Silly pumping question -- wwyd?
Soon2BMrsN
member
I'm a high school teacher and today is the last day of school (woo-hoo!) My DS is almost 8 months old, and will be ~10 months when school starts up again in August. Right now, I pump 2x a day at work and BF at home. I am able to keep up with his demands for milk (~12 oz. per day). I hate pumping and I am so excited to get a break! As far as pumping when school starts up again, I think I have two options... I'm just curious to see what others think about them.
Option 1 -- take a full break from pumping this summer and pump 1x a day at work when I go back. Hope DS will be down to maybe just 2 bottles (or cups by then?) of EBM since he'll be eating more solids at 10 months. My concern for this option is that pumping at work takes away from time I could/should be planning lessons and grading.
Option 2 -- pump 1x a day during the summer and freeze all of it for when I go back to work. This option concerns me a little regarding supply issues. Will my body be able to not pump in 8 hours by then? Is fresh milk always better than milk that has been frozen?
After 1 year, I hope to go to nursing only at home and give DS WCM at daycare. We did this with my first DS and it worked out beautifully.
Thoughts?
Re: Silly pumping question -- wwyd?
I'd do both. Pump during the summer to build up a sort of stash, and then start work with the anticipation of pumping. If it's just too hard to pump at work, no issue! Then you can use the frozen milk.
Yes, fresh is always better than frozen. But frozen is better than nothing. Also keep in mind it's only 2ish months of pumping, which isn't a long time. And the last few weeks you can start weaning off slowly from the pump - quitting cold turkey can lead to issues.
At 9 months, DD is still taking full bottles. She's eating a lot of solids, but the same amout of BM as well. So I'd be worried that I didn't have enough of a stash to carry over to 12 months.