ebm or ff for christmas day??

[peachespaige]

Hello all.

My ds who is exclusively breast fed will be around 10 weeks on christmas day and I would so love to partake in the drinking of champaigne.... Not bottles of the stuff but a few galsses over the day.

Im wondering what to do about his feeds, should I start expressing now so he has a few feeds for christmas day or shall I give a couple of bottles of formula??

What do you think?

If I express, when do I do it? he generally has a whole boob and then a bit from the other at each feed, which is 2 hourly at night and whenever in the day....

Totally confused.

oopps I mean champagne..

There ought to be no reason why you can't enjoy a few glasses of champagne spaced out through the day and breastfeed. I take it you will also be eating during the day too which also slows the rate of alcohol entering your blood.

The rule of thumb is that if you are too drunk to breastfeed then you are too drunk to be looking after a baby.

Others will come along soon...

enjoy christmas.

You can just feed as normal, no need to worry about giving ebm or anything else unless you plan to be so utterly drunk that you wouldn't actually be physically be able to feed

Hey foxy

Agree with Foxytocin. There is no need to give formula because you want to have a drink. By all means express if you plan to be very drunk but only do that if you hab=ve a babysitter on hand.
Express from the second breast if he only takes a bit. You can express any time it suits. Just aim to get small amounts at a time - they soon mount up.You can even express before a feed if that is easier - there will always be enough milk left for him.

How much is "a few glasses"? There is nothing worse than being gently pissed and wanting to lie around but having to get up in the middle of the night to tend to a screaming baby! Therefore I found that actually I didn't want much booze and just sipped a smallish glass of wine slowly after a feed. (Expecting it to be metabolised by the time I got to the next feed). So I didn't need to bother with bottles. There will be guidelines somewhere about alcohol and bf- I'm not an expert.

Expressing is a faff but it might be good to get the hang of it if you might ever want to go out in future and leave your ds in someone else's care. Express after a feed pref in the morning when you have lots of milk. Look on MN reviews for views on good breast pumps and at the La Leche League website for info on storing milk.

I wouldn't bother with the formula frankly. Imagine how proud you could be when you wean your ds to say- that was ONLY breastmilk which got him to this size!

Just feed him as usual - no harm in a few glasses. As far as I know, the reason there are no strict government guidelines on alcohol during breastfeeding is that it's not that big a deal.

ah, mears is an expert on expressing- will know more than me about when to do it!

Start expressing now, and freeze. If you find expressing easy, then you can freeze each session's output straight away. If you find that you get very little each time, then keep it in the fridge, add to it through the day, and freeze the day's-worth each evening. Don't be discouraged if you only get a few drops at first. Sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of it and to find exactly what works best for you.

Personally, I found it most productive to express while the baby was feeding. So you might express from breast no2 while he is feeding from no1, then switch him to no2.

You may find that expressing increases your supply, and that you need to tail it off when you want to stop. Or that you find it easy and convenient to build up a stock for use at any time.

Even if you do not bf on Xmas day, you will still need to express as you may get uncomfortably full. I'm not sure what the advice is regarding alcohol, but when I was bfing a tiny I was told that if you are safe to drive then you are safe to feed. So you will need to decide whether to keep or dump your ebm on the day.

I had the odd glass of wine while BFing DD's. As others say, don't get drunk and be careful, as you will be a bit of a lightweight after not drinking for awhile but a glass or 2 of champers should be fine.
If you are worried feed him until he is asleep and then have a drink, it shoul be an hour os so before he wakes by which time there will only be a small amount left in your system IYSWIM.

agree with the following:

• better drink straight after a feed than just before
• line your stomach between drinks

would add

• drink water after every glass of champagne to rehydrate.

10 weeks is young so it might upset his stomach and make him colicky?

Finally beware of the night after all the day drinking. You might want backup for a night feed of EBM or a FF if you need to rest.
I credit BF both babies until past 1 year only because I never made a big deal of giving an occasional FF on those special occasions, but hey! surely someone will come and contradict me here.

enjoy!

Thanks for your replys.

Defo planning on eating! It was more down to his age really, Im not going to get drunk as the night feeds are a killer anyway and am in charge of 3 children.

I just wasnt sure if I could drink a few glasses over the day because he is so young.

Ds1 was ff and ds2 was much older at christmas so bf him after a few drinks didnt worry me, ds3 is so tiny. But I am only planning on a few glasses, just wanted to be responsible.

DD1 was 4 weeks old at her first christmas, i only had two glasses of bucks fizz but she slept for a full 5 hours after her feed, am sure the alcohol knocked her out Either that or it was her christmas present to me

yes I agree, just drink! Doesn't everyone share a bottle of champagne with family after giving birth anyway - and after 9 months of light drinking I made sure I had a second glass