how to prepare for date night

I was wondering what to do in the future for date nights to reconnect with my husband. Do I need to pump during the day, if it's my day off and I'm nursing the baby all day, in order to leave a bottle with my mother-in-law to give the baby? If I'm gone about 4-5 hours, is it risky to let the baby have a bottle but for me not to pump? It doesn't seem practical to pump while we're out.

Also, I have been back to school 3 days/week for the past month, DH or MIL watches the baby. I will be returning to work, gone 5 days/week besides a weekly date night I'd like to add. LO is 6 months.

I'd like to plan this for many more date nights to come. Last night was our first, here's what happened. We dropped LO off with MIL, and drove to the city to see a show. It was wonderful, but there was no time/place for pumping, the car wasn't practical with the crowds out. MIL says is this all the milk you are leaving? for the 5 oz bag of milk. I said that's plenty, but I plan on taking a freezer stash of milk for her to have on hand for future sittings. She showed me a bottle with 2 oz of milk in it when we got back, saying baby didn't eat much. I had said only give her 3 oz at first, then another oz or 2 if she's still hungry. I feel like she wasted some milk by trying to give her full bottles, even though they are only 4 oz size bottles. Sorry this is so long, I'm just looking for input from others who successfully have date nights with your significant other, leaving a bottle and not losing supply by doing so. Thanks for any and all feedback.

the older the baby is, the more flexible your supply. so not pumping for 4-5 hours once a week - eh, it's probably fine, as long as you're comfortable. but you're in a different boat than people who are home nursing all day, too - your supply already has a challenge from you being at work & pumping. so take it a week at a time and see how it goes.

if you want your MIL to feed specific sizes of bottles, the easiest way is to prepare them ahead of time. if you give her a 5 oz bag, she'll use a 5 oz bottle :)

that's good, it seems my supply is holding up, baby is satisfied with nursings on my days off so far, so good.

Ok, so I will only send frozen bags with between 3 oz to 1 oz. :shrug Here's what's going to happen: MIL will say, "there's nothing in here!" It's hard to explain to her that this is sufficient amounts for my 20 lb 6 month old. As much as I tell her she doesn't seem to agree/accept that yet.

thanks auderey.

:ita At six months you may be able to get away with not pumping at all, especially if your baby is eager to nurse when you get home (if not, you might want to pump before going to bed). Maybe forget about the bags and have everything thawed and ready in bottles for MIL to minimize her prep time (all she has to do is warm the bottle - we just put it in a yogurt container full of hot tap water) and also control how much gives at a time. IME, 3 oz bottles are perfect.

The reason why I was thinking of taking some frozen bags over to her house is bc I have a growing freezer stash and little freezer space, while she has lots of freezer space. I am glad I know now to only store in quantities that baby will be fed at once, so I will only take over the smaller bags. Unfortunately I have lots of bags that I filled more than they were meant to hold, I didn't know. I will seperate those ones as needed, into bottles, for my husband to feed the baby when he has her and I'm at school or work. Great advice, to make my own bottles ready and save my MIL the extra work of making up the bottle. The yogurt container to heat, brilliant!

ETA: So I make 2: 3 oz bottles in case she needs both for maybe 5 hrs, and then she can pull out a 1.5 oz bag from her freezer if the baby wants more. Thanks for the advice!

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Originally Posted by @llli*gwendlynsmom

ETA: So I make 2: 3 oz bottles in case she needs both for maybe 5 hrs, and then she can pull out a 1.5 oz bag from her freezer if the baby wants more. Thanks for the advice!

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yup. good luck!