Going away for weekend

[Alcol26]

Hi- I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding travelling and breastfeeding...
My son is 12 months and I am still breastfeeding 3/4 times a day. I am going away for work in a months time and will be away for 3 nights. I am planning on taking my pump and pumping at night and in the morning but the last few times I have tried to pump I have barely managed to get anything out. I want to continue with the morning and bedtime feed for a little while longer but I am worried that 3 days without nursing and ineffectual pumping is going to affect my supply.

Does anyone have any experience with this? It would be good to know if 3 days is enough to dry up my milk or if it will be fine once I am back at home. Also, any tips on pumping? I have a mini medela electric pump and will have limited time to use it in the morning and daytime.
Thank you very much!

[*Ali*]

I have been away for 2 nights and 3 days when my DS2 was 13mo. I was feeding 4 x a day at that age and sometimes once at night as well. I planned to pump twice a day but ended up doing it 3 times as I was too uncomfortably full. I pumped about 15oz in the three pumping sessions but have always been able to pump some and always had a good supply.

Do you think you will be able to pump enough to keep you comfortable? What about hand expressing?

As long as you don't have a history of supply issues I wouldn't worry about losing supply in 3 days. It may take a slight dip but as long as your LO is happy to go back to feeding afterwards then it will come back up again I'm sure.
People start BFing again after weeks of not BFing sometimes. It takes a long time to dry up completely.

[Alcol26]

Thank you very much! It's reassuring to know that it shouldn't be a problem if I'm not able to pump much. I have hand expressed before so I will try that if the pump doesn't work. Thanks again for your response!

[*Ali*]

Just remembered the only problem I did have was I struggled to empty one little pocket of milk on one side and it went hard and uncomfortable. It did clear as soon as I fed my DS2 on return home that night though so I think it was just the pump being less effective. Some massage and a hot shower helps.

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

I agree with Ali - you may notice a supply drop but if LO happily feeds normally when you get back that should return to normal. I had a similar issue with pumping and not managing to empty each breast but compressions seemed to help a little.