MilkShare

I had a problem a few weeks ago... My freezer was full. Before I had Carson, it was packed full of meals - yummy meals that we ate up while I was home on maternity leave. Then slowly I realized my freezer wasn't getting any emptier because as I took out meals, I added bags and bags of frozen milk. Carson was taking nowhere near as much milk as I was pumping and by the time he was 4 months old, I had a freezer full of milk... sitting... unused. At the high point, I was adding about 50 ounces a week (in addition to what he was drinking during daycare). I wanted my freezer back, but I didn't want to stop pumping because I want my supply to stay up... so, I looked into my options.

• Rotate fresh/frozen... could do, but costs a lot buying lots of new bags for freezing.


• Toss it... No, not even a viable option.


• Donate it... Bingo!

I had heard of milkshare but never used it before. It's a free website forum where you can post ads saying you either want to get milk, or that you are offering milk. I put up a post in the NY section and for a couple weeks didn't get any responses. Then I got a message. A message from a mama to (then) 7 week old Declan. They live in California. They were traveling to NY for a family vacation... and she wanted to meet up. After a few emails and a couple phone calls we'd arranged a meet up at our house. After a 4 hour (one way) drive, they arrived and I packed her cooler bags full, and then grabbed one of my cooler bags and packed that full for her too. I wish I'd taken pictures of how much I sent - it was a lot! She later said it was enough standing all the bags up to fill the door of an upright freezer.

I felt so good giving my milk to a baby who would really benefit from it! I did have some initial feelings of "oh my, what did I just do!?!" as I drove back to work - thinking some awful thoughts like if I were to die while Carson is still breastfeeding, that Richie would have to give him formula since "the stash" is gone... but those thoughts were fleeting and now I feel so good about what I was able to do!

I later asked the mama if she could take a quick tally of about how much milk I'd sent her... ~600 ounces. Wow. Rough guess was that this amount would last Declan about a month.

I'm back up to 210 ounces in the freezer now (just a few weeks later) - but I'm not sure I'll be able to donate anymore - Carson is taking more now at daycare, and my supply isn't as much as it once was. Still plenty for one baby, but maybe not enough for 2 anymore. ...we'll see though!