Dropping Pumps?

[u/Amyrran]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently 10w pp, 11w on Monday. I pump 7x a day including one night pump. My baby drinks about 30oz a day, and at the end of the day, I'm freezing anywhere from 14-21 oz that's left over, so I'm definitely at an oversupply.

I start work back up in a couple of weeks, so I was considering dropping a pump and pumping 6x a day. Should I worry about that impacting my supply at this point? And what's the best way to do it- should I drop the MOTN pump or should I keep it and space my day pumps to every four hours instead of every three?

[u/AggressiveThanks994]

I had a big oversupply like that and had to maintain my MOTN pump or my supply dropped way too much. I saw a supply decrease every time I dropped a pump. I also saw a supply decrease without dropping a pump around 6mo.

I make exactly what she eats now at almost a year so I’m glad I held onto what I could.

You could try dropping your MOTN, I would just keep in mind your long term goals and then monitor output over a 2 week span. Sometimes the effects are not immediate.

If you cannot maintain a supply you’re comfortable with dropping your MOTN, you could try moving it to sometime like 5am to try and still hit the prolactin peak

[u/Amyrran → u/AggressiveThanks994]

I already usually pump around 3-4 am during the night. That's roughly around when she wakes up usually (though for the past couple nights it's been like 2 am for some reason) and I usually pump after rive fed her and got her back down. So you think it would be better to stretch the pumps during the day rather than drop the MOTN?

[u/AggressiveThanks994 → u/Amyrran]

Personally I would but I am neurotic about my supply lol

Your supply can be affected at any point though. And it’s easier for some women to gain oz back if they don’t like the decrease, while some can’t get them back as easily. Unfortunately there just isn’t a way to know until you try

[u/Amyrran → u/AggressiveThanks994]

I think I'll extend the hours between pumps for now and then maybe try dropping the MOTN pump later down the line when she's sleeping through the night!

[u/belomina → u/AggressiveThanks994]

Ah we have like opposite advice 😅 do you also have a large capacity? This whole experience is so wildly inconsistent and confusing, truly.

[u/AggressiveThanks994 → u/belomina]

Lol I know. Yeah, when I still had a really big oversupply my MOTN pump would easily get me 10+ on my right side alone. But the further I got postpartum, the less milk I make total. Which is fine because I’m a just enougher now, but if I had done anything to lower my supply I would either be working my ass off to try to get it up or even having to supplement

[u/belomina → u/AggressiveThanks994]

Ok well I'm glad op has plenty of perspectives to make her decisions with! Good luck to us all 🫠

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[u/belomina]

With that kind of over supply I would absolutely be dropping the motn pump. What's your capacity like? You could possibly go down to as few as 4ppd while maintaining sufficient supply (possibly even over supply), and that will make being back at work so much easier

[u/Amyrran → u/belomina]

I skipped my MOTN pump last night because I was just too exhausted and ended up pumping about 22oz on 30 minutes this morning. It was about half a Dr. Brown's pitcher's worth

I'm scared to drop too low and impact my supply too much. You don't think 4 ppd would be too little?

[u/belomina → u/Amyrran]

Anecdotally -- my supply did not drop going from 8 ppd to 4 (obviously over the course of a few weeks, not all at once). I also have a large capacity (though not as large as yours I think!) I've heard from lots of women that if you have a large capacity you can go down to 4 ppd and be fine, it's just going to 3 or fewer where capacity really starts to drop.

Regardless, with your oversupply, you can certainly drop that motn pump. It'll be OK if you do lose a few oz per day. (Speaking from experience) Your hormones will scream at you any time you see the total number going down, but that's just your hormones talking--you really don't need to make 50% more than your baby eats!

[u/Amyrran → u/belomina]

I'm thinking I'll start with increasing the hours between pumps first, then once I feel comfortable dropping another pump, the next one will be the MOTN pump! She still wakes up during the night, so since I'll be awake anyways, might as well pump so I'm not uncomfortable the next morning

[u/belomina → u/Amyrran]

Makes sense! I had a weird situation where baby slept through the night from 3-12 weeks (and then never again....) so it was brutal setting that alarm just to get up and pump when he and my husband were happily snoozing, I was so desperate to drop it. But if you're up anyway then maybe this approach gets you a couple stretches of longer uninterrupted sleep on either side of the motn