weekend away without dd

[blackteaplease]

Dd is 9.5 mo and still breastfeeds about 6 times in 24 hours. I have been invited on a hen do when dd is 11 mo and I will be leaving her from Friday lunchtime to Sunday teatime.

I am planning on expressing and leaving bottles for DH which will be fine, but I am worried that she will refuse the breast when I return.

Has anyone any experience of leaving a bf baby for the weekend and it being ok? I don't really want to give up before she is 12 months.

Hi blacktea, does your DD take expressed milk in bottles OK? Also, do you have a pump that you can take with you? I suspect that your DD may be OK but you could be quite uncomfortable after a whole weekend away.

I first left DS overnight at 14mo because he was a terrible sleeper and wouldn't resettle without a feed until that age (and wouldn't take a bottle). Even so, I found I was really engorged by the Saturday night and desperate to get home. No problem with DS not wanting to bfed on my return though!

Perhaps its worth having a backup plan so that you can get home early if it doesn't work for either of you?

I left dd for about 36 hrs at 4 1/2 months old with DH and lots of expressed milk. She went back to the breast fine when I went back. She had been having one bottle of expressed milk a day since she was 3 weeks old, os was used to swapping. I suppose there are no guarantees as they are all different.

She is quite happy with an bottle of expressed milk and I have left her overnight once before (3pm-10.30am) and I'll be taking the pump to relieve engorgement.

There's no chance of coming home unless absolute emergency, I am in the SW and flying to Fife for the weekend.

I'm really worried that she will stop breastfeeding after a weekend on the bottle and I'm not ready for that yet. I guess I'll have to see how it goes and hope for the best.