How can I pump when he's always eating?

[maggie111]

We've been invited to a wedding near the inlaws next weekend (evening only.)

We have a long journey down on the Friday and I'd like to have some bottles to feed him on route, and he'll be babysat for 1-2 hours on Saturday evening.

At the minute he's feeding so often I don't have time to pump in between feeds. I can take a bit of time to do some extra pumping on Thursday for Friday's journey - but I wont feel comfortable feeding him anything I transport down because I would worry about how safe it was.

I need to be able to feed him on Sat night what I pump in the previous 24 hours.

Any idea on what to do to get some milk for him?

I thought about pumping at the end of every feed, but I never know when the end is... He can eat/5 min nap/switch sides and eat/5 min nap 3 or 4 times before he eventually stops eating for an hour....

Can I keep adding to a bottle too? So if I pump off 10 ml at a time can I keep putting the little bits into 1 big bottle?

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[toby1331]

How old is your LO? When is his longest time of sleep? Do you have a small cooler/ice pack for the ride?

 

[maggie111]

How old is your LO? When is his longest time of sleep? Do you have a small cooler/ice pack for the ride?

He'll be a month old the day we travel. He has for the last 2 nights been a good boy and had 2.5-3 hours of sleep at night, but I worry about relying on those in case he decides to feed every 40 minutes again! (And also, I'd rather just sleep than pump at night time)

Today his longest sleep was 1hr40 minutes!

I have a cooler that I can take to keep his milk fresh for Friday's car journey and although I think I could keep his milk cool till we get to the in laws, I just know I'm going to be neurotic and wont want him drinking it Sat night.

 

[toby1331]

I think pumping is going to be hard for you because he's still so young! Unless there are medical reasons it's not normally recommended to pump until 4-6 weeks depending on how established breastfeeding is. I started pumping at 4 weeks to build a freezer stash for going back to work. LO only feed off of one side at a time, so I would feed her first thing in the morning and then pump the other side. I was lucky and would get 4 or more ounces so would just freeze what I pumped. You might want to try pumping for just a few mi utes after each time he nurses. You can mix these in one bottle it's just important that the milk be the same temperature when mixed. In terms of the cooler- I pump at 10:30 at workanddont normally get home until 4-5. The milk is still cold.

 

[maggie111]

Thanks I should have said that I've been pumping since he was a week old because he had tongue tie and I've been doing top up feeds. His tongue tie got fixed and once his weight went over normal I went to feeding him a bottle of expressed a couple of times a day. The most I've expressed is 90ml but I averaged 60ml a pump... But the last time I tried I only had 20ml in there because he's been eating so often. I haven't properly pumped in a few days.

 

[toby1331]

Gotcha! I find I get the most when I can be consistent with my pumping. It's hard to do that at the beginning with all the growth spurts!