considering stopping to pump earlier than I though

[Altair]

posting here and not the BFing board b/c this is specifically a working issue.

I am struggling with this decision. My boy is 13 months old and loves BFing. I work early morning until early afternoon (teacher) and he's home with Daddy then. For the first year I pumped twice a day and gave him 2-3 bottles (up to 12oz total) each day and nursed afternoon, all night, and morning. We reverse cycled pretty well.

At 12 months I nightweaned him (he nurses around 5-6AM now) because he was not getting any sleep (nor was I). So now we nurse early morning, then maybe 2-3 times before bed, and all weekend. He gets 2 bottles of my milk (4 oz each) while I'm at work... I only pump once a day now so one bottle is fresh and one is from my freezer stash. I have 44 more work days until summer break, when I will nurse him full time again. I have 28 more frozen bags of milk. When I go back in September I will not pump anymore but will nurse as much as he wants.

Dad tried him on a bottle of fresh, local non-homogenized (but not raw) grass fed whole milk today and he loved it. So that makes me feel better. He's had that milk mixed in things for awhile now with no issues.

So here's my options:

1. Continue to pump once a day for the rest of the year (my original plan). For the next 28 work days he gets a frozen bottle and a fresh bottle, for the next 16 work days he gets one fresh bottle and 1 bottle of milk.

2. Continue to pump once a day and spread out the frozen milk starting now so he gets 1.5 bottles of mm a day and half a bottle of cow's milk for the rest of the school year.

buuuuuuuut... I have really developed a severe dislike for pumping lately. It just makes my skin crawl in a way that BFing never does. I hate how much time it takes at work and I just hate the feeling of the pump now, I'm cringing the whole time.

So... other options.

3. Stop after 16 more work days and only give one bottle of pumped milk a day until summer break. He'll get one bottle of cow's milk every day.

4. Stop pumping now and give him frozen milk until it runs out. There will be 16 days he will only get cow's milk.

I could cut out the afternoon milk completely, but he really loves the cuddling bottle time with Daddy so much I'd like for him to have that until summer break, then he will be off bottles permanently then.

Any thoughts? Options I haven't thought of?

Of course, ALL of this goes along with a heavy, heavy dose of guilt, needless to say.

[akayerich]

I quit pumping at work when DS was around that age, too. He was only getting one bottle of my milk then, anyway, and we just switched it over to whole non-homogenized local milk. We actually cut the bottle out all together and he gets it in his cup. He loves it and it's been fine.

I understand the guilt thing. I felt it a little, too, at first. I think sometimes we let ourselves get carried away with the guilt thing. If he tolerates the cow's milk and likes it, and you're still nursing a good bit throughout the rest of the day, I think that's great.

[Altair]

Should have added my two main concerns-- 1, that my supply will stay high enough to nurse as much as he wants when we're together, and 2, that I won't lose his interest enough to stop him from nursing until 2, my minimum goal.

Good to hear btdt stories!

Oh, and he won't take a cup. He will drink small amounts of ice water out of an adult cup throughout the day, but won't drink anything else out of anything and won't use a sippy cup or small cup. Silly boy.

[akayerich]

Originally Posted by Altair

Should have added my two main concerns-- 1, that my supply will stay high enough to nurse as much as he wants when we're together, and 2, that I won't lose his interest enough to stop him from nursing until 2, my minimum goal.

The supply thing is a definite concern. There's actually a thread about this a little bit down the page. I ended up just giving him that extra cow's milk everyday, which works for us. But I can see from your original post that you want to go back to just nursing after the school year, so..... Maybe your supply will go back up once the demand increases again?

[Altair]

Well, I'm not that worried about the summer, every time I have a break he increases my supply by nursing a ton. I'm more worried at nights during the school year that it will be too frustrating to him to nurse because there will be less. Pumping once a day is keeping up my supply, I'm sure... I hear friends say they can stop pumping after a year and just nurse when together, but it makes me nervous!

[akayerich]

Maybe you could try pumping once a day, just not at work? Would it be any more tolerable if you could do it in the comfort of your own home? Like maybe pump first thing in the morning after he nurses? Or after his first post-work nursing?

[chickiebabe]

If it helps, I quit pumping around that time with my DS - he nursed happily until he was 4.5 years old. Supply really wasn't an issue. I think it's likely that as long as he nurses a couple times a day, your supply will be fine.