Night off from breastfeeding

[MumMadeleine]

I'm getting married in 3weeks time and would like to be able to drink on my wedding day. My baby will be 3months old and has been breastfed with one expressed bottle a day. Last week I started expressing each morning and freezing the milk so there will be a supply ready, then giving one formula feed each evening. How much milk do I need to have expressed ready for the baby to be bottle fed from 3pm until the next day? Also should I introduce more expressed bottle feeds at various times so he is more used to the bottle? Thanks for any advice.

Not an expert on expressing, but you can breastfeed and drink on your wedding day if you want to. The minuscule amount of alcohol that would be present in your milk is of no significance. I remember reading that even if you drank to the point of fatal alcohol poisoning, your milk would still be less alcoholic than orange juice.

The problem with drinking is being safe to hold baby.

You'll need to express on wedding day if not BF overnight. For comfort and an element of maintaining supply

Thanks for your tips. Grandparents would love to look after the baby overnight if I'm worse for wear. I am just not sure how best to prepare in advance to make it easy for them and my baby. I plan to express for comfort then discard the milk. My main concern is not causing distress to a baby who has been used to breastfeeding from me on demand.

Mine started getting fussy about milk from source rather than elsewhere about that age.

You don't need to discard the milk though.

I wouldn't want to ask grandparents to take overnight for the first time on my wedding night as I wouldn't want to be worrying if it was ok but then I haven't left mine with anyone overnight (or even bedtime sadly) since he was 4 mo when his dad settled him, sort of once, as I had a meeting. He's 13 mo

If you have 4 or 5 four oz bottles I imagine that would be enough. Also as you know your baby will take formula you can always leave a few of the ready made up bottles for emergencies. I think your bigger problems will be missing your baby, worrying about your baby, bursting boobs and low booze tolerance!

You don’t need to pump and dump; you can keep the milk.

I would go for 30 ml just in case- 24 is the average for a b fed baby apparently, but your baby may drink more than average :)

I'd allow for a feed every 2-2.5 hours incase he has more for comfort between feeds, unless he generally sleeps through.

As PP, you can drink and it not affect your milk. You'd need to be over 4 times the driving limit for it to affect your milk. But obviously don't get hammered and co-sleep or carry your baby.

Express for night feeds by a family member and jobs a good un

Congrats on wedding!

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

So this is quite a handy tool when thinking about how much milk a breastfed baby needs.

Thanks everyone