Urgent - leaving DS all day/night tomorrow...

[lurcherlover]

DS is a week off being 9 months old, breastfed but will take a bottle of formula or expressed milk when I'm out (and eats food like a horse). I'm on a hen do tomorrow (various activities in the day, then meal/night out in the evening). Originally I had planned to do a morning activity, come home, feed DS and then go out again for the evening. However, the timing of the activities has changed and I'm now going to be out from about 10.30am tomorrow until late tomorrow night - certainly well past DS' bedtime, and he generally sleeps through. So effectively this means I will feed him about 10am tomorrow, and then that'll be it until he wakes up on Sunday morning at about 7am - so 21 hours between feeds. I've never left it that long between feeds before - the longest has been 8 hours when I've done a kit day at work. I'm not worried about DS - he's with DH and then my mum and will take a bottle from either of them quite happily, as well as food. I'm more worried about me - two questions really. One, will my supply be OK? I really don't want to stop bf yet and I don't want it suddenly drying up! And two, am I going to be severely engorged do you think? I might possibly be able to express at some point during the day, but opportunities will be limited. I can express as soon as I get home at night (tempted to wake DS and make him feed, but I will resist!)

[twinklegreen]

I doubt that your milk supply would suffer at this stage lurcherlover you supply will be well established by this stage.

You may find you do get engorged though, might be an idea to pack a breast pump just in case, or hand express into a tissue during a toilet break if you're feeling a bit full and expressing when you get home before bed. Nothing worse than engorged breasts ruining a rare baby free day!

Enjoy :)

[twinklegreen]

sorry repeated 'supply' and 'stage' too much there

[thisisyesterday]

your supply ought to be robust enough by now to cope with it.
but yes, you will get engorged so either practice some hand expressing, or take a small pump with you

i did the exact same thing when ds3 was 14 months old. didn't think it'd matter because he was only feeding a few times a day.... but omg! by the evening i was distinctly uncomfy and by the time we got back to the hotel i was absolutely bursting to express some off
i couldn't wait to get home and was uncomfy all morning when we went out for breakfast because i was shit at hand expressing and couldn't get enough off lol

[LaCiccolina]

Hey, Your supply for one day as I understand it should be fine as you are pretty well established at 9mths. There are plenty of people on here that are extremely experienced so can explain more, but everything I hear suggests a slow drop rather than a sudden emergency stop so with picking the bf-ing back up again the next day you should be ok.

Expressing wise, you can either just do it manually into the bathroom loo(!) or sink or use your machine (if you have one). If they are fat and full it won't take much to set them off. As its a hen do cue various jokes about your rabbit needing oil etc coz of the noise its electric... Don't forget breast pads as a soggy front is not a good look in a club. One of my mates recently got 6oz from one tit, shocked us all....

Presuming that you won't be drinking as if you are, DS can't obviously quaff it unless you both want the hangover next day. ;0) You might need to continue throwing it away til you are recovered....

[lurcherlover]

Thanks guys...I think I will try and express somewhere. Only problem is I'm rubbish at hand expressing (squirt the walls/sink/my eye...not a good look) and don't get anywhere with a hand pump, so an electric one is the only one I can use and get a decent amount out of. Finding somewhere to use that might be a bit tricky! Honestly, I love bf but this is a drawback it has to be said!

[lurcherlover]

Thanks LaCiccolina - I won't be drinking much (complete lightweight these days so only need a couple!) but you do know that once it's out of your blood it's out of your milk, don't you? No need to pump and dump unless you've got COMPLETELY hammered.

[twinklegreen]

If your hand expressing just to release a bit of fullness you can hold a tissue or breastpad on your nipple to avoid and squirt related incidents!

[Fenouille]

Great question and good timing for me. I'm off on a business trip next week for two full days and was also wondering how I'm going to cope with my boobs (I know 8 hours is about max for me as I'm working full time and can't get through a day without pumping - obviously I do anyway to keep up supply). DS is almost 9 months too.

I'm very happy to hear it shouldn't affect my supply too badly. I'm stressing more about that than leaving DS.

Have a great day and night out lurcher :)