DH feeding our DD with EBM while I'm working

[Janoschi]

Hello.

I'm in a bit of a pickle. Hoping some of you lovely folks might tell me to stop worrying and give me some advice.

I've got a 3 day per week job starting in August, when my LO will be 12 weeks old. I'll be working 300 miles from home so my DH will be coming with me. We'll be staying in a hotel but with access to fridge and freezer. My job runs 7.30am-8pm every day, with a high likelihood of overtime.

I just don't know how to juggle the EBM thing at all. My DH will need to take a whole day's supply out with him every day and I don't know how much he'll need. I know you can only heat BM once so if our DD only takes a few swallows from a 5oz bottle, he'd have to chuck the rest, yes? Or I could give him a lot of smaller amounts but realistically how many bottles can one take along in a pushchair in what could be 30 degree heat?

Just totally boggled by the whole logistics of it. Any advice?

I think most BF babies take approx 25 oz per day so work somewhere around that.

Will DH be out of the hotel room the whole day? Or will he pop back to pick up fresh (refrigerated) milk?

I usually store milk in 2-3oz portions to minimise wastage.

Will your DD take room temp milk? I think BM stays good for several hours at room temp so if she just took a sip then I think it could be saved (but not if warmed)

HTH

DD can take room temp milk but not chilled (though I'm still trying that one!), so using a coolbag is not really an option at the mo... unless I pack a load of chilled bottles in a coolbag and DH takes one out at a time and warms it gradually to roomtemp...

2-3oz portions sounds doable... that would be 4 or 5 bottles over a 12 hour period. DH would probably be out for most of the day because the hotel is located in a rather dull, industrial area and I'd expect he'd want to go to nicer areas as much as possible. But he could pop back in an emergency, for sure.

Thanks so much!

janoschi - bm has anti-bacterial qualities that actively attack bacteria/parasites/viruses so you have up to 6 hours to finish a bottle once it has been started.

It might be a good idea if your DH has a cool bag and ice packs/sheets to keep the milk cold when out and about to keep the milk as fresh as possible. He could have a stash of sterilised empty bottles and decant a few oz into a clean bottle to warm up when she's hungry (Fisher Price make a bottle warming flask which might be handy thing for DH) and only heat up more if she seems hungry after finishing the bottle.

This might help your DH with bottlefeeding and minimise the chance of overfeeding.

I'm intrigued to know what your job is? (I'm very nosey)

Truthsweet Now THAT is genius and I can't believe I didn't think of it. Thank you!

SarahScot Film crew.

Oooh, I KNEW it would be a cool job

do you get breaks? Could he arrange to meet you a couple of times a day to breastfeed?

That would be an emergency situation to be honest, as it'll be very hard to predict the breaks (if any!) beforehand. Do love the thermos idea though. Will try it out next week.