Oh Jasp hun, you are doing an amazing job and should feel SO proud of yourself. Sounds like you're doing some lovely productive thinking outloud too.

Couple of quick thoughts that may be helpful (sorry gotta run this morning - so dot point!)
  • supply till 12mths - you might surprise yourself by managing fine even if dropping the night pump
  • I agree with what hte others said - don't pump as long maybe? It's probably not making a huge difference that extra time.
  • I know that at 6 months it seems a huge jump to 12 months... chunk it down to smaller goals if you decide to keep going for a bit. I found it was really daunting at that point
  • and remember, even if it's not exclusive EBM, it's still beneficial. When i was struggling a dietician did point at that even some EBM would be good - so if your supply does drop a bit, but it's maintainable lifestyle-wise... is that an option?


And the only other thing - I found from about 7-8 mths it did get HEAPS easier once solids were in the picture...I was pumping only 3 times a day (and I never had a huge supply). So remember if you keep your hand-in, you've got the option to potentially ramp it back up or pull it back at any time. I was surprised how high my supply stayed when I pumped less. I still did pump to "empty" but less often.

Us EE'ers get so used to thinking all or nothing (well I certainly did) that sometimes it's good to remember it could be shades of grey too.

Thinking of you.
Belfie