How to go from BF full time to pumping.

weddingday24

I have been BF my son for 7 months now. I am considering going to pumping full time.  He is just becoming to much to nurse. He throws fits and I think he just wants consistent flow. BF has gone really well for the past 6 months but it just has been stressful lately and I just wanna go back to enjoying feeding him again. I need advice on how to go from BF to pumping? When I pump I am lucky to get 2 0z. I just was wondering how you make the transition without losing milk supply? Thanks! :-)

CNYBride05

I'd encourage you to hang in there. I've had a few really frustrating periods with BFing, but it's soooooooo much easier than pumping!

mommatotwo2

I don't want to discourage you- but pumping is really a lot harder than nursing directly.  I would also encourage you to try and hang in there. There have definitely been phases of time where nursing felt very frustrating and LO would pop off what felt like a hundred times a session, would wiggle all around, try to nurse standing, hanging half upside down, etc. We even went through a phase where she was biting me, a LOT. I too wanted to throw in the towel on nursing, but being a daytime pumper (at work) from 12 weeks on, I knew that I did not want to pump any more than I absolutely have to.  It's  a lot more work, setting up the pump, washing pump parts, washing feeding bottles. I'm very thankful for the ability/technology to pump because while I hated every minute of pumping, it did allow me to provide breastmilk for my daughter while we were apart, but wouldn't want to do it if nursing during the day had been an option.

One last though- these next months are where nursing changes, IMO. After 8-9 months is where my LO became a lot more interested in solids, a lot more mobile and engaged in playing and nursing become somewhat less frequent. She'd nurse great morning, evening and before bed but during the day, it was not uncommon for her to toddle over for a 5 minute snack and then want to go back to playing. I think that would've been really frustrating if pumping and bottle feeding because we would've been using a lot of bottles and probably wasting some milk in the process.

Good luck, whatever you decide and awesome job so far!