There is nothing more satisfying as a nursing/pumping mommy than a chest freezer full of milk. I’m so proud of us that we have made it this far nursing when others don’t come any wheres close to us. Dean is 6 months old and prefers breast over bottle, but when I’m out working, he really has no choice. He has started eating solid foods, so he is no longer exclusively breast feed (ebf). He has never even taken a sip of formula! I’m a proud mommy about that. I understand that others have struggled with breastfeeding and needed to supplement. That was never the case with us. I had a major oversupply that just recently regulated, hence a freezer full of milk. I still pump more than what he needs while I’m at work. I pump twice at work and at the end of the week, I usually have 30 ounces frozen. He usually eats 16 ounces while I’m at work, sometimes more and sometimes less.
I needed to buy a chest freezer for all of that milk. Yes, I still put a few other non-milk items in there, but it was bought for my breast milk. I plan on breast feeding until Dean is 1 years old. I will then take the 6 months to wean him off using the frozen milk. Every Monday that I work, I thaw frozen milk for the day the day before. If I have Monday off, then Tuesday is frozen milk day and so forth. The first work day of the week is always frozen, the rest of the week is fresh from pumping once before work and twice during.
I use the oldest milk first and thaw out the milk in a ring so it thaws out evenly and slowly. I find that this is the best method, since bags do leak sometimes. This catches leaks and condensation. I personally don’t use the bags that leak as food, but I will throw it into his tub for moisturizing purposes.
Bottles do take up space in your fridge, but I only keep a days worth of milk. Never more than 4 or 5 bottles in there at a time. As you can see, I had five dirty bottles one day. Between the bottles, their cap, nipple tops, and pump parts, it makes a whole boiling pot. I boil the bottles and pump parts at the end of the day with soap in the pot. Then, I just scrub and rinse once the pot cools. I wash and prepare the bottles, since my dad does the work of feeding and taking care of him 5 days a week while I work.
I like to organize my milk bags by month and then by days. This ensures that I use the oldest milk first and I found that it organizes my 5.2 cu Haier Chest freezer the best. The gallon freezer bags can fit 10 to 20 frozen bags of milk. Nowadays, I freeze 6 ounce bags, because I feel that freezing any less is wasteful of the bags.
I organize my freezer as follows. I keep the oldest milk that I am going to use immediately in the little white basket. It comes from whichever gallon bag that I opened up for milk that week. It can take a few weeks to use up the milk in the bag, because the milk bags are all different ounces. My oldest milk is from February. I have the oldest milk on top. So, I have two bags of Feb in one corner and three bags of march on the other side of the white basket. Underneath that is two layers of bags with milk from March, April, May, and June. My little bit of July lives on top with March, until I fill it up. I know I am very lucky to have all of this milk. I probably have about 1,000 ounces stored. I rotate through the stash to keep it fresh. I’m saving the milk for when I start to wean him off at a year old. I want him to still have mostly breast milk and slowly wean to almond milk and then to whole milk. If any mothers have any questions, I’m here to help.
With Love ❤
Home Sweet Phoenix Cove 