How to keep a pumping log and store breast milk safely

• It shows how your output changes across the day and the weeks, which is useful if you are working on supply with a lactation consultant.
• It keeps both sides in view, so you notice if one side consistently gives less.
• It tells whoever gives the next bottle how much milk is available, and how old it is.
• It answers your care team's questions with facts rather than memory.

1. 1The start time.
2. 2How long you pumped, if you want to compare sessions.
3. 3The amount from each side, or the total if you pump both at once.
4. 4What you did with it: fed straight away, fridge or freezer.

Keep the sheet near the pump with a pen tied to it. A row per session is enough; nobody needs a perfect log, only a mostly complete one.

The CDC's guidance for healthy full-term babies at home:

• Room temperature, 25°C / 77°F or cooler: up to 4 hours for freshly expressed milk.
• Refrigerator, 4°C / 40°F: up to 4 days. If you won't use it within 4 days, freeze it right away.
• Freezer, −18°C / 0°F or colder: best within about 6 months, up to 12 months acceptable.
• Thawed milk: use within 1 day (24 hours) in the fridge, or within 1–2 hours once it has come to room temperature, and never refreeze it.
• Leftover milk from a feed: use within 2 hours after the baby finishes, then throw it away.

Shorter times apply to premature or hospitalised babies; follow your hospital's instructions if that is your case. Health authorities in other countries may publish slightly different times, so if your midwife gave you a sheet, use it.

• Label every bag or bottle with the date (and time, if you pump several times a day) it was expressed. If the milk goes to childcare, add your baby's name.
• Store small portions — roughly what your baby drinks in one feed — so less milk is wasted.
• Put milk at the back of the fridge or freezer, not in the door, where the temperature changes each time it opens.
• Leave a little space at the top of a container before freezing; milk expands.
• Lay freezer bags flat until frozen; they stack and thaw faster.

Use the oldest milk first — first in, first out. A simple way to keep the order is to put new milk at the back and take from the front, or to keep a box per week in the freezer.

Thaw frozen milk overnight in the fridge, under lukewarm running water, or in a bowl of warm water. Never thaw or heat breast milk in a microwave: it heats unevenly and can scald. Swirl, rather than shake hard, to mix the fat back in.

Talk to your midwife, doctor or a lactation consultant if pumping hurts, if your output drops suddenly and stays down, if you notice a hard, red or painful area on the breast, or if you have a fever. They can check the fit of your pump flanges and your routine.

Baton has a pumping entry for the left, right or total amount, with an optional timer, next to breastfeeds and bottles. Bottles record whether they were breast milk, formula or mixed, so the free 7-day chart shows bottle millilitres by milk type.

Every entry's time can be edited, every save has a 5-second Undo, and both parents see the same log through their own iCloud — so whoever gives the next bottle knows what was pumped and when. Your full history is free and can be exported to CSV.