When your done or give up on Breastfeeding/pumping...

I'm throwing in the towel... it's been 3 days since I've pumped... DD has had a lot of crying fits day and night and 2 now emergency doctor/hospital visits... and it's too exhausting to continue feeding her then pumping. Not to mention the countless times lately that she start screaming in the middle of pumping. Ah, the lighter breast milk was throwing off her feeding schedule anyway.

Anyway, my question is... is there something I need to do now or does the milk just dry up? My mother said she had some sort of shot to dry up her milk. I'm not getting engorged anymore, earlier in the week I started to notice less milk coming out anyway - probably b/c of the lesser amount of time I could spend pumping. I may actually be the gluten of punishment that I am and try again with our next baby in a few years... so I want to make sure I do the right thing by my breasts... do I have to call my OB/GYN... I'm not due for a C-section follow up for another 2 weeks.

TIA for the info...

Re: When your done or give up on Breastfeeding/pumping...

Nope, nothing you have to do... Sounds like you had a gradual weaning, so you probably won't have any engorgement or pain. If it does feel uncomfy, you can express enough to relieve the pressure, and do so a little less each day....

Message edited 5/31/2008 7:58:54 PM.

Re: When your done or give up on Breastfeeding/pumping...

They don't do the shots anymore. You just have to wean off. Like at the end, I was only BFing 2 times per day and spaced out the pumping. If you have not pumped in 3 days and have no engorgement it sounds really good for you.

Re: When your done or give up on Breastfeeding/pumping...

Last time I just dried up. No pain at all. I hope for the same this time around.

Re: When your done or give up on Breastfeeding/pumping...

Thank you all so much. I didn't want to do anything harmful to myself or make BFing impossible next time around... although I question how much success I'll have next time since this first time was so bad. Recovering from the c-section was tough on me this time (it wasn't scheduled to go that way), next time I'm thinking of doing a scheduled C-section but to add to my recovery woes will be the fact that my now adorable infant will be a rambunctious toddler - so next time I'm keeping my expectations realistic so as to not be so hard on myself. Between the disappointment of not dialating and needing a section (I still cry and feel I failed in childbirth somehow - I know that probably is such an odd thing to a lot of people), then the failure of not BFing successfully, it all just made me feel like I failed my baby from day 1. Now I'm learning to cope with my own unmet expectations/issues and exhaustion of course and enjoying being a lucky mom of a gorgeous little girl... BFing or not and regardless of how she made her exit out of my body and her entrance into the world, I am now realizing that I am very fortunate and truly blessed. I just felt I needed to say that since I was feeling so down for a while.

Thank you all for the responses regarding BFing/pumping weaning. Off to washing some bottles and those blasted "unnatural" nipples to be filled at a later time with what one lactation consultant at the hospital called referring to formula - "liquid heroin" My baby's thriving - that's what's important I've realized!

Message edited 6/1/2008 2:18:26 PM.