Pranitha was fortunate to overproduce breast milk during the first few months of postpartum, resulting in a growing reserve in our freezer:
A tray of our breast milk stash, representing about a third.
The stash did a few things. It helped distribute the load of feeding to adults beyond mom, gave us mental security for a rainy day, and even helped out a couple new friend moms in their first weeks.
That rainy day came when Pranitha went on a work trip to LA in November for a few days. We hadn’t started formula and didn’t yet want to. Visually the stash was loaded — all time highs. Three trays of ten bags each would easily hold us over till she got back. Oops. We wiped out the entire thing in one go. Each bag was 1-4oz, but by this point his daily intake was roughly 30oz, meaning each feed would drain three to four bags. Months of effort collecting “gone” in a poof.
Stash math refers to the ever changing dynamic between mom’s production and baby’s appetite. At least we had a stash to begin with. It was nice while it lasted.