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Crying over spilled milk

By sciencewoman on August 1, 2008.

Tonight marked another motherhood rite of passage. I'd been dreading this one, but it was truly time for it to happen.

I threw out the remainder of the breast milk in the freezer. It had been there five months and three weeks - dating to the period when Minnow had transitioned to the toddler room and I was trying to decrease my milk production enough to stop pumping during the work day. Shortly after that time, Minnow began refusing pumped breast milk at all, so all that lovely milk just sat in the freezer until it reached its expiration date. So I took the bottles out of the freezer and thawed them in the sink. Then, I tossed the bisphenol-A-laden, non-recyclable Dr. Brown's bottles, recycled the bisphenol-A laden Evenflo bottles, and cleaned and stored the bisphenol-free Medela bottles. Having disposed of 2/3 of my bottle collection, it's not a very big box, but maybe someday it will be useful for somebody. (It's probably time I brought my electric pump home from work too.)

Even though the nursing is still going strong, disposing of that frozen store of nutritional breast milk goodness still made me feel like I was losing some of "officially a mom" credentials.

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motherhood
SciWo says...

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It's too late this time, but just in case there's a next time... There is an online e-mail list called Milkshare (http://milkshare.birthingforlife.com/), where you can connect with moms who are looking for donated milk.

(And it's time my electric pump comes home, too -- it's been months since I used it, since my little guy has been anti-bottle since 11 months.)

I can't figure out what to do with my electric pump. (There are parts that can't be cleaned, and I'm not supposed to give it to another woman. Who designed that, anyway? I've given all my other maternity/newborn stuff away, from maternity clothes to strollers.)

I used the milk in rice cereal until it was gone.

Maybe not "officially a mom," but you might have lost the "officially a new mom" credentials. You're now an experienced mom.

I agree with makita, kids grow up and so do parents.

Kim - I gave my PIS to another woman, even though you're not supposed to. She knew the 'risks', etc. but trusted my medical history to take the pump. I also couldn't just let it sit there....