Thank You!

We want to extend many thanks to all the people who have offered to help us with freezer space when we come to Toronto. The response to my last post has been amazing! Wow.

Megan Jackson's comment about dry ice really got us thinking. Ian phoned Air Canada, had his call dumped twice, and waited on hold for ages. Finally, the person he spoke to said, "We've never had a situation like this before. This is so interesting for me!" After much consultation with others and re-reading of her handbook, she put a note on our file stating that we had permission to travel with not more than 5 pounds of dry ice, for the purposes of keeping our baby's human milk frozen. Since dry ice immediately turns into a gas as it warms, our cooler must be vented.

It is necessary to work all this out in advance and only carry a limited amount because too much dry ice could asphyxiate animals that are traveling in the hold. Who knows how many gay men might be flying with coolers of breast milk and dry ice? I'd say hopefully more and more, as people continue to learn about the tremendous benefits of human milk for human babies!

We will store Jacob's milk in the top freezers of three different, very generous families, all located close to where my brother lives in Toronto. The day that we fly to Halifax, we'll buy the dry ice and pack up our cooler. We need to add a layer of cardboard in between the dry ice and the milk because the dry ice is so extremely cold that it could burn the milk bags.

Many thanks again to everyone who asked friends, relatives and friends of friends about freezer space! We'll let you know how it all turns out.