If you EBF...(date night)

mrszundelli

...do you ever go out without your lo?  I ask bc my dh wants to go see Sherlock Holmes this weekend and leave our 5mo with his parents....it's a 2hr long movie and even if i feed him and walk right out the door I'd be worried the whole time that he would get hungry and I'd miss feeding him.  How, or DO, you do date nights if you EBF?  I don't pump, and we don't supplement.  BTW DH's mom FF all her kids and I'm almost sure we would hear how hungry/fussy lo was while we were gone.  At this pt we don't go anywhere without DS...any advice or experience with this?  TIA!

blu-eyedwife

Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my LO at home with absolutely no food source. 

I EBF and pump for this exact reason.  Well not just for movie nights, but also in case something were to ever happen to me - severe illness, accident, hospitalization.......

nosoup4u

A manual pump is pretty cheap! At five months, you could time the movie with a nap or bedtime. Two hours + travel time isn't too long to not have pumped milk, though.

 

I never pumped with my older son, we took him everywhere and didn't go out much. I only pumped as needed with my younger son, and never really had a planned stash.

natalie202

Could you start with a date night with a little more flexibility for you to run home if need be? I pump, so I just leave expressed milk, but I've gone out to dinner w/ a friend who doesn't pump several times. We choose somewhere close to her house, and if the LO is getting super hungry, we either bail and have everything remaining packed up to go OR she runs home, feeds the baby, and comes back (the second is more common if we're out in a bigger group).

pepomntpat

I EBF, but DD had pumped milk for date nights. When she was very tiny we would take her with us, but by five months she had fun with grandma and a bottle of BM.  We did also go through a phase when she had such an early bed time I could feed her and put her down to sleep and be back before her MOTN feeding. I am not sure what your LO's sleep schedule is like, but that may be an option...of course then the babysitter doesn't get to play!

Fisherman'sWife

blu-eyedwife:

Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my LO at home with absolutely no food source. 

I EBF and pump for this exact reason.  Well not just for movie nights, but also in case something were to ever happen to me - severe illness, accident, hospitalization.......

This as well.  I wouldn't want to leave for more than an hour without food for the baby.  What if you got stuck in traffic, an accident, etc.  It may be worth in pumping just enough in case something happened. 

catahoulatte

mrszundelli:

...do you ever go out without your lo?  I ask bc my dh wants to go see Sherlock Holmes this weekend and leave our 5mo with his parents....it's a 2hr long movie and even if i feed him and walk right out the door I'd be worried the whole time that he would get hungry and I'd miss feeding him.  How, or DO, you do date nights if you EBF?  I don't pump, and we don't supplement.  BTW DH's mom FF all her kids and I'm almost sure we would hear how hungry/fussy lo was while we were gone.  At this pt we don't go anywhere without DS...any advice or experience with this?  TIA!

I would either pump (preferably) or supplement. We've never left DS without some source of food. Like PP said, you could get a manual pump if you don't plan on doing it very often, just so you have a little BM stored up for date nights and all.

mrszundelli

thanks everyone:)  i have a pump but i don't use it anymore just bc i'd rather just feed him myself...i thot of "what if's" like an accident, traffic, etc...IF we do this i think i would just send a can of formula and tell MIL its for emergencies...i do like the idea better of going out after he's gone to bed...he goes down between 8-9:30 and usually...USUALLY...sttn till about 7-8.  IDK...i'd rather wait, personally, till we r done bf...i plan to go a yr or more...don't know if dh can wait that long lol

Summer20

Personally I would never want to go a year or more without a date night. I think it's really important for you and DH to spend some time out without the baby. (it's good for baby too!) I don't know how you've even made it 5 months! 

 

I say pump a couple of bottles worth and go to dinner AND the movie. Don't worry about DS, just enjoy a night out. Your DS will be just fine! 

Nechie122

If you have a pump, just pump! Or supplement if you're comfortable doing that (but try formula beforehand just in case -- my LO had an allergic reaction the first time we gave it to her. If you think your MIL might try to feed him, you don't want to come home to a baby covered in hives.)

In my humble opinion, I'd sooner give my LO formula (which I do) than go a whole year without a single date night. I need it for my sanity, and DH does too.

mrszundelli

lol summer20- we have done date night a couple times when he was younger and we gave MIL either a bottle of BM or formula (this was before i realized i have enough bm...at certain times i thot i was low and DID supplement)....now he's going thru a separation anxiety phase and doesnt like strange faces (i know, grandparents shouldnt be strange faces but they live half hr away and its not always easy to just drive over to hang out).  Problem was, one of the times we came back from our date she had fed him about 8oz and he was only a month or two old....and we were only gone about 2.5 hrs!  And he was sleeping like a rock....it was just shocking to me for her to feed him soooo much that its in my head now as a bad experience that i don't want to have again. 

pepomntpat

Then pump a few bottles and leave just enough. She can't overfeed him if there isn't a can of formula for her to go crazy with. 

Jenny952

mrszundelli:

thanks everyone:)  i have a pump but i don't use it anymore just bc i'd rather just feed him myself...i thot of "what if's" like an accident, traffic, etc...IF we do this i think i would just send a can of formula and tell MIL its for emergencies...i do like the idea better of going out after he's gone to bed...he goes down between 8-9:30 and usually...USUALLY...sttn till about 7-8.  IDK...i'd rather wait, personally, till we r done bf...i plan to go a yr or more...don't know if dh can wait that long lol

You can always pump for 5-10 minutes in the morning a couple times a week, that will give you a good stash.  You'll be able to leave BM with grandma and have enough time to go out and see a movie with your DH.  Just keep in mind that you may have to pump when you get home if your LO doesn't eat again from you right away.  This happened to me my first time out, and I had to pump the feeding my DD took from a bottle. 

oooCarrieB

Can't you just feed her and put her to bed and then go to the movie?

My LO doesn't sleep through the night yet and she is a little older than your baby, but when we have date night I usually put her to bed at 7 when my sister comes over to babysit. Then we're home by 11. LO just sleeps the whole time. 

I pump though and would have a bottle on hand for a very unlikely emergency. 

stargirljulie

blu-eyedwife:

Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my LO at home with absolutely no food source. 

I EBF and pump for this exact reason.  Well not just for movie nights, but also in case something were to ever happen to me - severe illness, accident, hospitalization.......

 

All of this exactly.

mrsdchastain

I would always pump. I would have to work all week to get a bottle worth because i was a terrible pumper. So we always had to do planned date nights and we didn't do them very often.