Leaving breastfed 10 month old for weekend

[watermint]

Can anyone give me any advice on the practicalities of leaving a 10 mo bf baby? DS happily takes a bottle if I am not there so think this side of things will be fine. But what about my supply - I'm currently giving DS about 4 bf's a day and sometimes 1 overnight. Will I need to express regularly while away, or will it be enough to just hand express to relieve any discomfort?

I have never left him overnight before and am worried about it, although he will be with his dad. Is 10 months too young to leave for a weekend do you think?! I'll be gone from about 3pm fri to mid afternoon sunday..

Hi watermint.

I went away for 2 nights when my DD was 10 months old and EBF. I expressed a load of milk in preparation, took me about 2 weeks to have enough. Left 49 oz in the freezer and my DD drank every last bit!

Re. expressing while you are away, well this will depend on how uncomfortable you feel. I expressed every morning and every evening and found that this was enough to keep me comfortable and to maintain my supply. I took my pump with me as I found it so much faster than hand expressing.

In the morning I expressed while I was doing my make up and hair, and in the evening I expressed in bed while I read.

I left ds2 for a long weekend twice. First time for my hen weekend at 4 months and 2 months later for a friends. Little sod was so stubborn he refused the bottle completely. DP tried everything. They all survived - just! DP was rather stressed by the end of it. Don't let that put you off, he was just stubborn and never took a bottle and preferred to starve. I left my other 2 and they were fine. I pumped and dumped when I could.

bulletproofmum how did your 4 month old cope for that long refusing the bottle? Was he cup fed instead? Just interested as he surely couldn't have taken no milk whatsoever for 4 days.

Thanks for the reassurance, I def dont want to stop bf'ing and was mainly concerned that just expressing to relieve discomfort would really effect my supply.
Just have an irrational concern he will hate me or have forgotten me when I return!

They tried cups, spoons, bottles and must have managed a few ounces but it was a struggle and a fraction of what he should have had.

Your baby will remember you. From the age of 6 m I frequently had to leave mine for work. They were always fine. I have had to express in the weirdest of places and had to explain my need for a quiet room to non-English speakers
. Always interesting!