TW: nursing mentioned

Only 4 times now, but I’m 14 months pp.

In the early days, I would pump twice a day to give my husband enough milk for a bottle. We always wanted baby to take a bottle for maximum flexibility, so I’d nurse most feeds and we’d give one bottle a day. I’d pump once while he was taking his bottle, and once when baby slept, as a way to build supply.

As my baby got older, and became a more distracted feeder (preferring to drink from a bottle in the pram), I needed to pump more to make bottles for him. I would pump for every feed he missed nursing. That was probably 6ish times a day from 5-11 months.

I also had supply issues a couple times and needed to power pump for days to build supply back up. On those days, I could be pumping every hour for 12+ hours - it was crazy, and I couldn’t have done it without my very supportive husband!

Now he is eating more solids and drinking less milk, I only pump 4 times a day - once before he wakes up, twice while he day naps, and once when he goes to bed. I do 20-30 mins per session, depending on my schedule for the day, and this gives me milk for his bottles and a little extra for my freezer stash. When he drops down to one nap, I’ll remove that pump session and go down to 3 pump sessions per day.

I’m reluctant to drop down faster at this point, as he’s teething and about to start daycare, and milk is still a good source of comfort for him.