This is not the story of my new Whirlpool Duet washer, which doesn't get my clothes clean and gets unbalanced even with tiny loads and which drives me totally batty with, um, strong dislike.
This is the story of the night I opened the freezer right before going to bed to discover that all the ice in the ice cube trays had melted completely. And all the food was completely thawed. Like completely thawed. Which, of course, immediately made me start screaming "noooooooo! not the miiiiiiiiiiiiiilk!" and sobbing and wailing hysterically. I don't think I've cried that hard since high school.
You see, I had about 150 ounces of breastmilk in that freezer. (This, by the way, was on top of the box of milk that I donated to one of my midwife's clients who wasn't making enough milk and didn't want to supplement with formula) I always use those first few weeks of breastfeeding, when I have too much milk, to stockpile my freezer. When I go back to working in the office this summer, it will relieve some stress if I don't always have to make sure to pump as much as Henry eats. When Amelia was a month old, I needed surgery and my freezer stash saved me when I had to pump and dump for 24 hours after anesthesia.
After I cried to the point of throwing up (seriously, it was insane) I went back to the freezer and discovered that all was not lost. And this is actually why I wanted to blog about this... several weeks ago, I bought these.
I had toyed with buying them before, but they seemed kind of expensive. After I bought them, I was so happy - my freezer was so neat, it was easy to organize the milk from oldest to newest. And it was easy to freeze the milk flat in the little drawer thingy. (They also hold my favorite - Lansinoh - storage bags perfectly) But best of all - those boxes saved some of my milk!! I still had to throw out about 50 ounces, which killed me. The milk at the front and back of each box was thawed, but all the milk in the middle was still frozen solid! You have to understand everything else in my freezer was completely thawed! The boxes must have retained some of the cold (which means they also protect your milk from the temperature fluctuations of opening and closing your freezer door) and then having the frozen milk packed tightly together must also have kept it cold enough.
So, if anyone out there has any breast milk in their freezer - buy one of those storage containers!
It was about midnight by this point, by the way. My mother owns the house next to ours and rents it out, and as it turned out, it was empty that night (the new renters moved in the next day!) so I took the milk over there and stuck it in the freezer until the morning - when thankfully a repairman was able to fix our refrigerator for $181. WAY better than a new fridge! The starter on the something or other burned out. I have no idea, and I really don't care ha!
Oh man, it was scary, though. Someone who has never hooked a mechanical suction device to their breasts will have no idea what I'm talking about. Lucky them.
5 comments:
Oh no! I completely understand your pain! I had to pump for the first week after each of my children were born while they were in the NICU. I remember one day I accidentally tipped over the container I had JUST pumped and I cried. Another time, A refused to eat the milk that was already thawed from a bottle while my hubby was watching him and I just couldn't bring myself to dump it out. I asked hubby to do it for me, but he was like, "Why?" completely not understanding how much work and effort goes into pumping that one bottle of milk. Glad your fridge is fixed now!
Oh no, I would have been devasted as well! All those hours of WORK in making the milk and then being hooked up like a heifer was wasted. You poor thing! At least all was not lost.
I have accidentally left the door of our freezer out in the garage open a few times. Nothing like losing several hundred dollars worth of food. :(
I am sorry, that is so sad (though I can't believe you cried to the point of throwing up--but I've never had frozen milk). I love all the new pictures, I've missed so much over the missing month.
I hope you guys are having so much fun before you head back to work.
I know what you mean, I called it "LIQUID GOLD". Enabling me to be away from the baby for a couple of hours. I know exactly why you were upset.
I thought I heard that scream! Isn't it funny how that stuff is gold?
I have refrozen milk before...but it was still very cold. Too late for that now anyways.
Glad you were able to save some.
(I have a funny story...with a reaction just like yours...about disappearing breast milk. It involved older siblings who thought it was "just milk".)
Post a Comment