Anyone leave their newborn for a couple hours within a week or so of their birth?

[remijo]

If this baby holds out to her due date, I might have to go to class as soon as I can get out of bed or soon after. I plan on pumping as soon as my milk comes in so I will never leave her without some breastmilk and she will be either with daddy or MIL but just curious if anyone has ever left their baby for that long and how it went / if there were problems, etc? Any tips? I will only do this if my classes are absolutely necessary, it depends how much class I miss for the actual birth. The longest I would need to be away would be about three hours.

[Carita]

I would e-mail all of your professors and let them know the situation. Ask them to e-mail you a syllabus, and ask what books you need. Then I would contact disability services and see if you can't get someone to take notes for you/record classes for the first 2 weeks of class.

That said - I went back at 2 weeks for the same reason - mostly meetings on campus for teaching. By 3 weeks I was pretty much back to all my classes (but only as a grad student, which is a bit less of an hour commitment than undergrad), with family watching DS (MIL, DH, my dad, my mom) until about 7 weeks when we started daycare.

The only big problem we had was getting DS to take a bottle. We had to try a few different kinds and it took a few weeks for DS to get the hang of it - and it took my boobies a few weeks to get the hang of pumping.

[readermaid]

I left DD with my mom for a couple of hours at a time starting at around two weeks. DD took a bottle of expressed milk with no problem, and there were no problems. My mom liked the opportunity to bond with the baby without me around, and I liked the opportunity to get out of the house. But it may depend on the baby. My DD has always been pretty flexible and basically easy. She would go to anyone. As long as someone was holding her, she was happy.

[confustication]

I went back to the office about 3 days after DS 2 was born- but I took him with me. It wasn't until much closer to a month that I could go to the office leaving him with DH. Before then, he wasn't ready, and frankly, neither was I. I did introduce a bottle very early because, as a journalist, I can not guarantee that I will be home 'on time' to nurse him.

[LilMomma83]

I left DS2 several times prior to 6wks (when I went back to regular hours), the first was a full 10hr day (with commute) when he was 9 days old. I left him at daycare, actually...it was totally fine. I also pumped as soon as my milk came in (in fact as soon as it was "partially" in) and that worked out great because I got a lot!

[lorijds]

Can you bring your newborn to class? If you have her in a sling, no one's going to sneeze on her, she'll probably sleep most of the time, and if she needs to nurse, you can whip it out without really disturbing anyone.

I've had friends who have brought their newborns to class. One of my classmates in nursing school had a baby, came back the next week, and brought her for about 2 months.

I personally returned to work 3 weeks after my second was born. 12 hour+ shifts. I nursed her before I left, pumped once in the am, dh brought her up for lunch so I could nurse, then I'd pump again in the afternoon, and be home (ready to bust) in the evening. She didn't really like taking a bottle, but she did when she got really hungry. I had so much milk, I could've fed triplets. I did only work two days a week, though, and we co-slept at noc (and dd nursed all night...), so I'm sure that helped.

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/3/11 at 12:22pm

[remijo]

Yeah, I've kind of ruled out bringing her to class, I don't think it would be appreciated. Thankfully its only a couple hours and if things got really bad, dh or MIL could text me, bring the baby and I could slip out to feed/comfort her or go home. I'm hoping for an early birth so I will know how she takes to the bottle of expressed bm before I have to leave her. Thanks for the comfort though, its nice to know others have done it without ill side effects even though I know its not the easiest thing to do.

[DCMama01]

I did this to get fresh air when DD was 5 days old, 8 days old, and then every few days thereafter. She was left with DP or my mother and sis and was perfectly fine.

[sanguine_speed]

I have brought several babies to classes with me in the past. One prof asked me if I was going to be bringing the baby regularly, and I replied "well, only until my husband lactates," with a smile and wink. I was always very careful to sit near an exit, and to leave if my baby was fussing.