Pumpers....how long did you have to do it?

[COgirl19]

DD2 is only 2 months old so I know I have awhile. But I am curious as to how long you had to pump at work and how often once they start solids and after they turn one? I have a double electric pump and having been pumping twice a day between 9 and 5.

[Marissamom]

you probably won't be able to decrease how often you're pumping until at least 12 months. I stopped pumping when DD was 15 month. at that point she wasn't interested in a bottle while I was gone and I was barely getting anything (an oz a day, but also pregnant, so was having a supply drop).

[MamaChicken]

With both DD and the twins I pumped 3x per day for 8 months. By 12 months I was able to quit. All three were very interested in solids and didn't want bottles anymore. We were completely done with bottles by 15 months.

[haydn'smommy]

I'm still pumping at work at almost 14mos. I've gone down from pumping 4x/day to 2x/day in the last week. I plan to keep pumping at least once daily for another couple of months and then stop.

[bella99]

I pumped from the time my daughter was 6 weeks to just about 14 months. I started pumping once or twice a day from 6-12 weeks to build up a stash.

From 12 weeks to 13 months, I pumped 3-4 times day (2-3 at work, once after she went to bed), in addition to nursing her.

At 13 months, I went down to twice a day, and by 14 months I put the pump away.

[3girls1boy]

I only worked two nights a week when my kids were babies, but I found that I wasn't pumping nearly as much on my work break around the 6 month mark. Because I always had a good supply and wasn't gone every day (and also none of my kids took much while I was gone), I was able to pump enough the day before to leave for my work days.

When I stopped pumping regularly at work, I did keep a clean bottle with a cap in my lunch bag and if I felt a let down during my break, I would just go into a bathroom and hand express.

[lunarlady]

I pumped for 10.5 months, from when I went back to work at 7 weeks until DD was 11 months. The freezer stash took us to a year EBF. She is still nursing at 4 years, so stopping pumping didn't hurt our nursing relationship.

[hildare]

dd's a year old, and i'm still pumping, but just once a day, and that's more for my comfort than her consumption. she's an all night nurser, though. most of the other folks i know quit pumping after a year, and i'm looking forward to doing that soon.

[buckeyedoc]

With the older two kids (and currently with this one), I started off by pumping 3x per day, which was once before work (hands-free while doing my make-up and hair) and twice while at work. I had a HUGE supply with my oldest son and was able to drop a pumping session when he was 6 months old, leaving me with one at home and one at work until he was 1 year old. I could never do that with my second son, so I pumped 3x per day until he was 1 year old. After that, I only nursed directly when I was at home.

[akind1]

I went back to work when DS was 7 weeks old, 2 days a week in the office. the other 3 working days I work from home. I pumped twice a day from 7 weeks through 11 months. the last couple weeks I have dropped to once a day the days I am in the office. I will bring the pump home for good when he is a year old. I am working on increasing his solids intake so that hopefully he will be done with daytime mama-milk shortly after his 1st birthday. (all that said, nursing 1 year was my goal, anything after that, is great! I am just working on shifting his majority nutrition to solids instead of breastmilk)

My work has a great lactation room and managers are generally really great about us pumping whenever we need to. without that, making it to a year would have been alot harder.

[Ellien C]

Last time I only pumped for 10 months at work. I had no trouble cutting out pumping sessions at all. I'm sure I started declining pumping before that. From 3 sessions down to 2 at maybe 9 months. From 1-none went really quickly. My daughter continued to have a long nursing history with me until she was 4.5 years old and I weaned her. I would like to pump for 12 months with my new baby, but he's REALLY into food!