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Any working mamas pump past 1?

1K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  Moonqueen 
#1 ·
I've seen a few threads about working mamas quitting at the baby's first b-day. (Which I completely understand!)

I am a teacher; I pumped for son until he was 11 months old, and then summer break started! Woohoo! Now he's 1 and in a month I'll have to go back. He absolutely refuses to drink out of a cup, and we haven't used bottles for a month. (It's just been the breast and solid food.)

I really can't decide what to do when I go back. I've LOVED being off the pump! But, I kind of feel like maybe I should pump for him again when I go back to work.

Any advice?
 
#2 ·
I'm just getting there. DD will be one on Sunday. Unlike your ds, though, she loves sippy cups (we've been practicing with water, but she won't take EBM out of it), so we're hoping she'll drink organic cow or soy milk out of the cup. My plan is to gradually stop pumping in the next month or so. I'll probably go from pumping 2x a day down to once a day for a couple of weeks and then just pump if I feel like I'm going to become engorged (probably won't happen bc my pumping output has gradually been decreasing lately - might be bc I need new valves/membranes, but I'm not going to get new ones this close to her first b-day). Anyway, I plan to continue BF when I'm at home for the time being, but gradually give up pumping in the next month or so. I do know of people who pump past a year and admire them, but I just don't think that's something I want to/will be able to do. I will be reevaluating this next week based on whether dd will take milk from a cup.
 
#3 ·
I stopped pumping when my dd was 16 or 17 months old. About a month before, we had nightweaned, so I continued to pump once a day so that my supply would not totally drop. We nursed twice a day, right before bed and first thing in the morning. I work over 40 hours a week, so that's really all the time we had for nursing, except weekends. DD became uninterested in the bedtime nursing, so we nursed just in the morning. But after about two weeks of that, I noticed that I hadn't let down at all for the previous week, so just this week we stopped nursing all together. I'm kind of sad about it. I've had milk supply problems, so for me, the combination of night weaning and not pumping was too much.

I think it's all very individual. If you've had milk supply problems and you're not nursing at night, you may want to continue pumping so that you can continue nursing. But being a teacher I imagine that you get off work pretty early in the day, so you may be able to continue nursing quite a bit during the week so not pumping wouldn't be a problem.

Does your dd refuse to drink anything out of a cup, or just ebm? Have you tried sippy cups? My dd drinks water out of sippy cups throughout the day and with meals, so I know she is getting plenty of liquid without breastmilk.
 
#5 ·
i have been pondering this same question. Ds is 10 months now and LOVES to nurse. He does take EBM from bottle and water from a sippy cup. I'm planning to try to get him on EBM from a sippy sup in next month or so. Right now I pump twice a day and he usually takes anywhere from 10-12 ounces of it while I am at work (40/hr/wk). I would love to eventually wean myself to one pumping session at lunch by the time he is about 15 months old. He is just now getting some teeth and some real interest in solids so I think it is feasible. I'm curious to see other experiences to know how practical this could be.

Amy
 
#6 ·
If your ds is not drinking anything out of a cup, I think that issue needs to be resolved regardless of whether you continue to pump. In other words, I wouldn't use that as a basis to stop pumping necessarily. At one, your ds is probably eating quite a few solids if you're considering day-weaning, so he should be having something to drink (preferably water, IMO) with solids. Maybe try other sippy cups but most importantly just keep trying. My dd didn't get the hang of the sippy cup the first time we tried it (probably at six months, I think), but she picked up on it once we started offering it to her regularly.
 
#7 ·
My twins are 15 months going on 16 and I'm still pumping. They actually do pretty okay when there's no or not enough milk--they'll eat solids if they're hungry, which they rarely get when I'm around. I'm still nursing on demand when we're together, and I work part-time, 4 5-hour days per week.

I have missed pumping a couple of times now, and each time I have gotten a plugged duct. I went to a training in a nearby city last week and was away from them for 12 hours
During that time I pumped almost a quart each day! So just from a health perspective, I can't stop pumping. I've kind of changed my attitude about it, now that I know that I am not going to stop. I was feeling a little self-conscious about taking the time out from work to pump with my kids so old. My coworker and my boss both nursed, but both weaned completely before a year. Plus at daycare most of the kids are weaned from bottles and are eating mostly solids. But I realized, who cares, this isn't about what other people are doing, and here is a way I can show people that it's possible to be professional and still nurse on an extended basis. Anyway, my boss is always joking that I'm a 60's throwback, but she likes that about me, LOL.

I actually just bought a new (to me) whittlestone pump on the market board here, to replace my very old second-hand PIS. So just know you're in good company, and if you do continue to pump in the fall, know that you're a role model.

(((HUGS))),

Cate
 
#8 ·
Nursed and pumped 2 kids past 12months. I am now on my third

DS nurses at 6pm, then 8pm, then sleep. Wakes up at 4am to nurse and co-sleep, until alarm at 6:30 when he nurses again.

I've found that none of my kids would take a bottle or sippy cup from me, until they were older 15-18 months. They would take it from daycare provider or Daddy.

Next time a momment arrises, try taking a walk to the mailbox and back, and leaving child with trusted friend and sippy cup.
 
#9 ·
I pumped at work until my son was 18 months old. Now I have a 6 week old baby and I am tempted not to pump at all (I'm not working outside now, but I may want to in the next year or so). It is good to be away from the pump!

Either way, it sounds like you and your little one will do fine nursing when you are home.

Good luck.
Kathleen
 
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