Trying to express milk, can I express over several days into the same bottle?

[Janus]

Not sure that title is clear!
I am going out on Saturday night for the first time since my son was born (now 15 weeks and exclusively breastfed). I am getting a bottle together for my husband incase he wakes up. So far I have only got 3 oz from first go at expressing which is in a bottle which I will put in the fridge (I believe it will last from now until Saturday night). Tomorrow I will try to express some more, my question is, can I re-attach the same bottle to my expressing machine and just top up the milk I have done tonight? Will opening the bottle and attaching to machine 'contaminate' anything? I only have one more bottle so ideally I'd like to have two bottles of 6 oz as he may need to do the bottle in the small hours if I'm a little drunken!!
Thanks!

I wouldn't. Milk breeds bacteria. That's why milk bottles and equipment are the one group of things you carry on sterilising even when you've stopped sterilising dummies, teethers, cups etc

Hi Janus I don't think you can add to a bottle of expressed milk that's been in the fridge because the warm milk from you will lower the temperature of the milk that's in the fridge (if you see what I mean) which puts it at risk of bacteria developing. You need to express into a separate container each time I believe. You can express into a bottle and then put in a sterile bag thingy to go in the freezer so you don't have to tie up loads of bottles in the freezer. Can't remember the brand of the bags but you should be able to buy them easily at mothercare etc. Also (sorry to say this) - I don't think your expressed milk will last in the fridge from now until Sat, that seems an awfully long time, I thought it was 24-48 hours maximum so you may need to freeze and defrost. Good luck with it, you deserve a fab night out and lots of !!!

Sorry obviously I mean the warm milk will increase the temp of the milk from the fridge - doh

yes it will be fine!

breastmilk isn't like cow's milk and it won't contaminate anything.

breastmilk left out at room temperature has less bacteria in it a few hours later, because of the anti-bacterial properties

so there is no problem with topping up breastmilk over a couple of days

oh and it's fine to keep "fresh" expressed milk for up to 8 days in the fridge

What dannygirl said

yes you can! breast milk is sterile, (it actually 'improves' with age because of the good bacteria) so it's absolutely fine to express and keep adding to it for up to seven days after the first milk was added, provided you keep it in the main body of the fridge.

I always expressed into a different bottle the added it to the milk in the fridge, as I didn't want the previously expressed milk to warm up to room temp again.

Enjoy your night out :)

kellymom link which is v. useful

OK! What about, just to be sure, I express the next batch of milk into the spare bottle and then put this milk in the fridge and after an hour or two (ie when it is chilled from the fridge) I then add it to the other chilled milk?

Actually, husband is going to use the milk I expressed today and whatever I get off tomorrow day to feed son at 7pm tomorrow just to check he actually takes it! I haven't got a plan of what to do if he doesn't though, out for 2.5 hours I suppose!!
Please take it, I'm so looking forward to a night out with the girls ... !

Wow, BM is pretty indestructable isn't it? I always thought you could only combine eBM from 24hrs and even then I thought I might be on slightly shaky ground. In the first few weeks I expressed each boob into a seperate pot about 7 times a day (that's 14 pots a day!!) and used a newly sterilised bottle for each pot - I could have saved so much washing up.
BM rocks!! :o

WHat you want is these Breast Milk storage bags They're brilliant. Really easy to use.

You can order them online, and the larger Boots do them (although you may well get very bemused shop assistants in the ones that don't stock them!)

Although you may be able to add several sessions into the same bottle, IMO it's not a good idea to give a large bottle of breast milk to a baby as if they have a bit and then reject it, you have to throw it away because then it does have bacteria in it. And throwing all that breastmilk down the sink is hard to bear!

Better to have lots of bags of milk in the fridge and use just what you need.

As others have said www.kellymom.com is a great resource with well-informed advice.

It is absolutely fine to add to expressed milk for up to seven days (if not longer, they haven't done the research!)

Your plan sounds fine OP :)