Advice on pumping

[Mouscadoo]

Myself and my partner had our first child in Feb 2020 so right before lockdown and just had our second baby in Feb just gone. Anyway we have had no breaks at all really, no nights out, dinners etc.. anyway that's fine we just kind of accepted it. DPs mother has been very good since I had second baby as we have moved closer and has been offering to babysit, baby is 5 weeks and I am EBF. I feel like I really need a break at this stage but feel guilty leaving the baby (it would only be for a couple of drinks). We are thinking of going for Dinner. Baby hasn't had a bottle at all so not sure if she will now take it or is it a bad idea to randomly give her a bottle at this stage? She might not take it. I tried to pump just now and only got 30ml. If I did decide to go out for 2 or 3 hours how much should I be pumping for the baby? Any thoughts or advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!

They almost certainly will take a bottle if they’re hungry enough. You may have to use certain techniques though; take your top off and squish your boob against their face as you pop the bottle in so they think it’s the boob etc..

But for a few hours away I used to pump more than enough I’d rather have some left over than them crying for me when I got back. He’d usually have 1-3oz every 1.5-3 hours. Yours will be different of course but you know your baby and how frequently they feed in the day.

Look at a picture of them looking cute as you pump, or pump off the other breast when you’re feeding them. Put a sock over the receptacle so you can’t see how much has come out. Use the massage function first to emulate a baby sucking to encourage let down.