The Trixie Update

Or Bottle Wrap (Part 2)

If the accumulation of sterile, empty plastic in our cabinets marked the expansion of a once dominant civilization, then our freezer was littered with a poignant reminder of its passing, embodied in fist-sized chunks of frozen milk.

The whole time that Jenn was pumping and I was managing the milk, there was one issue that we didn’t like to talk about that much. It was a cold, dark secret that guarded against ominous uncertainties. There should always be enough fresh milk in the fridge thanks to Jenn’s dedication. But if something happened that interrupted the milk line, the extra in the freezer was designed to give us a temporary backup supply or even enough to facilitate a gradual transition to formula.

We were lucky and there never was a milk emergency. We kept good track of how much milk we needed, tried to minimize the waste and Jenn was always able to pump enough. We had good reason to try to make it work. Fresh refrigerated milk is nutritionally better than frozen. The freezing process is destructive, and even though the cold slows the decaying process, the milk’s proteins and enzyemes continue to break down as the months go by.

Nonetheless, whenever the milk line was full, but Jenn still needed to pump a little, we added a bag to the freezer just in case. Over the course of the last six months that Jenn pumped, we deposited 17 bags into frozen storage.

I was never attached to these little frozen bags. But for Jenn, I think it was a little different. She obviously didn’t want us to be forced into the emergency supply by unknown circumstances. But she also hated to think about the milk lying dormant in hibernation, eventually reaching its life expectancy and becoming unusable. (Just for the record, she’s more than happy to pitch them now.)

In a standard refrigerator freezer, breast milk doesn’t last more than about four months. It’s just not cold enough. This is where we truly reach the end of the milk cycle. It doesn’t end with a bang, but a cold, silent stillness that steadily envelopes the darkness in a deep frozen catacomb. Now, let’s see if the neighbor’s cat is around.

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Or Bottle Wrap (Part 1)

That’s right. I finally got around to the long-promised bottle wrap-up. (Only took 5 months.) In the process I’ve discovered it’s a bad idea to procrastinate this sort of thing because you tend to forget a lot. When Trixie was on the bottle I could have told you her average daily intake to the quarter ounce. Now I can barely remember when she drank from a bottle at all. I also have no recollection of Jenn ever being pregnant, but she assures me she was. Of course, this site helps a little bit with the details.

To be honest, this would never even have been written if we hadn’t been cleaning house recently. I was trying to find some extra space for dishes in the cabinet and started pulling out bottles. And more bottles. And more. It was hard to believe how much crap was stuffed in there. I had so completely blocked out the whole pumping/feeding/cleaning ordeal that I felt like I was seeing this stuff for the first time. And it was terrifying.

Many of the plastic artifacts pulled from the cabinet were strangely familiar. My hand remembered how to hold them, even though I couldn’t remember why or what they did. Some were labeled with alien and difficult to pronounce words like “VEN-TAI-RE” and “EV-ENF-LO”. But slowly I realized what it was. I was holding a feeding bottle. Trixie didn’t used to eat solid food at all.

It all came back. The pumping, the milk line, the cow’s milk transition, the bottle weaning, and of course, Bottle Telemetry. It was a long time ago, but now I remembered it clearly.

Initially, the main function of Bottle Telemetry was to help me gauge if Trixie was drinking enough milk. We moved past that point early on, but it was still helpful in managing the milk cycle. As Trixie got older and ate more reliably, Bottle Telemetry became more a measure of Jenn’s marathon pumping prowess and less about Trixie’s daily diet. I’m not going to rehash all the numbers again. The charts from ‘We’re All Mammals‘ [June 27, 2004] still stand.

When Trixie was 11 1/2 months old, she didn’t know it yet, but the pumping party was almost over. It was then that we first introduced cow’s milk. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we worked our way up from a 1:5 ratio to a 50/50 mix. When she turned one, we started weaning her from the bottle. Shortly after that (specifically August 8th, 2004) I discontinued Bottle Telemetry. It just didn’t really serve a useful purpose anymore.

The bottle to sippy cup transition went fairly smoothly. My approach was to introduce the cup when Trixie’s resistance was low. I would give her one first thing in the morning when she was still sleepy, agreeable and extremely thirsty. This worked well, but once she was awake she wanted a bottle. Too bad for her I knew she was perfectly capable of using the cup. Shifting her completely over took a couple of weeks and a lot of patience.

She was completely off the wagon — I mean, on the wagon — I mean, through with the bottle — at around 13 months. It could have been sooner, but she caught a cold and we were concerned about her fluid intake.

We crammed all the bottle and pumping related paraphernalia up in the cabinet and swore to never lay eyes upon it again. Until now. Seeing all this stuff makes me want to cry because most of the time I was responsible for cleaning it. It makes Jenn want to cry too, but for different reasons.

There’s more to this than just a giant pile of empty plastic that represented one of the most arduous periods of our life. How about the stuff that used to go in it?

Coming Tomorrow, Part 2: Do Milksicles Dream of Frozen Sheep?

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As we approach the one year mark, it seems like a good time to look back over Trixie’s milk history. Our initial goal was to feed her breast milk until 6 months, then to get through winter, then 9 months and finally we pushed the quit date back to 12 months. From our perspective it couldn’t come a minute too soon.

First, I want to say that as much as we’ve both come to hate breast-pumping and all the work it entails, we’re glad we did it for Trixie’s sake. That having been said, breast pumping sucks.

I still find the whole thing a little mind-boggling. We live in cities, drive around in cars, surf the internet, and talk on cell phones, but beneath it all, we’re still mammals. Nothing drives this point home like being aware of a mother providing sustenance to her baby.

I suspect that some of the information presented here can make people feel a little uncomfortable. I think most guys don’t like to think about women’s breasts in their capacity to produce upwards of two gallons of milk a week. It’s not the sort of thing you want to dwell on when you’re in a bar on Friday night — or ever. (Guys, you might want to stop reading here.) Similarly, I imagine most women who haven’t breastfed, or who are getting ready to have a baby, must be pretty freaked out when told they possess the capacity to supply a baby with hundreds of ounces of milk a week. (Don’t worry — it doesn’t all hit at once.) But lastly, those who have pumped or breastfed might find this data validating. You know how much work it was, you just never had solid numbers to back up your gut feeling. Now you do.

We began collecting bottle-feeding data October 13th 2003, when Trixie was around 12 weeks old. During this time Trixie got the majority of her milk from the bottle. She still nursed a little bit, but we were forced to start using bottles early on because Jenn was back at work at 5 weeks. Since I was the one staying home with Trixie, and since I don’t have boobs, she was going to have to drink Jenn’s pumped milk from a bottle.

Trixie drank about 30 ounces of milk a day for the majority of the period we collected data. 30 ounces a day doesn’t sound like much, but when you start to look at the total amount consumed (and produced) the numbers grow very quickly. Trixie drank hundreds of ounces of milk a week [see below]. Her peak was week 44 at 232 ounces. If 232 ounces is too abstract, think about it this way; it’s about 19 cans of Coke per week. That’s a lot of breast-pumping! And of course, these numbers don’t reveal the full story. They are only a record of what Trixie drank. When we take the left-over milk in the bottle into account, it turns out that in week 27, there was a combined total of 245 ounces. But this number still doesn’t account for milk that may have been put into freezer storage that week or any possible nursing that took place.

I think it’s still easier to look at the milk production/consumption in even broader stroke. In this chart we see how many gallons of milk Trixie was drinking a week.

But what’s the really big picture? Since we started keeping records, and as of 3:40 pm today, Jenn has pumped 8,009 ounces of milk. This is more than 62 gallons. Of these, Trixie drank 6,939 oz or about 54 gallons. All pumping moms out there will be sad to hear that since Oct 12th, 2003, 1,070 ounces of milk have expired in the bottle and had to be poured out.

But that isn’t everything either. In the 12 weeks prior to starting data collection Trixie probably got about 100 oz a week by nursing. Adding an extra 1,200 oz to the 8,009 gives us 9,209. Also there’s probably about 100 oz in the freezer now, and we lost about 100 when the power went out during the hurricane. Finally I have to confess that I’ve poured out milk when too much has built up in the milk line. Maybe another 50 oz, at least… sorry, Jenn.

All and all, I think 9,459 oz is a fair estimate of the milk Jenn has pumped since Trixie was born. This translates to about 74 gallons of milk over the past 10 1/2 months. We also estimate that she spends about 1.75 hours a day pumping which means she’s logged approximately 525 hours making food for Trixie. This is almost 22 straight days of pumping. Put another way, it’s more than thirteen 40-hour work weeks — and that’s on top of a full-time job. For my part I’ve been mostly responsible for washing the 2,880 feeding and storage bottles we’ve used over the past 8 months. I say mostly because despite all work Jenn does, there are times when she has done the bottle-washing for me. As much as I would have liked to, I’ve never been able to return the favor by helping with the pumping.

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We want to thank our readers for making last week’s special milk presentation a success. Site traffic was at a new high — thanks for spreading the word! Special appreciation goes out to ‘Schaff’ and ‘Hannah’ for their witty and impassioned contributions to the comments board. We at TTU hope you enjoyed the series and look forward to bringing more in-depth reporting in the future.

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(Part 4 of a 4 day series)

The inevitable result of collecting milk 3 times a day into 6 or more storage bottles (depending on overflow) plus transferring milk from the storage bottles to 6 feeding bottles is a lot of dirty milk stuff. Our current arsenal consists of 12 VentAire feeding bottles, about 32 miscellaneous storage bottles, 2 sets of pumping equipment for home and 2 for the industrial behemoth at the office.

We didn’t always have this much equipment. In the beginning there was just a single VentAire as we introduced Trixie to the bottle. But washing out that bottle 3-4 times a day got old fast and so we added another half-dozen to the rotation. We also bought an extra set of pump parts so that Jennifer didn’t have to wash them every time she pumped.

Why was washing such an ordeal? Because everything had to be scrubbed — not just dunked in some soapy water — and in some cases sterilized. The pump parts required daily sterilization consisting of boiling for 20 minutes. The bottle nipples and rubber vents are supposed to be sterilized at least once a week. Having extra parts meant we didn’t have to go through this 5 times a day.

Our new acquisitions put us in pretty good shape while Jennifer eased back into work. However, once her hours and the number of feedings increased, I kept running out of bottles. So we added more. And then Jennifer was issued a set of accessories for the pump at work. And I started running out of bottles again. And so forth. It was around this time that we realized we had so much equipment that it made sense to start running the dishwasher.

At first, I threw the bottles straight into the dishwasher with only a cursory rinse. We quickly discovered that they weren’t coming out clean, especially after they had sat on the counter for a day or so. While the dishwasher had sterilized everything, it didn’t do much good since there was still milk grease on the inside of the bottles. We had to backtrack a little and reintroduce some scrubbing, but finally arrived at the current cleaning protocol:

1) Soak everything in hot water.
2) Hit the bottles and pump parts with a quick brush.
3) Load everything into the dishwasher for sterilization.
4) Unload to the racks to finish drying.
5) Repeat in 48 hours

With all the bottles, caps, nipples, vents, bottle brushes, test tube style drying racks, tubing, connectors, diaphragms, and funnels, our kitchen looks like an industrial laboratory.

So finally, after the collection, the transportation, the inventory management, the feedings, and the sterilization we reach the end of the day. It’s late and the house is quiet once again. Like a factory, we shut down for the night and go to sleep (if Trixie will let us), but know that at 6:00 the next morning, the whistle is going to blow and milk cycle is going start all over again.

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(Part 3 of a 4 day series)

If you were to take a peek in the fridge, you might think we had a tiny little cow out back judging by all the miniature bottles of milk carefully lined up inside. But, of course, we keep no livestock at the apartment, and all those cute little bottles are actually the result of Jennifer’s dedicated, hard work. Still, at a glance it looks like our little operation could qualify for small agribusiness subsidies. Well, maybe if we lived in Wisconsin.

The milk inventory is in a constant state of flux. Sometimes Trixie drinks more (or less) than we expect. Sometimes pumping is less frequent on the weekends. Sometimes I drink one by mistake when I’m trying to grab a beer. On average we try to keep 12 bottles in the milk line — enough to feed her for 2 days. The stock rotation is very straightforward; new bottles go the back of the line.

We use a two-tiered system for milk processing. No-frills bottles are used for collection and storage, and fancier “VentAire” bottles designed to reduce spitting up and discomfort are used for feeding. When it’s milk time, we warm a bottle up to room temperature, transfer it to the VentAire, and Bottle Log it. [Click here to see a demo version of the Bottle Log that you can play with!]

Once logged, the bottle is good for 2 hours. We arrived at this length of time through trial and error. Initially, we thought we were playing it safe by retiring bottles at 3 hours. One day, however, Jennifer taste tested some 2+ hour old milk that Trixie wouldn’t touch. I can’t really describe the face she made, but I can see why Trixie wasn’t biting. As poor Jennifer discovered, the milk had spoiled and spoiled bad.

In retrospect, I guess it shouldn’t really have come as much of a surprise. Jennifer milk is whole-fat, vitamin-rich, and unpasteurized. It’s not designed to exist at room temperature at all, and once it’s out of the fridge and warmed up, the bacteria get to work. So now we draw the line at 2 hours. Keeping track of the time is extremely important because if you forget, you either have to throw the bottle out early or resort to a taste test. Both choices are unpalatable, the latter more so. We use The Bottle Log to track the expiration time in addition to the amount of milk Trixie is drinking.

Currently Trixie is drinking between 5-6 bottles a day. There’s a 6am (prepared by Jennifer for me to deliver and then fall back asleep), 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm (optional because Trixie has probably been breast-feeding) and a 10pm (that puts her asleep for a good 5 hours.) From these 5-6 bottles she’s getting an average of 18-19 oz. a day. This is about 70% of the 26 oz. we estimate she needs daily. The rest comes from breastfeeding.

Finally, Trixie has had all she can drink. She’s sleepy, fat and content. End of story, right? Not quite. Come back tomorrow to find out about clean-up in the final part of our series: After the party’s over.

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(Part 2 of a 4 day series)

3 days? 5 days? 10 days? Exactly how long is the milk good in the fridge? How about at room temperature? How about when it’s warmed up? There is no consensus on this topic. Depending on where you look, you can find that the “safe” range for expressed milk varies from 2-8 days in the refrigerator, and from 3-10 hours at room temperature. We choose to err on the conservative side, with the goal of providing Trixie with the safest, freshest milk possible.

There’s an inherent trade-off between giving Trixie the freshest milk, and keeping a supply in reserve to protect against unexpected demand or interrupted supply. Businesses in the late 90’s learned to deal with this situation by introducing the concept of just-in-time supply chain management, where they reduced the amount of inventory kept locally in favor of trying to better predict inventory needs and improving distribution. Managing Trixie’s milk presents a similar problem.

Jennifer usually pumps more milk than Trixie is going to drink. So we could just let the bottles line up in the fridge, ensuring there will always be a bottle waiting as well as several days in reserve. However, this works against the goal of giving Trixie the freshest milk possible. Plus, we would soon run out of storage bottles, leaving Jennifer nothing to pump into. At the other end of the spectrum, I would like to give Trixie the milk that Jennifer pumped from the previous day, but that would leave me without any reserves if a bottle gets spilled or Trixie has a growth spurt.

In the end, we decided to keep a 2 day supply in the fridge. This puts her milk on the safest end of the storage range, and gives me a 1 day buffer to manage the supply. It might seem like we’re cutting it close, but we’re able to carefully track the milk demand with a web-based “Bottle Log” application [see screen grab below] specially developed to measure her daily milk intake. I can give Jennifer about 36 hours notice if there’s an indication that Trixie’s needs are ramping up.

In addition to making sure Trixie’s needs doesn’t exceed the supply, I have to make sure the supply isn’t outstripping what Trixie can drink. It kills Jennifer to hear this, but I pour bottles out when there is an over-supply and the front bottle is more than 2 days old. It sounds wasteful, but if you give her one old bottle, you are ensuring that all subsequent bottles will be old as the next in line is pushed back, and the one behind it and so forth. These small shifts would rapidly accumulate, leading to 3, 4 or 5 day old milk. So to prevent this from happening, I have to pour some out occasionally. (I just usually don’t tell Jennifer about it — and she appreciates not knowing.)

So while it does take a certain amount of planning to manage the milk supply, there’s a payoff in seeing all those tiny little bottles lined up and ready to go. Come back tomorrow to find out if our small-scale milk operation can apply for federal agribusiness subsidies in Part 3 of our series: The Dairy in the Fridge.

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(Part 1 of a 4 day series)

It’s early. Most people are still asleep and it’s dark outside. But inside Jennifer is already hard at work. The quiet humming and mechanical wheezing stand out against the pre-dawn silence. It’s time to make the milk.

This is what keeps Trixie alive, healthy, and gives her a strong immune system. Welcome to the milk cycle. It begins every morning before work when Jennifer collects about 8 oz. to add to the stock in the refrigerator. She’ll make another collection at the office and once again at home at night.

Why does Jennifer need to pump so much? Trixie requires between 2 and 2.5 oz. of milk per pound of body weight per day. She weighs about 12lbs now so this translates to 24-30 oz. a day. Fortunately, Jennifer doesn’t have to collect this entire amount because she still nurses her after work and during the night.

At home Jennifer uses her Medala Pump-in-style [above]. Without the attached accessories, it’s simply an unassuming black bag. However, the first time I saw the assortment of tubing, valves and conical shields that plug into it, I was perplexed. Witnessing the actual milk collection was equally bizarre.

The hospital-grade pump at work, of which I have only seen photos, is fantastically industrial [below]. If I were handed the machine without explanation, I would go try to find space for it in the control room at Hoover Dam. The tubing and accessory set-up is comparable to the home model, but the piston-driven pump cuts the pumping time by approximately 33% — a boon during busy work hours.

It’s ironic that the process of ensuring Trixie uninterrupted natural sustenance is so mechanical.

Once the milk is collected, the precious cargo is packed up for transport back home. We treat it pretty much like we would a kidney or liver tagged for organ transplant (well, actually, I never treat livers quite as well as the milk.) While this may seem excessive, it doesn’t take long for unpasteurized milk to sour. Given the time and energy that goes into the production and collection, you hate to lose even one bottle.

The end result? A steady supply of fresh milk replenished each and every day providing the raw material for the rest of our story. Come back tomorrow to learn how feeding Trixie is only slightly less challenging than running a distribution warehouse in Part 2 of our series: Bottle Management 101.

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