Practicalities of expressing and leaving DD for a day

[stegasaurus]

Months ago DH booked us tickets to see the Foo Fighters at Milton Keynes which is in 4 weeks when DD will be 10 weeks old. I did point out at the time that I probably won't be able to go, but will need to work out if it is possible soon so he can try and sell the tickets if necessary. DD is breast fed, but we know she can drink from a bottle as DH had to give her a bottle of formula the other day when I was ill. The concert seems to start earlier than most as there are at least 3 support bands on and MK is a couple of hours away so we would be away from her for most of the day until the early hours of the morning.
If we go:
How would I know how much EBM she would need? Obvoiusly I have no idea how much she takes per feed and can't even predict how many feeds she will want in that time.
Would I need to express milk during the day to stop my supply drying up and my breasts being agony? Are there practical ways to do that in this situation?
If I express milk to store for this event or any other reason, when is the best time to do it? Before or after feeding her? How will it affect my supply if I am taking significant amounts more milk from my breasts?
After a sleepless night I have forgotten my other questions, but I am prepared to be told it will be impossible and I can't go.

Babies take on average 25oz of breastmilk a day, so you can divide that by the number of feeds she has a day to get the typical amount - or leave an oz an hour for each hour you're away plus a few extra.

I doubt your supply would dry up in a day, but you will probably need to express for comfort. I guess you would need to pump and dump in the toilets at the venue?

I have always been rubbish at expressing so can't really help with that, but think if you're expressing significant amounts then you might risk causing an oversupply.

I left DD1 for 12hrs when she was about 5months old... Fed her at 7am, expressed the other boob while DH winded her, ran to station / spent a day not really enjoying a poncy wine tasting thing with PIL had bought us & raced home to give bedtime feed at 7pm.

I took my pump with me with the intention of expressing at lunchtime but the venue only had one loo so I couldn't! Had massive achy boobs by the time I got home (was amazed DD1 could get her little mouth around it! But was just uncomfortable rather than being in agony. I remember it took a couple of days for my boobs to feel "right" again, but no had no issues with supply.

Usually the best time to express is in the morning. When I needed to "stock up" I got up half an hour early & expressed one boob. When I was expressing for DD1 in SCBU they told me I needed to be calm & thinking happy thoughts about her, they even gave me her blanket to sniff(!) as these are all supposed to make the milk come out easier!

If you are taking more milk out then you will make more, but doubt it will cause you any problems.

HTH!

It is doable. I wouldn't expect to express all the milk you need in the week you're going though. If i were you I'd be starting now. As rita says you'll need over 25oz so you need to know how much you can express as it is different for everyone. Last time I expressed (6 weeks ago when my LO was 4 weeks) I was able to express between 2.5oz and 5oz at a time but this would take about 40 minutes. It's a lot of faffing about so you will probably resent doing it more than once a day. it is also worth remembering that the 6 week growth spurt is only around the corner when you'll probably feel like your LO lives on your boobs so you won't want to express.

I would take a pump with you and dump the milk as you are unlikely to be able to store it safely.

Honestly? I'd sell the tickets. It sounds like an enormous amount of hassle and stress and you'll be thinking about your DD the whole time. Plus going to concert, travelling etc is exhausting when you're not getting much sleep anyway. I'd sell the tickets and spend the money on a meal locally which will only be 2 hours or so out. But that's just me. If you really love the band then maybe you will enjoy it enough to make it worth the faff. To put it into context 25oz is probably around 8 expressing sessions if you're lucky, so with associated cleaning etc that's around 6 hours of effort just to produce her food. At ten weeks I'd rather have been sleeping. but maybe I am lazy! And yes you will need to pump and dump in public loos.

If she'll take formula then why not just let her have that for the hours you are away to save you having to express? Then all you need to do is feed her before you leave and potentially express and dump the milk when you are out.

You'll have to pump and dump, probably every few hours to avoid engorgement and risking blocked ducts or mastitis. Personally, for me, a concert wouldn't be worth the risk.

Also, have you left your LO for much time yet? DD is okay if I'm out for a bit, but I think she'd still struggle if I left her for the entire day, even if she was with her Dad!

I left DD for 12 hours at this age as was advised not to take her (went to London to get visa's). Came back to a nursing strike because as lovely as my mum is, she FF 5 babies the rather old fashioned way.

Never had a problem when DH fed her and I went back to work FT when she was 17 weeks and part time before that. I would recommend leaving whoever looks after your baby to read this and this is also good but for your own reading (I wouldn't have got my mum to read as it might have come across a bit too judgmental on her way).

I expressed twice in the time I was away and just dumped it. People do recommend to express more and if I was say at work I would have done. This was enough to relieve discomfort.

Expressing once a day is a good amount. Baby will take about 1 oz for every hour you expect to be away plus a few extra for good measure. It is my experience that people tend to give babies more EBM than they need. Milk can last up to a week in the fridge so don't freeze milk you express in that time as frozen milk is much more of a faff. Also it's probably worth trying to keep up the bottle habbit to be sure (e.g. each/every other day) and also checking you milk doesn't go funny on freezing (some peoples milk smells off on defrosting)

Most of you all, if you don't particularly want to go then don't. If you do then go ahead and enjoy yourself.

I also had another 12 hours session of not feeding her a few weeks prior to the visa trip and she was fine as was with DH. In fact I think I might have not expressed at all, but I did get very drunk and the reason it was 12 hours was because I was still not fit to feed her the next morning You only get your PhD once

I went to a concert that was far away and it meant spending 10 hours away from DD, from the advice given on here I looked on kellymom and worked out how much milk to have stored based on how many feeds a day she was taking on average. I expressed the milk over a couple of weeks to prevent boobs going into overdrive then on the day I fed her just before I left, took pump with me, expressed a little just as we arrived at the venue and left pump in the car so I didn't have to carry it around with me.. boobs were a bit sensitive towards the end of the concert and I couldn't wait to get into the car and express!!

When I got home even though DH had just fed her she woke up and had a massive feed from me.

Go and enjoy yourself.. if you're with your DH at least he won't mind if you talk about your DD all night!! I had to remind myself not to keep talking about my DD as friends would've been a bit