Travelling and pumping

PAGAS

I am heading out of town around F's 6 month point.  I will be gone for three nights.  Will just sporadic pumping killing my supply or can I get away with it?  Right now I feed her every 2.5 to 3 hours with a 12 hour break at night.  I am thinking this will decrease by 6 months, but I have no clue.

KKMMex

Are you trying to make it to one year?  I exclusively pumped so that's a bit different, but I remember that towards the six month mark I was pumping every six hours or so.  And yes, I was getting up in the middle of the night to do it (insanity!)  My production was about 24 oz. per day which was about what she was drinking. 

Not sure if that's much help!

IMFun

Joe was just under 6 month's when I went to Vancouver for Gabriela's wedding... and I took a hospital grade pump (rented one from Womans work)...  and I pumped about every 6 hours I think... and I put it in freezer bags and put it on ice and brought it all home. 

I don't think you'll have to pump every three hours by then...  

KKMMex

Oops, forgot to put that when I stopped pumping right at six months, I noticed a reduction in supply when I stretched it out to eight hours in between pumping sessions, rather than six.

PAGAS

I plan on just trashing the milk, I don't want to hassle with transporting it.  I have 700+ ounces in our deep freeze, so I don't mind losing some.

I would hope I could just pump twice a day or something...I guess I will have to reevaluate the closer it comes to the trip.

alisa1228

maddy was 10mos old when i went to hawaii for 8 days - i also had quite the freezer supply so i pumped & dumped, rather than transported.

i was able to get away with pumping 2x a day - once in the morning when i got up, and at night, before bed. if we happened to be in our hotel in the middle of the day, i would pump a 3rd time, but that was rare.  i was comfortable (no engorgement) and my supply did not suffer when i returned, and went back to nursing and/or pumping every 4-5 hours.

 

Annkiwi

Sadly I was never a good producer so my trips this past year have been with the baby but SIL traveled frequently when she was nursing. She was able to go about 7 hours between pumping before she was uncomfortable. Her longest trip was 10 days and she was able to up her production beforehand to store up the milk and it naturally went down while she was gone.

Erika&Brian

I traveled quite a bit while pumping, but I couldn't afford to throw out my milk (lost everything in Ike) so I pumped 3x a day and was able to get anywhere from 25-30 ounces doing that. You could probably get by with 2 sessions at that point, based on your 700 ounces comment, you don't have supply issues :-).

 

lilycat

I took a trip around the same period in Lucas's life. I did not lose supply. It wasn't easy, but the sporatic pumping did not kill the supply.

Any way you can have a day off at the end of the trip to give you time to switch back into routine? I did that and it helped work out any kinks I put into the system.