Thursday, June 4, 2009

Milk Wars



Doug - Point

The photo above is a look at the breast milk stockpile that Sandy has insisted we build up in case of some kind of national emergency or something. I think Sandy is worried that all of a sudden we will discover we actually have triplets and will start running a deficit. Please understand that, at current manufacturing capacity, there is no danger of running a deficit anytime soon. In short, Sandy is, shall we say, very productive. Usually she feeds both babies five or six times a day (it's an impressive operation) and then she also usually pumps an additional 10 to 15 ounces in the morning. This all gets frozen. Now on occasion we may go through 6 to 8 ounces of our stock every three days or so for whatever reason (i.e. late night feedings where I don't want to wake her), but never can I think of a time when we have actually used 15 ounces of pumped milk in a day. And of course on the occasions we have to bottle feed, Sandy's boobs don't know it, so they keep producing. And, you guessed it, she has to just pump an extra time, usually another 10 ounces.

So do the math, and you will see what is happening. In short, very soon now we will have to either give up on having any frozen food in the house or we'll need to get a commercial freezer for the garage. We have milk dating back to early April. I have tried to get her to just get rid of some of it, but you would think I asked her to just get rid of one of the babies. It's truly bizarre, this whole breast feeding thing.

Sandy - Counterpoint

Okay, first off, let me correct something--I am not insisting that we build up this stockpile, it just happens. I have to take care of business from a comfort standpoint, and the result is the lovely picture above. And yes, the entire top of the freezer is now devoted to "my stash." While things are good right now, I do have those thoughts of "What if it all stops? And Doug THREW AWAY the yummy goodness the girls could be eating?!?" Now, I realize this argument has overtones of "There's starving people in Africa, so eat your green beans," but it just seems wrong to get rid of something that for some women is very hard to make.

In addition, I have not been secret about the fact that I would like to have a whole separate freezer (we had one growing up--maybe it's a Gilpin thing, I'm not sure). Not only would it be good for all this milk, but once we buy our quarter grass-fed cow from James Ranch (or some other local ranch) we will have a good place to store him (or her I suppose). Building up this milk supply might help tip things in my favor--I see a scouting trip to Home Depot in our near future.

But the biggest reason I don't want to get rid of the milk is that I'm in training for the Milk Olympics and I'm going to win!

7 comments:

Freiburger Family said...

I feel your pain, Doug, but this is a losing battle. Mom's always win the battle in caring for the children because they had to carry them for 9 months and we just had the easy part. Best bet is to buy a small freezer. As they get older, you will buy more frozen food for the family. It's an investment in the future.

Heather Marie said...

Won't be long and you'll be able to use that milk for making cereal and other tasty treats. Then there's always milk ice cubes for when the girls are teething. And maybe Sandy just needs to start having a few glasses of wine with dinner then maybe you'd start working through that stockpile!

Sandy and Doug said...

I hadn't thought about the last part Heather. Maybe she's just planning a big bender.

Molly said...

So i took the liberty of looking on craigslist for you, and found this (http://denver.craigslist.org/zip/1208502306.htm) lovely freezer...for free!!!!
Now the question is, can the half a cow hang out with breast milk, or is that taboo?

Rachel said...

dear god Doug! throw out breast milk?! are you insane? ;)

if it makes you feel any better, i had a similar stockpile that ended up being depleted within a week because i had mastitis, so you just never know when you might need that much.

Scott said...

"just get rid of it"

You know you can donate this right? Check out http://www.milkinmamas.com/ (and let me know if the picture on the homepage caught you as off guard as it caught me)

And I agree w/ Rachel - this stuff will be depleted in a hurry - 20oz / day * 2 babies * 7 days = 280 ozs, which is roughly a case of beer.

Jen's Page said...

I have to agree with Rachel. You never know. AND as an added bonus Molly found a free freezer for you. Excuse my pun, Suck it up Doug.