Advice wanted!

[@llli*dianagallo]

Hi, I wanted to go on a girls trip in October, baby will be 22 MO but i have no intention to stop BFing. Will my breasts be engorged in 4 days? ( I will bf the morn i leave and the eve i return so perhaps not quite 4 full days). Should i I pack a breast pump? Will i still be producing milk after a 4day hiatus??
I think my little one may have a hard time of it since i have always been with him, day and night, and he's not really used to anyone else besides his father taking careof him (we've tried). He will be with his dad during my absence so i'm not worried, but i dont doubt that he will be crying quite a bit!

[@llli*pianosinger]

You will definitely be engorged after 4 days. Pumping is a good idea if you want to keep up your supply; whether or not you will still have a supply after 4 weeks if you don't pump is not certain; it really depends on you, and on how often your lo is currently nursing. I took a 4-day trip when DS2 was 22 months old (still nursing frequently throughout the day) with the intention of weaning him (which is different from what you want), and whenever I started to get engorged I would just find a bathroom and hand express until I felt more comfortable; I still had milk when I got back from my trip, but I never nursed again and it dried up within the week.

And yes, your lo will cry-- maybe even scream. Make sure DH is ready and willing to hold and comfort him at all times. In our experience, DS2 was fine during the day; but when nighttime came, he woke up several times crying for the first couple of nights.

[@llli*still.here]

Absolutely take your pump. Losing your supply after 4 days isn't so much an issue at this point (because it probably won't happen), but you will definitely get engorged and it will get painful.

And your lo will be alright. When I went on an overnight trip when my lo was 19 mos I was really concerned because she was so attached to the breast, especially at night. It turned out to be much easier for DH to get her back to sleep without me there because she knew there was no breast to be had. I'd left a few bottles just in case he needed to give her some at night to get back to sleep and he ended up not even needing them.

[@llli*lidarln]

I went away for three days when my lo was close to that age and I did take a pump but I ended up just hand expressing, on the first day or two and then I was fine.