help! (re: frozen breast milk)
Ok, here's the deal. My sister is in town with her new baby this week--the baby is about 2 months old. She lives about 3 hours away and works from home, but she's in town for training so I told her that I'd take care of the baby so she didn't have to worry about child care.
She had her husband drop the baby off at my house this morning along with a bunch of frozen bags of breast milk (yes, he's up here too but can't watch the baby--long story). When I talked to my sister yesterday, I asked her to write out instructions on what to do with them when the baby needs to eat. And she was like "well, I've never done this before, so I'm not sure, but I'll have something for you". But I've looked everywhere through the bags that he dropped off and there's no note or instructions and I can't reach her all day. Her husband has no idea what to do either.
So, fortunately, the baby is sleeping right now, but I'm pretty sure that he's going to want to eat as soon as he wakes up. All but one frozen baggie of milk is in my freezer--I'm thawing one out by putting it in a glass of warm water and it seems mostly thawed now. But I don't know how warm the milk is supposed to be. All I know is that I'm not supposed to microwave the breast milk. And what if the baby sleeps for another hour or more? Do I put the thawed milk back in the fridge? Will it go bad if I leave it out until he wakes up?
(yes, I'm super annoyed with my sister...I would never, ever do this to anyone....grrrrr)
Re: help! (re: frozen breast milk)
breast milk can be left at room temperature for at least 4 hrs without going bad, so after it's thawed, leave it out b/c the baby may not be used to drinking cold milk (is he eBFed?, if so you may want to have it warm - just warm it as you are doing - in a cup of warm water; it comes out of the breast warm so the baby may only take it warm). it's OK to move BM from fridge to room temp and back, it's just never ok to re-freeze it.
how large are the bags? he may want more milk than is in 1 bag, so take out another one just in case.
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Sounds like you're on the right track...
https://www.ehow.com/how_4503190_safely-thaw-frozen-breast-milk.html
After it;s thawed, I'd put only 1/2 in the bottle... in case she doesn't eat all of it... you wouldn't want to have to throw it out.
I know nothing about this subject but I just wanted to offer my support and say that I would be just as confused about what to do. I guess we are going to need to figure this out soon though with our little ones on the way
Good luck today with the baby.
bh, I would be confused too!!!! I'm jealous that you're getting a little practice in before the baby comes - this post just made me realize that there is going to be a BABY in my house in about 3 weeks and I am clueless!!!
thanks, everybody...baby has now been fed twice and he's sleeping again. it is pumped breast milk that my sister sent, so I was really worried about wasting it, but it's good to know that leaving it out for a couple hours won't ruin it :-)
Glad you figured it out. For the future, I highly recommend bookmarking this website. https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html