Hellobee Boards

About 6 weeks ago, my schedule was this:

6:30am - nurse (pump the other side)
9am - pump
12pm - pump
3pm - pump
7:30pm - nurse (pump the other side)

-I dropped the morning and night pumps first.
-About a month ago, I dropped the 12pm pump.
-Two weeks ago, I dropped the 9am and consolidated to one session at 12pm.
-Last week, I stopped pumping entirely.

I am still nursing at wakeup and bedtime. At first my supply dropped cuz my body thought we were done, but after a day or two it realized that it needed to keep up. I now have plenty of milk for the 2 nursing sessions but am not engorged at any point. I would just go slowly and give your body time to regulate and catch up with what you're doing!

I went from four pump sessions plus nursing morning and night to just nursing at night over the course of about four weeks. I wasn't getting a lot during my pump sessions so it wasn't a big deal dropping pump sessions.

I've had no problems maintaining the night session, and I've had to do MOTN feeds a few times to get A. back to sleep and that's been no problem either.

Good luck! And turning ONE! So exciting.

@Adira: Yeah, just about! I actually dropped the last pump kind of spontaneously. I got strep throat on Wednesday so I was home sick from work on Thursday. I tried using my manual pump but was too tired to put much effort into it so I never even got a letdown and only got about an ounce. Then Friday I was at a conference and forgot to bring my manual. I had to go into the bathroom at a break and hand-express a little bit, but since then it's been fine!

@Adira: I wouldn't worry; I think your body will adjust and just eventually only produce enough for that one session.

@Smurfette: I'm starting to think of weaning and I think the morning session is the last one I want to take out!!! I'll lose a good 30-60 minutes of sleep. LOL

@littlebug: I'm in the same position as @adira and I was wondering, when you dropped a pump, how long did it take your body to adjust? I want to stop dropping a pump in two weeks, but I'm afraid of being totally engorged!

@sotofamilia: Just a couple of days. And I wasn't ever uncomfortably engorged, just, like "Oh, hmm...that feels full." The only time I was uncomfortable was the Friday that I was at the conference, and I just hand-expressed a bit into some toilet paper in the bathroom and it was fine.

@sotofamilia: I hear ya. I was actually kind of sad about unexpectedly dropping the last session. I'd been pumping in the lactation room in the Intensive Care Nursery at the hospital where I work, and I had kind of come to like it - it was a nice, quiet break from the floor. And I got to know some of the ICN mommies and the lactation consultant pretty well. I keep meaning to go down and say a proper goodbye, and even considered baking some lactation cookies to leave in there. And definitely giving the LC a thank-you note, cuz she was super supportive for the whole 9 months I was using the lounge. But I am also SO happy to be free of the pump and not having to carry that extra bag to/from work every day!

My baby is one (!) tomorrow, and I stopped pumping two weeks ago. I had been nursing at wake up, pumping 3x/day at work, and then nursing 1-2x in the evenings (sometimes DD would want to nurse as soon as I picked her up from the nanny, but mostly she would just want "real" dinner and would just nurse once at bedtime). Starting at about 9 months, my supply really dropped (conincided with DD's increased interest in solids), so I was only getting 7-9 ounces total per day pumping, so dropping to 2 pumps per day was no problem (I got about 6-7 ounces that way). At the same time I dropped a pump, I: (1) dropped a bottle - and started leaving DD 2 bottles + 1 cup of WCM with the nanny; and (2) stopped nursing when I got home, so we were only nursing at wake up and bedtime. After a week of 2 pumps, I dropped to one. I only got 2 ounces from one pump per day, so I just stopped pumping entirely. I did not have any fullness or engorgement issues, but I did experience a lot of nausea and headaches for about a week. I went through a box of HPTs because what I had felt exactly like MS.

I am still nursing and wake up and bedtime and it's going really well. My supply has stabilized and may be a bit lower than it used to be, especially in the morning, but DD seems very satisfied.