Experiences Travelling for work without your newborn- how did it go?

[Anonymous]

For my work, I will likely have to travel for some interviews shortly after our second child arrives. Given the way the academic market works there is no way to avoid it unless I wait another year. Waiting another year is not an option since I have to finish this program for my own sanity and for financial reasons. I can probably wait until DC #2 is 4 weeks old before I might have to travel somewhere for between 1.5- 3 days. Have others traveled without their newborn this early? The span of potential interviews will likely be from when DC #2 is 4 weeks to 16 weeks but weighted much more heavily towards the 4-10 week window. I am very nervous about traveling without her and how it might ruin breastfeeding if she only has pumped milk for all those days and how my supply will react. I can't help feeling like it would seriously risk nipple confusion to have only bottles for that long. If the milk/nursing thing is really going to be an issue, then my only other option is to bring her with me and bring some kind of support person to take of care of her while I am in meetings. The only problem is that we will also have a 20 month old son at the time. So then the questions is if my husband comes with me, who takes care of DC #1? Any suggestions on how to manage the logistics are much appreciated since I am wracked with anxiety over this dilemma.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, not great. Sure, it was nice to have a full night's sleep... well, except for getting up to pump twice, whereas at home I'd just plug the baby in and go back to sleep. I had to go away for two days and two nights when mine was 4 months... I leaked through my shirt during a meeting, had to fight with the hotel to get a fridge, and when my return flight was delayed and I had no where to pump, got the worst case of blocked ducts EVER. I was eyeing random babies in the airport thinking "that one looks hungry..."

That said, I know all about the academic job market, and I know that you MUST take the interviews if you get them. This is a non-negotiable, so the real question becomes, who's going to take care of the baby while you're professionally-speed-dating and schmoozing with the potential employers? Is the conference somewhere interesting? Maybe a friend (or a grandma, or aunt) would like to come along and do some tourism with the baby while you're networking.

As for establishing breastfeeding and nipple confusion and all that... my experience was that these fears are vastly overstated. We never had a problem. If you can't take the baby, you can only be optimistic. But you should take the baby.