Dropping pumps

[birch113]

I dropped from 8 to 7 pumps a few weeks ago with no issues. Actually, my input has increased slightly since. LO is officially 3 months now, and I'm considering dropping from 7 ppd to 6. The pump I'd love to drop is the MOTN pump. LO still wakes to feed, but as you ladies know, not having to stay up to pump after would get me a lot more sleep. I'm nervous about going such a long stretch, though, and how it might impact my supply. Any experiences, good or bad, and advice would be much appreciated!

[meladorie]

Mar 16, 2015 2:08:30 GMT -5 birch113 said:

I dropped from 8 to 7 pumps a few weeks ago with no issues. Actually, my input has increased slightly since. LO is officially 3 months now, and I'm considering dropping from 7 ppd to 6. The pump I'd love to drop is the MOTN pump. LO still wakes to feed, but as you ladies know, not having to stay up to pump after would get me a lot more sleep. I'm nervous about going such a long stretch, though, and how it might impact my supply. Any experiences, good or bad, and advice would be much appreciated!

No advice but I'd love to see the responses here. I've been at 8 and yesterday I only did 7 (not planned but just happened). DS is 2 months. Last night he kept me up for hours and when he finally fell asleep I was too exhausted to pump so I didnt. I'm pumping now after a 6 hour stretch. I went 5 hours the other day and it took a long time for the flow to start but then I pumped a ton (it ended up being 40 minutes to drain my breasts).

I'm totally with you- pumping after the motn feeding is just awful.

[Widget123]

As long as your first pump of the morning isn't too late (think 6 or 7 or earlier), and you pump right before you go to bed, you shouldn't have a problem dropping the MOTN pump. Just make sure you pump to empty when you wake up.

[birch113]

Mar 16, 2015 8:59:03 GMT -5 meladorie said:

Mar 16, 2015 2:08:30 GMT -5 birch113 said:

I dropped from 8 to 7 pumps a few weeks ago with no issues. Actually, my input has increased slightly since. LO is officially 3 months now, and I'm considering dropping from 7 ppd to 6. The pump I'd love to drop is the MOTN pump. LO still wakes to feed, but as you ladies know, not having to stay up to pump after would get me a lot more sleep. I'm nervous about going such a long stretch, though, and how it might impact my supply. Any experiences, good or bad, and advice would be much appreciated!

No advice but I'd love to see the responses here. I've been at 8 and yesterday I only did 7 (not planned but just happened). DS is 2 months. Last night he kept me up for hours and when he finally fell asleep I was too exhausted to pump so I didnt. I'm pumping now after a 6 hour stretch. I went 5 hours the other day and it took a long time for the flow to start but then I pumped a ton (it ended up being 40 minutes to drain my breasts).

I'm totally with you- pumping after the motn feeding is just awful.

How are you??? I hope all is well with you and LO. If I am brave enough to drop the MOTN pump, I'll let you know how it goes! I'm back to work now, so I may wait until the weekend to try it to get an idea of how long the morning pump will be. I have our am routine to get out of the house timed to the second - no room for error!

[birch113]

Mar 16, 2015 10:48:16 GMT -5 Widget123 said:

As long as your first pump of the morning isn't too late (think 6 or 7 or earlier), and you pump right before you go to bed, you shouldn't have a problem dropping the MOTN pump. Just make sure you pump to empty when you wake up.

Thanks! I'm so worried about a drop in supply, but I need to sleep!!!

[Deleted]

going 8 hours without pumping for many moms signals a large drop in supply for the whole day. so I would try to wake to pump before that 8 hour mark, maybe 6-8 hours of continuous sleep? you are still early on, supply is established but you have a long ways to go if you want to do this for a year, right?

[birch113]

Thanks, @amyg. I keep going back and forth, but ultimately I'm too afraid of a drop. Luckily, LO only woke once during the night instead of the three times he's been doing as of late. The MOTN pump was much less daunting on a bit more sleep. Fx that continues.

[udflyer]

My girl is almost ten months so we don't do MOTN anymore but when she did (and before I eventually dropped the MOTN pumping session), I would feed her and pump at the same time. I'd prop her in the boppy and give a bottle while I pumped. So if you don't want to drop it yet (which is def scary - I remember it well!), this may be an option.

[birch113]

I ended up dripping my noon pump, and readjusting the pump prior and after, so that I have 5 daytime pumps all approximately 4 hours apart, and one MOTN pump which I designate LO's first wake up after midnight for. So far, so good as far as supply goes! It's also nice to have one less pump. Four hours between pumps is so much nicer.

[northernlghts]

So now that my LO is a year and I have introduced whole milk with no issues, I'd like start weaning off the pump. When I drop sessions, do I do it while stretching the time in between sessions, or just drop a pump?

[birch113]

I stretched the time between pumps. I went from pumping 2.5-3 hours to pumping every 4 hours. From what I've read, you could do either,, though it's better to stretch the time if you're prone to plugged ducts, which I am. GL!

eta: and congrats on making it 1 year!!!

[Widget123]

northernlghts I agree about stretching between pumps when you drop. Also don't pump until completely empty... like start cutting a few minutes off each session & continue at that pace, then drop a few more minutes, etc. It may take you well over a month to fully wean yourself. I had trouble fully weaning myself until I got pregnant again.

[northernlghts]

Thanks guys!