How to drop a pump

[@llli*twinsincity]

Hi. My twins are 9 months old and are still getting only pumped milk in bottles. Now that they're going to take 3 bottles a day instead of 4 I was considering dropping a pump. I'm a little worried about the 9-10 month pump slump and also not sure how to drop one.

I was considering the following pumping schedule:

2:30am
6:30am
11:00am
4:30pm
9:30pm

Does that seem ok? I've been at 6 pumps a day so this would allow me to go down to 5. Does that mess with the pump slump?

[@llli*mommal]

How are you doing at this point, when it comes to filling your children's needs? Are you having no problem supplying enough, or are you having a hard time filing the bottles?

[@llli*twinsincity]

Honestly, no problems. I'm ahead in the fridge and have been able to freeze some as well and we use some for solids.

[@llli*mommal]

Since you're a bit ahead in the pumping game, I think you can probably feel cautiously free to go ahead and drop down to 5 pumping sessions. Just stay alert for changes in output. If you are suddenly pumping less than you need and you can foresee your stash getting eaten up, it's likely to be necessary for you to add in the dropped session, and maybe more than that. It's often easier to maintain supply than to try to get it back.

Are the babies spontaneously dropping a bottle, or is this something you or the daycare are pushing?

[@llli*twinsincity]

They are dropping it. They've been eating less and less at that feeding so the pediatrician said it was ok.

[@llli*mommal]

Okay, just checking! Sometimes there's a push to get babies onto solids faster than they're ready for... Didn't want to see that happen to your kids.

[@llli*twinsincity]

Thanks! No, they've been taking less at that bottle for about a month and it's a struggle to get them to eat half of it most of the time so the pediatrician said we could drop it and fill it instead with a good snack of yogurt and fruit and puffs or cheerios. (I'm talking about maybe 2 tablespoons of yogurt so not a massive meal).

[@llli*mommal]

Gotcha.

If you have extra milk hanging around, you could always use it to thin out the babies' solids. Mix it into cereal or purée or something.