Wordless Wednesday – Crying Over Spilled Milk

crying over spilled milk
crying over spilled milk, originally uploaded by sam&bex.

Today I was finally strong enough to rid the freezer of 58 ounces of liquid gold. With the average freezer shelf life (not a deep freeze) for breastmilk being 2-3 months, this stuff from March and April was not even usable. Beckett refused the bottle until he was almost six months old, so my stash of milk I had pumped in the first six weeks of oversupply just sat.

But there’s an attachment that only another nursing mother can understand and I could never bring myself to throw it out until now. I needed the shelf space for the next stage of food, and in essence, stage of life. Next on the list: bury the placenta.

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21 Responses to “Wordless Wednesday – Crying Over Spilled Milk”


  1. Katie

    I understand…nice stash of bm, btw! It must have been hard chucking that…

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  2. Jaclyn

    That makes me so sad to see. It reminds me of the few times where we come home from a weekend up north or a normal outing with a full 5oz bottle of milk in the diaper bag. Then I’ll ask D hours later when I think of it if he put the milk in the ‘fridge like I asked and when I find the bottle spoiled in the diaper bag I get super upset. And that is only over 5oz! I can’t imagine having to throw away that much milk. :[

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  3. Jenn

    Wow…look at all that milk! It would break my heart to throw it all out, knowing how hard you worked to get it!

    My friend has 2 placentas in her freezer – one from her 1 and a half year old, and one from her 5 year old! She keeps them in there mostly due to a lack of a spot to bury them…as well as for the shock value I think!

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  4. MomSmoo

    Oh sweetie — I am so sorry!! We actually bought a deep freezer to specifically store milk and are just NOW getting through the April stuff. Amazing — when you are prepared, you don’t need it. If you aren’t prepared, you will be screwed!

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  5. Melban

    I’m sorry babe I know how hard you worked to get your stash stocked up. I also know how brutal it was emotionally to get also.

    One day we’ll bury the placenta :)

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  6. Lara

    Ack! I totally feel your pain. It would make me want to cry to throw all that out too!

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  7. Shannon

    As a mother of 4 I remember when I finally realized that all that frozen breastmilk was never going to be used. Soo sad!

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  8. MomOf3

    I totally understand! Breast milk is liquid gold when our babies are so little.

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  9. Amanda

    I can relate! I recently had to toss around 50 oz. that were left in our freezer as well. I waited until it was well past expired because it was so sad to see it go down the drain!

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  10. Debbie

    I totally understand. That’s alot to have to throw away

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  11. jayna

    Oh boy, do I understand. I’m about to tackle that emotional feat soon. I don’t have room for anything else in the freezer anymore. I have nearly 600 oz from the past few months and E is never going to drink it before it expires – she never leaves my side. I’m hoping it’s not too late to maybe donate or something.

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  12. Alicia

    Jayna — WOW, 600oz!! How in the world did you find time to pump that much? I am amazed! I bet you could donate it. I would have but the place I talked to said I had to have at least 100 ounces.

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  13. Tiany

    I can relate! My first born had trouble nursing so I pumped for 3 mos, I tried giving the milk away to our local milk bank but they didn’t need it either. Liquid gold is right! :-)

    Happy WW

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  14. Rhen (yestheyareallmine)

    That would kill me too. I had a lot saved up after having Short Man (that he didn’t drink) but we were blessed that it did not have to go to waste.

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  15. Dr. J

    Hi!

    I was just looking through your photos and I wanted to ask how cloth diapering works and is it a hassle to switch? I’ve been thinking about it but I don’t know anything about it so…

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  16. JoDee

    Aww, I understand mama!! I can’t imagine throwing all that away! I haven’t even frozen any this time around–i threw soo much away w/ Ashlee (she refused the bottle as well!), that I learned my lesson. McKenna still won’t take a bottle, and my supply sucks this time round–so no extra milk!

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  17. Amanda

    I feel for you, my daughter wouldn’t take a bottle until she was 6 months old so I tried to save BM but it would have to be tossed too. HUGS!! I agree, it is ahrd to throw something away that you worked so ahrd at getting

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  18. Miss Organization

    GULP! That would be so very hard to toss that out. SNIFF! SNIFF!!

    BTW….lovin’ the new graphic!

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  19. Jennifer

    wow. I am just in awe that you were EVER able to pump and produce that much milk. I had a less-than-successful bfing experience this first go-around (I’m hoping to have better luck next time!) and my best pumping session ever was like, 3 ounces I think. And that took me over half an hour to get. I could only have dreamed about having that much in my freezer!!! So I can totally understand how hard it would be to just throw it away- every drop for me was precious!

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  20. Deb - Mom of 3 Girls

    Oh my, that would make me sad too, to have to throw all of that away – it’s hard enough to pump so much! Happy (late) WW! :)

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  21. Krista

    OMg.. i hate to see BM thrown out!!! But.. Yay that you didn’t need it!

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