Pump weaning

Hi ladies! My son is 10mo as of yesterday, and I work full time. I pump at work and nurse when we are together. I would like to be done pumping around a year, but continue to nurse in the mornings, nights, and weekends. Any tips on weaning? Will I still be able to nurse during the day on weekends even though I won't be expressing milk the rest of the week? Would also love to know the best way to gradually introduce cow's milk for daycare. Thanks!

Yes, you'll be able to nurse on demand when you're still together. :) I haven't pumped for Beatrix since December and she's still nursing on demand overnight and on weekends.

For pump-weaning, just back off slowly. I phased each pumping session out over a week and then pushed the other pumpings later in the day.

As far as cow's milk, you could start with one bottle a day, or even slower. With both of my girls, I had a freezer stash that we used up when I stopped pumping, so we phased the milk in. They were both taking about 8 ounces of my milk at that point, along with solids, so I just asked that my DCP not give more than that in a day.

Thanks! So if I pump 3 times a day, I should be able to stop in about 3 weeks or so? And as I phase out pumping, I can start replacing what I don't get with cow's milk? I have a small freezer stash, but probably only enough for about a week's worth of bottles.

Yep. :) I dropped the first pumping and moved the other two back some so that they split the day up evenly. Then I dropped the second one and moved the only pumping left to lunchtime. Then I quit doing that one. I did keep a handpump in my office just in case I got engorged.

Thanks so much! I'm not ready to give up nursing, but I won't miss that pump!

Just to chime in--I pump weaned at a year and didn't have any problem with still nursing on nights and weekends. Glowworm was drinking about 8 oz at the time, so we gradually replaced that with cow's milk. We also switched to a sippy cup at about the same time, so he never got cow's milk in bottles.

How did your babe take to the sippy cup? I'd like to do that too with the cow's milk, but my guy doesn't seem to get the concept quite yet. We only try a little water with his meals at this point.

It took him while to get it, but he had it down by the time he turned one.