Breast feeding experts - your advice please

[ella]

I wanted some advice, I plan to breast feed again although I only managed 6 weeks with Darragh would like to last a bit longer or at least as long again. Now I am bridesmaid for my sister 3 weeks after the baby will be born roughly, will that be too early to have some milk expressed so DH can do some of the feeding that day and how do you store expressed milk? I never expressed with Darragh.

Also I know this is a little selfish but if I am going to breast feed for a good while Id like to know where I stand - can you have a glass of wine or a couple once breastfeeding is established and how does that work - do you express first, then drink then not feed baby for some time - How long?

 

[ASD123456]

Hello,

'They' advise you don't express until 6 weeks until your supply is established but I personally did so at 3 weeks without any problems. I only did it rarely (which I'm guessing you will be if it is just for your sis wedding) so I never found we had any problems with nipple confusion or anything. You'd want to start building your expressed milk supply about a week before the wedding so that you would be able to freeze enough to see you through the day.

A glass or two of wine is fine when breastfeeding. You'd probably want to time having the wine straight after a feed, say for example the last feed at night, that way you know that baby will (hopefully) have a nice long stretch of sleep leaving the alcohol enough time to get out of your system. I read somewhere that if you would be over the limit to drive then don't breastfeed- sound advice I think. If you really wanted a night out at the weekend then you could just express and freeze during the week so you would have enough milk stashed for a whole eveing and night. Thats what I used to do.

x

 

[babynumbertwo]

Sorry I don't have any advice about expressing but if you're going to be missing feeds at 3 weeks I think you'll have very full breasts. I'm sure you've already thought of this but I would definately take lots of breast pads with you - you don't want to leak milk onto your bridesmaid dress!!

 

[Laur_250]

Due to LO not being able to latch from birth I was forced to express as soon as my milk came in until he learnt to latch at 6 weeks old, so it can work. I had a routine of expressing every 4 hours and built up a supply of milk in the fridge that we rotated. Once we started breastfeeding though I had no need to express for his usual feeds as he was taking them from me, I carried on expressing one bottle a day, first thing in the morning and after he had been fed so I knew he would last a few hours from whichever side I didnt feed off last...... (I had my wedding coming up 3 months after LO was born so needed to build up enough bottles to last him the day and night so I could drink) ......then I would freeze the milk either in the plastic bottle or in those plastic milk storage bags marked with the date. They last up to 6 months approx. in the freezer so a few weeks will be fine.

So on the morning of the wedding I took the bottles straight out the freezer and put them into a cool bag with ice packs, they stayed frozen all day so MIL just heated them up in boiling water as she needed them. We had a room at the venue so gave her our room keys as there was a kettle in there, she used the room for changing/ breaks too.

I ended up getting a bit engorged as it was so long between times I could express... (it would of been too un-practical to feed LO myself as I had to sneak away and be back as quick as I could)..... I took a manual pump and went back to my room to express when I could though, so if you cant feed baby yourself, take a pump to use and wear breastpads.

Hope that helps. xx

 

[ella]

Thanks so much for your replys that really does help