I love my son and worked hard to breast feed. I pump twice at work and then once before bed. I breast feed in the morning an at night. I need to stop pumping but want to continue my two feedings. Any advice on how to do this.
I was planning on going to one pump during the day and do a gradual stop...any advice.
Pumping is adding extra stress and for my peace of mind I need to stop.
Do it gradually. Stop once at work - or only pump a little if you begin to leak. Then stop both at work. Then stop the nightly. Drop one pumping per week. Give your body a week to adjust before dropping another one.
Looks like you've gotten some good advice. Remove one pumping session per week. I would also recommend to wear some nursing bra pads to cover up any leaking throughout the day. Good luck!
If your baby is already getting breast milk from a bottle and that has not inhibited his nursing then no harm done. One of the hardest hurdles is that the bottle nipple is easier than the breast and the baby wants to be lazy. Since that is not a problem for you baby then transition his bottle to goat's milk. Raw is preferred if you can find a local source but store bought fresh is good. They make powdered but mine would never drink it. The goat's milk is the closest you are going to get to breast milk. It digests very easily and won't change the smell of his diapers much like formula does. You can have him eat some foods too. The first thing mine ate was frozen boiled english peas (like crazy, their diaper was green, yuk), then carrots, and so on.
As far as your breasts adjusting to the production schedule you may have less trouble than you expect. Especially since you are at 7 months. It is not like it would be if you were 1 - 3 months. I was adjust down in 3 days. I did not leak, nor was I sore. When the time to nurse arrived I just seemed to have milk right then
God Bless
My experience was, once I decreased the times I pumped, it had a direct effect on the amount I produced during feedings... So, my daughter naturally weened at 10 months. Perhaps if the volume had been more, she would've nursed longer-? I just think it got to the point of being too much work(sucking) for every little breast milk. (I actually had hoped to nurse longer, as a way to get the baby weight off...)
But honestly, I understand where you're coming from. Pumping is incredibly disruptive at work. I found that it was hard to start and stop my focus and 'to-do list' in order to do my 10am pumping and the 2pm pumping. Plus, I had to make an effort to eat right for lunch in order to make quality breastmilk... So I had couldn't really eat something quick at my desk... As a working mother, it was really hard to juggle that and my boss's expectations. Yes, lots of stress...
There is a book called "Nursing Mother, Working Mother" by Gale Pryor that should be VERY helpful!
You are correct. You may even reduce the pumping to 1/2 your time for a day or two depending on how long you go in between pumping during the day to avoid getting too full. You may want to take some pain reliever if it is uncomfortable.
I pumped exclusively for 11.5months and know how much work it takes.
Good luck!
You are exactly right. Pumping less will reduce the milk at that time of day. The body is an amazing thing and especially the womans body during and after pregnancy. If you only want to nurse in the am and pm, then do just that. Your body will become accustomed and produce the right amount of milk for those two feedings. The more you nurse the more milk you make, the less you nurse, the less milk. It all goes together.
Have a great day!
D.
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