Scared of mastitis again or losing supply

[danube]

It seems my baby mostly wants milk between 5pm and 8pm- do I need to keep pumping during the day?

When my DD was 3 months old, I had a nasty case of mastitis and ended up in the hospital for 5 days after having an abscess drained. Since then, I've been very careful to make sure I never get engorged and treat any redness or lumps immediately.

My DD is nearly 8 months old now and eating solids. I work full time and have been pumping at work, but I'm pumping out more than she's taking and our freezer is full. I donate the extra milk now and then, but I'm torn. On one hand it'd be nice to be more in sync with what DD really needs, but on the other hand I'm worried that if I don't pump that big midday amount, I'll either lose my supply or end up in the hospital again.

Here's our rough schedule. I can only pump at lunch at work, unfortunately.

7:00am - she gets up and nurses, probably just 2oz or so

7:30am - I pump our around 4 or 5 oz because I need relief and then leave for work

8:30am - DH (he stays home with her) makes her cereal with 2 oz of the milk and then gives her the rest in a bottle

11:30    - DD eats solids

12:30    -I pump at work, usually get 8-9oz

2:30      -DD might take a 4oz bottle, but more likely she'll have more solids

5:00pm -I come home and nurse her, and she probably takes around 3oz

6:00pm -Dinner time, solids for everybody

7:30pm -bedtime, nurse her to sleep

12:00am -she wakes up, nurses back to sleep

3:00am  -she wakes up, I try to nurse her back to sleep but she's ready to party

Now that I see it written out like that, it looks fairly ok. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

[purplerose]

i wouldn't call it being paranoid! i can't imagine mastitis bad enough for a hospital stay! have you skipped any of the pumpings? if so, did you get engorged?

[danube]

No, haven't skipped any of the pumpings. Do you think I should try?

The mastitis started out as normal (red, hot, hurt) but I didn't rest or see my doctor and ended up with a huge infection. It was not a fun time.

[purplerose]

i don't know if i'd stop pumping, i was just wondering if you had skipped one and what happened if you did. mastitis is awful. maybe someone else has more experience and can give you advice about how to stop pumping. if that milk is not needed it would be ok, but the issue here is if you are prone to mastitis, then you'd need to be careful.