[mrsfrenchy]

Right now my daughter is almost 10 months old. At the moment, we're nursing about 5-6 times a day (although she has days where she wants to nurse more than that). I do go to classes 3x a week and she generally nurses 3-4 times, and take one or two bottles while I'm gone. I've stopped pumping while I'm away and she's just been having the milk in my freezer stash instead. It hasn't seemed to hurt my supply any on the days that I'm home all day--and after 5 months of exclusively pumping before getting her back on the boob

:, I just couldn't bring myself to pump anymore.

Anyway, on to my real question. I have most of the summer off with her. On the days I will be gone, it will only be for about 2 hours at a time, so I have enough in the freezer for that.
Unfortunately, in the fall, I'm going to have class 5 days a week. 2 of those days I'll be away from her for 8 hours instead of my usual 6.

I really don't have an end date in mind for our nursing relationship, I just know I don't want to end it just because she's 12 months. She'll be about 13.5 months at the start of school and I picture her nursing 2-3 times/day (in the morning, before bed, and maybe right when we get home in the afternoon). I don't know what this will do to my supply or her desire to nurse, but I want to try it anyway.
However, I'm really not interested in pumping milk for her while I'm in class. A) there's not really time or a place for me to pump on campus B) I just really hate pumping at this point. So what I'm wondering is how do I provide for her nutritional needs once our nursing decreases? She eats solids really well and I try to include as many veggies, fruit, and good protiens as possible. But nursing has been a comfort to me as far as knowing that her nutrition is taken care of.
So, should I give her whole milk while she's at school? A toddler formula? Should I also offer these at meals when we're at home?

As a second question, does anyone have any experience with what will happen to my supply if I'm only nursing 2-3x a day during toddlerhood?

Thanks for any answers and advice you have!

ETA: when I was EPing, she stopped taking a bottle over night (on her own

. when we went back to breastfeeding, she kept it up and so now she goes about 12 hours without nursing at night, give or take an hour. I know some mommas would be concerned about this but she's over 22lbs at 9.5 months, so I'm not worried about her weight gain at all. Not nursing at night, however, does increase my worries about our supply dropping.
Anyway, so when I say she's only nursing 5ish times per day, I mean in a 24 hour period.

 

[clutterbug]

I went back to work full time when DS turned a year old. I never pumped, but I did gradually work my way up to staying full days at work over a couple of weeks, for his comfort and my own! He drank water and ate solids while we were apart, so it was about 8-10 hours between morning and evening nursing sessions (at first we would nurse at daycare or in the car before our 45 minute drive home after work, eventually we could wait till we got home). All his milk came from me. I didn't notice a drop in my supply, or at least he never complained. He would have a long nurse before we left the house in the morning, then a REALLY long nurse after work, some more milk snacks through the evening, more at bedtime and at least a couple of short sessions overnight. I never night weaned because I figured those nursings were doing good things for maintaining my supply. He nursed frequently on the weekends and days off (I worked flex time to get more off days), which I think also gave my supply a little boost for the new work week.

Jack Newman has a great handout on this www.drjacknewman.com It was what I held up as my evidence that using this approach wasn't going to do my child any harm (because my doctor at the time raised an eyebrow to the idea of not giving my son milk during the day!).

I know others that give cow's milk or other milk during the daytime and still continue to nurse when together. There are lots of ways to approach it and make it work for you and your little one

 

[Teenytoona]

Hi there! We have different circumstances, but have/had the same worries. I think you'll be ok. I WOHM and with commute and all am gone 11 hours a day. DD is now 14 months. At about 11 months, DD just stopped being interested in bottles when I'm gone, Mr Toona reported she only seemed interested in momma milk from the tap. So, I stopped pumping. He tried to finish off the milk with her, but she really wans't interested. So we just nurse when I'm home. Don't know if you nurse overnight or not, but we still do (though we will be working on nightweaning soon). I still find that I nurse her (not counting nightime) anywhere from 2-4 times a weekday (and many more times at night). On weekends it's pretty much free form and she nurses a few more times a day than that, so maybe 5x/day and then overnight. My supply seems ok (except for right before my period starts).

You said she eats solids pretty well. That's good, that will make up the bulk of her eats while you're gone. We do give DD whole milk in a cup, but not tons. We also give her water. Well really, it's more Mr Toona doing that than I do since I'm at work.

I think at 13.5 months she will adjust fine.

I've asked around alot and the worry over supply seems to be less so with an older baby/toddler. I've found that both DD and I have adjusted pretty well. I expected Mondays to be an uncomfy day since I nurse much more over the weekend, but haven't even experienced that. So maybe you will too!

Oh, here's another good thread about day-weaning.