EP'ers and BF'ers who pump

butterfly62682

How are you planning to wean from the pump? I have a strict schedule I stick to everyday. It is one of the reasons I believe I have had so much success pumping all this time. I still get between 45 - 50 ozs a day. So how the heck do I come down from that? I pump 4 times a day for about 15 mins.

What is your plan? I want to be finished with this by 18 months. 

It kind of freaks me out to think about weaning. Since pumping has been such a huge part of my life.

vigurl

I had that much milk before my supply drop due to not pumping enough during our 10 day vacay.  I got my supply back close but then I got sick and it dropped again.  I decided to work to bring it back up but LO is now 10 months as of yesterday and I have way over 5k oz.  So now I am down to 2 pump sessions and I hope to go down to one in 4 more weeks and then quit on his one yr bday.  He is still getting all fresh milk except for 4oz per day.  When I drop down to one pump 1/2 his bottles would be fresh and 1/2 frozen.

bunnymama625

my plan when she hits 1 year is to just switch to 2 sessions a day at work, plus the before bed one at home. Then when that's going fine, go down to just one at work, a few min before bed, then eventually phase it out.

If my supply tanks again quickly (guessing it will), then I'll just speed up the schedule.

butterfly62682

vigurl:

I had that much milk before my supply drop due to not pumping enough during our 10 day vacay.  I got my supply back close but then I got sick and it dropped again.  I decided to work to bring it back up but LO is now 10 months as of yesterday and I have way over 5k oz.  So now I am down to 2 pump sessions and I hope to go down to one in 4 more weeks and then quit on his one yr bday.  He is still getting all fresh milk except for 4oz per day.  When I drop down to one pump 1/2 his bottles would be fresh and 1/2 frozen.

I have donated all of my frozen because I have always fed fresh and never had a problem giving her what she needed. So I don't really want to drop any before her 1 year. I guess at one year I should drop one pump and then at 13 months drop another and so on until I am completely finished.

Wow...that's scary. 

nirern626

I'm wondering the same. I only pump the 2 days I work, but I'm hoping that at a year, I can quit pumping and just continue to nurse at home but I'm not sure how that would work. 

butterfly62682

nirern626:

I'm wondering the same. I only pump the 2 days I work, but I'm hoping that at a year, I can quit pumping and just continue to nurse at home but I'm not sure how that would work. 

I really want to continue some BM past one year and I am so afraid my supply will tank once I start dropping pumps.

mesr

i'm also nervous about this!  when i was weaning dd1, i was also pregnant, so my milk supply naturally diminished.  i went from 3x pump a day to 1x pump a day at work before getting pregnant though.  that was when dd1 was 18 months old.  it was painful for the first few days, but not too bad.  i didn't give up the lunch-time pump though until i was 3 or 4 months pregnant and getting very little.

The_Birds_04

vigurl:

I had that much milk before my supply drop due to not pumping enough during our 10 day vacay.  I got my supply back close but then I got sick and it dropped again.  I decided to work to bring it back up but LO is now 10 months as of yesterday and I have way over 5k oz.  So now I am down to 2 pump sessions and I hope to go down to one in 4 more weeks and then quit on his one yr bday.  He is still getting all fresh milk except for 4oz per day.  When I drop down to one pump 1/2 his bottles would be fresh and 1/2 frozen.

I have gotten it down to 3 sessions a day so he gets fresh when he is with me (monring, nights, & weekends) but during the day he gets all frozen. 

Vigurl - do you just pump every 12 hours?  Morning and night?  I was planning on counting my stash in the deep freeze and calculating it I could drop another pump on the 1st of April.  He will be 10 months and I would love to only pump when I get up and go to bed.  But I am afraid I would lose my supply completely. 

vigurl

The_Birds_04:

Vigurl - do you just pump every 12 hours?  Morning and night?  I was planning on counting my stash in the deep freeze and calculating it I could drop another pump on the 1st of April.  He will be 10 months and I would love to only pump when I get up and go to bed.  But I am afraid I would lose my supply completely. 

 

Yep.  First thing when I wake up and last thing before bed so its more than 12 hours.  I get about 11 oz per session.

mari_gold

At 12 months I'll drop my daytime pump. My other pump is while I'm at work, but it's for her bedtime bottle, so I'll do that one until I am done breastfeeding entirely.