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I'm not sure if I should be posting here or the regular Breastfeeding board...please let me know if this should be moved...
DD2 is almost a year old. She's grown well since being born at 4lb11oz, though she's still small -- probably around 16 pounds or so, but height/weight proportionate. She eats what I would consider a moderate amount of solid food -- mostly fruit and beans, some veggies, a little bit of cheese. She reacted violently to both rice and oats (the real thing, not the baby cereal), so we haven't given her any grains at all. I would say she probably gets 25-30% of her calories from food, and the rest is breastmilk. This is ok with me -- she'll eat more solid food whenever she's ready.
My question is about pumping. I've always had difficulty producing much milk in the evenings, and so with DD1 and now with DD2, we always gave a bottle of pumped milk at bedtime. DH gives the bottle and DD2 takes it willingly. I usually am able to pump whatever she'll drink the next night sometime before I go to bed. I also leave her twice a week for four-hour spans during the day, and until recently, I'd been leaving a bottle for the babysitter, along with some solid food. Last week, I forgot to leave a bottle in the fridge, and the sitter didn't get one from the freezer, so she just ate solids while I was gone and nursed when I got home. She seemed ok with that, too -- wasn't hysterically seeking my breast or seeming famished or anything. In fact, she ate more solid food than usual, probably because she was hungrier for not having had a bottle.
So, do you all think it's ok to stop pumping if I leave during the day? And at bedtime, would it be ok once she's one to switch her to soymilk or something like that in her bottle? I am less sure about that nighttime thing...but it seems like she can go without breastmilk during the day if it's not for too long (I seldom leave for more than 4 hours -- I think if I was going to be gone longer, I'd definitely leave a bottle). The reason for all this is purely selfish: I am sick of having the pump on my counter, washing bottles, sterilizing pump parts, etc. -- so if I get a resounding "HECK NO, you MUST keep pumping!," I'd definitely keep pumping.
TIA!
DD2 is almost a year old. She's grown well since being born at 4lb11oz, though she's still small -- probably around 16 pounds or so, but height/weight proportionate. She eats what I would consider a moderate amount of solid food -- mostly fruit and beans, some veggies, a little bit of cheese. She reacted violently to both rice and oats (the real thing, not the baby cereal), so we haven't given her any grains at all. I would say she probably gets 25-30% of her calories from food, and the rest is breastmilk. This is ok with me -- she'll eat more solid food whenever she's ready.
My question is about pumping. I've always had difficulty producing much milk in the evenings, and so with DD1 and now with DD2, we always gave a bottle of pumped milk at bedtime. DH gives the bottle and DD2 takes it willingly. I usually am able to pump whatever she'll drink the next night sometime before I go to bed. I also leave her twice a week for four-hour spans during the day, and until recently, I'd been leaving a bottle for the babysitter, along with some solid food. Last week, I forgot to leave a bottle in the fridge, and the sitter didn't get one from the freezer, so she just ate solids while I was gone and nursed when I got home. She seemed ok with that, too -- wasn't hysterically seeking my breast or seeming famished or anything. In fact, she ate more solid food than usual, probably because she was hungrier for not having had a bottle.
So, do you all think it's ok to stop pumping if I leave during the day? And at bedtime, would it be ok once she's one to switch her to soymilk or something like that in her bottle? I am less sure about that nighttime thing...but it seems like she can go without breastmilk during the day if it's not for too long (I seldom leave for more than 4 hours -- I think if I was going to be gone longer, I'd definitely leave a bottle). The reason for all this is purely selfish: I am sick of having the pump on my counter, washing bottles, sterilizing pump parts, etc. -- so if I get a resounding "HECK NO, you MUST keep pumping!," I'd definitely keep pumping.
TIA!
