upstairs mini fridge for nursing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, at least, I just nurse at night (I generally only pump at work) because it is way faster to nurse at night than to pump and feed. I wouldn't have ended up using it. But everyone is different.

I'm one of the PPs--I have an oversupply and need to express a little bit at night, and don't want to toss the milk.

Interesting. I had oversupply and my lactation consultant told me to avoid too much pumping because it would make it worse. The oversupply resolved itself by two months for me. But again, everyone is different.

I do think it's impossible to know what your nursing/feeding is going to look like before the kid is born, unfortunately. So re:OP's fear of never using it - I d ij n't know if anyone can really answer that.

[Anonymous]

I also had an oversupply and was told not to pump excessively. I only pumped at work so I wouldn't have used the fridge. I would wait and assess your needs before investing.

[Anonymous]

I'd just wait and see how things go first. A cooler would work too. I'd use a lunch bag with a freezer pack in it. It was my DH's job in the morning to take that downstairs and put the milk in the fridge.

[Anonymous]

i only ever fed one side at a time, and when the baby started sleeping more, i would feed one side, pump the other, and then walk that milk down the stairs and take hours to fall back asleep. in hindsight, i should have gotten a mini fridge. our room was just too tiny for it.

you could also just use a cooler, and get some cooler shocks to go with it, and place it on top. the cooler shocks work crazy well.

[Anonymous]

Breast milk is stable for at least 10 hrs (some will say 12+ hrs). And that includes the residual milk left in pump parts. It really isnt a big deal.
You'll have a ton of baby gear soon enough anyway. No need to go over board with a mini refrig .

[Anonymous]

I kept a cooler next to my bed for the 6 weeks or so I was in the thick of it with pumping and feeding. Once I had a routine I didn’t need it anymore.

If you aren’t exclusively pumping, I don’t think you’ll need it. BM is amazingly stable. I would pump when I woke up and just leave the milk on the bedside table for my husband to feed the baby when he woke up - I would go to work early in the morning.
If I needed my husband to do a 12am feeding so I could sleep 10pm -3am, I’d pump just before bed and leave the bottle out for him to use in 2-3 hrs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I kept a cooler next to my bed for the 6 weeks or so I was in the thick of it with pumping and feeding. Once I had a routine I didn’t need it anymore.

If you aren’t exclusively pumping, I don’t think you’ll need it. BM is amazingly stable. I would pump when I woke up and just leave the milk on the bedside table for my husband to feed the baby when he woke up - I would go to work early in the morning.
If I needed my husband to do a 12am feeding so I could sleep 10pm -3am, I’d pump just before bed and leave the bottle out for him to use in 2-3 hrs.

Piling onto my own comment - the #1 thing for me was having an armsreach cosleeper instead of a pack and play. Life changing. Not putting my feet on the floor seemed to help me go back to sleep faster. I had a dim nightlight and a study pillow with arm rests and I just nursed in bed, put the baby back down and went back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all the replies. Seems like a bunch of ppl got use of it. The thing is we dont own a cooler either so both would be a purchase and I suspect DH wold love to move it into upstairs TV room once its lived its usefulness. HAHA

[Anonymous]

A better thing to get is a deep freezer to store all your breast milk. With the normal food in your freezer attached to the fridge, you will run out of room very quickly. My wife is only 8 weeks into breast feeding and we easily have a one month supply of breast milk in our storage freezer. All that excess milk takes up A LOT of space.

[Anonymous]

I did the mini fridge. It worked well for my needs.