Storing breastmilk

[peach]

Hi there! I'm a FTM and am joining this place after TB exploded. I never posted much there so my noob ranking is pretty accurate.
I breastfeed my 4 week baby girl and will be returning to work so I want to make sure I have milk for her daddy to feed her. She tends to eat anywhere between 3-4 oz in one sitting. As of right now I have some stored so that DH can take a feeding in the MOTN. Last night she took a 3 oz bottle, then about .75 oz after that, and still wanted more so I got up to feed her, but she only ate for about 4 minutes and was satisfied. I don't think it's because she just wanted my boobs because she's successfully gone back to sleep after a bottle from DH before. So my question is how many oz would you recommend storing in each container? I want to minimize any waste but also don't want DH to have to use a ton of bottles. I imagine her appetite will increase as she ages so I'll have to adjust then, is that right?
Sorry for the novel and thanks for all the help you've all provided in previous threads!

[melody330]

BF babies rarely take more than 4.5 to 5 oz at a feeding. Your BM will change as baby gets older and becomes more nutritious with more calories. Hence the reason your baby will not need more ounces as they grow.

As for how to store it, I never froze more than 4 oz in one bag. Sometimes I froze 2 oz, sometimes 3. It's worked out great. Smaller bags for when I only need to top off his cups, bigger for when I'm pumping a deficit.

Please remember you only need enough frozen for your first day of work. You technically don't need anything extra since you need to pump when baby gets a bottle

ETA- night nursing helps maintain your supply at this stage in the game. If DH is giving a bottle in MOTN you need to pump to replace the bottle.

[sweetpeabee]

I started building up a freezer stash when my LO was about 3 weeks old, typically pumping after the first morning feed and again at night while DH gave DD a bottle to get her used to taking both. I could usually freeze 8+oz (4-5 oz bags x2 once I established the routine) from the first morning pump, and would usually save the evening pump for the bottle the next night. If I had extra, I would freeze it.

My LO is 4 months old and I pump at work. I usually have between 4 to 6 bottles (4-5 oz each) in the fridge at any time. DD eats 4.5 oz with each feed as an average. Sometimes she eats 5oz and still wants more. Other times, there will be over 1 oz left in the bottle and she has no interest in eating it. We feed on demand, not for the oz, so DH just follows her cues. I have been back at work about a month, and DH has had to thaw only 3 bags from the freezer (I have since added them back).

Hope that helps a little, even if it is not a direct answer to your question.

[flcl]

Hi and welcome Within the first month, babies tend to increase the amount of milk they'll drink rather quickly. After that, until about 6 months, that amount stays more or less the same. For us, it was easier to store milk in smaller amounts. I would freeze bags of 2 & 4 ounces.

These links may be helpful...
kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/
kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/milkstorage/milkstorage/

[peach]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge! This is all so new to me. I do get up to pump in the night when DH feeds her, it's just so I don't have to fully wake up and change her, etc.
Also, when you pump after the first morning feed, do you pump on both sides? LO only takes one breast at a time so should I just pump that side when she's done or how could I manage that?

[melody330]

You should be fine pumping the other side only in the morning.

[casey]

Everything melody330 said.

Remember that sucking is a very normal things for LOs at this age. With our breasts, they can suck in such a way that milk doesn't come out. With a bottle, they suck and suck and the milk just keeps coming. That makes it easy to overfeed and stretch out baby's belly. You don't want that.

Kellymom has a calculator so you can see bottle size ranges based on number of feelings a day. The average is about an ounce an hour. You might do more than that if lo STTN, but most babies this age will take about 3ish oz. maybe a touch more. I froze in 2 and 3oz increments until I figured out what lo needed. Then, froze single-serving bags. LO was in 80th percentile for height and weight. We didn't hit 5oz until 7 months, and we never did bigger than that.

[iloverunning]

Most of the quantities I freeze are 4 oz, followed by 3 and 2 oz packs. At daycare DD is taking 3-4 oz every 2-3 hours. Daycare says she can eat more but I've indicated that I don't want her taking more (she doesn't fuss after her bottles so she isn't hungry).

Make sure your husband looks up how to do paced bottle feedings on kellymom.

[ellabee]

We did 3.5-4oz portions plus a few 2s here and there just in case LO was still hungry. When she reached about 6 months she started doing 5 consistently. Now I only freeze full size bottles.

[liziz]

I would freeze smaller increments rather than larger. It's much easier to add 2 bags together than to try to separate out milk from a frozen bag that you only need part of.

I just freeze whatever I pumped (if I pumped first thing in the AM and got huge amounts, I would put each side in a 4 oz (or so) bag), and now, back at work, I just pump into a jar and let my DCP separate out each feeding as needed during the day. We rotate through our frozen milk by taking frozen milk on Mondays, and on Fridays, I pump in to bags and store in the freezer. Again, I just store whatever I get in one pumping session in each bag, figuring that will be somewhat close to one of LO's meals.

[babycaps]

I freeze 3-5oz portions. LO takes about 5-6oz bottles while I'm at work. For a while 6.5oz and now back down to 5.5oz as he's getting more solids.
But I don't quite agree with what melody330 said about only needing what LO will take the first day you are back and work.
I would have LOVED to keep up my supply once I was back at work but the truth of the matter is that the pump is NOT as effective as the baby. About 6 weeks after I returned to work, despite pumping 3x in my 8-9hr day my supply dropped dramatically and I had to start dipping into my very healthy freezer stash. I've been back to work since July 1 and I am still pumping but I get 8oz whereas I used to get 15-18oz in July! And I can no longer satisfy my LO when I'm home on weekends so I nurse and supplement on top (with my freezer stash) bc my supply is not what it used to be!
Of course I am NOT like everyone else and no one is the exact same. Your body may respond well to the pump and you may have no issues pumping the right amount for the next day! I'm just sharing my experience.

Also, the Lansinoh bags tend to break/leak if you overfill them. I found Up&Up (Target brand) to be much sturdier. No matter what, I always let the initial thawing take place with the bag in a bowl, no water bath, just in case there is a tear.

[Deleted]

You only need to have enough for the first day stored ahead of time. So if you are away about 9 hours you'll need around 9 oz maybe a bit more depending on timing if bottles.

I'll say you might want a bit more than that but you don't need hundreds of oz of milk in the freezer. You really should just send what you pump most if the time

If you ever find yourself short milk and you reach into the freezer for milk it is imperative that you add to your pumping to signal your body to raise your supply. So when you run short of milk you may need to add time to your work Pumps as well as keep a first thing in the am
Pump, evening power pump or middle if the night pump to signal your body that you need more milk.

If you just reach into the freezer and don't push frequency of pumps your supply will continue to drop and you'll find yourself short on pump amount and using up your stash pretty fast.

also if your pumps at work decrease you may need to go dome pump Maintenance.

Be sure you and daycare use paced bottle feedings with lots if stops to burp and flow flow bottle nipples. Lots of bottles recommended to friends if mine by their LCs seem to be faster glow and that advice is annoying to me.

[chuggingwater]

Going back, I would only do 4-5 oz. I had varying sizes, but some were difficult to use up before they went bad after I quit pumping at 11mo. for us, freezing larger quantities (8oz), didn't work.