going away, how many times would i need to express??

[billiejo]

Hello, my ds2 is 9months and and i currently feed him at 7.30, then express the other boob (6oz), then feed him at 11.30and 3.30, I then express both boobs at 7.30 (whilst dh feeds him a 7oz bottle of ebm) then i express another 4oz at 10.30 which dh then dream feeds him at midnight....sorry if this is rambling on!! what i really want to know is , on Thurs , i go away until sunday eve for some r&r with a few girl friends, i was planning on expressing first thing and 7pm ish...does anyone with knowledge of this know if this will drastically affect my supply? i'm worried that this may be the case. i don't mind, personally, if they're a bit uncomfy but i could really do without feeling too chained to that bloody expressor for my trip away but naturally i'll do whatever i need to do to maintain my supply.
thanks for any help.

bump, anyone?

Hi billiejo

I am rubbish at expressing and don't do it terribly much so can't give any good advice, but here's a link to the expressing section of kellymom.com with some info for you.

HTH and enjoy your R&R

It's not just your supply you need to be careful of - if you go from feeding/expressing five times in a day to twice with a long gap, you may well get mastitis.

I'd express at lunchtime-ish if at all possible - hand expressing is fairly straightforward so you wouldn't need the machine - v easy once you have the knack.

After 9 months of bf, your supply is probably pretty thoroughly established. But as HM says, mastitis is a more likely problem.

I went on a work training session which was two night away when ds was about 10.5 months old. It was only really practical for me to express first thing and last thing at night - which seemed to work out OK.

I had also gone away for 9 days on a skiing holiday when he was 6 motnhs old and expressed morning, some time during the day and then (I think) early evening and late evening. It may only have been three tiems a day though. That worked out OK too (did come back with masses a EBM - kept him going for ages as my expressing at work started to tail off! )

Let us know how you get on! I'm going away next week for 2 days working, LO will be nearly 8 months and bf 3-4 times a day, twice at night and twice in the morning (he has a bottle of formula in nursery as well). I'm hoping I can get away with only 3 expressings a day as I won't have much privacy other than morning and night (anyone done it in a train loo - don't fancy it much?) I'm worried about getting engorged/leaking in front of a class full of people!

I used to do it on the Heathrow Express!

Business trips down to London meant that I did have to use loos a lot!

thanks for all your advice, i'll let you know how i go on. xx