leaving bfing 9 month olds for the day

[dividedsky]

i have 9 month-old twins, who i've never left for more than an hour or two. at the end of the month i'll be leaving them with dad for a day, 9am-7pm. they will be 10 months then, and are happily eating solids 3x/day. i won't be able to pump. is it unreasonable to hand express while i'm away? how many bottles should i even offer? they used to take s supplement bottle, so i think they will be OK with it... but what if not? how would ypu handle it?

thanks!!!!

[lifeguard]

At that point I started leaving ds with my Mom for the day fairly regularly & he did great. Although he still bf'd frequently during the day when he was with my Mom he was content to just eat food & have one bottle of bm before his nap.

Hand expressing is definitely reasonable imo, especially if you do it just to relieve your discomfort (I've found I don't need to hand express much to bring down some engorgement at this stage).

I'd leave as many bottles as bf sessions they normally get & let dad go from there. I have a (very) small stash of bm in the freezer so when my Mom or dh have ds without me they can defrost & use it as they need it, then none goes to waste 'cause the extra is still frozen.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I had to do that once when my DD was about that age. I pumped a couple times during the day to relieve engorgement and to restock my freezer with what she would have eaten that day.

You may want to see how they respond to the bottle though before you leave. My DD all of a sudden started refusing it because she hadn't had one in several months.

[pixiepunk]

i did that 1x a month with my youngest starting at 10 months for 4 months while i did a yoga training. but hand-expressing would not have managed my engorgement, i pumped at lunch each day, and once or twice i actually pumped again before i drove home (it was a 2.5 hr drive) because i was so engorged. i can't imagine what your milk supply must be like with twins... is there really no way you can pump?

are they taking sippy cups or open cups? if they haven't done a bottle in a while you might be better off having DH give them your milk in a different kind of cup, or else make sure they have a bottle at least a couple times a week from your DH between now and when you go.

[MaryJaneLouise]

Where will you be that you can't pump? You might be surprised how accomodating people or business will be, if you ask for a private space. You can even get a car adaptor to pump in your car.

[dividedsky]

what's the deal w/ the hand pump? i haven't had a pump since the boys were like 4mos, and i rented a serious one from the hospital

[lifeguard]

I only had a hand pump & it was pretty effective - although I'm sure not comparable to an electric one!