Breast feeding / expressing questions

[El1en]

Hi all. I'm pregnant with my first and hoping to breast feed. I've just got a couple of questions.

I've been invited to a wedding when Lo is 6 weeks old. Baby is invited but oh and I would like to try and leave him/her with my mil and enjoy a grown up day (obviously I know I will have to see how I feel at the time but this is the plan)

So anyway I'm wondering how quickly most ladies can start expressing? I'll need a days worth and maybe nights worth (depending if I'm drinking) but I have no idea if I'll be able to express at that point. Again I know every woman is different but I just wondered if anyone could offer their experience

Also, if I were to drink, how long afterwards do I need to wait before I can give baby my milk? Or how much alcohol do you need to drink before it effects milk? If necessary I won't drink at all but I'd like to have a few glasses of champagne as it will be our first grown up day and it's a special occasion

 

[Maud]

You should be fine to express at 6 weeks, but you'll want to practice giving a bottle as baby might not take to it right away (best if OH does it so baby doesn't just look for boob).

As far as drinking alcohol is concerned, it's similar to blood alcohol levels. But you will get drunk quicker due to pregnancy abstinence (I still get very tipsy after justoneglasss of wine,lol).

To be honest though, six weeks is very young to be leaving a breastfed baby. There's certainly no way I could've done it as breastfeeding was far from established at that point. Everyone's different though, so it's something you will have to decide nearer the time.

Another thing to bear in mind, is that you will need to express while you are away from baby to avoid massively engorged and leaky boobs (isn't it glamourous ).

Good luck with it all. Breastfeeding is hard work in the early weeks but we'll worth it in the long run

 

[El1en]

Thanks for that

I understand it's quite early to be leaving baby but it is about 1.5hours from home and taking baby seems silly when I know oh (an usher) won't want to leave early. Baby will stay with mil and we will get back to hers and stay there to. I'm hoping to have a couple of drinks quite early on then stop and drink pop, hand express into a sink if need be and then hopefully by the time we get home I'll be able to feed baby again

 

[Rose83]

I think you'll have to see how you feel because my little girl is 12 weeks and I still can't bear to leave her with anyone else apart from her Dad. My story is a bit of a long one but I will try to cut it short. I'm now exclusively express breast feeding due to getting thrush on my nipples. Baby fed from me exclusively for first three weeks but then started getting fussier and fussier and screaming when feeding. I had started expressing from 2 weeks because she had always disliked feeding from my left boob. She was getting all she needed from right boob so I was able to build up a freezer store of milk (which I still haven't used). So when the GP eventually diagnosed breast thrush as the reason she was screaming when feeding I was already giving her a couple of bottles mixed in with feeding from me because otherwise she was too hungry. The thrush got worse and worse and I'm still suffering a bit now so gradually all my feeds became expressed ones and it's just been too long now for her to go back on the breast - until two weeks ago she had still been doing one night feed from me but then dropped that altogether.

So that is my long winded way of saying that expressing can be started right away - some midwives recommend it to encourage your milk to come in, mine had wanted me to use an electric pump for ten mins after every feed just to kick start my milk supply as it was slow to come in. My little girl first had a bottle at 3 weeks and it was Tommee tippee and a bit of a disaster because it just doesn't come out the same as a boob. So I highly recommend the Medela Calma bottles. Baby has to create a vacuum for bottle to release milk just like they do on a boob and for me and another breast feeding friend of mine they really worked because our babies were able to switch between breast and bottle with no problem because they didn't have to try something new.

Having said all that, 6 weeks is very early and at that age my baby wouldn't take a bottle from anyone besides me because she still wanted the smell of me etc to know what she was supposed to be doing. I hope it all works out for you - breast feeding is hard work but I've stuck with it and expressed because I really wanted her to have breast milk x

 

[El1en]

Thanks a lot rose that's really helpful