How to Enjoy Your Vacation without Derailing Your Breastfeeding Journey
Whether you're enjoying a summer vacation, or traveling for the holidays, breastfeeding away from home presents a unique set of challenges. Packing for a vacation can be stressful before you have kids, but now that you have all of the extra gear to pack, it can make anyone cringe. If you're a pumping mama, we see you!
Vacations also mean adjustments and interruptions to your daily routine. Being away from home presents your baby with new sights and sounds, which can be exhausting. You may find more naps are needed, and they might even happen during your regularly scheduled feedings.
Don't panic. Don't even stress. We have some helpful tips to help you ace this vacation and enjoy time with your family.
Our team has put together a quick guideline to help you manage breastfeeding through your road trips, car trips, and more!
Tips on juggling breastfeeding during your vacation:
Be ok with your schedule being thrown off.
Unfortunately, with the change in scenery and new stimulus around, your baby will be distracted trying to look and interact with all the new things around. This may lead to even being distracted from feeding and sleeping on time. But that’s ok. We adjust and adapt. You can try to adhere to the same schedule but just be aware that your baby may have plans of his/her own.
Bring a portable battery pack for your breast pump.
Who knows where you will be when you need to empty out and your baby may finally be sleeping. Having the portable battery pack will give you flexibility to pump whenever and wherever you can find a comfortable and private place.
Bring spare breast pump cushions.
We all know pumping is one of those cumbersome mom chores we must do for our babies. We may complain but we still make our sacrifices for that little bundle of love. In this case, why not make your pumping experience more pleasant and comfortable with some breast pump cushions. They will help you get through the session without having to cringe from the discomfort of the pump.
Have extra water.
Breastfeeding is tough work. It drains a lot of essential nutrients and vitamins from you so it is important to make sure you are eating a well-balanced diet to support your milk supply. With that includes making sure you drink plenty of water. Things can get hectic and distracting with all the excitement of being on vacation, so be sure to pack extra bottles of water for you to stay fully hydrated. We wouldn’t want your milk supply to be impacted because you forgot to drink up!
Stay in the moment.
I know it sounds very zen but breastfeeding has a lot to do with your emotional and mental state as well. Sometimes stress can impact our production which in turns stresses us out even more. By staying present in the moment, you can be sure to just enjoy being able to produce your amazing breast milk designed exclusively for your baby. Mother’s milk is one of the most powerful and badass things we can give to our children and we should really be able to reflect and be proud of our accomplishments. Try not to let external factors distract us during this time. We can always catch up with what it going on when we are done.
Hopefully these quick tips help you figure out how to manage your breastfeeding and pumping schedule during your family vacation. This is one of the most fun times of the year, so try not to stress out about breastfeeding too much. Women are strong and we will always figure out how to make the best out of the moment.
For more tips on how to survive breastfeeding on road trips, check out this post.
If you're breastfeeding over the holidays this post is packed with good tips!
Enjoy your vacation!