Breast feeding while on a weekend course

[Volleyhang]

DD is almost 6 months old and will be 6 months when i go on this course. I am exclusively BF. I haven't really used a pump much except at the beginning, so DD is with me all the time and breastfeeds about 6 times a day.

I have a course I have desperately wanted to do and I booked it while I was pregnant for the weekend. DD being my first I had no idea what BF would be like and I thought I'd BF for the standard 6 months and then stop. However, I don't want to stop.

The trouble is, even when I miss one feed, my supply drops. If I go a whole weekend only doing feeds before 9am and after 5pm (missing two, possibly three feeds each day) I am going to have supply issues by the end of the weekend.

When I try pumping I only get about 50ml, so this would not be enough for each feed for dd if I were to replace feeds with expressed milk.

What do you suggest I do?

If it were me, I would start expressing and freezing now so you have a good supply ready for that weekend so you don't have to worry about matching what you pump then with feeds. Then on the weekend in question I'd try to express a couple of times during the day - presumably there will be lunch breaks etc? I'd just nip into a loo and do it and just chuck what I expressed so I didn't have to worry about storing it. Then I'd maybe express an extra time in between feeds in the evening. At 6 months, while your supply might dip, it's very unlikely to be compromised by a couple of days out of whack, I'd say.

IME, the most efficient way is to hand express as frequently as you can as its removing as much milk as you can that regulates supply.

If you pumped really well as soon as you get up, then pop to the loo/your room at the coffee break and hand express what you can (I could express into a BM storage bag for convenience), again at lunchtime, afternoon break, and then pump at the end of the day and just before bed you will have moved a lot of milk, even if it seems like a small amount each time. That assumes you aren't going home at night - if you are, then just feed as much as possible around the course and do what you can in the day.

In the meantime, if you hand express what you can after each feed (top tip, two sterile bottles in the fridge, hand express into one, then keep tipping into the other once cold so you fill up a bottle a bit at a time while keeping it all cold), then freeze you'll store the 4-6 feeds you need to cover easily.

I know everyone is different but I started working 10 hour shifts every weekend.
At first I got engorged and pain, needed paracetamol.
It soon settled down and I am still breast feeding my 2 year old.

It took a while but my supply adjusted to my new routine.
I couldn't express at all so was tempted sometimes to attach any passing baby to relieve the pressure!!

When I was at an all day event I expressed in the loos and had a small Avent cool bag with a freezer block in it to save the milk that I had expressed.

Get DP to hang out near the location of the course and bring the baby to you for feeds 2-3 times during each day.

I hear you say that you want to do the course but personally I would postpone or cancel.

I went to a hen weekend when my DS was 5 months. DH brought DS to the location and I met them every couple of hours for a feed. It was a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Very stressful, I didn't enjoy the activities due to fretting and felt like a rubbish mother.

Don't want to be a downer but this was my reality!