expressing frenzy... first babysitter this weekend... advice needed

[frekkles]

i have a baby sitter saturday night for the forst time in my 14 week ds's life and so i want to get drunk for the first time in a year! so i'm trying to express enough milk this week for a good few feeds so to facilitate this evil plan.

I'm planning on giving him his bedtime feed at 9 and then going out. I won't be back till early in the morning ish and intend to be quite drunk. DP is staying sober to feed and look after ds till i sober up and feel happy to resume motherhood. ds usually feeds at 1am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 11am, 1pm and every hour or so throughout the day etc.

How many feeds do you think i need to express ? and does anyone have any tips on how to express a good amount of milk? i usually only managed about 3 oz a day and find it an annoying boring passtime. any strategies?

I'd express for at least 4 feeds if I were you. Top tips - express in the morning when you have more milk, have baby near you (helps the let down) and try feeding only from one side for a couple of feeds so the other side fills up with milk and will let you express more milk from the other side more quickly.

Enjoy yourself - though you may find you dont need too much booze to get drunk for the first time!

Oh and lay in the paracetemol and ear plugs for the next morning.

Multi-task and express one side whilst feed of the other, baby feeding gets a good let down going for the pump too! Support pumping arm with a pillow! You can sterilise equipment night before and seal it, then have handy by bed for first feed in morning, when have more milk.

Have fun!

The best tip I ever had to encourage letdown was this - massage the breast gently in small circles, going all around and spiralling inwards. Then run your fingers from the outside towards the nipple, and then try to express again (I found hand expressing worked best to get it started, then I could switch to the pump)

good advice re expressing already been said, but just to let you know I have researched alot into alcohol and breast milk, and apparantely alcohol will disappear from your milk after about 3 hours following your last drink, so you dont have to pump and dump any milk following your night out.
So you could even do some morning feeds then go back to bed, therefore reducing the amount of feeds you need.
HTH