Husb and I made a decision to breastfeed exclusively moving forward at 4 months. No pumps (even though I have one), no frozen milk, no formula, no solids (till she’s one). It’s been a constant battle.
The mini battle that has ensued as a result of this is a freezer turf war. I pumped actively before or after each feed to maintain supply. Baby often didn’t finish the boob/s. All that milk went into my Lansinoh bags, labelled clearly with an indelible black marker and then frozen flat on ice packs in the freezer drawer. Mum assigned that drawer to me for this purpose and the placenta was also tucked deep inside to evade detection.
At 6 months -when most books, leaflets and doctors recommend that babies start solids-mum learned that I was absolutely serious that baby wasn’t going to start solids until she had most of her teeth. That was approximately the time when she started on my case.
“What are you going to do with the milk in the freezer?” She asked nonchalantly the first time.
My reply: it’s for emergencies, in the event that baby can’t be with me at least she has the frozen milk as the next best thing.
Another month later, there’s the reminder like clockwork only in a more whiny, insistent tone. “Are you going to throw away the milk? It’s taking up so much space…”
I put on my most relaxed frown and said “I’ll clear it soon”.
When mum left for London for a week, I took the opportunity to remove the placenta from the drawer to provide some space to open it a little easier.
She hadn’t had a chance to ask me again as we had a few busy months of travel and various activities.
It was today when she asked me again that I decided to acquiesce. She asked me very nicely, saying that she needed the drawer to store other things and that she couldn’t pull out the drawer due to the condensation that had created an unintentional glacier.
Mothership 