Help - have I ebf for too long?! Need to be away for half day

[wellieboots]

DD (5 months on Tues) has been ebf so far (well, apart from we gave her a tiny bit of rice cereal yesterday), but she's had no bottles.

I have real issues with expressing, just haven't figured out how to do it properly or something and I get tiny bits, nowhere near enough to actually feed her!

In a couple of weeks, I have an Open Uni exam and will be away from home for at least 5 hours. I tried expressing again yesterday and got NOTHING. I'm really stressed - am I going to need to introduce formula so that I can check that she will take a formula feed while I'm gone? After this long, is she likely to accept one formula feed and then go back to bf afterwards?

I now almost wish I had mix fed from the start so that I wasn't so stressed about needing to be away! It will only be about 5 hours but she generally goes no more than 3 hours in the daytime - I only got to the hairdresser for the first time since DD was born yesterday!

Any advice?! I want to keep bf for as long as poss (I think...) and I wish I could express enough, but it just doesn't work!

How long is the exam? Can you bring her with you and have a friend look after her while you sit the exam?

exam is 3.5 hours long, 2.30-6. so including travel its about 5 hours.
I guess we could drive there early and feed at say 2, but shes unlikely to last 4 hours, even if DH came to meet me and I fed immediately at 6. I will run it past him but he is always very nervous about looking after her for any length of time.

Tbh, as a one off, I'd try to tank her up beforehand as late as possible. If she does get hungry, you could leave one of those ready made cartons with DH to offer from a cup (wouldn't bother with a bottle at this stage) and if she takes it she takes it, if she doesn't, it's only an hour.

Your DH will really just need to suck up looking after her - you can't miss the exam or leave early!

Thanks, I know - DH is great and such a hands on dad in so many ways but like I say, only got to the hairdresser for the first time yesterday - he is paranoid about being left with her "in case she's hungry". Last week I got out for the first time (just to a tupperware party). Did bath and last feed at home, then he took her to a friend's place (friend's wife was at same party) instead of putting her to bed here so that he had moral support if she didn't settle, and so that I was only around the corner if she had woken and wanted fed! Needless to say it was all fine and she didn't want fed until 2am!

She will be fine :-) dh might be stressed though.

If she has never had a cup maybe leave him with a medicine syringe? If desperate he could feed with that? Good luck in your exam.

hey Wellie, our DD is 5mo too, EBF to 3mo then the odd bottle of formula, still almost entirely BF, and she doesn't seem bothered by her daily bottle (sometimes FF, sometimes EBF). I would buy one of the little cartons of ready mixed milk and try her with it - one FF isn't going to put her off the breast, so the worst case is she refuses it? but if she takes it, you won't need to fret so much about her during your exam.

Sounds like it might also be a good opportunity for your DH to build his confidence? My DH loves giving our LO her bottle . We've found the Tommee Tippee ones good. Oh - we use the slow flow (ie newborn - 3 months) teat so she doesn't get lazy with BFing.

Good luck with the exam!

sorry, that should have been sometimes EBM in the bottle

We do the same as rootypig - except whenever dd gets a bottle it's formula because I can't be faffed with expressing.