Wednesday, April 09, 2008

drop dead milk stash

A little glimpse into the dark recesses of my mind for you… I’m morbid I guess.  My husband thinks so.  I told him this little story the other day and he looked at me like I had completely gone off the deep end.  Maybe I have.

 

As of yesterday, I have 792 ounces of my milk in my freezer.  Sounds like a lot doesn’t it?  It looks like a lot – a full size freezer is half full of frozen milk. 

 

But not when you think of it this way:  My babies get an average of 25 – 30 ounces of milk per day – between bottles with the nanny, and nursing with me.  So that’s 50 – 60 ounces of milk per day consumed for 2 babies.

 

Divide that into 792.  You get 13 – 15.

 

So this is where it gets morbid.  Because here’s how I think of my milk stash…

 

How many days of my milk would be left for my babies if I dropped dead? (hit by a bus, asteroid, struck by lightning, kidnapped by pirates, etc.)  Only 13 – 15 days.  Not very long.  And they are only 6 months old.  I want them to have my milk for a year.  So I must keep pumping.

 

Am I sick? 

4 comments:

Jaimie said...

It may be morbid, but I remember thinking that too. If something happened to me right now then Mike would have X number of days of milk to get things figured out. I used to have about a months worth. Now it has dwindled and I don't feel at all good about it. I have 41 bags at home and then some at daycare and at my in laws. I had to take steroids for two weeks and my milk all but dried up! It has taken two months but I am close to where I was as far as production. Problem is Jake usually goes through 4 bags a day at daycare and I am pumping 3-3.5 so eventually... It is a good thing he is eating more food.

Helen said...

I do something similar - I MUST have x number of containers of formula in the house, in case something bad happens. I don't know what that "bad" thing is, I just know I have to be prepared.

Anonymous said...

Once I had my second child in October, I started pumping like mad by week 3 or 4. All I could think of was the first week in May when I would have to attend my company's sales meeting. In December, I put 70 4-5 oz. bags into the deep freezer in a plastic shopping bag (two actually). That made me feel better. I still pump more than he eats in a day, but I just figure that that is the reserve for a rainy (or dry...) day.

Ms. Perky said...

I used to think the same way. BUT... your babies will start drinking less milk per day as they start to take more solids. That's what I keep telling myself about the triplets. Except that I'm too much of a chicken to push solids, so um, it's a vicious cycle. Yeah. I suck.