weaning and pumping Q
so I kind of indirectly started weaning last week.... I'm not on a schedule to drop feedings or anything but I started doing the "don't offer don't refuse" method and since we transitioned to one nap/day last week, she naturally dropped 1-2 feedings since she normally nurses right before a nap and right when she wakes up. that puts us at nursing about 5-6 times/day now, which is still quite a lot for a 14 month old IMO but fine w/me 
my dilemma is that i hate pumping and i'm beginning to wonder if i should even bother pumping while i am at work? i used to pump 3x/day at work (mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon) but now i am pumping 1-2x/day (at lunch and mid-afternoon if I have time). only thing is, i've hardly been getting any milk now, for like the last month or so! she always seems satisfied when nursing so apparently i still have enough milk for her to nurse, but it's such a drag having to pump and getting only 0.5-1.5 oz per side now! on average it is closer to 0.5-1 oz per side! i've tried drinking tons of water, replacing the membranes, etc but i just don't get any more. do you think i should keep pumping while at work (2-3 days/wk)? should i pump just once or try to keep pumping 2x/day? or just stop pumping since it's only a few days a week and she is slowly weaning?
Re: weaning and pumping Q
I'm interested to see what the responses will be.
I am not planning to pump at work anymore after he starts to drink cow's milk. I may pump once before I leave or when I first arrive at work but I really can't keep up pumping for much longer with the demands of my job
I wonder how it is going to play out with his eating schedule. As it is right now I only pump once a day and get 12 oz. (still pretty good) and that seems to meet his demand at school (they have 1-2 bags of frozen there in case he needs more but he hasn't wanted more in weeks!). Once I sent only sippys (I can't bring myself to send plain cups because he's not proficient enough with them and I don't want any BM to go to waste) he went down from 15-18oz/day to 10-12oz/day at daycare and 3-4 BFing sessions at home.
PS...
YOU were going to the be one I asked about this next month!!
holy cow!!! (no pun intended LOL) if I was still getting 12 oz I would totally keep pumping at work.... it just seems like more trouble than it's worth to sit there and pump (sometimes w/people waiting on me), have to clean a bunch of bottles and pump equipment, all for just 1 oz of milk?!?!
even w/my oversupply I only ever got that much milk in the very very beginning....but some clogged ducts and mastitis got me to ease off on my pumping real quick!! I started to pump just to relieve the engorgement and wasn't pumping until I was empty every time. after i got my supply a bit more under control i was pumping about 15-18oz/day (and that was from 2-3 times).
haha
obviously once he starts cow's milk he doesn't need BM anymore... I guess it depends if you have your heart set on absolutely BFing until a certain age. if you don't, then I wouldn't worry about the pumping (though do you not even have time during lunch to pump?) i'm guessing that if your supply is as good as it is, not pumping at work may not even really affect your nursing if you continue to nurse him frequently enough when you are at home in the evenings and on the weekends. my breasts are completely back to pre-PG size (a full 4 cup sizes down) and never really feel full anymore but she still seems to get plenty of milk when nursing. i can hear her swallowing and she seems content. and, she must be getting a bit (i imagine) b/c she still doesn't drink that much milk from the cup....she drinks about 2-4 oz/day (a mix of BM and cow's milk) when i am at home w/her and still only about 5-8 oz while i am work.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
I am also interested in this thread...we plan to start introducing cow's milk this week (mixing it with my milk) so that her morning feed while I am at work will eventually just be cow's milk. Not sure how long that transition will be. She's been eating cottage cheese, yogurt and cheese for a whlie now.
My goal is to have her weaned by June. Or at least ready for me to be away for 5 days in July without "mama milk." When I go to Chicago in March for 5 days I plan to leave as much BM in the fridge as I can so she can still get it while I am OOT. But come July I'd prefer not to have to do that.
My BFF said she left her 17 month old for a week and thought he'd give up nursing during that time. But she said when she got home he latched back on like before...and still nurses twice a day (bedtime and waking) at 26 months old. She didn't pump and was pregnant and still kept her milk! Interestingly she's BF/FF her second baby...who's now 6 months old. She said it was just easier now that she has two kids and works fulltime.
My goal was to BF one year and now that we're here I am thinking 18 months. We shall see. I do want to TTC at the end of the summer and that may signal the "don't offer, don't refuse" approach if she's not fully weaned by then.
I still pump once a day at work...the Monday milk goes in the fridge for Libby and the rest of the week I freeze the milk to donate to an adoptive mom of a three month old...she's EBF with the milk from four mamas!
Now that we're no longer bedsharing, Libby is down to 5-6 feedings/day and my boobs are still bigger than they were before I was PG. I hope they go down, at least to where they were (three cup sizes). We shall see about that.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
hmmm.... if she could go a week and not have it affect her supply then maybe I could stop pumping at work and still nurse w/o problems?
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
this is me. I think my anxiety about it has more to do with continuing to pump while at work than it does pumping in general, which is why I'm considering possibly just pumping before I leave for work each day. But I will get less since it will follow a BFing session (although he usually only eats from one side in the morning).
I think you could. She's been nursing before bed and first in the morning for over a year now. Of course with the new baby came more milk, but she was nursing her first son from 13 months on while pregnant with #2. At 17 months she night weaned him and then began dropping it down to twice a day, which he still does.
I am curious about the milk supply with just two feedings/day but on the AP board (with lots of extended nursing mothers) they all comment about nursing once or twice a day and not pumping and having plenty of milk still.
Sorry to hear this. Been there too and it sucks. That said, I am worried about pumping at work past 1 year since it's not "protected" and coworkers already think its odd that I am still BFing. So I might also just pump on the way to work (in the car) during my commute. That's the nice thing about hands-free with the FreeStyle.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
I guess my sad face made you think it was a bad situation. It's not. Just made me re-thing priorities a little. When I cam back my boss retired and I was asked to take over. Really, my dream job, but 5-10 years earlier than I had been thinking. I use to be a research assistant type - so pretty set schedule, no meetings, limited travel, etc that all have to be factored in now.
congratulations
I think I posted about this before and I don't remember exactly how it happened for us but I know I was about 4 weeks pregnant when Bella turned one. I was SO tired of pumping and just overall tired that I would literally fall asleep pumping! I kept up pumping until she was a little over a year (maybe 12-13 months) and then started the don't offer/don't refuse. She naturally dropped a couple of sessions and we were done nursing by about 13 1/2 months. (I wrote a big blog about it!) Her last feed to drop was her morning feed, surprisingly because I really thought it would be her night feed. I pumped during the morning at first and dropped all other pumpings because I was only getting about 1-1 1/2 oz total for each pumping, not worth the effort IMO. BUT in the morning pump I was getting about 3 oz so I kept that up until she was about 12 1/2 months old. But after that I was done pumping but she continued to nurse for another month. There was no way she was getting much from me but I think she was comfort nursing. She seemed satisfied but at the same time I knew she couldn't be getting much in the form of nutrition.
I would keep up the morning pump and maybe the evening pump and drop all other sessions to start and see how that goes.
My personal goal was 12 months and then to wean gradually on OUR terms, we accomplished that. I also knew that I did NOT want to be nursing a toddler when she was old enough to ask for "boobies, milk or chichis"... it just grosses me out for some reason. I can not honestly imagine nursing her now at 18 months old, she seems WAY too big and independent to be attached to me! Please don't take me wrong, I'm not judging, it's just my preference.
Jaime -- If you are only getting 0.5-1.5 oz per side.... I would stop pumping. It doesn't seem worth your time, both for the pumping to cleaning and all the other things associated. Seriously, repeat this to yourself, it's OK to stop! Your body is naturally stopping, which is why you are getting less milk, so allow it to happen. That's my advice!
It was very natural for us... I was getting less and less when I pumped. And Alexa was drinking less and less. I dropped from 3x/day to 2x/day. But I'd get 0.5-1 oz a side, if that. So it just ended up frustrating me to no end! I tried everything to up my supply, but it was just ending.
I finally stopped nursing the weekend Alexa turned 1 because I got sick and didn't want to get too close to her for fear of getting her sick too. Plus, being sick tanked my supply even more. That next week at work, I just threw in the towel and stopped pumping all at once. No engorgement, no leaking, no problems... It was just over!
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog
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Lori - thanks, that is good to know that there are plenty of moms that nurse 2x/day and don't pump at work
Robbi - I interpreted it as a good thing in a crazy hectic kind of way
congrats on the 'promotion' 
Christine - I agree and think you'd be way less stressed if you didn't have to worry about pumping while you're at work
Malia - thanks
I know, I just need to be ok with it... I am going to work tomorrow and leaving the pump at home!!! It totally feels weird not to have to tote that bag w/me but also a huge weight (literally and figuratively) off my shoulders! it's been sooooooo frustrating pumping and getting so little each time, i'll be glad to be rid of that frustration.
Sarah - I do remember reading your blog post b/c I wanted insight on what weaning might be like for us in the future. I think B seemed to wean rather quickly, over just a few days though right? there is no way that we are going to wean that fast (not that I necessarily want to) - but she loves to BF! though I have to admit that I was shocked today when she said "me me" (her way of saying "milk"), I pulled my nursing top down, she nearly leapt into boob, sucked for a few seconds, and then pulled off and continued to ask for milk! so I took her downstairs and gave her some milk in a cup and she drank it. I can see how the 'don't offer don't refuse' thing would work w/babies but I never thought she'd choose milk from a cup over the breast when the breast was offered to her! she is doing good self weaning though, I think.... she has gone down to 4x/day (occasionally 5) in just a week. for now I am happy w/that, as just dropping 2 sessions per day seems a lot easier for me. we'll just have to see how the rest of this plays out....
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
We weaned over about 4-5 weeks total. Bella LOVED to BF and I thought there was no way in heck that she'd wean before 16 months but once I started the don't offer/don't refuse she started dropping them quickly. I think she was ready but since I had been offering so much I didn't realize that she was actually even close to weaning. Bella was dropping 1-2 sessions a week until we were done weaning. I think she started out nursing 6-7 times a day and within about 2 weeks we were down to 3 sessions. Then she dropped the two later in the day feedings and lastly the morning feed, which I thought would be her first to go! It's weird how I thought one thing would happen and she did something different.
first, congrats on your first pump free day
must feel refreshing!
I always assumed that this is what lots of extended breastfeeders do. Even if I was a SAHM I bet Jack would start to ask less and less anytime we were out of the house. Heck, even when we are IN the house he has trouble focusing on BFing unless it lines up with his typical un-winding time before and after sleeping. For now that mental milestone of pumping has been one year and I know I can easily make that happen - anything after that will be a bonus if I do decide to change my mind. I would pump if I am going to be away from him for an extended amount of time or overnight but no more daytime pumping.
We'll see, I will continue to BF for as long as he wants with a re-check of that goal at 2 yrs.
thanks
i almost didn't know what to do w/myself... i'm so used to trying to find a break in the day that's convenient for pumping that when i had some time today i wasn't sure what to do LOL
duh, I guess I didn't really think about what i was saying...of course people can BF 2x/day w/o pumping at work b/c you can always nurse in the morning/evening before you leave for work and when you come home from work.... i guess my Q is whether I can nurse 4x/day still when I am not pumping at work! I guess we'll find out soon enough...
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats