Did anyone run out of room in their freezer for their milk stash? I can get a little bit more, but our freezer isn't very big and I am almost out of room.
Would you start using the milk in the freezer and replacing it with freshly pumped milk or just save my freezer stash and feed LO freshly pumped milk when I need to give him a bottle?
papaya / 10473 posts
I don't know how you're storing it, so you may already do this... This is how I started freezing mine and it give me a ton more room!
http://greenlitebites.com/2011/06/02/breast-milk-storage/
nectarine / 2750 posts
@grizz: Oh well how freaking smart is that! Umm mine is stacked inside old Cliff Builder Bar boxes that I take from Kroger when I buy them for my husband. 
I am totally going to do this!
kiwi / 612 posts
@grizz: this is GENIOUS - thanks for posting!!
@tlcbaby: the advice I got was to start rotating the frozen milk out with the fresh, since it has a shelf life. I don't know how often you're away from baby, but I'll leave two fresh and one frozen bottle when I'm gone in the day. Then I pump enough for two fresh and one new frozen, so everything is constantly rotating. I've never had enough to run out of storage space though - that's a good problem to have!
nectarine / 2750 posts
@sotofamilia: Well our storage space is limited. Our freezer seems teeny and my husband's frozen fruit stash is overtaking my milk stash. I like your rotation plan.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@grizz: How much do you think fits in a gift bag doing that method? My baby is 4 weeks old tomorrow and I have 200 oz frozen right now in my freezer, and I already don't have space for more (we have three drawers in our freezer and this takes up an entire drawer). And I started with Medela bags and they aren't flat..the kind of freeze in a wedge, so they don't stack well.
We also live in a 2 bedroom condo so getting a chest freezer is going to take up a lot of space and would have to be in our living room or bedroom (super ugly and cluttery from a decorating sense).
So I don't know what to do any more. blah. Who would have thought breast milk storage could be so difficult?
coconut / 8234 posts
@grizz: I used this same exact blog post/video in coming up with my freezing system! It definitely made a difference.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@Smurfette: yup. I have oversupply issues =( although I'm working on that by going to every 4 hours now between pumpings and up to 5-6 hours during the night. AND wasting (unfortunately) BM during the day---as in, my husband always wants to put "extra" in the pumped bottle "just in case" our LO wants to eat more. I used to say no, to not waste the BM, but now I just let him do it and what she doesn't drink, I toss.
I feel bad about wasting it, but I also have no more space....soooo.....
Edited to say, I'm looking into donation options...I just haven't found anything yet, except Eats on Feets, and it weirds me out a little that there are no safety standards. Like, I don't want my BM going to a fetishist or something, you know?
pear / 1895 posts
@Anagram: I found a mom on my local Human Milk 4 Human Babies FB page. I was able to chat with her and check out her FB page before I committed to donating. I was a little weirded out about the whole process at first, but once I met her I was so glad I decided to donate to her!
persimmon / 1304 posts
I am out of space! I slowed down on my early AM/MOTN pumping session because I will probably have to just dump unless I can make more room in the freezer.
@grizz: So smart! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely be trying this out tonight.
pomelo / 5628 posts
I have two freezers and have run out of space many times. I would highly suggest rotating or donating older milk. Because I was unorganized, I have had to throw out lots of milk which makes me sad, but I finally jut donated my first batch. I use gallon bags and write the month on it (not sure what blog post says).
grapefruit / 4006 posts
@Anagram: i second Human Milk 4 Human Babies on facebook. i've donated to 3 women and might donate another time before i end up weaning.
grapefruit / 4681 posts
I froze mine flat and then transferred ~10 bags to gallon ziplock bags with dates labeled on the outside so I could stack them. I found I got more space that way and used the method @grizz: posted for the stash I was rotating.
We did run out of room in our regular freezer, took over my parents deep freezer and also had to purchase our own I had a lot of milk stored between 3 freezers. Here is a pick of part my stash at my parents that was at 6 mo pp, just before I donated it (it grew a lot after that). There is over 1,100 oz in that freezer. The other bags are baby foods we made that ended up also being donated due to LO's allergies.
papaya / 10473 posts
@Anagram: I'm not sure. I freeze in Lansinoh bags and they are super flat.
coffee bean / 44 posts
@Anagram: the brand of bag doesnt matter when it comes to freezing flat. You just have to lay them flat in order for them to freeze flat. Once they are frozen you can move/store them however you wish. But freezing flat really saves space.
clementine / 916 posts
@sarahbee: Medela bags don't freeze flat bc of their shape.. They just kind of suck. Haha.
@Anagram: if I were you, I would rotate through the Medela bags and start freezing from now on in Honeysuckle or Lansinoh to save space. That's what I had to do..
grapefruit / 4681 posts
@Anagram: I also used my area's local FB group for Human Milk 4 Human Babies to donate. I was also skeptical about giving my milk away and wanted to ensure it found a good home. I asked the mom a ton of questions and also offered her the same opportunity to ask my any questions. The women I ended up dontating to shared some similar parenting views as I did and I felt comfortable with my decision to donate to her and her adopted daughter. We have actually become friends in the process!
papaya / 10473 posts
@anbanan15: That's so cool! I really hope that after I go back to work and have a rhythm going that I can donate. A friend of mine donated to me because my milk was slow coming in and DS had jaundice, so I'd like to pay it forward
coffee bean / 44 posts
@LaineysMom: thanks for setting me straight, but geez, that's so silly they can't do that. What a waste!
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Wow. I am supremely jealous of all this stash! I think at most I only ever had 8oz.
clementine / 916 posts
@sarahbee: yeah, it's pretty dumb. I think the only way that they will freeze flat is if you only put 1-2 oz. in them..
GOLD / cantaloupe / 6703 posts
@LaineysMom: I was able to freeze my Medela bags flat w/ 4 ounces, but I don't think they'll go very flat with any more than that. What I would did was pre-measure the milk in a bottle and then pour it in without opening up the gusset in the bottom, and then carefully squeeze out as much air as possible.
clementine / 916 posts
@MaisyMay: ahh, I see. I just pumped directly into a couple of them.. I use honeysuckle bags and freeze in 6 oz. portions. My 6 oz. in the honeysuckle bags froze almost half as flat as the 5 oz. in the Medela. The Medela bags are definitely a different shape (shorter and skinnier) than the honeysuckle and Lansinoh brand bags.
nectarine / 2750 posts
Well it took me a couple of weeks to realize you could even freeze the bags flat! I was just standing them up in a bowl in the freezer and they were all weird shaped. I just used those up to get them out of the freezer because they took up so much room.
kiwi / 612 posts
@anbanan15: I think this is quite honestly the most awesome freezer I've ever seen...
This whole post inspires me to get my freezer stash organized...right now, I freeze half the bags flat and half the bags standing up (plus a portion in bottles) and half the bags are in a larger ziplock bag and half of them are just loose...,my system makes no sense at all lol
kiwi / 612 posts
Oh and I totally agree about medela bags versus lansinoh - I couldn't freeze the medela bags flat with more than 3 ounces, and the lansinoh also has that double zipper, which makes me feel like they are more secure. I think the medela bags are just not very well-designed in general.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
OMG THAT IS GENIUS. I need to do that. 250 oz (that took me 3 months, so 200 in 4 weeks is WAY impressive, @anagram!) took up soooo much room in my freezer. I'm still struggling with freezer space as we use one bag/day!
and yes, the lansinoh bags are 10x better than the medela bags. And when you thaw them and go to pour them out, the medela bags have the holes at the top and I've definitely spilled milk before!
clementine / 916 posts
@blackbird: a while back someone posted about cutting the corner of the freezer bag instead of trying to just directly pour. I thought it was an awesome idea and it works really well!
clementine / 943 posts
I hated those medela bags for this same reason! I loved the Gerber bags- you can get 5 oz in them and they will freeze flat. I used to lay them in a loaf pan to freeze them just in case they accidentally leaked.
WTG with that stash- that's awesome!
I would look into donating if you're comfortable with that... So many mommas out there would be so grateful to have your help!
clementine / 916 posts
@tlcbaby: sorry, I never answered your initial question bc my ADHD brain got sidetracked. :). How much milk do you have? I think right before we bought a chest freezer I had ~300 oz. in my freezer. I would suggest storing similar to @anbanan15: or buying the plastic file bins or ice cube bins from target $3. I can fit 14 6 oz. Honeysuckle bags in each bin..
Depending how much frozen milk you have, I would rotate through the milk either a couple times a week, or a bag a day. If its just in your regular freezer you want to try to cycle through it every 3 months (but it's okay up to 6). I like to give DD primarily fresh milk and just 1 bag of frozen each day since fresh is better for her..
nectarine / 2750 posts
@LaineysMom: Thank you! Sadly I have no idea how much is in there. About 50 bags, but they have between 2 and 5 oz each. I think I will start cycling through it so it doesn't get too old in the freezer.
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