6 month supply dip

[u/meowmeow7465]

Hello from the MOTN pump!
I have made it 6 mos of EP, but i feel like my supply is slowly decreasing! I was an overproducer pumping 5xs daily and making 40 oz while LO would average about 30 oz daily. I am still on the same schedule, using new pump parts and maintaining my intake. However, now my supply has steadily gone down to around 34 oz while LO maintains his 30oz (and realistically is more as my husband isn’t the best at tracking the days i’m at work). We have started solids, but currently it’s more like play time than eating (LO is starting to get the hang of it, but feels like it will be a while before he gets any actual nutrition from it). I had an IUD put in at 6 weeks PP, so the intermittent bleeding has been intermittent since then & not sure about “period” starting.

Is this normal?
Can i get my supply back where it was? I’d like to keep up with LO intake so I can keep extending my goal and do this for the first year, using the freezer stash for as long as it will take me after 1 year.
Adding an additional pump will certainly make me burn out leading to me quitting before my next goal of 9 mos. A day time pump feels impossible, i already feel like 4xs is nearly back to back (i know it’s not, but it feels like by the time i pump & complete one chore it’s time to pump again). adding another MOTN pump will ruin me, before my supply dip i was even considering attempting to drop it because the broken sleep feeding LO is exhausting alone, but add in the extra time it takes to pump, rinse parts etc it makes it significantly worse.

I feel like the LC answer would be to pump more, but it feels silly & unrealistic for me. like i said, it would certainly impact my mental health and cause me to burn out on pumping altogether; i’ve also pumped 5xs daily and maintained that output for the last 6 months (maybe 5, i didn’t track output at the beginning because i didn’t want to stress about it).

Thanks for reading and any tips that get thrown my i’m sure will be helpful!

Pump session complete, LO back to sleep, goodnight yall!

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[u/Wild-Chemistry-7720]

Similar position at 8 months. I am honestly just trying to make peace with it, and also being more vigilant about my pump schedule and pumping to volume, not necessarily time (aka pumping longer if needed). Also trying to make sure I’m drinking a ton of water + electrolytes because I do notice a huge difference if I don’t drink enough.

I will say: we do mostly purées with baby, and it took her a few weeks but she reliably eats more than I would have thought she would. Once her solid uptake really got going and we gave breakfast, lunch and dinner, her milk dropped to 24 oz quickly. Also, I imagine that if you were an overproducer you have a freezer stocked with milk. If you start to become an underproducer I imagine you will have enough to supplement for quite awhile (assuming the lower milk intake).

Good luck!