My husband and I are scheduled to go on a all inclusive paid for vacation in April. Our daughter will be 6.5 months old at the time of our trip. She is exclusively breastfed, nursing 5x a day and one feeding of oatmeal and half jar of baby food at dinner time. (that could change between now 2/20/11 and April) She was introduced to the bottle around 10 weeks old and does great taking it (with my breastmilk). I already have 220+ ounces frozen in the freezer and still have over a month to continue storing more.
Our trip is for 4 nights. I will nurse her Wednesday morning before we leave for our flight and we will return Sunday at lunch time.
My concern is this: is 4 nights away enough to ruin our breastfeeding relationship? When I return is it possible that she will refuse my breast and only want my milk out of a bottle? I will be taking my double electric pump and pumping every 3-4 hours. This is not an inconvienance for me during our trip.
I am not looking to be judged for leaving her for 4 nights so, please, spare me the lecture. I am excited for a getaway with my husband and for my in laws to spend the time with my daughter.
I'm looking for understanding moms who have been in similar situations and can let me know if they had issues upon returning from a trip. Thanks! :)
I went away for about 3 nights when my daughter was this age. Same as other posters, stocked up as much as I could and everything was fine when we returned! Good job carting the pump with you! Lots of people would just stop at 6 months!!!
L.
Licensed Kindermusik Educator
http:///wwww.growandsing.com
Hello!
First of all, good for you for going on a trip with your husband!! I think it will do wonders for tour marriage. My boys are 3 and 20 mos and I haven't left them overnight, except when u was in the hospital having my youngest.
As far as her only wanting the bottle once you get home, you should be fine. If she were 6 weeks, I'd be more concerned. But she's a booby baby and I cant imagine that would change on such a short period of time. If she had any issues when u arrive home, be patient with her. When my second son was born, he was jaundiced for 6 weeks. I am a VERY pro-BF'ing mommy. So nursing him was going to happen. He also spent his first 5 days in the NICU. They wouldn't letme nurse him until they got his breathing under control. I was so worried that he wasn't going to nurseb/c he got bottles. Then with the jaundice, I had to
Interupt BF'ing 3 separate times. One for 24 hrs, the next for 36 hrs, then finally for 7 days. He was under 6 weeks old and I was do worried that nursing would be difficult. But it wasn't. In fact, hes 20 mos old and hrs still nursing like a champ.
Have a great vacation!!
H.
Although, I'm not a big fan of leaving a baby (even with relatives) trust me, your baby will not forget the boo! That's what we call it in my house. She will appreciate it even more; although, I'm sure that it happens, when a baby decides to drink from the bottle only; It sounds like your prepared; however around 6/7 months she will have a mind of her own and her habits may change.
Have a great time; it's only for four days.
Mine was a little older when I left for travel for work. That said, we did not have a problem returning to our routine when I returned.
The biggest trick for me was timing the flights/driving with needing to pump... (Not fun to be engorged if the plane is late or something - can't really pump on a plane...) Just takes some advance planning about logistics. :)
(If you stay in a place with a fridge/freezer, you can freeze the pumped milk, and then put it in a soft side cooler in your checked bags to bring it home - it will probably still be frozen when you return. You sound like you are enough ahead that you may not care about this. :) )
I think it's wonderful for you and your husband to have a trip together!!!!!! Most likely, everything will be completely fine when you return. If it takes a few days for your daughter to readjust, I know you'll stick with it since you've been so faithful to pump and stick with breastfeeding. What a great mommy you are!!!
I left for 4 days when my son was almost 7 mos old and had no problems. He was nursing around the clock till 9 mos so my husband had to get up and bottle feed him. I took my daughter with me to my parents for a trip several states away -- and wanted to go before she turned 2 and was no longer a "lap child" on the plane :) Enjoy your trip! I too pumped the entire time -- but I froze the milk there for him for another trip 3 mos later when my parents watched him for 2 days so I could attend a friend's wedding. It worked out well!
Your plan sounds like what I did when my son was a baby. We had no problem resuming the normal breastfeeding schedule when I came home. He still preferred the breast over the bottle.
You are doing everything right. There isn't really any way to know how your daughter is going to respond to taking a bottle for 4 days, but my guess is it will be just fine and she will resume nursing when you return. When I was nursing my son the longest we ever went without nursing was about 48 hours, but he took a bottle no problem during that time and went right back to breastfeeding with no issues.
Have a great trip with your husband and try not to worry too much about it, chances are it will be just fine.
We went to Vegas for 4 days when my son was just turning 6 months old. I just pumped like crazy and stocked up as much as I could. He never cared too much for the bottle before then so I was a little worried, but I knew that he wouldn't starve. While we were there, I only pumped like 3 times a day so we weren't running back to the hotel for me to pump every few hours. I was dumping it anyway (didn't want the hastle of taking all that milk back on a plane and trying to keep it cold, etc), so I just waited until I really needed to, then I pumped. When I came home, we resumed nursing like it had never been interrupted. My milk supply wasn't affected, neither was his interest.
Have fun!
You'll be fine. I had to do this with my kids for various reasons; either I was on prednisone for a systemic allergic reaction or a work trip or something. She'll go right back to nursing no problem, especially at this age. My kids were even older and went right back to nursing, so I can't see your daughter having any troubles returning to nursing at all.
What you might notice is that your supply decreases, although over 4 days it won't be much. Don't get discouraged if you need to supplement nursing with your stored bottles for a few days after you get back.
You can stop storing by the way. It's the rare baby that eats more than 30 ounces per day, and if you're gone for 5 days, that's 150 ounces, so you have more than enough.
I did a similar trip in the same situation as you and had no problems at all. I did encourage my babysitter to give my daughter her bottles in the same manner that I would nurse (holding her close, using the boppy pillow, in her rocker,etc) but I think I was just nervous of her routine changing. There were no problems at all going back to nursing as far as she was concerned. However, I didnt pump as often as I was nursing and I ended up with a decreased supply when I came back and tried to pump at work...not totally sure if there is a correlation but sounds like you are planning to keep a good pumping schedule. Have a great vaca!
I had same experiences as others...when I left for 3 nights up to 2 weeks at various times during breastfeeding, my babies always went right back to breastfeeding with no problem. The first time I left my son for 3 nights he was about 7 or 8 months, and as soon as he saw me, he made the sign for "milk" (which for us, meant nursing). Absence makes the heart grow fonder! Good luck and have fun!
I'm not a fan of leaving your baby either BUT I think it's awesome that you realize the importance of nursing and will bring your pump with you. Nursing, as you know, isn't only about the fantastic nutrients, etc, it's about the bonding, closeness, safety and security. You will be fine. Perhaps nurse right when you get home to her? She'll be THRILLED to get right back on. As long as you're not drinking and smoking and doing drugs while away....
Enjoy your trip.
