you’re at, so that you can plan the changes that you’re going to make.
So let’s say that you pump every three hours during the day plus whenever your baby wakes up at night. Most nights, that’s once, somewhere between 2:30am and 4:30am. You go to bed around 10pm, and you start your last session of the day at 9:30pm. You get up for the day at 7am.
Your schedule would look something like this:
3:30am, 7:30am, 10:30am, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm
These may not always be the exact times that you pump, but it gives you a good idea of where you’re at now, so you can plan how to get where you want to be.
2. Decide what you want your new schedule to be.
Make sure that your goal is clear. How long do you want to be able to go without pumping at night?
Let’s say that you decide you want to be able to go from 10pm to 6am without pumping, and pump every three hours during the day.
Your goal schedule might look something like this:
6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9:30pm
In practice, you wouldn’t have to pump at exactly these times; maybe you push back the 9am to 10am on Mondays because of an activity or something. That’s totally fine, we just want a general plan to work towards.
3. Make a plan for dropping the middle of the night session.
So you’ve identified the pumping session that you are going to push back (in our example, 3:30am), and your next pumping time in your goal schedule (6am). The next thing that you need to figure out is how much time you want to push the session back at once.
For example, you could push the 3:30am session back by 30 minutes per day until you get close enough to 6am that you can drop the session altogether.
That would look something like this:
- On the first day, you’d go until 4am
- On the second day, to 4:30am
- On the third day, to 5am
- On the fourth day, to 5:30am
- On the fifth day, to 6am, and you’re on your new schedule
(Note: at some point, probably around the 5am or 5:30am mark, it won’t make sense to pump again at 6am. At that point, you can drop the session, add the pumping time back to your remaining sessions, and just continue to keep pushing the time back until you get to your target time of 6am.)
Does that seem too slow? You can go faster! Maybe you want to push the time back an hour a day. Or two hours a day. Whatever you think your body can handle is fine.
Or does that seem too fast? Maybe you’ve tried pushing sessions back before and you got mastitis. Go slower! You can do 15 minutes at a time, and wait a few days at the new time before pushing back another 15 minutes.
Set the pace that you think is best for your body.
Below is a visual example of how this might look.
4. Start dropping your middle of the night session – and keep track of what happens!
Once you’ve got your plan, you can go ahead and get started pushing your sessions back.
It’s a good idea to use either a pumping app or just a piece of paper and a pen to track when you’re pumping and your output. This allows you to troubleshoot potential issues, and proactively identify any changes in supply so you can make adjustments if needed.
Have suggestions or questions? Leave them in the comments!
Thinking about weaning from the pump? No idea where to start? Worried that you’ll get a clogged duct or mastitis when you stop pumping? Grab my one-of-a-kind guide here.
References- Battin, DA., et al. “Effect of suckling on serum prolactin, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and estradiol during prolonged lactation.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3923412?dopt=Abstract
- Bonyata, Kelly, IBCLC. “Breastfeeding and Fertility.” https://kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/fertility/
Hi Amanda! I’m almost 5mpp. Oversupply badly (60oz per day). Currently pumping 5 times a day – 9am, 2pm, 7pm, 11pm, 5am.
Planning to breastfeed for 2 years. Is it too early to drop motn pumping session? Or dropping another session to only 4 times a day. I had mastitis before 🥺
Hi Anna! It’s impossible to say for sure, but I think if you want to try it now is as good as a time as any! I would take it slowly since you have a history of mastitis. 🙂 Good luck!
Hi Amanda, I’m getting closer to dropping my MOTN although I still don’t think my supply has regulated yet. I have an oversupply making about 60 ounces a day something 6×For 20min each. I’m curious if it’s important to keep an early morning pump after dropping MOTN. I see in your sample schedules that you pumped at 6 AM for quite a while even after dropping several sessions as baby got older. I’m hoping that my schedule will look like this: 7 AM, 10 AM, 1 PM, 4 PM, 7 PM, and 10pm. Do you think that 7 AM is too late in the morning to get a large amount? I know many women get their largest amount early in the morning hours. Should I try to roll it back to 6 AM or 5 AM?
Please let me know if keeping that early morning time matters.
Hi Rachel! I would just try it and see how it goes for you – I think this is definitely a thing that can vary from person to person. I don’t think there is anything objectively wrong with that schedule so I would test it out. 🙂
Ideally I’d like to transition to 10-6am then 9,12,4,7,10 pumping 6x a day but I can wait as I am unsure if my body is ready to go that far at night.
Any thoughts on improving the engorgement and leaking at night? Or any way I can regulate my supply sooner? I don’t need it to stop but at least slow down on increasing each day. I am just frustrated by having to swap containers while pumping because I fill them in my pump time. Would you recommend cutting back my pumping time each pump or would that lead to more engorgement.
I am also no longer nursing my baby. I think that was part of the problem, nursing in between pumps, but he doesn’t nurse well enough to get nutrition anyways and I’d like to wait till my supply regulates before trying to breastfeed again.
Hi
Do you have an email contact so that I can consult with you? I don’t have social media but have found your site very helpful. I am having trouble with oversupply and wanting to stick with my change in dropping my MOTN pump. My current schedule is 5am for 25mins, 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm the rest of the pumps are for 17mins or so. My issue is that after my long break 10-5am my breasts are really engorged and it takes them a long time to empty. I am also making 50+oz a day and it continues to go up every day. My baby is a little over a month old and I am waiting for my supply to regulate. My other concern is having not use two 8oz bottles to pump into at my 5am pump. I worry even that won’t hold soon as my pattern is to make about 3oz more than the day before. Anything I can do to slow my production down without risking mastitis? Can I safely adjust the schedule more? I find that my slacker boob gets hard lumps and needs to be pumped longer on that side to even it out however I don’t think I have ever had a clog before. I am taking licthcin daily. Please help!
Hi Rachel! So is your goal to drop the 5am session and go from 10pm until 7am?
When dropping a pump and adding time to other sessions, does that have to be distributed evenly? Currently 6mpp and 6ppd (2am, 5am, 9:30am, 12:30pm, 5pm, 9pm) and hoping to drop to 5ppd. The 9:30am pump on one day a week can’t be more than 15 min due to work scheduling (more flexibility on other days).
Hi Katy! That’s fine – I would try to mostly distribute evenly if possible but if it’s not (like in this case) it’s all good 🙂
Hi Amanda!
This is so helpful! I am 4 weeks PP, and I BF all day every 3 hours (last session usually beginning between 9 & 9:30), and then I was waking up every 3 to pump in the middle of the night as my husband gives bottles of BM during the night. I pump while he gives the bottle in placement of when I would normally BF.
Lately I’ve been doing 4+ hours at night to pump as he’s been sleeping 6 hours for the first stretch. Should I just keep pushing this back slowly to completely avoid the middle of the night pump?
I know I’m only 4 weeks pp, but would rather my body get used to the longer stretch / no night pump now vs. later.
Thanks!
Hi Morgan! Yes, that’s what I would suggest! Congrats on your baby!
What period of time would you define as middle of the night? I’m going back to work but the day starts early, so I’ll be waking up at 4 AM. Would that be middle of the night or no since it’s the start of my day?
Hi Sabrina! I’m not entirely sure. It’s based on your circadian rhythm with prolactin levels. Some limited studies showed that they peaked at 3am – but I’m guessing most or all of those women had “normal” sleep schedules and weren’t waking at 4am. unfortunately we need more research on this.
Could you potentially add that pump session during the day, like if you pumped twice in the MOTN you could just add two more pumps to your day?
Hi Jessica! Yes that’s fine – though I would do one at a time to train your body to go longer. Good luck!
How soon can you start this when exclusively pumping? I currently pump 6 times a day with a 6 week baby.
Hi Nicole! If you can hold off until around 12 weeks or you think that your supply is regulated, I would do that. Here’s more info on supply regulation:
https://exclusivepumping.com/when-is-milk-supply-established/
I am weaning from the pump (prone to clogs and mastitis). Once I finish my antibiotics I want to drop my middle of the night session at 2am (16 min session) and stretch to 6am. Can I stretch and wean? So once I get to 330am wean the pump time to 13 mins and then do 4am to 10 mins and so on until I get to 6am?
Hi Kasey! I would probably just stretch if you’re prone to clogs/mastitis. The weaning part would be that once you can make it to 6am (or whenever your first pumping session of the day is), you’d be down a session. Hope that helps!
Hello! I’m currently almost 5 months PP, and am pumping 7 times a day right now. My pumping schedule is 5 am, 9 am, 1 pm, 5 pm, 9 pm, 1 am then 5 am again (sometimes I’ll pump 30-60 minutes after the 1 am and 5 am as I have trouble waking up). I am wanting to drop a pump. Is it too soon to drop the MOTN pump?
Hi Linda! While everyone is different, generally speaking, I think 5 months postpartum is not too early. Good luck!
Hi!
I am only 7 pp but am considering dropping my MOTN session since my baby is sleeping more through the night now and I am a bit of an oversupplier (I average about 47 oz/day and my baby drinks 24, so I am freezing a lot of milk!) I just don’t know how I would push my session back because he doesn’t get up consistently at the same time, and I am not setting an alarm but rather just pumping when he gets up (I found that setting an alarm didn’t match up always with when he woke up and so I was waking up multiple times and losing more sleep). Right now my schedule is 7, 10, 1, 4, 6:30, 9:30 and then some time between 2-4 depending on when he wakes up. Would you recommend just dropping time on the MOTN session and then pushing my 9 pm a little later?
Hi Evin! I do think that that makes sense as an alternative and can work well! Good luck!
Thanks for your response! I’m down to 4 sessions a day 6:30am, 11:30am, 5:30, and 11pm. I’m still engorged in the morning but I will push through in hopes it will get better. I’m going back to work in 2 weeks. How long should I continue a schedule before dropping another session? I eventually would like to get to 2 sessions class day. Thank you!!
Hello, my baby is 3 1/2 months and I’ve been gradually pushing my middle of the night feeding back by 30 mins in hopes to drop it. It’s been over a week that I have dropped that pump but I am still waking up very early with extremely engorged breasts. When will my body adjust and not produce so much milk overnight?
Hi Leah! Ugh, so sorry, this is annoying. It could take a few weeks. How are you doing otherwise with the dropped session?