Question about weaning from the pump

[LindsC]

DD is 10 months old and I totally plan on letting her wean herself.

That said, I currently work outside the home 4 days a week and I am pumping at work twice a day. I was just wondering what your experiences were when it came to deciding to wean yourself from pumping at work. I'm not sure how much longer I want to pump for as it is. I know that I am going to continue pumping until she is 12 months old, but not sure if I want to continue after that. I probably have a 4-5 week supply of frozen milk left in my freezer and I rarely have to use anything from it.

Any advice or insight would be great!

[Heba]

My experience:
I expressed at work until 12 months, then stopped. By then ds was on more complementary food during the day, and he had some sort of other milk and water as drinks during the day. We continued to breastfeed evenings, early mornings and weekends for another 2+ years.

Good luck with your decision!

[Inspired007]

With dd I weaned from the pump when she was 10 months. I had enough milk to make sure she had bottles during the day while I was gone to work and she never had formula as an infant. I weaned her completely when she was 13 months old. I probably won't wean from the pump that early this time b/c my backup stash is much lower. I might also wait to wean my son until he is about 18 months old to try to get him through the winter with all the cold/flu bugs going around.

[Biscuits & Gravy]

With DS1 I weaned from the pump at around 15 months. He continued to nurse until he was 26.5 months. I was so nervous about not pumping and afraid it would kill my supply, but it was totally fine.

[desertgirl01]

I have a similar work situation--4 days a week, pumping 2x a day. I'm in the process of weaning off the pump right now. Once DD turns 1 year (in about 2.5 weeks), I'll try dropping down to 1 pump. Yesterday, I forgot part of my pump, and wasn't able to pump all day, and it did not feel good! Obviously not quite ready to stop pumping yet, but I do think going down to once a day will work out well. As soon as I can stop with once a day pumping, I'm done! Can't wait to 'hang up the horns'!!

I'm not too worried about my supply as I've not had issues before and it seems really common to wean from the pump and still be able to breastfed at other times. I hope I'm not an exception!