Aspects of the disclosure can provide a method and an apparatus to decode a data stream based on multiple transmissions with efficient usages of storage and power resources. The method for decoding can include receiving a first plurality of encoded code blocks corresponding to a first transmission of a transport block, decoding the first plurality of encoded code blocks into decoded code blocks, error detecting the decoded code blocks, and storing a decoding history of the decoded code blocks. Further, the method can include receiving a second plurality of encoded code blocks corresponding to a retransmission of the transport block. The second plurality of encoded code blocks can map the first plurality of encoded code blocks, respectively. The method can selectively decode a subset of the second plurality of encoded code blocks based on the decoding history. In addition, the method can include storing soft bits for code blocks that failed decoding. The soft bits can be a combination of soft bits from multiple transmissions. The memory size for storing the soft bits can be reduced by dynamically freeing memory space associated with successfully decoded code blocks.