attending conference with 5 month old baby in tow - tips?

[ThreeWheelsGood]

i'm attending a professional/academic conference over 3 days in another city, I have the go ahead to bring along my baby (exclusively breastfed, will be 5 months old).

Has anyone here done anything similar, do you have any tips? Hoping my partner can come along and hang out nearby in case of meltdown and for support overnight!

(please let me know if there are any other good boards to post this on, wasn't sure where to ask)

[Pawan]

Not sure I have any tips, but I did the same with my breastfed 6 month old... it was hard work, and I didn't make it to as much as the conference as I had hoped; as he wouldn't settle well into his usual routine, so I spent a lot of time feeding, and then trying to get him off to sleep. This then made it quite hard to engage with other colleagues there, as I was distracted worrying about my son. Perhaps for you that will depend on how formal/informal your conference is?

If your partner will be around then hopefully that will make life easier. Is he able to have the baby during the day whilst you are at the conference? Have you tried expressing milk and have him give a bottle to the baby? If you already have this established, then it would then be easy for him to take the baby for a longer time, allowing you to be at your conference uninterrupted. (I tried this with my son, as he was already at nursery for a few sessions, so I used to express milk for them to give him at nursery).

I guess my advice would be don't expect to get to too much of the conference, then you won't be disappointed! Oh, and take some extra clothes for you, as it always happens that even non-sickly babies will bring up some milk on your nice clean work clothes just when you weren't expecting it.

[ThreeWheelsGood]

Thanks for your reply Pawan. We've not yet done the expressing/bottle thing, unsure if we will (though I accept this would make life easier - that said, I'd still need to express during the day so I might as well feed her directly iyswim).

I'm thinking that during the sessions I really really want to attend I'll get DP to take baby for a walk in the pram. I'm anticipating that I won't be able to attend it all, especially as I might have to leave halfway through a session if baby is getting grumpy! Good idea taking a change of clothes. It should be fairly informal so I don't think people will mind me tending to the baby in coffee breaks for example.

[help1975]

I did this when ds1 was 8weeks. Dh walked him around and I popped out to feed. Not great but just about managed. Easier with a 5 month old I guess. Do sit near an exit and take extra pads for leaking too!

[ThreeWheelsGood]

thank you, help1975! good idea about taking extra pads. I'm going to try and stay in sessions to feed, but DP will be nearby. I had a really encouraging email reply from one of the organisers telling me she'd also taken her baby to a conference so she'd be willing to lend a hand! less scared now.

[help1975]

Glad you have support! Hope you enjoy it.

[holidaysarenice]

What kind of conference is it?