Working moms who breastfed past a year... Help!?

mrsdahamm · October 2014

My LO is 8 months old. I have been back to work since 8 weeks and pump at work. He has done soooo well and we are closing in on my original goal of 1 year. We aren't incredibly consistent feeding him solids yet, and his milk intake hasn't really changed at all. I'm starting to wonder about continuing to pump at work past 1 year. I know he "can" start on cow's milk at that time, but if we're doing well, I don't see the point. Does anyone have any experience continuing to pump at work past 12 months?

CNYBride05 · October 2014

I'm still pumping and now pumping a surplus of 3-9oz/day depending on their intake (3-6oz each/day). My girls eat a lot of solids (3 meals and 2 snacks at daycare or 3 meals and boob snacks with me) and still nurse 8+ x/day when I'm not working.

musicalsilver · October 2014

I'm still pumping, and LO just turned 16 months.

I had a very substantial freezer stash of about 300oz, so I've been dipping into that for a while.

At about 10 months I went down to one pumping session per day. I was getting about 6oz a day from my one pump, so I started using freezer stash to get up to the ~10oz he takes a day at daycare.

We've been doing that up until this past Friday when I used the last of my freezer stash. My supply has gone down a bit to where I'm now getting 4-5oz during my pump. My plan for the foreseeable future is to continue the one pump a day (because it doesn't bother me and my work is very flexible about it), and supplement the rest with WCM. I'll probably finally drop the pump when LO goes up to the next room at daycare (~18 months) and they supply milk for the kids.

katharine25 · October 2014

We're at 13 months and I'm still pumping 3x a day at work, and really can't see decreasing that since LO eats like a bird but basically runs a marathon in excercize every day. It's a bummer cause i'm so sick of the pump *which I definitely didn't fell at 8 months). I wouldn't really plan on anything at 8 months for what you want to do at 1 year = wait until you get there and see how you want to continue

MamaMD · October 2014

My LO is 16 months and I just stopped pumping at work 2 weeks ago at 15+ months. I did go from 3 pumps to 2 pumps at around 12 months (I think, can't remember exactly) and to 1 pump around 14 months. Like PP said the amount I was able to pump started dropping when she was taking more solids and really dropped after 12 months which is one reason I started cutting out pumping sessions. I used up my freezer stash just before she turned 1 and had to supplement some formula for daycare bottles after that since she took a while to accept WCM in the sippy. I did get side-eyed at work for pumping so long but too bad, I decide what's right for me and my LO! Good luck with whatever you decide and congrats on making it this far!

ejb23 · October 2014

My LO drastically reduced her milk intake at dc around 11 months so I went from 3x to 2x pumping around 11.5 months then to 1x at 12 months. My LO is 12.5 months now and I'm still pumping once and will likely continue for a while. I planned to stop pumping by now but it's actually not that bad pumping once for 10 mins! Gives me a chance to have some quiet time for myself at work.

mommatotwo2 · October 2014

I'm 100% with @casey78 on our similar experiences.

Around 9 months, I too really had to start fighting for my pumping ounces, as LO's solids intake increased and her nursing slightly decreased, therefore my overly supply decreased. My ten months I was really struggling and my 11 months was only getting about 6 oz a day from 2-3 pumping sessions. Just 2 weeks shy of a year, we discovered LO had a dairy sensitivity to just straight cows milk. I decided to transition her to a couple of ounces of soy milk in her breakfast and lunch sippies at daycare and nursed morning, evening, before bed, doc said this was good enough. We decided to reintro the cows milk at 15 months and that went well, so now we are pretty much fully transitioned over to cows milk with nursing just before bed and occasionally at other times.

It's definitely a personal and case by case type thing but I'd say just keep going the way you are, and see how it goes

Everyusernameistaken · October 2014

At a year my supply was regulated enough that I stopped pumping and nursed when we were together. So LO got WCM while I was at work (3 days/ week) and I nursed him during the day on weekends/ my days off and in the evenings.
ETA, LO was also eating lots of solids by then.

NatesCupcake47 · October 2014

DD is coming up on 13 months. Starting around 11 months I wasn't pumping enough for her when she was at daycare so my freezer stash started to get depleted. We made it through to one and now we're supplementing her pumped milk with wcm. Once she hit one I went from pumping twice a day at work to once. It's been really nice to only need to pump once :-) My work is pretty flexible with the pumping so will continue that for probably as long as we continue to bf.

linzeek44 · October 2014

I pumped through 18 months and didn't offer other milk. He continued to nurse when we were together- several times a day and more often on the weekends.

Now at 24+ months, he nurses when we are together and eats a lot of calcium-rich foods rather than other milk.

MrsBigTime · October 2014

My daughter wasn't a big fan of solids until a little after 12 months, so don't be discouraged if he isn't yet eating enough to substitute milk yet, he'll get there!

I stopped pumping at 13 months, and used a mixture of my freezer supply and almond or cow's milk (starting with a 1/2 and 1/2 mix with BM) for bottles before naps. We also noticed that my DD started eating and snacking more as we did less bottles throughout the day.

FWIW, I haven't pumped in nearly 9 months and we're still nursing before bed/naps, so continuing your BF relationship after pumping is totally possible.

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