Koomala: How I stored +700oz of Breastmilk in 8 Weeks

Table of Contents (also listed below):

Introduction:
OK, so it’s one of the hardest questions (next to daycare selection) that you’ll have to deal with. Do you, can you, will you continue breastfeeding once you’re back at work? If so, how to manage it? For how long? And how much milk should you store?

Hopefully, I can help you navigate this a little. I’m not an expert, but I’m doing it twice now, so I can at least speak into it a bit. I breastfed Gwen for 7 months, and I plan on breastfeeding Garrison for at least 6. As of this writing, I’m completing month 2 and just about ready to head back to work.

Just so we’re perfectly honest with each other, breastfeeding is tough work and a huge commitment, especially if you’re heading back into the office. Yes, there is some extra bonding that takes place, and there are warm, fuzzy moments. However, I definitely don’t judge people who chose not to, or can’t, or only do breastfeeding for a little while. Formula isn’t the baby beverage of choice for the antichrist or anything like that. I actually think formula isn’t a bad option at all.

If you’re debating whether or not to breastfeed, consider this: Your milk is going to come in regardless once you’ve given birth. It’s a foregone conclusion. So, give it a try, at least you’ll be passing along some good immune-system benefits in those first few days, and if that’s all you want to do – wonderful! This is NOT the big deal that all those breastfeeding advocates claim it is, your child can survive on formula too. So, while you’re reading my words please don’t think I’m some crazy person telling you breastfeeding is the only way to go. There is WAY too much guilt-literature out there and I don’t want to join it. I’m writing from my experience only, because I wish that I had something like this when I went back to work. I didn’t read anywhere about other people who had struggled, hated it, loved it, and did it anyways. Maybe I’m the only one, I don’t know. I suppose I’ll eventually find out as (hopefully) more people read this.

So, now you know where I’m coming from. I have a fairly wide open view of this field. Furthermore, you should know that I started Gwen in on rice cereal and pears at just over 3 months old. Some people have very strong feelings about this. I didn’t know this until I started Gwen in on solid foods and was lectured by people other than doctors how I should breastfeed exclusively until Gwen was 6 months old.

Wow.

If you want to do that, go ahead by all means. I didn’t, and Gwen did great. It also helped me extend out breastfeeding as I didn’t produce much milk the first time. I’ll probably be introducing cereal around the same with Garrison. (UPDATE: Yep, at 3.5 months he's started eating 2-4 oz of cereal a day. Once in the morning around 9 and once in the evening around 6. He loves it and is thriving with a little more food in his tummy. Keep an eye on your little one, when they start staring longingly at your food...it may be time to give them a little spoonful of cereal and see how they do. Make sure it's more milk than cereal to start off with!)
So, by the end of 3 months, technically speaking I wasn’t exclusively breastfeeding. She wasn’t getting a ton of solid food, but she was getting some.

Now that I’ve revealed I’m nowhere near perfect and have even gone against conventional wisdom in most cases…however, by the time I went back to work I had nearly 700oz of breastmilk stored (with my second baby) and pumped nearly one for one (one pumping session to one bottle). So if you’re still interested in my opinion, here’s a brief table of contents for subjects we should probably go over together: