Preparing breast milk for the nursery

There is nothing special or extraordinary about the way I prepare breast milk for my baby consumption at the nursery.  Most breastfeeding mamas are already doing something similar, if not the same.  Afterall, I learned about it from their blogs.  Nevertheless, I share my way of doing it here, in case you can find something useful in it ;)

I prepare a total of 15oz per day for my baby.  The 15oz is equally divided into 5 containers of 3oz each, which is the amount she takes per serving.  The 5 containers are a mixture of fresh and previously frozen EBM, which are numbered from 1 to 5, with 1 being the first to be used.

My baby drinks on average of 12oz per day.  Only occasionally she takes all the 15oz.  So, here is what I do.

1. Upon returning home from work every evening, I will check for any unconsumed milk.  Usually there is one, the container bearing lid number 5.  I exchange the lid with lid number 1 and put in the fridge for tomorrow use.  So, I need another 12oz for tomorrow.  If there is no balance, then I will have to prepare 15oz for tomorrow.
2. From the 12oz (or 15oz), 9oz (or 12oz) is taken from:  
• the milk expressed at the office for the morning and afternoon sessions and
• the frozen stock.  Amount of frozen EBM that needs to be thawed = 9oz - (amount of EBM from the morning session + afternoon session).  If there is no balance from the day, then the amount of frozen EBM needed = 12oz - (amount of EBM from the morning session + afternoon session).
3. First thing tomorrow morning, usually before Subuh prayer, I will express another 3oz of milk.  This fresh EBM will be put into a container bearing lid number 5, meaning the last one to be used for the day.
4. Then I transfer the thawed EBM into another container with lid number 2.  If there is no balance from yesterday, then it will start with lid number 1.  The rest of the EBM will follow consecutively, beginning with a mixture of thawed EBM & fresh EBM from yesterday sessions that gets the next number, up until number 4 of course.
5. When it's time to go to work, I will grab all the five containers, place them into a cooler box with frozen ice brite in it and off to the nursery ;) 

There are times when I do not manage to express the early morning session (for whatever reason).  If that happens, I will just grab a 3oz frozen EBM, put number 5 on the lid, placed it in the cooler box and let it thawed in the box.

It may seem a bit tedious, but once you get the hang of it, you can do it in a breeze.  This is the best way I find so far where I am able to give my baby the best of fresh EBMs while ensuring that the frozen EBM stock is also used (first-in-first-out of course) and get replaced, hence, avoiding expired EBMs.




Fruitful EBM management.  I still have this much of stock available and my baby is 4 months old now.  In the yellow ice cream container are some 10 packs of EBM in breastmilk storage bags.



Some 8 x 2oz more at the freezer door.  Not the best place for EBM but these are meant to be frequently used & restocked, so, to me, it's okay for them to be there.


A lesson learned here: Don't be so particular about wanting to have equal amount of EBM in each container when you want to freeze them as EBM stock.  As you can see, the amount that you need varies depending on the baby consumption and mama production of the day.  Thanks for reading :)