Next month my husband and I will be taking a weekend trip away from our kids (3 year old and 5 month old baby) to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. I'm stressing about it so bad! My biggest issue is that the baby will NOT take a bottle. I've tried SO many times, and she just chews on the nipple and pushes it out with her tongue. She won't suck at all. She gags on it if I try and put it back in. We've tried 7
different types of bottles, I've tried feeding her when she's full, hungry, night time and day time, nothing. She won't take it for daddy either. I haven't been separated from her for more than 3-4 hours at a time, so she's never really had motivation to take one from a sitter. She usually just makes up for it when I get back. I'm super nervous about leaving her for this long without knowing she'll take a bottle well. We'll be gone for about 3 days. We're leaving her with my mother-in-law who has NO experience with breastfed babies (she didn't breastfeed, and I'm the first in our family to do so for more than a few weeks), and I can tell she's nervous that she hasn't taken a bottle well. It's freaking me out.
Basically, I just don't know how to do this. I don't know what to tell MIL when I leave her - I'm just gonna have to drop her off and say, 'you're on your own!'. I feed her on demand, so I don't know how often she eats, and I have NO idea how much she eats in a feeding. I don't even know if she'll sleep well without being nursed.I also was wondering - how often do I need to pump while I'm gone? I have a manual I can throw in my purse and pump in the bathroom while we're out and about if I need to. I don't want my milk to dry up while I'm gone.
Half of this is me venting, but I would LOVE any insight about how to handle this. I love breastfeeding, but it sure makes it complicated and stressful to leave baby! I'm having major separation anxiety with her. I really want to enjoy this trip - it's the first time hubby and I have gone away just the two of us since our honeymoon! I don't want to ruin it by worrying the whole time if my baby is starving. Any helpful suggestions would be much appreciated.