Letting Milk Dry Up... How Long Does This Take??

I think that the way you gradually cut out pumping sessions was very good. That was recommended to me a while back by moms on this site, and for me it worked very well. After I stopped pumping, a few days later I had the 'tingly' feelings that felt like I was still making milk and that I should pump, but I didn't. Every now and again I still get them (I'm almost a month post-pumping), but I just distract myself through them. But I never feel full (didn't really ever feel full towards the end of pumping anyway) and nothing has been painful though.

Okay so i didnt breast feed but i did obviously deal with the drying up process and it sucks badly. It hurts a lot but doesnt last long at all. I called my doc after i had my son and asked him why he didnt tell me my boobs drying up was going to be worse then the labor and pushing. LOL he said be happy it should only last a few days. 3 maybe. my doc also said that you can not stimulate them at all cause they will produce milk if you stimulate them and then they continue to hurt. so make sure you keep hubbies hands off and dont let showers water run on them or anything at all stimulate them cause it will take longer. good luck.

I used the belly band from my pregnancy and wrapped it tightly over my breasts over a sports bra. Worked great. I was dryed up in 2 days. You could try using a large ace bandage. I also stayed about a size larger afterwards.

I'm jealous...I can't even get my milk built enough to satisfy my LO....I wanted to nurse for longer, but had to supplement.

Maybe try the old cabbage leaf trick. Fresh cool cabbage leaves in the bra changing out as the wither (about every 2 hours). Won't hurt to try and if it works YAY!!
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

To tell you the truth, they might not go back down to the size they were pre-pregnancy. Mine stayed larger, hubby didn't mind lol, but it gave me an excuse to go bra/clothes shopping :) Also, just out of curiosity, I would test by manually expressing to see if there would be any milk and sure enough 5 months later after no more breast feeding, there was milk. Obviously I wasn't producing enough to start breast feeding again, but my point is that it didn't completely "dry up". You might want to give it some more time and see what happens. The hardest thing to do is resist relief, but it can be done.

I second the cabbage leaves. I used them after I stopped nursing my second. It seems weird at first, but the cool leaves feel good on the engorged tissue. I would just put them all around every couple of hours. It took a few days, but it really did help.

Took mine about a week of gradually reducing pumping and then stopping all together.
But to echo another poster, mine stayed bigger. I was already a D before pregnance, and now, afterwards, I'm a DD. Hubby doesn't mind! :)

I had to deal with this at the peak of my breastmilk production when I needed to start chemo. Our daughter was not yet 3 months old.

For me, it took about 2 weeks of gradually reducing the number of pumping sessions/day until I was able to quit. I never had any issues with engorgement, but I also had really toxic chemo drugs in my system that may have made the process quicker and easier.

Friends who chose to quit nursing said it took about 1-2 weeks depending on how much demand the baby had placed upon them (production) and how abruptly they discontinued.

Good luck!