[SimplyJenalee]

Hi ladies!

Not sure if you remember me or not but I have stopped in from time to time with questions. Today I have been exclusively pumping for 7 months!

It has been tough but now it just feels like part of my daily routine. My goal was 6 months but once that passed by goal is now hopefully a year. I don't think I will EP past a year though.

My question is this - right now I pump 4 times a day and get roughly 30 oz a day. (6am (~10oz) , 11am (~6 oz), 4pm (~6 oz), and 9pm (~8 oz). When is a good time to cut down to pumping 3 times a day?

Thanks!

[greenchild]

I cut down to 3x per day when Kaiden hit 9 months, he was wanting more solids and less BM so it worked out nicely.

[shortlette]

congrats on your achievement .... that is so cool that you met your goal already and have extended it!

I was not an EP'er so I really can't advise sorry. I was always paranoid about losing my supply, so never dropped a pump until I was sure that I had a great stash and/or Ollie was almost big enough to start drinking cow's milk.

Worst case is you drop the pump and then have to pick it up again ......

[mbsn]

How much milk does the little one drink in a day? Do you have a freezer stash? How important is it to you to make it to one year? Has your period returned?

I'm still pumping four times a day at 10 months. The little one isn't that interested in solid foods yet so she's still drinking almost everything I make. The week before my period, I sometimes have to dip into the freezer stash because my supply drops below her demand. I'm going to stay with four times a day until I see a dropped consumption on her part. I know I'm being overly cautious, but I also know it would upset me if I barely missed the one year milestone because I dropped a pump too early.

[SimplyJenalee]

Originally Posted by mbsn

How much milk does the little one drink in a day? Do you have a freezer stash? How important is it to you to make it to one year? Has your period returned?

I'm still pumping four times a day at 10 months. The little one isn't that interested in solid foods yet so she's still drinking almost everything I make. The week before my period, I sometimes have to dip into the freezer stash because my supply drops below her demand. I'm going to stay with four times a day until I see a dropped consumption on her part. I know I'm being overly cautious, but I also know it would upset me if I barely missed the one year milestone because I dropped a pump too early.

to answer your questions: Tessa is averaging anywhere from 24-28 oz a day...lately closer to 24 oz. I definitely have a freezer stash...i currently have 106 - 6 oz bags (636oz!). Now that she is 7 months and hasn't had formula I would like to make it to a year with no formula when she can start on cows milk. As for my period it is very weird...i am on the mini-pill so i spot every know and then but I have only had one 3 day kind of heavy flow..besides that nothing much. When I did have that heavy flow my milk production did not change much at all.

Also, when I dropped from 5 pumps to 4 pumps a day I didn't really see a drop in the amount of oz I pumped.

[shortlette]

given that stash and seemingly lack of impact from AF I would encourage you to drop a session. The way I look at it, even if you drop from 30oz to 20oz per day, you'll only need to use 1x bag of frozen milk per day and that will get you through 3 months ..... more if her intake slowly drops at all.

One question though - have you used plenty of your old milk? Are you sure that she will drink it frozen and you don't have any lipase problems or anything?

It would be a shame to drop a session and then discover that you can't actually use your stash.

[SimplyJenalee]

Yep .No worries about her using the frozen milk-thats what she gets at daycare. We bring 15 bags to daycare about every week and a half (give or take), so we def. rotate through the milk. Right now the milk that is in the deep freeze is 15 bags from end of April and the rest are from May and June.

I think I am going to drop down to 3 pumps over the weekend.

Thanks Ladies!

[Twinmamma09]

I think you got some great advice and as it looks - you will probably be just find droping a pump. And what a nice thing that will be to have a little extra time in your day. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes. You can always add a session back in if things change. I had to do that a few times myself but I never had more than 200oz frozen that needed to feed 2 mouths.