This post links back to one of my best buy posts about the Haakaa manual breast pump. This is for those of you who want to increase your store of breastmilk to keep the freezer for a later date.
Why might you want to increase your store?
- for when you want to go out for a few hours and leave your baby with someone else
- if you are planning a big night out and want to have a few glasses of wine and not worry
- if you want someone else to be able to give the dreamfeed or another feed on a regular basis to give you a break (and it’s a bit stressful feeling like you HAVE to get a certain amount of milk in a pumping session)
These are the handy hacks that helped my up my store….
- during the first feed of the day use the Haakaa manual breast pump on the side that baby is not feeding on (it’s virtually hands-free and you can just ‘suction it on’) – this is when your supply is at it’s best so take advantage of it
- eat flapjacks… oats are supposed to be good for your supply, and it’s a good excuse to treat yourself
- drink tons of water
- have a good meal in the evening and pump after dinner when you are well fed and relaxed – one side with an electric pump like the Medela Swing and the other side with the Haakaa (both are more efficient when you do them at the same time)
Storage
In terms of what I actually stored the milk in, I found the pre sterilised bags were great but pumping every day I was getting through so many so I used a variety of methods:
- Medela Storage bags – if I had more than 100ml to store and freeze
- Medela bottle – this attaches straight onto the Medela pump – if I was using the milk straight away e.g. that evening for the dream feed
- Large silicone baby food storage tray – with each section holding c. 75ml this was perfect for freezer smaller amounts of milk and then transferring into a sterilised airtight bag once the tray was full – this tray was also invaluable when it came to weaning!
Knowing I had a bit of a store built up in the freezer really took the pressure of the evening pumping sessions as I knew I didn’t have to pump a whole feed each night if I was tired and my supply was lower than usual.
Good luck pumping – let me know if you have any questions.
Some of the links in the above post may be ‘affiliate links’. This means that if you click on the link and purchase the item I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers.
