Feeling guilty for not pumping

[Skittleblue]

My goal was to make it to a year breast feeding, and anything else was just icing on the cake. My daughter turns 1 on Tuesday, and since I have a 3 day weekend from work, that'll be easy to do. The thing is that I have a love/hate relationship with my pump, and have been counting down the days until I could eat my lunch like a normal person instead of spending my one and only break hooked up to that thing! I still plan to let her nurse morning, evening, and overnight, but I keep hearing that I'll start losing my supply now. I don't know if it's because of that or just because I'm just so used to pumping for her or what, but today was the first day since I went back to work that I didn't pump, and I feel so guilty. She enjoys it so much, and I just feel like I'm not being fair to her by not pumping anymore. But on the other hand, it was sooooo nice to not run down the hall, scramble to put things together, pump, put everything away, and get back to the other end of the hall in that 25 minutes!

I don't know what I'm looking for here. I guess I'm hoping someone else knows how I'm feeling and can tell me I'm not being hugely selfish.

 

[kung_pao mama]

Nicely done! Congratulations for meeting your goal :0) I absolutely understand the love/hate relationship with the pump. I've only been back to work for about a month and pumping there is such a hassle. It's normal to feel guilty but you are NOT being selfish.

I don't have experience with this myself, but a lot of women I've talked to have been able to stop pumping while away and still nurse when they are home with their little one. Your body will adjust.

I'd stop pumping and see if it affects your supply. If so, go back to pumping and remember that your providing the best for your daughter and that you wont have to do it forever.

Good luck!

 

[Skittleblue]

Thank you. I don't plan to stop letting her nurse anytime soon. It was just the pumping that I want to stop. I guess it surprised me to feel so guilty for not pumping anymore. I think it's because I stopped that myself instead of letting her decide that she's finished with it. All of the other feeds, we'll drop in her time as long as I have the supply to keep going, which I would guess I would.

My mom tells me that her body started cutting back her supply around this time with each of us (when she dropped pumping at work) but that doesn't make sense to me. It seems to me like it would adjust just like it did when she started sleeping longer at night. I think that's the other part that makes me feel a little guilty, though - the not knowing and not wanting to risk taking this from her before she's ready to stop.

 

[Rachel_C]

I'd just play it by ear. I think most older kids with SAHMs tend to feed morning, evening, sometimes in the night and their mums don't usually have big supply problems so fingers crossed you'll find the same even though your LO might be a little younger. When I night weaned my 2 year old, I felt like there was a temporary dip in supply for the first week after she stopped feeding during the night, but I let LO feed on demand during the day and she worked hard to bring it back to the level she wanted. As long as you let LO feed when she wants when you're there, I think you'll be fine. It may feel like she's having to work harder at the start, like when a newborn is increasing your supply, but it'll work out

 

[Odd Socks]

i'm 2 years in & haven't pumped at all. i returned to work when my youngest was 14 1/2 months & was away from her 3 days a week for 12-13 hours. it's not made a difference to our breastfeeding relationship - she feeds tons when she's with me & copes fine when i'm at work.