(Sorry, men…this may be TMI for you as it’s all about breast milk. You’re welcome to read, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Pumping is going so well — now that I know how to induce subsequence let-downs and thus have stopped stressing about it — that the family freezer is now overrun with gallon Ziploc bags containing bags of frozen breast milk. I guess I was never less than 3 Ziploc bags, or about 2 weeks, ahead of Allie’s usage, but Allie had a jump in consumption a couple of months ago that coincided with a milk decrease on my end, which ate away at my stockpile cushion so swiftly that I got really stressed, which just added to the whole problem. Now, the freezer has 7 Ziploc bags full of the filled Lasinoh storage bags, and I’m halfway into filling the 8th Ziploc, and I’m about 5 weeks ahead (meaning the milk she’s drinking today was pumped out 5 weeks ago). This past week, since we started meat (just chicken, which we are still “hiding” in kale and/or carrot), Allie’s milk consumption dropped predictably. Instead of two 8-oz bottles a day after each nap, she’s down to two 7-oz bottles. She’s still nursing after she wakes up in the morning and before she goes down for the night, but I don’t know how much she’s taking in at those times.

I’d called the lactation nurse last month to ask if I should be reducing my pumping to match with Allie’s reduced nursing sessions (she nurses/drinks milk 4 times a day), and the nurse told me to hold off for another month to prevent a sudden decrease in milk production that may drop off too early, since I would ideally like to reach the one-year mark in giving Allie breast milk. For now, the nurse said, just reduce the pumping times to 15 minutes a session, instead of 20. Mr. W complains about the loss of freezer space, saying his freezer is overteeming with breast milk, so I think I’m good on my stockpile and can drop off a pump session now, even tho I don’t think it’s been quite a month, yet. After a month, the lactation nurse advised, I can spread the pump sessions to every 4 hours instead of every 3, and thereby eliminate a pump session in the day.

I probably can’t drop the 4:30am pumping session (darn), since that one yields the most milk (I did drop the time spent pumping so now I get 6 oz instead of 7-8), but dropping one of the 3 that I do at work would probably be helpful and give me half an hour back of worktime. All I have to do is match my pumping with the times that Allie actually would nurse when we’re together. That means delaying my morning pumping from 9:30a to 10:30a, eliminating the 1pm pumping, and bringing the 3:30p down to 2:30p. I get my lunches back, could MAYBE hit the gym again (the lactation nurse warned that if I start strenuous exercise too suddenly, that it could also adversely affect my milk supply), and it gives me more time to “refuel” before Allie’s bedtime feeding.

I think I’ll start this today. Hopefully it doesn’t wane my milk supply too dramatically, but I guess I can always add the eliminated pump session back in.

I realized recently I don’t know anyone who had to wean themselves off the pumps. My friends’ babies either weaned themselves early from the breast, causing my friends to dry up on the pumps and switch to formula; or my friends quit breastfeeding for whatever reason before the year-mark (when baby could take dairy) and didn’t pump as they intentionally switched their babies to formula; or my friends are able to be around their babies enough to breastfeed regularly and let the babies’ own supply/demand control weaning naturally. I’m kind of amazed that it looks like I’m going to be able to give Allie breast milk all the way through her first year, which is what the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends, and then put her straight on cow’s milk when she’s ready for dairy at 1 year without having to bridge any gap with baby formula. I was just hoping to get through my personal minimum of 3 months for her health benefits initially, and when that passed, I set my goal for 6 months with some trepidation, and then when that went well, was crossing my fingers and aiming for a year, without daring to hope too much. I still have 2.5 months to go, but it’s looking good. *still crossing fingers*