Advice needed, ready to wean from pump at work

DahliaFlower · August 2014

My original goal had been to BF my DS until he was at least 9 -12 months old. We are still going strong at 10.5 months. I am very happy to continue BF on demand while I am home and would continue pumping maybe once a day or so at home. I would like to start weaning from the pump during my work day. I have started stretching out the time between pump sessions at work to about 5-6 hours or so. Sometimes I am only pumping once while I am gone for the day, depending on my schedule.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has quit pumping during their work day. I would like to start slowly weaning at home too, but I know it will be a long process, probably taking the next month and a half at least. DS is still a night feeder and I recognize that this will be a hard habit to break.

I would appreciate any feedback. TIA!

kjsmith9 · August 2014

It sounds like you already are weaning at work, since you're stretching the time between sessions. If you're down to one session per day, then start backing off time (i.e., if you currently do 20 minutes, cut it to 10 or 15 for a few days). I rarely had clogged ducts, and never had mastitis, so I cut from 2 sessions to 1 session for a week or two, and then I just stopped. I took the pump with me to work for an extra week in case I got really uncomfortable during the day, but I never had to use it. If I had issues with clogged ducts prior to that, I may have tried to go more slowly, but dropping that last work session (without cutting down time first) worked fine for me.

crash916 · August 2014

I would do what you've been doing. The first few days of no pumping were a little uncomfortable but my body adjusted quickly. I still kept up with MOTN nursing and before and after work.
Your supply will drop probably so you may want to consider if you are willing to use a freezer stash if you have one. I ended up using all of mine to make it to 1 year EBF. I weaned from pumping at 11 months.
Good luck. It's a wonderful feeling to be free from the pump!

DahliaFlower · August 2014

@kjsmith9, I agree with what you're saying, unfortunately I had 3 episodes of mastitis early on so I am a little nervous about going too fast.

I'm thinking that when I do pump at work, I will limit myself to only about 4 - 5 oz and cut back from there. I sometimes get quite a bit more than that, but really I just want to pump enough to avoid engorgement and blocked ducts.

@crash916 I do have a smallish freezer stash (about 100 oz), so if I pull out a bag here or there, I think I should be good for the next few weeks at least.

Meanwhile, DS has been taking a lot less milk during the day while I am gone, so I feel like we should do OK if I pump before work, once during day and either one more pump at home or a bag from freezer should cover about 15 oz during the work day.

kjsmith9 · August 2014

DahliaFlower said:

@kjsmith9, I agree with what you're saying, unfortunately I had 3 episodes of mastitis early on so I am a little nervous about going too fast.

I'm thinking that when I do pump at work, I will limit myself to only about 4 - 5 oz and cut back from there. I sometimes get quite a bit more than that, but really I just want to pump enough to avoid engorgement and blocked ducts.

Yeah that makes sense. I was never super consistent with ounces - it was very much related to how well I was doing with water consumption. But maybe then cut down an ounce every few days to a week.

vvvvvfee · August 2014

i started at 3x a day, cut back to 2x a day around 7-8 months, then went to once a day around a year, and stopped at 14 months. i had no issues going from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1. when i decided to stop completely, i was a little engorged the first day, and had to pump for about 5 minutes to relieve the pressure. by the next day i was fine. if you've had issues with clogged ducts/mastitis, you could go more gradually- like maybe gradually cut the amount of time you pump at the session you want to drop before dropping it.

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Advice needed, ready to wean from pump at work

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