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April 2015 Moms
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Because the breastfeeding board is dead..

ur_mom222ur_mom222 member
in April 2015 Moms
this might piss you guys off that I'm asking this here so I'm sorry in advance.

So if some of you remember, my daughter was born at 29 weeks 4 days. She's since done amazing and has been home since Wednesday (I would be 38 weeks on Monday). I've been pumping and freezing my milk since she was born so she has a huge supply of breastmilk, but she REFUSES to breastfeed. My supply has mostly dried up from just exclusively pumping but I want it to dry up completely so I don't get engorged once a day. Just so everyone knows and doesn't freak out, if I pump every 2-3 hours I still am getting barely 2 ounces a day.

Taking all this into consideration, do any of you have tips on drying up the rest of my supply? I'm engorged but it's not really bad so idk if quitting cold turkey is an option. Thanks you guys!
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Re: Because the breastfeeding board is dead..

  • katiiekavkatiiekav member
    Why would anyone freak out? If you feel that it's right for you and your baby then that's your decision, I don't think you have to justify it. With that being said, when I was done BF and pumping, I started from pumping 6 times a day to 3 then 2 and 1 over a period of time. But it sounds like you are pretty close to drying up so maybe try pumping only in the morning then at night? Luckily, weaning never was painful for me and I avoided getting engorged. I had friends who went cold turkey and told me it wasn't too bad but that was their experience.

    PS glad to hear your little girl is doing so well!! Good luck!
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  • lilann2011lilann2011 member
    I just started pumping less and less like 15min to 10 to 5 over like a week and that worked fort me :) and cut back on the amount of times per day. If you aren't super engorged you could probably just stope and only have a rough day or 2 then be good!
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  • Babykells3Babykells3 member
    DS1 was a 31 weeker and refused to breastfeed as well, you're not alone! When I was ready to stop EP I just started cutting back on pumping sessions and not pumping for as long each time. I never had any engorgement and just dried up like that. Good luck with everything! Glad to hear that your little one is doing well!
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  • Mel&John2013Mel&John2013 member
    When I stopped I both skipped pumping sessions and pumped for less time, but if you're only producing a couple of ounces a day you may be able to just hand express to make yourself comfortable. After a couple of days you'll have to express less and less.
    If you do get engorged, I've heard cabbage leaves provide some relief.
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  • ur_mom222ur_mom222 member
    Thank you guys! I think I gradually did that by accident over time and that's also partly why my supply dropped. I wanted to justify myself because women are very opinionated on this site, which is awesome, but I wanted to clarify so I could avoid all the "you should try hard to keep your supply" comments and get some good advice. I appreciate the advice and am gonna try the cabbage leaves as well as hand expressing cause since she's been home I've been having trouble finding time to pump. Thanks again!
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  • darcyalenedarcyalene member
    I ended up pumping exclusively for my daughter because we had latch issues and my pediatrician really freaked me out at our first appointment the first day we were being home saying that she had already lost her 10% of her birth weight and that even though she was peeing and pooping enough that we should consider other options...in hindsight, I wish I had just walked out of that doctor's office and never looked back because the lady ended up being an idiot, but that was the first time we had ever met her since she came on such high recommendation from my sister in law...anyway, I started pumping every 3 hours and after 3 months of putting up a good fight, I finally dried up.  Mine kind of dried up on it's own.  Like you said, after pumping for about a half hour I was only getting 2-3 ounces total.  At that point I just let myself get engorged to dry up and at that point I was so dried up already it was gone within a day or 2.  I just took some ibuprofen and that was the end of it.
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  • Mel&John2013Mel&John2013 member
    mamakeeg said:

    Thank you guys! I think I gradually did that by accident over time and that's also partly why my supply dropped. I wanted to justify myself because women are very opinionated on this site, which is awesome, but I wanted to clarify so I could avoid all the "you should try hard to keep your supply" comments and get some good advice. I appreciate the advice and am gonna try the cabbage leaves as well as hand expressing cause since she's been home I've been having trouble finding time to pump. Thanks again!

    Please don't feel like you have to justify yourself. You've done a great job! Exclusively pumping is a really tough task. It doesn't change how much you love your baby and you're still a wonderful mom :)
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  • topaz7777topaz7777 member

    If you want to stop, just stop.  Cold turkey shouldn't be too bad.  What you can do is use cold cabbage leaves to keep the engorgement down.  If you get too uncomfortable pump just enough to releive some pressure.  Use ice packs too.

     

    Factor V Leiden Homozygous, Advanced Maternal Age

     

    TTC #1, 5 yrs, PCOS, Femera + Ovidrel.

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