Stop pumping but still BF on demand - possible??

[@llli*miniwo]

I am a full time working mom of a soon to be 10 month old. I have enough frozen milk for just over 2 months but I'm not ready to give up nursing. Is it possible to stop pumping and still produce milk to nurse on demand at night and on weekends? If so, how would I begin and not dry up? I know my supply will decrease but i don't want to dry up just yet. I'm not ready emotionally to give this up

[@llli*mumtothomas]

Definitely possible. I stopped pumping at around 10 months and continued nursing on demand at night and on weekends--we made it to 21 months. You can do it!

[@llli*lllmeg]

Certainly possible. If you are willing to risk some of a hit to your milk supply, there is no reason to think your milk will dry up completely as long as baby is still nursing when you are together.

Since even the most conservative medical recommendation is to nurse until baby is AT LEAST a year old, to be on the safe side you might want to consider pumping at least once a day at work until baby is a year old but that is up to you. Milk supply is based on demand, so how well your supply does once you stop pumping will depend a lot on how long/frequent the separations are and how often your baby nurses when you are together. Also consider the potential impact of other things that may affect milk supply-"pushing" solids, life in general getting to 'busy' to nurse frequently, baby sleeping long periods (over 5 hours) at night, and taking meds like hormonal birth control that affect milk supply.

Also you may find your self getting engorged/painfully overfull at work if you suddenly eliminate pumping, so think about that, an option if you are tired of dragging the pump around is to hand express as needed. http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...expression.pdf

[@llli*miniwo]

Thanks for the input, I'm ready to ditch the pump but not my time with my DD. I had planned to slowly stop pumping at work so I'm not horribly uncomfortable but still want to nurse at night and on the weekends. I look forward to it every day! (just not the pumping...)

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

I quit pumping at 11 months with Beatrix. I had enough freezer stash to get by. She is 15 months old and we are going strong. She nurses on demand overnight and on weekends. I was only pumping once a day starting around 10 months with Lilah because she wasn't really drinking the milk. She nursed on demand overnight and on weekends until she was about 2 years old.

My supply has not taken a hit and did not the first time.

[@llli*mommal]

I think that as long as you're willing to add some pump sessions back in if you feel like your night and weekend supply is suffering, you can feel free to go ahead. One possibility to watch out for: if your LO nurses a lot during the day on the weekend, you could end up with boosted supply come Monday morning, potentially leaving you quite uncomfortable come Monday afternoon! So make sure you keep bringing your pump to work, especially on the first couple of days of the week.

[@llli*mamalump]

I've got an 11 month old who isn't great with solids, but I am soooooo ready to hang up the horns while at work too! I'll be following this thread. Please update and let us know how it goes.

[@llli*babyben2011]

I am hoping to do the same thing in a couple months, but am concerned about only nursing at night M-F and then not having enough milk for all day on the weekends. Any thoughts on this?

[@llli*mumtothomas]

I am hoping to do the same thing in a couple months, but am concerned about only nursing at night M-F and then not having enough milk for all day on the weekends. Any thoughts on this?

I was worried about this too, but it wasn't a problem. I'm not sure if it's because he was old enough that my supply was well-established, or something else, but there was milk available when I was home (nights/weekends/etc). I had some struggles with supply overall during nursing, not just after I stopped pumping, but we managed to work around it with "lactation" cookies (that name always makes me ), oatmeal, fenugreek, etc. I was always amazed how Saturday morning I was full, when it had been several days since we'd nursed all day, but somehow it worked.

[@llli*babyben2011]

Thanks, mumtothomas. I like hearing these stories