Sudden decrease in oz pumped

RDK24

DD is almost 11 months and, as of yesterday, I'm pumping far less than I used to. DD nurses 1-2x in the morning, I pump 2x during the work day, and then she nurses 1-2x at night (usually 1 session but she does 15-20 min/side as she's winding down for bed).

I typically get 5-7 oz per pumping session. As of yesterday, it's more like 3 oz. I haven't had a PP period yet, so I'm thinking that may be coming. I'm drinking lots of water and eating well.

I've been lucky not to have supply issues to this point so I'm a little unsure about what to do if this continues, especially since it's sudden and DD is approaching her first birthday. (I plan to nurse AM and PM and cut out the pumping sessions in between after her bday). I have a freezer stash, but probably only 100 oz or so.

Any advice? Add a PM pumping session to try to rev things back up, maybe?

RDK24

I should add that when DD nurses, she doesn't seem to have any complaints. I replaced the membranes on my PISA and it does feel like the pump is working properly. Confused!

vvvvvfee

personally, your LO is so close to 1 year, that i would take it as a signal to drop down to 1 pump a day. then it will be easy to transition to not pumping during the workday once she is 1. you can supplement the 3 oz you pump with frozen BM or WCM. but like you said, it could be due to the return of your cycle, so it may rebound somewhat.

i dropped down to 1 pump a day when my DS was around that age, because i wasn't getting enough to justify the 2nd pumping session. i got my period back when he was 1 year (personally didn't notice a difference in pumping output because of it, though many people do) i stopped pumping at 14 months, and DS is still nursing at 22 months.

RDK24

vvvvvfee said:

personally, your LO is so close to 1 year, that i would take it as a signal to drop down to 1 pump a day. then it will be easy to transition to not pumping during the workday once she is 1. you can supplement the 3 oz you pump with frozen BM or WCM. but like you said, it could be due to the return of your cycle, so it may rebound somewhat.

i dropped down to 1 pump a day when my DS was around that age, because i wasn't getting enough to justify the 2nd pumping session. i got my period back when he was 1 year (personally didn't notice a difference in pumping output because of it, though many people do) i stopped pumping at 14 months, and DS is still nursing at 22 months.

Thanks, this is very helpful. Can I give her WCM before her 1st birthday? Pedi mentioned at our last visit that we can introduce it at 1 year but I'm not sure if that's a hard and fast rule.

RDK24

theresat858 said:

If it is due to your period coming back, it will probably rebound in a few days... How much milk is LO currently taking at daycare?  If it is 12 ounces or so, and you are able to pump 6 ounces per day, then your freezer stash should last until a week or so before her first birthday. At that point, I'd just gradually introduce WCM. (We had to mix it with BM to get LO to like the taste). 
Adding a pumping session at night could help if you really want to pump more for the next month.

Thanks. Yes, she gets about 12 oz/day from the nanny. Maybe it's a good idea to start using the freezer stash to supplement what I'm pumping up to the 1st bday. It feels weird and scary to deplete the stash but I guess that's what it's there for!

When your LO is a year old and you're only nursing AM and PM, what do you do when you're away from the baby overnight? Will they still nurse when you get back if they're only drinking WCM when you're away? (That is, do I need a freezer stash after a year at all?)

RDK24

theresat858 said:

I only used my freezer stash after a year to transition LO to milk at daycare (mixing).  It was gone by the time she was 13 months old.  When I was out of town for 4 days at 13mo, she just got WCM (I did pump 2x/day to keep my supply up) - she went right back to nursing as soon as I got home.  If I was going to miss more than one feeding (like when we took an overnight for our anniversary), I pumped, but if it was only one feeding (say, going out to dinner with grandma putting her to bed), I didn't even bother pumping.  She always just went right back to nursing.  ....in fact she hasn't nursed in 2 weeks and still wants to go back to it even though there is absolutely nothing there....

Thanks so much, super helpful. Hope the weaning transition is going OK for you and your DD.

RDK24

casey78 said:

If today is your first day with a slump, I wouldn't stress it too much.  It could be stress, lack of sleep, or pp period/ovulation.  Yesterday, I pumped only about half of my normal.  Today, I'm back on track for normal output.

You are pretty close to a year, so I wouldn't stress bringing it back up too much.  I'd also pull from freezer stash to make up what she needs.  Or, you could try supplementing a bit of WCM a day in one bottle to see how it goes.  That would be my plan if I didn't have an allergy concern (and, if there is one, you'd rather know now than after backing off of pumping).

Thanks, great point about experimenting a little with WCM before I start cutting pumping down.