Today is my last day of pumping and I'm surprising myself by feeling a little sad. I went back to work part-time when my now 9 month old daughter was 3 months old. I managed to pump enough for her to be exclusively breastfed until 6 months, but when she started on solids my period came back and my supply took a serious hit. Since then, I kept pumping but was getting less and less. Since I was already supplementing with formula, I dropped a pumping session which really tanked my supply. Last week, I only pumped enough for half a bottle every day. I decided the stress and effort of pumping just was not worth getting a max of three ounces a day, so today I pumped once at 2 pm but I know I could have gone the rest of the day and been OK, so I'm going to pack up the pump and just keep nursing her in the morning and at bedtime.
I thought I would feel AMAZING to be free of the pump and in most ways I do, but I find myself being kind of sad to be done with this era of babyhood. It's such an unexpected feeling since I hate pumping. Anyone else feel like that?