Hellobee Boards

I don't remember exactly, but I don't think it was very big. I actually built my freezer stash once I went back to work when DS was 12 weeks because I was able to pump a bit more than DS was eating so I would freeze any leftover.

With my first, I had about 60-70 oz when I returned at 12 weeks. The majority of that I accumulated during the last half of my maternity leave. I pumped a couple times a day, but even if you're able to freeze 2 oz a day, that adds up quickly.

I am worried about this. I have been horrible about pumping, I've tried to pump a few times a week and divide it into 1 oz bottles to give most days for practice. But I only have 6 weeks left. My goal is to save 4 oz/day, at least 5 days a week until I go back and then really keep up on a daily basis pumping 3x/ work initially if I have to. This may not be enough because I need to step up the bottle practice as well, since he's barely replaced a feed with a bottle, so I have no idea how much he'll take when I am gone from 230-12!

I know all women are different and this is just my experience, but I regret building up a large freezer stash for returning to work. All the extra pumping made my body overproduce milk, which actually made my son not want to nurse because the letdown was too strong (in addition to being uncomfortable for me). And once I was back at work, I hardly ever dipped into the freezer stash because I preferred using fresh pumped milk from the day before whenever possible. I ended up nursing my son for 2 years, and overall really enjoyed my nursing experience, but I wish I hadn't gotten so caught up in building up a big freezer stash/messing up my milk production, and gotten some more sleep during my last few weeks of maternity leave.

@elise626: This.

I went crazy trying to build a stash from the beginning and ended up with horrible oversupply. It ruined our BFing chances and I ended up having to EP for a year. I won't be pumping until the few weeks before I head back to work this time around.

@jetsa: that's a really good post, and exactly what happened to me with my son! I started transitioning him to cows milk at 11 months because I couldn't pump enough anymore.

@ninja: we made it a whole year on only fresh milk. On days where baby needed more than what we had she got a little formula mixed in. Worked for us and not one regret.

I wanna say around 100oz? Maybe more? I pumped like crazy in the beginning since DS was in NICU. He didn't start drinking all that I pumped for him until a couple weeks after he was born. So the surplus in the beginning helped a lot. Otherwise, I don't think I would have a stash.

@ninja: I feed him on demand and so we don't have a set schedule. And he tends to nurse more and more frequently in the afternoon going into the evening. I think that will get better with bottles because he doesn't take them well unless he's pretty hungry. Plus I am hoping he'll be ready for an earlier bedtime soon. Now he nurses often as he gets crankier in the evening, but everytime I've tried to put him down before 8, it backfired majorly and he woke up every 30 min!

100 oz. I went through it pretty fast with a few business trips.