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another ? about pumping & freezing

vanilla15vanilla15
in Hawaii Babies

I pumped only once after the 1st morning feeding when I was on maternity leave and I got a pretty good stash in the freezer from just that.  Now I am back at work & I pump 4 times a day (after 1st morning nurse, mid-morning, lunch & afternoon).  I usually get ~ 20oz a day.  Adair takes three 4.5oz bottles while at school.  I give her two bottles from my stash and one fresh bottle each day.  Which means each day I am freezing about 16oz and my freezer is quickly reaching capacity. 

As of right now, I could just give her what I pump the day before, but I don't want my milk in the freezer to go bad.  I pretty rarelly get a babysitter so it is not like with a babysitter I could use up my frozen stash.  And if my supply remains the same, I will still pump more each day than I need so I could probably still freeze a few oz each day.

I do have one of those fridge/freezers with the freezer on the bottom so the milk is safe for 6 months. 

 What would you do?  Give her the fresh milk & just let the frozen milk stay put? or keep doing what I am doing and maybe need to invest in a deep freezer?

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Re: another ? about pumping & freezing

  • MrsZizMrsZiz member
    We invested about $200 in a small deep freezer and it was worth it! I would always give Bella a couple of bottles of fresh milk a day and the rest was frozen milk. She didn't seem to have a preference but I know your milk changes as the baby grows so that's what I did. I ended up being able to give her BM for a month after I was done BM because I had so much frozen! We transitioned to whole milk by doing half BM and half CM when the time came because we had enough and I wanted her to be able to adjust to the change.
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  • inamrainamra member
    I'm kinda in this situation...I'd give B what I pumped the day before, since freezing actually removes a bit of the nutrients, so fresh bm is always better...and then I put it in my calendar when it's about time that the earliest freezer one is going to expire and then do the whole use freezer stash/freeze pumped milk routine until I get through all the ones expiring soon, then go back to giving him what I pumped before and marking the new expiration date in my calendar...
    Sept 2008 Wedding | May 2010 & Mar 2012 Babies
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  • jaysgirljuliejaysgirljulie member

    IMO, I would give as much fresh milk as possible. I may be wrong but I think that freezing bm kills the erythrocytes.

    Good for you with all the milk! :-)

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  • parrotgirlparrotgirl

    I agree with Jaysgirljulie, I would give as much fresh milk as possible. I had thought about getting a deep freezer because I ran out of room for food (lol) but thank goodness I didn't  because I didn't end up using the frozen BM as much as I intended to. That's why I ended up donating it- it always came down to me wanting to give M fresh milk rather than frozen. 

    FWIW, I thought I was going to be able to keep it in my freezer for 4-6 months but  I noticed that the milk had a different smell (like it has been in the freezer for years, haha) after 3-4 months and I'm sure it didn't taste that great either, that may explain why he never drank it ;) 

     

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  • vanilla15vanilla15

    what yall said makes sense...I think I will try to just give her fresh milk & see how it goes.  I will hold on to the frozen stuff to mix with solids (cereal/oatmeal) when we start with them in the next couple of months. 

    Thanks for your input!

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  • jaysgirljuliejaysgirljulie member
    imagevanilla15:

     I will hold on to the frozen stuff to mix with solids (cereal/oatmeal) when we start with them in the next couple of months. 

    great idea!

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