Help with expressing milk for an afternoon out of town

[delilah88]

I have an EBF 2 month year old. When she's 2.5 months I have to go out of town for a day and am hoping to leave enough expressed milk for her dad to feed her. Firstly, could anyone tell me of a good expressing kit to buy (pump & bags/bottles), and secondly could you give me some advice on how to build up the milk. Do you think I should start now and freeze it, or will I be able to build up enough milk stored in the fridge before it starts going off?
Thanks!

[milkjetmum]

You will need to keep 1oz for every hour you will be away.

I was on a mission with storage (went away 3 days when dd was 5mo). My tips are:

• express in the morning from now until then, just do a set time, don't sit there staring at the pump waiting for a certain volume. Some days you'll get lots, somedays now. I used to use a manual pump for 10 mins the first two feeds of the day while feeding on the otherside.
  
• if you are leaky consider getting nipple shields to collect (I used to get 1oz+ each side in the time it took me to do dd nappy before feeding her first thing!)
  
• check dd will take a bottle! Maybe introduce one a day between now and then?
  
• don't fear the ff if required. Frozen bm is perfect for cooling down hot formula before feeding. We called it a shandy!

[milkjetmum]

You will need to keep 1oz for every hour you will be away.

I was on a mission with storage (went away 3 days when dd was 5mo). My tips are:

• express in the morning from now until then, just do a set time, don't sit there staring at the pump waiting for a certain volume. Some days you'll get lots, somedays now. I used to use a manual pump for 10 mins the first two feeds of the day while feeding on the otherside.
  
• if you are leaky consider getting nipple shields to collect (I used to get 1oz+ each side in the time it took me to do dd nappy before feeding her first thing!)
  
• check dd will take a bottle! Maybe introduce one a day between now and then?
  
• don't fear the ff if required. Frozen bm is perfect for cooling down hot formula before feeding. We called it a shandy!

[TeaandHobnobs]

Have a look at the kellymom notes on storing expressed milk and there's also a page on calculating how much milk your baby needs (although the 1oz/hr is a good guideline anyway).

I agree you should have a go with the bottle before you need it, IYSWIM, so you can be confident DD will take it (although if worst comes to the worst, her dad could cup feed her).

I would say best to express first thing in the morning, maybe off one side while DD feeds from the other? And freeze in small portions (1-2oz, which may be all you get in one go anyway) so that when it is going to be used, you don't end up defrosting large amounts of milk that then don't get drunk (I have done the annoying stupid thing of defrosting 8oz of milk for DS when I was away from him for half a day, and he drank 1oz of it )

DS was introduced to a bottle early on, but only small amounts (

[SweepTheHalls]

I used to put in an extra feed during the morning nap. So when he went to sleep, I'd use a Phillips avent electric pump, watch half an hour of crap daytime telly and express! Initially I got bugger all, but it increased as my body treated it like an extra feed and I would make a full extra feed for freezing! Good luck.

[delilah88]

These replies are so useful! Thank you so much for putting in the time to write.