When would you quit pumping?

[SJ]

I know this is a sensitive subject, but I really just want your opinions and experiences on this situation.

I pump first thing in the morning, 2x at work, and right before bed. I nurse weekends and MOTN and will offer the breast first before giving bottles if convenient. I have never been able to satisfy her with breast alone, and she wasn't gaining weight at all until we starting supplementing at 3 weeks.

I have never pumped more than 2oz/session (considering both sides), and pump in total about 4-5 ounces/day.

She drinks 4-5 four ounce bottles while at daycare, one of which is BM. I have a tiny freezer stash (maybe 20 ounces?)

I do have some travel coming up without her so trying to decide how far to push this. I do have my own office so pumping isn't difficult (although I don't enjoy it by any means). DD is almost 4 months.

In your opinion, and based on my output, is it worth it to continue pumping in order to give her 4 oz of BM/day? Would you ease off? Stop altogether?

Please discuss.

[Deleted]

In your shoes, I would likely quit pumping in the morning and before bed, but continue at work if it's not a big deal to do so. It depends mostly how you feel about it. Are you stressed? Do you like nursing when you're together?

[barefootcontessa]

Assuming it is not too burdensome, I would try to continue since flu and cold season is approaching.

[motzie]

Pumping is such a pain. I would probably not continue just for the one bottle a day. If you can still get in your nursing sessions she'll benefit that way, but don't kill yourself for a few ounces.

[mandapanda18]

I wouldn't have lasted long in your shoes. I would quit pumping all together and just nurse when you can.

[redheadk]

If you are okay with stopping breastfeeding all together if your supply tanks, I'd stop pumping altogether. If you want to try to keep nursing, I'd stop pumping for at least the morning and evening sessions when I presume you are together and nursing her. I'd maintain the work sessions to maintain your supply.

I would probably try to make it work because you aren't too far away (a few months) from your supply potentially stabilizing to wear you can drop pumping all together and just nursing when you are together. But it's okay to decide that it's just not working for you now if that's what you would prefer. I'm not sure that I will mess with pumping with #2. I really hated pumping

[ssmjlm]

I would probably drop the non-work sessions first and see how you feel.

But if you want to quit and just BF when together, that's ok.

Easier said than done. I know for me, BFing was just as much emotional as physical.

[redheadk]

Oct 23, 2014 11:26:18 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I would probably drop the non-work sessions first and see how you feel.

But if you want to quit and just BF when together, that's ok.

Easier said than done. I know for me, BFing was just as much emotional as physical.

I really underestimated how emotional I would be about BFing. Now that I'm not, I'm much more objective about it. 

[kermit]

I would continue to pump at work but drop the home sessions. For that amount it wouldn't be worth it to me.

[cincodemayo]

Is your biggest session right away in the morning?

I would definitely drop the before bed one.

[kdubs923]

I never had a great supply, especially when pumping. Once I hit where I was pumping several times a day and only made one bottle (and he was consuming 3 or 4 while we were apart), then I stopped. I always had to supplement, but it was usually 50% BM/50% formula. He started taking bigger bottles and I produced less. I got to the point where I would have had to add more sessions to just finish ONE bottle for him and it didn't feel 'worth it' for me anymore. For me, it was about 7 months.

Whatever you decide is OK, it's so personal and everyone has a different threshold of what feels worth it.

[glauren]

This is such a personal question. Do you BF when you're together? Do you enjoy BFing? Would you be ok with no longer BFing if you lost your supply due to no longer pumping?
FWIW, I was in a very similar position - pumping multiple times a day for 1 bottle - but I LOVED BFing, and had a feeling I would dry up if I stopped, so I pumped for much longer than I'd have liked.
I started dropping pumping sessions around 6 months I think? And stopped pumping completely around 9 months. I dried up at 11 months.

GL with whatever you decide - and congrats for making it this far! Supply issues suck.

[chickens987]

Oct 23, 2014 11:29:31 GMT -5 @this said:

But I recognize that BM is not the priority to me that it is to others.

For me, BM wasn't a priority, but nursing was. I quit pumping when I was only getting around 4 oz/day, but DD was 10 months and I was pretty sure I could keep nursing another 2 months.

Hypothetically, if I were in your shoes for baby #2? I'd want to keep nursing until 6 months. I'd pump during the day, but not morning/bed to make that happen.

[arch01]

I'd be done.

Supply issues suck, and being free of the pump really changed my outlook. I was far more positive and far less stressed.

[D2M]

First of all, hugs. I've been in/am in your shoes, minus the back-to-work part. When you're breastfeeding plus supplementing plus pumping, feeding takes so much longer than breastfeeding alone and there's the stress of missing a pumping session and further depleting your already low supply. I hated all that. I didn't realize how much I hated it, though, until I took a big step back any realized how much more sane I felt. Honestly, do what's best for you and your relationship with your daughter. You are making valiant efforts to give her a bottle of breast milk but she won't notice if you scale back to every other day (what my DD gets now). I love nursing and will cry ugly tears when we are done for good (probably soon) but I do not love the stress about my pathetic supply and I can still nuzzle with my daughter, whom I'm pretty sure loves to use me as a pacifier anyway. And I'm ok with that!

Bottom line, if you're happy doing what you're doing, that's great. If you're not, you don't need anyone else's permission to scale back.

[jene]

If you feel ok with it, I would probably stop pumping. You have to do what is best for you, and pumping can be ridiculously frustrating and time consuming.

[SJ]

This is so helpful! Thank you!

I know I don't need permission or anything, but it helps give me some perspective. It's not a comparison game of course, but it gave me pause when I saw my assistant waltz in from one pumping session with two full bottles. And I realized it takes me 10 sessions to get there.

[vmars]

I don't think I could do that, honestly. I would probably combo feed by nursing morning and night and giving formula bottles during the day.

[countthestars]

I would probably be done pumping, or only pump 1-2x at work. Like others, easier said than done for me - I tortured myself with the pump for quite some time because I loved nursing her when we were together.

[kdubs923]

Oct 23, 2014 12:04:09 GMT -5 SJ said:

This is so helpful! Thank you!

I know I don't need permission or anything, but it helps give me some perspective. It's not a comparison game of course, but it gave me pause when I saw my assistant waltz in from one pumping session with two full bottles. And I realized it takes me 10 sessions to get there.

It's so hard not to compare!

We have a new mother's room at work, with a shared fridge for us to store milk/pump parts. There was only one other mother that used the fridge while I used it. Her bottles from one session were more than I'd get all day and it was so frustrating to see that physical reminder there, staring me in the face. Then I'd be embarassed, thinking she probably thought my bottles were pathetic.

I know it was all in my own head and she probably didn't notice, but it's hard not to compare.

[Velar Fricative]

For me, BFing was all or nothing. If I were going to quit pumping, I'd quit nursing too because given how my supply was, I knew quitting pumping was going to be the death knell for BFing.

So essentially, I would quit pumping only if I knew I'd be okay weaning completely. I had to make this decision a few times while BFing and always decided to keep pumping until one day my decision to stop felt right.

Good luck with whatever you decide. There is no bad decision here.

[oswin]

My DD was (and still is) a very big eater, so I stopped being able to keep up with her daycare intake around 4 months. I ran through my freezer stash in a couple of weeks, then started supplementing. I think when we started supplementing, I stopped going to what I deem "heroic" lengths to get enough - which is to say I stopped any extra pumping sessions (so only pumping when I would normally feed her if she were there). My supply quickly dropped, and I was tired of pumping (I'd pump for 45min per session and still not get enough), so I think I stopped pumping around 5.5 months. We weaned just after 6 months, because it had gotten to the point that after literally every nursing session she'd need formula, so it just wasn't worth it. I figured making it to 6 months was a huge success and left it at that. I was kind of emotional about the whole thing, but once I stopped pumping it was a huge relief, and I didn't mind weaning at all.

For your travel - how long will you be away? Even if you stop pumping before you go, if you're still nursing you may experience discomfort while you're away, so keep that in mind if you'll be gone more than a day or two.

[anna7602]

Oct 23, 2014 12:04:09 GMT -5 SJ said:

This is so helpful! Thank you!

I know I don't need permission or anything, but it helps give me some perspective. It's not a comparison game of course, but it gave me pause when I saw my assistant waltz in from one pumping session with two full bottles. And I realized it takes me 10 sessions to get there.

Did this just happen today or have you been thinking about it for a few days? It's hard not to let a visual like that get to you, but I would at least spend the weekend thinking about it and see if I could get that image out of my mind and really focus on what would make me happy.

as for what I would do in your shoes, I would try to keep whatever pumping session yields the most milk and drop whichever one yields the least and then see how I feel after a week or two of doing that. This is assuming you want to keep nursing on weekends. If you're ready for the nursing part to end, then stop the pumping entirely.