How can I go to the pub?

[catsofa]

My baby is 2 and a half months old and exclusively breast fed.

I want to leave him with my DP's mum and spend an evening in the pub with my DP, it'd also be nice to leave him with DP and go out with friends very occasionally.

But how do I actually do it when after 2 or 3 hours I'll be uncomfortably full and need to pump if I'm not with my baby? I can't really pump in a pub can I? Maybe in the toilets, but then I'd be occupying a cubicle for maybe 20 minutes! What do other people do?

[TanteRose]

Erm, come back home and feed your baby after a couple of hours?
When your DC is a bit older, they'll go for longer between feeds and then you can stay out a bit longer too

[catsofa]

Ah, there's no trick I'm missing then?

I don't think there's a pub close enough to go back and forth to, by the time I've got to one it'd be nearly time to go back again .

When do babies start to go longer between feeds, or does it completely different for every baby?

[TanteRose]

Different for all babies.
Can you find a family friendly pub/restaurant and take your baby with you? Put him in a car seat under the table - small babies are very portable and often sleep through the noise of a restaurant

[milkysmum]

I think I managed to go out for a christmas meal once when ds was about 4 months and just hand expressed a bit a bit of milk off in the toilet when the pressure got to much!! By the time I got home though I thought my boobs were going to explode

[madwomanbackintheattic]

The only time I tried I sat in the toilet for twenty minutes spraying the walls with milk. I literally couldn't get it to stop and it was motoring out of me like six or seven teeny tiny hoses. I stuffed my bra with as much toilet paper as I could (I had already soaked through two sets of breast pads) and demanded dh take me home. He started to demur and suggest we stayed longer, so I flashed open my jacket to reveal the miserable wet patches down to my waistline on both sides. We went home and I fed dd.

Honestly? At that point I wouldn't bother. The pub will keep.

That said, you can certainly pump wherever you like as long as you are comfortable with it. I'm just not that desperate to go to the pub. I've pumped in the car with dh driving, and all sorts of places. But I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to bother just to go to a bar tbh.

[Racheyg]

Hi op, my ds2 is 8 weeks and I am taking dp out for bday dinner tonight.

I never went out without ds1 so this will be my first time. I am going to take my pump as going home to feed is not an option (live in East London going out in the city)

What I'm planning is to pump till feel comfortable (5 mins of so, it's an electric double pump)

What ever you choose I hope you have a good time