Having trouble reducing pump sessions at work

FitMama2013

Have any of you working mamas stopped pumping at work, but continued nursing baby when together? This has always been my plan as my little guy approaches 1 year. I want to nurse him until he's 2, but I'm ready to be finished pumping (and I have ~600oz in the freezer to use if we need it - I plan to donate the rest soon). In September I dropped from 4 pumps/day at work to 3, then in November I dropped from 3 to 2. I'm really struggling now with trying to drop to just 1, and I can't imagine being able to cut pumping completely at work. I know this is what they're supposed to do, but they hurt, and I've done it slowly! I didn't do anything drastic - I moved times back by 15 minutes until I dropped a pump, and I cut the actual pump time down before dropping it.

Any advice? Currently I work 7-3:45, so I pump at 11:00 and 3:00. I nurse around 5:30AM and as soon as I pick my son up (usually around 4:15-4:30PM). He nurses again before bed and a few times during the night. I planned to go to 11:30 and 3:30 and then drop the 3:30, but I'm hurting by 2:00 I've been on this schedule for a few weeks now. Do y'all think I just need to give it more time?

I'm anxious to get to 1 pump/day because then I can use 30 mintues of my lunch break to exercise - I really miss that!!!

cocolo89

I think one pump in 8 hrs is too much of a gap. Your supply might drop. When I worked part-time, the days I worked my supply always dropped because I went a full day without pumping or pumping only 1x. I had to quit working after my daughter turned 6months old cause it just wasn't worth it for us. But, I don't know. Since your guy is bigger now, I don't know how much it will effect, my son drink more milk now than he did when he was 6months old, so I can not reduce my pumping sessions at all.

chickybuns

I think once at work would have to stay personally. You could try it, or is it too painful? If not, maybe drop the amoutn of time of each of those pumps before transitioning to one. And I only pump 4xs total so I htink that would be fine. I also sometimes go 7/8 hours depending on my schedule. Hope this helps.

redheadmommy

Once your boobs adjust to the demand changes, it should not hurt. I never pumped, but I went to back to work/school when my kids were around 10 months and kept BF only at home. I ended up Bf my son until he was 2 yrs old.

Now , my girl self-weaned herself from daytime BF at 9 months, and it was uncomfortable at times, and i was tempted to pump to relieve pressure, but resisted. Pumping creates a signal to your brain that there is a demand so keep producing milk. Massaging the breast and hot shower helps with the adjustment.

In your case I think production is still very intense, partially due to the pumping, but also because you still Bfing often at home. 3 times during the day plus a few times at night, so probably 5-maybe 6 times BFing + 2 pumping time at work= 8 lactation signals a day. Usually 6 months old babies, who still nurse 8 times day, but not a 1 yr old. If you keep BF that often at home, you will keep producing a lot of milk during the day as well. My advice would be night wean him.
My son is a mid-november baby and we used the Christmas break after his birthday to night wean him, when he was 13 months old. Prior t night weaning, my BF pattern was similar to your : after wakeup, right after pickup, and bedtime + nighttime(1 occasionally 2 times) . Soon after we night wean /sleep trained, he dropped the BF after the pickup time by himself.

I do not know your work schedule over the holiday, but if you get a longer break grab the opportunity! I think it is good to pick a time for weaning action when you are home a lot so you can comfort your baby in other ways.

FitMama2013

Thanks so much for the advice!! I've been working on it this week and twice have just pumped once at work and been okay. One day I had to go pump for a few minutes around 3:00 because I was hurting a little. Camden doesn't drink much more than I'm pumping in that one session (I'm pumping 6 and he drinks 8) so I'm just using a little freezer stash and everything is working out okay. I think I'll plan on keeping one pump a day for awhile and see how often he's nursing outside of work. I can still fit in a quick workout at lunch with just pumping once!!!

We've also been working on the nighttime nursing...last night he just nursed once, and I'm okay with that, but I don't want to do much more than that if possible so my supply isn't crazy!