FTM here. I am (sorry in advance) pretty proud of making it over 10 months of exclusively pumping for my baby. None of the women in my family breastfed but are relatively supportive about it. My husband has children to his ex-wife and none of my stepchildren were breastfed, so this has been a new journey for him. I am an overproducer and at about 4 months PP, started donating some of my frozen milk to a friend who couldn't produce. Because of donating (which I'm fine with - I feel so great about supporting another family), I have a freezer stash but not an insane freezer stash. Probably a little over a month's worth saved up for my baby (which I'm fine with).
Anyway - my baby is a little over 10 months and my husband wants us to switch to cows milk at 1 year. He hasn't exactly been super supportive with my journey. It weirds him out and he finds it super inconvenient *eye roll*. I'm honestly not sure that I'm emotionally ready to give it up. I've always pumped, so I've never experienced the skin to skin bond but I just feel like the time, effort, and love of this has become a part of me. I know I'll have to give it up eventually...but I'm not sure that I'm ready right now. I nourished my baby with my body! And saved my family from paying for formula! And I lost 45lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight!
Its also important to note I'm on the spectrum and routines are very important to me. Even just dropping from 5 pumps a day to 4 was a huge adjustment for me. I read about how so many women hate pumping and count down the days until they're done. Anyone else struggle to give up the pump? Even if we switch to cows milk, would it be weird if I kept pumping and just continued to donate to other moms or hospitals?