Crying over spilt milk
I don't like to waste things, and when it comes to my breastmilk, I admit that I take it personally.
Because we were away, and then I was sick, the fridge isn't currently crammed full with bottles of breastmilk. The freezer, however, still is, and so we've been thawing out frozen milk for Jakob's nighttime bottle.
Well, I just got a bag out of the deep freeze and put it in warm water in a 1L measuring cup. It takes just a few minutes to safely thaw out the milk this way. This time, though, the water began to look cloudy. I went over, plucked out the bag of milk, and milk streamed out a bottom corner. The bag obviously was fine when it went into the freezer (or else the milk would have leaked all over the freezer), so somehow it must have been nicked once frozen. In any case, the whole bag had to be dumped, because if milk could get out of the bag, then water could have gotten in. And that would have diluted the milk. And that's not accceptable.
I was so frustrated to dump those 90 mls. It isn't as though that was the last of the reserves; far from it. But it just seemed like such a needless waste. All because of a nick in the bag.
And then there's the new bottle warmer. Well, the problem isn't the warmer, it's the discs that fit in the bottles that help keep them from leaking. (Actually, they only reduce the leaking to a manageable amount; they don't prevent it by any stretch.) It's also the fault of the nifty valve system the bottle has, which helps reduce the amount of air Jakob swallows while suckling. In any case, when the bottle gets warm and the disc is in place, milk leaks out. And with the bottle warmer (rather than just a container of warm water), the loss is greater still.
I'm a milker. There's certainly no shortage of milk. But, yet, I find myself feeling frustrated when these things happen. Somehow, it feels personal.
Petty, isn't it?
Because we were away, and then I was sick, the fridge isn't currently crammed full with bottles of breastmilk. The freezer, however, still is, and so we've been thawing out frozen milk for Jakob's nighttime bottle.
Well, I just got a bag out of the deep freeze and put it in warm water in a 1L measuring cup. It takes just a few minutes to safely thaw out the milk this way. This time, though, the water began to look cloudy. I went over, plucked out the bag of milk, and milk streamed out a bottom corner. The bag obviously was fine when it went into the freezer (or else the milk would have leaked all over the freezer), so somehow it must have been nicked once frozen. In any case, the whole bag had to be dumped, because if milk could get out of the bag, then water could have gotten in. And that would have diluted the milk. And that's not accceptable.
I was so frustrated to dump those 90 mls. It isn't as though that was the last of the reserves; far from it. But it just seemed like such a needless waste. All because of a nick in the bag.
And then there's the new bottle warmer. Well, the problem isn't the warmer, it's the discs that fit in the bottles that help keep them from leaking. (Actually, they only reduce the leaking to a manageable amount; they don't prevent it by any stretch.) It's also the fault of the nifty valve system the bottle has, which helps reduce the amount of air Jakob swallows while suckling. In any case, when the bottle gets warm and the disc is in place, milk leaks out. And with the bottle warmer (rather than just a container of warm water), the loss is greater still.
I'm a milker. There's certainly no shortage of milk. But, yet, I find myself feeling frustrated when these things happen. Somehow, it feels personal.
Petty, isn't it?
posted by Melanie A at 8:28 p.m.
1 Comments:
In the hospital, the day after J was born, I painstakingly pumped about 15 mL of colostrum to syringe feed to him . . . and then knocked it over onto the floor.
Oh, boy, did I cry over that spilt milk!
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