going away for the w/e - milk supply drying up?

[hoochymama]

When dd will be 6 months, I am going away for the w/e and leaving her with my parents. She is exclusively bf and I want to keep bf for as long as I can.

Will I need to express at every feed time while I'm away? It's meant to be a romantic wedding anniversary w/e, so I'm not particularly keen to have a breast pump hanging off me every 3 hrs. I've never been able to get much milk out with expressing, so I'm a bit worried being away from dd for 3 days/2nights will dry my supply up.

Also I won't be able to express enough to feed her completely on breastmilk over the w/e - will suddenly giving her a lot of formula be a big upset to her tummy?

Anyone had a similar situation?

Not quite the same but I carried on breastfeeding an almost two-year-old after a long weekend away (three or four nights). I took a breast pump along but couldn't be arsed to use it. When they were smaller (seven-plus months, so not exclusively breastfed) and I had to be away for any length of time I did generally pump 'n' dump once over an eight to 12-hour period but that was mainly to relieve pressure.

I don't think you need to express every feed time, just some of them, and that's partly because if you don't you might explode.

Will she be ready to try some solid stuff then? DS3 is five-and-a-half months old now and has really been mooching at our food so I've been letting him gnaw on a banana, an avocado, some sweet potato... I have never seen such amazing nappies ever!

That's all pretty anecdotal and probably not much help. I'm sure the experts will be along soon. Have a great weekend away.

thanks swampster, it's a relief to know that I won't have to pump all w/e. Yes, I'll be starting her on solids by then, but I heard that they still need the usual milk feeds to start with...

Of course I was secretly hoping that the weekend away would stop DS2 feeding - no such luck. Until he realised (long before I did) that DS3 was on the way as a direct consequence of my dirty weekend...

Mental note to take contraception, my husband says he'll divorce me if I get pregnant again!

I agree that you will need to express at least a couple of times to stay comfortable - it won't be much of a romantic weekend if your boobs are rock hard, leaking and you hit the ceiling everytime someone so much as breathes near you .

Your supply is very firmly established now so it won't disappear in 2 days but it will drop a bit so she'll probably be on feeding frenzy for a couple of days or so after you get back. If you have the time to have a bit of a babymoon and just feed as often as she needs then everything will be back to normal pretty quickly, ime.

Don't know about the formula, ds2 wouldn't touch the stuff and just got by on solids and whatever ebm I had left.