Next weekend I'm due to attend an event that it isn't feasible for DS or DH to attend. We are planning on them staying with family for the day whilst I'm at the event. DS is currently exclusively breastfed and I'm trying to work out the best way to manage this. I've been away from him for whole days before (he's 3 months) but he and DH have been at our house with full access to our fridge, freezer, bottles, steriliser etc.
I'm guessing he will need something like 4 x 120ml bottles. We'll leave home around 5pm on the Friday, arrive at family around 7pm. I will leave them at approx 8am on the Saturday and get back/ be ready to breastfeed at 3.30pm on the Saturday.
What's the best option for me? I was wondering about trying to pump 120ml a day on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings and keep them in the fridge...then at 4.30pm Friday transfer them into sterilised feeding bottles and put the four bottles into a cool bag for the drive, at which point we'd put them in relative's fridge. Once prepped and sterilised the bottles should be fine for 24hrs right? Is this plan okay?
And what about if I can't pump 120ml on one or more of the days? What would I do about transporting frozen milk? Would it be okay to start to defrost it in the fridge Friday morning/ Thursday night, then do the same decanting into sterilised bottles on Friday afternoon, or is that not okay? I'm not sure how soon defrosted milk needs using from the point it leaves the freezer?
Any thoughts (and recommendations on cool bags etc)? Am I better off just starting to use formula (we are happy to do this but nervous about doing it for the first time when he's away from home in case he doesn't take it)?