A question about expressing

[Eminybob]

DS is ebf and for the first time I am going to be leaving him with DP for the evening with expressed milk.

The plan is I will feed him before I go out, which should last him until his last feed of the.evening which DP will give to him and put him down (in an ideal world - we are well aware it may not go to plan!) then as I plan to have a few drinks while out either me or DP will do his night feeds with expressed milk also (usually wakes twice). Then his first feed in the morning will be from the breast once the alcohol is out of my system.

So my question is, how will this effect my supply? Do I need to express when I would normally feed him? Or would expressing when I come home suffice? All the books I have read don't seem to cover this! Thanks.

A lot depends on how old he is...

I think it rather depends on how established your feeding is. I found once feeding was well established (4 months?) I could miss feeds without any supply issues, but did sometimes get uncomfortable and need to express for my benefit!
Has he taken a bottle before? Because that might be the bigger issue!

Sorry, he's 9 weeks. He has taken the bottle before from DP and was fine, but it was just a test run so I wasn't far away!

In fact, as I'm asking this anyway, another concern I have is that he is too little to miss so many feeds with me. Is it likely to cause him anxiety? I'm only likely to be away from him for an hour or 2 before he goes to bed but I don't know if this is going to be distressing for him

I do think at 9 weeks you might be pushing your luck a bit....maybe go out but only 1 or2 drinks so you can still feed at night?

You will have tits like rocks... You will probably need to pump to relieve the pressure that night.

I'm exclusively expressing and about 6 hours is the longest I can leave it. The baby is 8 weeks, so a similar age to yours.

You can express when you get in and throw the milk away (painful mentally but means your boobs won't explode). Obviously missing a in the night feed will make you very full in the morning, but you can express the first bit off then allow baby to empty you. Get dp to do the feed in the night, baby may be more likely to take bottle from him instead of you where boob milk can be smelt.
Enjoy yourself and take it easy!

I have had lots of hens since having lo and so been an expressing machine! Lo will be fine with daddy and so don't worry about that... A lovely way to bond with daddy. I would pump and dump when you get home for your own comfort!! Enjoy your night out :()

That was meant to be a smile :)

Thanks everyone.

Night out was last night. Despite missing DS like mad (defo more than he missed me!) it went well.

DP kept to the usual routine and he was absolutely fine. I pumped when I got in, but probably not enough as this morning I was in agony! I gave him his morning feed from expressed milk as I probably still had alcohol in my system so had to pump before hand. It literally poured out - gutted I had to chuck it out

Just for future reference, unless you'd almost given yourself alcohol poisoning on your night out you would have almost certainly have been fine to feed in the morning, the amount of alcohol that gets into breastmilk is miniscule:

babyandbump.momtastic.com/breastfeeding/2015181-alcohol-breastmilk-reposted-dr-jack-newmans-fb-page.html

That's interesting reading. I have missed my wine!

Glad you enjoyed your night and it all went well