Pumping at 10 Months

monitoring trial footage while pumping

I have an ebb and flow relationship with my pump.  Sometimes, the milk flows.  And then, sometimes the milk ebbs.  Two months ago, I was pumping double what the baby was drinking during the day because of solid food.  I thought we were smooth sailing into the end of the first year.  Now, she's drinking much more than I am pumping, even though she's eating a lot of solid food.  WTF?  What happened?!  This on top of pumping less because of leaving work early while she is drinking more because she is sick.  We started to realize that we're starting to use the freezer stash to make up for the fact that I'm not pumping as much. 

I realized that if this continues to be the trend,  if she continues to eat more than I pump every day, then we might have to come up with a solution beyond breast milk.  I suppose I was against cow's milk, because I don't really drink it myself, I thought parents were giving it instead of breast milk, and the recommendation by most doctors is to switch from breast milk to cows milk at one year.  I didn't think we'd ever get to a point where I was pumping less than she was drinking on the daily again.  I thought we'd get to a point where she wouldn't drink any milk during the day.  That she would just eat solids.  I certainly can't go back to pumping up a friggin storm.  Forget that.  I can't bring myself to pump at home.  I talked to Sean about how maybe we'd just feed her this grass-fed, organic, low-temp pasteurized milk from the market when I could no longer keep up.  That sounded like the plan.

After that discussion, Lily and I went to a Le Leche League meeting, the topic being the very appropriate "Nutrition and Weaning".  I asked about what we're supposed to do if we get to that point where we're out of milk and she's drinking more than I'm pumping.  The feedback I got was that if that happens before a year, the recommendation is formula.  If that happens after a year, folks say I can switch to cow's milk. A couple of the moms pumped until 15 months.  One of the leaders mentioned that it was expected that milk supplies ebb around 9 months, when babies start to get mobile and too busy to nurse.  They then pick back up around 11 months when babies realize they left a boob or two behind and all of a sudden go f*#$!!

I suppose at this point, we're just waiting to see what happens.  Maybe things change again in a month or two.  Maybe we are fine until after the first year.  Maybe I need to start pumping like a fiend again (I think I want to push past the recommended formula point).