I never thought I’d be an exclusively pumping mama. When my first was born, I HATED the thought of pumping the mere *1* time a day I pumped, just so I could have a bottle of milk for my husband to feed. The feeling of the pump, the sound of the pump, I found it anxiety inducing and uncomfortable.
Then came my 2nd child. The day she was born we found out that due to health reasons, she was physically unable to nurse. It took me about 10 months to morn over the loss of nursing relationship I imagined I’d have with her, and it took tons and tons of willpower and motivation to get me to pump what felt like all day, everyday, for 1 year. LUCKILY the 2nd time around, I had more milk than she needed at times. That frozen stash was then able to get me to a year of pumping and breastmilk for my baby.
Since breastmilk really is liquid gold, I needed a way to organize it so I was using the oldest first. From my previous daughter, I had learned that the more reliable and strongest breastmilk storage bags were these Lansinoh Breastmilk Storage Bags
You buy a deep freezer! We purchased a deep freezer and kept it in the laundry room. I went to the dollar store and purchased about a dozen gift bags (these bags are cheaper than the dollar stores!). I then went through all of the milk bags (wearing a pot holder because it was just too cold after awhile!), and organized them by month. Then I started filling the bags with the oldest date of the month first. I used the gift tag that the bag came with and wrote down the beginning and end date of the bags inside the gift bag. I used this system for the rest of our pumping journey and it helped keep me sooo organized, insuring that not even a drop of milk went to waste!
