Helping Mama unpack the breast pump
My son is a year old now, and we have officially entered the world of “extended breastfeeding.” In my last post, I explained a little about my decision to continue nursing my son.
But as a full-time working mom, a big part of breastfeeding is pumping. I’m away from my son for over 10 hours at a time on my working days. For the past several months, I have faithfully pumped breastmilk 3 times every day at work.
Nearly all the working, breastfeeding mothers I have known have stopped pumping by their child’s first birthday, if not before. “If you’re ready to ditch the breast pump or pricey formula, you’re right on schedule,” I read today in my daily What to Expect email, targeted to the birthdate of my son.
In our society, fully breastfeeding to a year is a rare accomplishment, but pumping beyond a year is even more unusual. Nursing a toddler at the breast is often as much, or more, about the close relationship and enjoyment of breastfeeding as about the nutrition of breastmilk. In comparison, pumping milk is strictly business. There’s little enjoyment in sitting hooked up to a machine and washing pumping equipment through the day. Since at a year, babies can drink cows milk, mothers who have been pumping can quit without having to use infant formula.
I don’t love pumping. But I DO love breastfeeding my son when we are together. With long workdays, my milk supply might drop quickly without daytime pumping. I intend to breastfeed to at least 2 years, and I want to maintain an ample milk supply. Drinking pumped breastmilk gives my son the best nutrition possible, and that’s important, but what motivates me the most to keep pumping is that it helps to maintain our nursing relationship.
So my decision is to keep pumping, but now I don’t have to pump quite as much. There were times in the first year when I thought I would run out of milk, and now I no longer have to worry about milk supply. If there is an office party during the lunch hour, I will skip pumping without guilt or stress. I will probably drop gradually to pumping twice a day, then once a day, over the next year.
I would love to hear from other moms who have pumped milk. How long did you pump? Did you continue breastfeeding after you stopped pumping?
I wondered what to do when I reached that point with my first daughter. Since I worked four days a week but only five-hour days, I only pumped once anyway and it was easy for me to gradually cut that out. It wasn’t all that necessary since I wasn’t worried anymore about quantity. By around 13 months, I was done with pumping but not with nursing; we kept going to 21 months, at which point I was pregnant and we mutually weaned for several reasons. (Looking back, I so wish I’d encouraged her to keep nursing. My older daughter is now 32 months and currently has an awful cold. What I wouldn’t give to nurse her right now.) The baby is 4.5 months and I am going to keep nursing her as long as I can. Since I am now staying home, I am fortunate not to have to deal with any decisions about pumping.
Congratulations on keeping your nursing relationship going! It’s definitely worth it.
Jenny, thanks! It’s good to hear that you were able to continue nursing that long while working, even after you stopped pumping! And I know what you mean about the colds, nursing is such a relief to us both when my son gets sick.
Interesting points you bring up. I have gone back to work part time and will be in full time soon, so I have started pumping once per day around lunch time in order for my milk to keep up on the days I am off. Isabella – 14 1/2 months, still nurses quite a bit on my off days and during the night. The problem now with me pumping is that after taking only the breast for so long and not drinking pumped milk from a bottle since she was about 6 months, she won’t take the pumped milk anymore. The fact that I have to pump and then discard the milk makes me wonder if I even need to pump. I am now trying to pump later in the day and phase it out so soon I can train my body that it only needs to make milk evenings, nights and mornings and not during the day. Once I am working full time, In addition to her nursing evenings nights and mornings, I hope to breastfeed her on demand on weekends still and I feel that my body should be able to adjust to her needs. I will keep you posted on how and if this works out! So far she will not take Goats milk, which is what we plan to give her when she wants it, and doesn’t seem to be missing breast milk during the day since I am not around. She is however ready to nurse immediately upon me walking in the door!
Christine, good luck with your transition to full-time work! I see we have a similar approach. Mine wants to nurse a LOT on the weekends when we’re together and that’s part of why I want to keep the milk supply up. Let me know how it goes!
Christina – I nursed my daughter until she was 15 months old. I eventually cut out pumping at work and then nursed her morning and night until we just kind of stopped. It was nice not having a set end time on things because I feel it was less traumatic for both of us. With my son, I have to admit, I am so looking forward to not pumping anymore, and I will start cutting out pumping sessions in March when he turns a year. I can only get in two pumpings at work and I have to do work while I pump
It has been so stressful and I’m making barely enough to send in bottles. I believe I have just enough freezer supply to give me the little extra I need to get through until March. My main goal is to use no formula 
Getting my period every three weeks doesn’t help either since that really hurts my supply. It is very sad for me because I LOVE nursing and Carter is my last baby….so this is it 
I will keep nursing him morning and night until my supply runs out or he loses interest. It is less emotional for me if it just sort of ends instead of just anticipating the day when I’m going to stop nursing, if that makes sense…. It times like this that I really wish I didn’t work so that we could nurse forever 
Being off these last two weeks and not having to pump has been heaven sent, and I’m so thankful for this time Carter and I have had together. He is definitely not a comfort nurser, he nurses for food only 
Thanks for your blog, I enjoy it!
Angie- you’ve done such a great job making it work under tough circumstances. I wonder if he will find comfort in nursing as he gets older. Mine didn’t comfort nurse until recently- never used to fall asleep nursing and he would eat super fast- but lately he’s been making the milk sign with his fist to tell me he wants to nurse when he gets tired or cranky. I’m glad you enjoy the blog. I enjoy reading your comments from your breastfeeding experiences!
Hi Christina: Hope you’re doing well!
My daughter is 26 months and still BF-ing but I stopped pumping around 15 months. I was mixing pumped breast milk with cow’s milk from month 12-15. Around month 15, I started increasing the cow’s milk and cutting down the breast milk. I only work part-time but I was never able to express much milk (I would need to pump 7 days to provide adequate supply for 3 days). Currently, my daughter nurses in the morning, late afternoon after I get home from work, and before bed on the days I work. Weekends and the days I have “off” she nurses about 3 more times. Now that my daughter is passed the two-year mark, I am getting pressured about the end date from inlaws, etc. but we’re both happy and my daughter has never been sick despite the fact that she’s in daycare….
Sandra- That’s amazing that she hasn’t been sick. Hooray for breastmilk! It’s encouraging to hear that you’ve been able to keep breastfeeding so long after you stopped pumping, and she’s satisfied on the weekends too.
Congrats to you for reaching year 1 — I know it has taken a lot of dedication but well worth it…
Cutting out 3 pumping sessions at once wouldn’t be good because of the risk of mastitis. But, unless you had severe supply problems, I wouldn’t worry about continuing to pump for supply’s sake. I work full time and am still going strong nursing my almost-2 year old. I stopped pumping at 12 months and my son wouldn’t take a bottle anymore anyways. In fact, considering how frequently he nurses when we’re together and co-sleeping, I sometimes joke that he gets more milk than a newborn. The body knows how to produce less/more milk at different times of the day based on demand, do I don’t get engorged during the day at work, but I still have milk to nurse on weekends. Of course, as annoying as it can be to pump at work. It can also be bittersweet to stop and it certainly doesn’t hurt to continue…
Oh! And congrats on hitting a year of nursing! Welcome to the club
Amber- thanks
You touched on a couple interesting points. First- yeah, I definitely prefer to avoid mastitis! Thanks for mentioning it. I have had severe plugged ducts 3 times (but never mastitis) so I definitely don’t want to cut back too fast. And the milk supply issue is a sensitive one for me. It was such a struggle for me to build up a sufficient milk supply (it was low for the first 3-4 months) that I’ve never really been able to fully relax and trust my body to keep the supply up without frequent nursing and pumping. I know my milk isn’t going to disappear the day I quit pumping, but I wonder if having a history of milk supply issues makes one more prone to losing the milk faster. I’d rather not test it. So your last sentence reflects my thoughts as well!
Thanks for sharing about your experience. I’m especially happy to hear that you work full time and have been able to keep nursing for almost a year so far, without pumping. It’s amazing how the body can respond to changing demands for milk.
I have been back to work since my daughter was 3 months. She is now 14 months old and we’re still breastfeeding. Going strong too! When I first returned to work I would pump twice a day but that only lasted a few weeks. Gradually my body got used to the schedule and I have been only pumping once a day. Recently I noticed my daughter isn’t really drinking much of the milk I pump. I think she would prefer to have mom there. So the milk I pump at work is just getting dumped. That’s when I decided to wean off pumping. So far so good. This week I pumped every other day and its not so uncomfortable by the end of the day. She is definitely more eager to nurse when I get home but she doesn’t mind waiting. I just hope this doesn’t hurt the supply too much. Thanks for posting! I’m happy to know there are actually people who think like me.