Had to throw away breastmilk. :o(

[melanalyus]

I've been religiously pumping my breastmilk and freezing it for a later date for my little peanut. As of yesterday I had close to 90 bags (2-8oz/bag) stored in my chest freezer in the garage. I daily pump, then store in freezer in home, when I have about 15 bags or so, I transfer them to the "deep" freeze in the garage. They're stable in a chest freezer for 6 months.

Well, last night I went to transfer my milk to chest freezer, and I noticed that all my milk had thawed!! Oh! I'm soooooo crushed! I can't tell you how many hours I've spent collecting and storing this milk. I had to toss it all, b/c it's only good for 24hrs after thawing. I feel so wasteful. I could have feed a small country with the milk I had stored up. ;-)

On a positive note, I do have 15 bags. I plan on keeping them in my house freezer (I go into this daily). It'll only be good for 3-mos, but at least I can keep an eye on my liquid gold.

**Melanie**
Justin born 1/17/04
Jory born 4/9/94

" Take care of your body like it will last a lifetime. Take care of your soul like it will last for eternity"

 

[shopaholic]

RE: Had to through away breastmilk. (

Melanie, that stinks. Wonder why they thawed? Thank goodness at least you know you have enough, but oh how frustrating.

 

[emy]

That really bites! At least everything didn't thaw - gotta find something positive out of the whole thing. I'd donate some to you, but I'm sure your babe wants his own mom's milk!

 

[MariaS]

Melanie, how incredibly frustrating!!! I pumped and froze a lot of milk with my first baby, so I know what an extra effort it takes. Like the others said, I suppose the only positive side is that you know you have enough milk, and you will have it in the future too, as you have been keeping the milk production up with the pumping. Nobody can take that away...))

Maria

 

[MSJ]

Oh Melanie,

That is such a bummer. I really feel for you. I hope that whatever went wrong with your chest freezer can be fixed, so that you can successfully store future milk. You can work out a system of rotating your milk in and out of the 3 month freezer, so that you can keep more of it longer. Are you putting dates on it? What I did was freeze fresh milk rather than use it right away and use up the milk that was nearing its "date" of usefulness--I am having a post partum brain freeze right now. Anyway, I know that the fresh breast milk is best, but when you have limited space, you gotta do what you gotta do.

keep us posted.
Maggie

 

[melanalyus]

I knew you guys would be empathetic towards the situation. I really needed that. Not EVERYONE would understand the situation. My own DH didn't think it was that big of a deal! That was probably more frusturating than the situation itself.
Yes, Maggie. I am such a freak about labeling the bags. I put date, amount enclosed & even numbered them with colorfol dots!! That's how I knew how many were wasted. I wanted it to be as easy as possible for the person thawing & using the milk. That way they could quickly look for the numbered dot and instantly know which one should be used first.
A good friend of mine said I could use her freezer. What would I have done if this would have happened in someone elses freezer? I think I would have been even more upset. We discussed the situation. I think what happened is that the freezer was too empty & it's unable to keep things frozen unless there's a certain amount of stuff in it? We didn't get an owner's manual with the freezer (it was 2nd hand)...so I wasn't aware of this. We pretty much just had the milk in it, some Mr Freezer pops, some "award" sized walleyes for the taxadermist, and just a couple pounds of chicken. It's a HUGE freezer.


**Melanie**
Justin born 1/17/04
Jory born 4/9/94

" Take care of your body like it will last a lifetime. Take care of your soul like it will last for eternity"