Ok mamas, I need your help. I am officially out of freezer space and I need to start rotating my milk. I'm used to feeding fresh and flash freezing the rest daily, but I literally have nowhere to put anymore milk. I figure if I rotate, I can have 1 brick out so I can replace it with another one (but truthfully, 1 brick has enough milk for 2 days and I am currently pumping enough for 1 brick per day, if I dont feed fresh). I'm not ready to pump less yet (I pump 7 times a day and while it is exhausting, I am scared dropping to 6 pumps will tank my supply).
So, how do you rotate your milk? Do you give frozen milk only and freeze what you pump in a day? Do you do half fresh, half frozen? Do you not do any frozen?
If you have dropped down to less than 7 pumps (I'm 4 months pp tomorrow) did you notice a significant decrease in your supply? I know this is very person dependant so I'm just kind of seeing what the general consensus is. I don't want to drop pumps just yet, but I need to figure out the best way to rotate/have space for my milk. I have a second freezer, but I'd have to have a huge BBQ to make space for milk hahaha.
So, you can rotate doing a bag a day is the easiest in my opinion and guarantees very little to no waste. If you take out a day and baby drinks less then you have very little time to feed it as thawed milk is good for 24 hours after last ice crystal melts. I would just do a bag a day and replace with any fresh milk. You want fresh milk because it’s age appropriate so do not give days of frozen milk if you don’t have to.
You still have a space issue regardless of rotation as you will be adding more than baby takes in so another freezer purchase is inevitable unless you drop pumps and you still may make more so if you are not ready to drop pumps then I would buy another freezer.
You can buy another freezer if you are not ready to drop pumps. You can buy a bigger freezer and sell your old one or buy two and keep both and resell after your journey is over.
You can also donate milk if you do not want to buy another feeezer.
Although I love chest freezer (horizontal) to save space you can do vertical. Definitely make sure you have temperature sensor too!
Here are a few options that are upright. There may be more economical options other places.
https://amzn.to/3LQbNOC
https://amzn.to/4ccvVVV