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Hawaii Babies
SanHawaii08
member
storage q's for mommys who pump
SanHawaii08
member
i'm pumping 1x/day right now, to rebuild my freezer stash. I get between 3.5-5+oz (total) each session. i know we've talked about much of this before, but I can't remember...
1. in what increments do you freeze your bm?
2. what if you pumped say, 4.25 oz? would you put it all in one bag, or split into say, a 3oz and a 1.25oz?
3. if the latter, would you add more to the 1.25oz bag tomorrow to make it one of your "usual" quantities? if so, do you cool fresh milk first before adding to refrigerated or frozen, or just dump it straight in?
thanks! 
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Re: storage q's for mommys who pump
1. in what increments do you freeze your bm? 2oz increments, but I do put a little more than 2oz in each bag just in case I spill any when I am transferring the thawed milk into a bottle.
2. what if you pumped say, 4.25 oz? would you put it all in one bag, or split into say, a 3oz and a 1.25oz? I always freeze in 2 oz increments so if I pumped 4.25 oz one day, I would make 2 2oz bags and then save the .25 for the next day. (actually if it was just .25, I would probably just split it between the 2 bags for the little bit extra, but anything more I would save for the next day)
3. if the latter, would you add more to the 1.25oz bag tomorrow to make it one of your "usual" quantities? if so, do you cool fresh milk first before adding to refrigerated or frozen, or just dump it straight in? I cool the fresh milk before adding it to previously chilled milk. My LC had told me as long as there is more cooled milk in the bottle than it is ok. I just only mix chilled milk to be on the safe side.
1. I think it depends on how much LO drinks from the bottle at a time? B does 6-7oz but nowadays, it's closer to 6. I used to just freeze whatever I pumped in a session but it went from 5oz to 4oz to 3oz now. So I just went back and counted how many of each of the 4-5oz ones I had, then know how many 1-2oz bags I needed and then would split up the following sessions into those increments until they were even. Then I'd just go back to freezing in 3oz increments since that's how much I pump in a session and then sometimes I have a good day and get 5oz...then I'll split next session into 1oz-remaining after 1oz.
2. I just freeze the whole thing, then split up my next session in 2oz-2oz. Or 1.75oz-2.25oz, but I usually estimate so I'd just split it in half and freeze it that way.
3. No, I never add to a bag actually. I just use a new bag. Yup, I have frozen bags of just 1oz in my freezer. They're super thin and defrost super fast =P
1. I used to freeze in 2, 3 or 5 oz increments to make it easier to match what I need to supplement for the next day's milk at daycare
2. I would probably chill it all, then freeze 3 oz and save 1.25. Then the next day, I'd chill the new milk and when they are both chilled, I'd add more to the 1.25 to get an even amount to freeze.
3. As long as they are both chilled and within a day or two, you can combine them. Just dump them together and swirl around.
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog
1. in what increments do you freeze your bm?
3 oz and 5 oz
2. what if you pumped say, 4.25 oz? would you put it all in one bag, or split into say, a 3oz and a 1.25oz?
i would put it into the 3 oz increment and then save the other 1.25 oz for the next batch and then add in from the next time I pumped until I reached the 3 oz or 5 oz increment
3. if the latter, would you add more to the 1.25oz bag tomorrow to make it one of your "usual" quantities? if so, do you cool fresh milk first before adding to refrigerated or frozen, or just dump it straight in?
i have added fresh warm milk into cold refrigerated/stored milk - what's wrong with that? not being snide, i just genuinely want to know b/c i had no idea you shouldn't do that LOL you can mix milk from different days w/o any problems...i have added milk from 3 days later to a batch of milk...you just have to date it with the oldest date when you label your bag (i.e. if you pumped on mon and then again on wed/thurs then you need to put monday's date on the bag, not thursday's date)
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
wow, my answers are the exact same as jaime.
except on Fridays, I knew I wouldn't have more milk to add until Monday PM so I would freeze in whatever odd increment was left over after a 3 or 5 oz bag.
any particular reason why you choose 3oz, 5oz (or 2oz) increments? I have no idea how much E takes in a single feeding. We used to give 4oz, but then that didn't seem to be enough, so we started doing 5oz. but once we gave 5oz before bed, and he woke up hungry after ~4 hours, when he usually sleeps 6-7 hours before waking to eat. so I have no idea now!
we don't give him a bottle very often though - should I just give him 5 next time, and keep giving in say, 1/2oz increments until he doesn't want anymore? I feel like he doesn't know when he's full when he takes a bottle, and will just keep going...
J was like that. But eventually I noticed he started going back to 3oz or so increments at school. Must have figured out he would still get offered some no matter what.
Also, he didn't regularly sleep through the night until 9mo or so. (still usually only goes 10, not 12 hours). It didn't really bother me b/c he would eat and go right back down and it was in line with the way he snacked (on milk and solids) throughout the day but I think it was also largely for comfort because sometimes he would fall back asleep while DH carried him into our room.
Supposedly, BFed babies don't take more than 6oz from a bottle at a time. But with B, he took up to 7oz before but never more than that. But with time (and esp after we introduced solids), he stops around 5-6oz so we stopped giving him 7oz (esp since I hate seeing my limited BM go to waste!). So then I just freeze in increments to accommodate how much he takes per feeding (ie. around 5-6oz).
For me, the reason was that I needed different amounts depending on whether I was supplementing a poor pumping day or making bottles on Monday. I used to give Alexa 3 bottles of 4-5 oz each. But in the beginning, she didn't drink much at daycare, so I'd send 3 bottles of 3 oz each.
IF I pumped 12 oz, then I'd defrost a 3 oz bag to mix in for the next day. If I only pumped 10 oz, then I'd need a 5 oz bag. On Mondays, I'd defrost 3 bags of 5 oz each, unless I had pumped some on Saturday and Sunday, in which case I wouldn't need as much. Having a variety of sizes to choose from helped make sure nothing was defrosted that wasn't used!
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog