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have baby will travel ... without baby

so i've recently found out that in march, i will be traveling to las vegas for a conference for work. it will be a great conference - i attended last year in dc and got a TON out of it, and like last year, my credit union is up for at least one and possibly a couple of marketing awards, so i'll be attending the awards dinner to see what - and how many! - we've won. since a lot of what we submitted is my creative work, it's really exciting to me to see what is "award-winning."

the drawbacks? 1) i don't love vegas. i'm not a gambler, and i find vegas to be a little bit of ... sensory overload. from the moment you step off the airplane, you're accosted by flashing lights, loud noises, and people desperately plunking one more coin into a slot machine. if you've never been there, know that i'm not kidding: there are actually slot machines at the gates at the airport so you can get your fix.

2) this is the biggie ... i will be away from john overnight for the first time since in his life. if you want to get all metaphysical about, it's the first time i will have been away from him in like 17 months. (yes i know he'll be 8 months old, but he went with me everywhere i went for 9 months in my belly!)

and in addition to the emotionally difficult angle of being away from my little man and his daddy, how about the logistical difficulties of continuing to feed a baby who is still entirely breastfed when i am thousands of miles apart. i'll try like crazy to pump ahead, but i'm barely keeping pace with the little piglet now, so i will DEFINITELY not have four days of milk stored up. he's had some formula before, so he'll be fine eating some formula. but i don't really want to make him eat ONLY formula for that long. and i'm still going to have to be pumping while in vegas, and i certainly can't handle the thought of throwing that precious milk away ...

so my options?

1) pump and dump (boo hiss)
2) pump and ship (possible - expensive? logistically challenging)
3) pump and bring home with me (possible - don't have enough containers, so i'm going to have to find some freezable bags or something, and maybe ask the hotel to let me freeze it there?)

anyone see any other options? any mamas with experience here? i'm at a loss ...
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