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starlettedir
member
BFing moms....trips sans kiddo
starlettedir
member
I'm planning on trying to BF.
I'll be taking a girls weekend ski trip when the kiddo is a little over 4 months. Is it feasible I'll have a supply to leave at home with DH for 3 days? What did you do if you pumped while on vacation? Did you dump it all? Did you try to bring it home packed in your suitcase?
I'm a little clueless here LOL
This discussion has been closed.
Re: BFing moms....trips sans kiddo
It's feasible but it really depends on your supply. I am able to get 6-7 oz each time I pump and I know some women can get more and some get less. I typically have about 60-80 oz in my freezer and at one point had nearly 200 oz. I don't keep a lot in there now since I stay home with her and pump less now.
My co-worker would pump while she was traveling. She asked for a fridge in her room (I did the same for our anniversary weekend) and then packed a cooler full of ice to bring the pumped milk home. I never flew with pumped milk so I can't help there but my little ice chest worked for our anny weekend.
The thing with pumping is to stay on a schedule. You'll likely have to plan ahead to make sure you're pumping every 4 hours or so.
I started pumping about 2 weeks before I left my LO to go on a 3 day trip. I just pumped after her first 3 morning feeds. I had enough supply to get her through the trip. I also kept this pumping schedule up to create a stash for when I went back to work. When she started sleeping 6-8 hours at night, I would pump 1 hour after she went down for the night. So in one day I would be pumping 4 times. I had/have an excellent stash. The week before I went back to work I started dropping my morning pumping sessions. I still keep my night pumping session. She goes down at 8 and I pump around 9 45-10. It will take you a few days to a week for you to see an increase in your supply so do not be discouraged. I would get 2 ozs and then it increased to 4ozs.
When you go out of town, bring your pump and a seperate cooler with ice packs. I bought cheap evenflo bottles and pumped into those. Every night I put them in the fridge, milk is good in the fridge for 5 days ( I have seen 8 days on some sites). I loaded up my cooler with ice packs and just carried my pump and cooler on the plane. No problems, I told security I had BM and they just rubbed a piece of paper on my cooler liner.
It's absolutely doable. It will depend somewhat on your supply and how your body responds to the pump but I really think all things BFing related really depend more on attitude and determination. I liken it to running a marathon, no one starts a marathon saying "oh well, I'm going to try to run, we'll see if I can do this." In order to be successful you psych yourself up for it. You say "I can do this. I want to do this. This is important to me" Then day by day, step by step, you do it.
If you are one who doesn't respond to the pump well but has no problem nursing you can always supplement while you are gone (but continue pumping on schedule!) and resume BFing when you return. There are many different ways to make it work.
This!!! It is hard work, but with the right attitude and support you can do it!! Plus it is an awesome bonding experience.
I was able to carry a decent amount of milk on the plane as carry on, maybe not a weekend worth but definitely a day worth. You can also check a cooler if its taped up well.
Start pumping and freezing as soon as you have the baby to build up a stash. I had a crazy oversupply the first few weeks and my freezer filled up FAST!