My entire wardrobe revolves around being able to easily whip out a boob to feed a baby. Glamorous, I know. I love to wear a maxi dress, but at 5’7″ it is such a pain in the butt to find ones that are long enough. Here is a round up of the best I have found (so far). These are all on Amazon, because PRIME is life.
This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure here.
Vivicastle Women’s USA Solid V-Neck 3/4 Sleeve Faux Wrap Waist Long Maxi Dress
This dress is is flattering, comes it 16 colors!!! Length 58″-60″ depending on size ordered so this will work for women even taller than me!! Shop this look!
Called To Surf A Nursing Friendly Bridesmaid Wrap Maxi Dress with Flutter with Long Sleeves, and a Tie Belt. Mauve
This dress is actually marketed for nursing unlike most of the others on my list. The chiffon makes this dress great for special occasions or family photos. Length 57″-60″ depending on size. Shop this look!
Clothink Women White/Black Wrap Front V Neck Cut Out Split Plain Maxi Dress
This is definitely a sexier look with a deep slit and cutouts but this would be great to wear to a wedding or a date night when baby will be tagging along. Length ranges between 58.8 and 59.8 depending on size ordered. Comes in 4 colors. Shop this look!
Talk about the perfect maxi dress to wear for a baby shower or for family photos. This dress comes in 4 beautiful springy colors. Length is 58″-62″. Shop this look!
This beautiful wrap dress comes in 11 different floral prints. The material is a matte jersey (somewhere between jersey and swimsuit material) which is great for not immediately showing any milk stains! Length is between 57″ and 58.9″ depending on size. Shop this look!
I wore this dress for our newborn photos after Adalyn was born so it is safe to say that I love it!! It is a matte jersey material and comes in 7 color options. Length measures 55 – 57.5 inches. I ordered the medium and it was more than long enough on my 5’7″ frame. Shop this look!
This dress is a short sleeve option by KOH KOH. Same matte jersey material as the long sleeve dress, which is great for not immediately absorbing any milk that may leak onto your dress during a feeding. Length measures 55 – 57.5 inches. It comes in 8 colors including this gorgeous dusty pink. Shop this look!
Dokotoo Womens Summer Floral Print Faux Wrap Maxi Long Dresses with Belt
I wore this dress for our gender reveal photos and the teal/pink color worked perfect. This material has less of a sheen compared to the other floral maxi dress I listed above. It comes in 7 colors!! Length ranges from 56.5-60″ depending on size. I ordered this in a medium and you can see from the photo how it land Shop this look!
If your child is anything like mine, than they likely have one (or more) favorite stuffed animals that go pretty much everywhere with them. The little horses that my son loves were starting to look pretty rough and matted. I decided to figure out a way to make them nice and soft again. Turns out it is REALLY easy!!
What you need:
A well loved stuffed animal. Our horses can be found on Amazon
A pet slicker brush (its important that you get a metal one WITHOUT the little guard balls on the ends) – I got this one
Instructions
It is really an easy process once you have the right tool. Slowly brush your stuffed animal in the same direction as the “fur” is going. Make sure that you do not use too much pressure so that you don’t catch any of the threads that are holding your stuffed animal together.
If your animal has any areas with longer hair, like our horse’s mane, start at the end and work your way up so that you don’t rip out the fibers.
All in all, this is a SUPER easy fix. I rejuvenate 3 of his stuffed animal horses in 10 minutes. He loves how soft they are and I feel like a mama hero!
This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure here.
Elderberries have been shown to boost immunity, decrease mucous production during colds and to fight the flu. FIGHT THE FLU??? Sign me (and my family) up!! For a long time, I was able to give my son his daily dose (1 tsp) of Elderberry syrup mixed in a bowl of yogurt. Lately, he has been refusing to eat yogurt. This left me searching for new ways to get him to take his daily dose.
I’ve been playing around with making my own gummy bears for a few months now, so I decided to make some Elderberry Gummy Bears! I had a few goals in mind when I crafted my recipe.
Make them yummy so that my son would be excited to eat them.
Be able to know how many gummies would make a daily dose.
I wanted a texture to the bears that would be similar to real gummy bears
What you need:
3/4 cup juice or water – I used Grape Juice because I wanted these to be YUMMY and because I already had it at my house!
1 tsp of Local Honey – my mom is a beekeeper so I use her honey!
You will also need Gummy Bear silicon molds – I bought these on Amazon
A cookie sheet
Step by Step Instructions
1.In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, add the 3/4 cup of juice or water.
2. Slowing sprinkle the 2 Tablespoons of gelatin over the COLD juice or water.
3. Allow a couple of minutes to allow the gelatin to dissolve (this is called letting your gelatin “bloom”). This prevents clumps in your gelatin later on.
4. Microwave your mixture for 30 seconds. Stir. If there are still undissolved bits of gelatin, microwave for another 20-30 seconds. Your goal is to get the mixture just hot enough to dissolve the gelatin. YOU DO NOT WANT THE MIXTURE TOO HOT (this will destroy many of the benefits of honey).
5. If you did heat your mixture to the point of bubbling, wait a few minutes for it to cool down before moving on to the next step.
6. Add 1 teaspoon of local honey. Stir
7. Add in your 1/2 cup of Elderberry Syrup. Stir.
8. Place 3 of the gummy bear molds onto a cookie sheet. This will make it easier to transfer to the fridge without spilling any Elderberry goodness.
9. Using the eyedroppers that came with your gummy bear molds, start filling your bears. Move fast, because your gelatin will start hardening in the measuring cup if you go too slow! Pro tip: If your toddler demands to help, set them up with a small bowl of water and let them fill one of your extra gummy bear molds with an extra eyedropper while you work!
10. Place in the fridge and allow to set up.
11. Once fully hardened, you can easily pop out the bears. In my experience, if the bears are tearing when you try to pop them out, you have not given them enough time in the fridge.
Safety
Honey should NEVER be given to children under the age of 12 months. Aside from the actual honey in this recipe, the Elderberry syrup I use also contains honey.
Elderberry Gummy Bear Dosing:
8 bears a day for the children’s dose of 1 teaspoon a day
24 bears a day for the adult dose of 1 tablespoon a day
If you are thinking – holy cow, 24 bears a day is A LOT of bears. I 100% agree. I still plan on taking my daily shot of Elderberry syrup instead. But 8 bears a day will be such a great treat for my son.
Note: If you alter this recipe or use different gummy bear molds, you may have to do a little bit of math (-sorry) to figure out how many bears equal a kid dose.
My son has been obsessed with his Wubbanub aka “wubby” since he was only a few weeks old. My husband and I have joked that he would probably take it to prom if we let him. It went pretty much everywhere with us and is in a majority of the photos of my son. We have loved the security and comfort that the Wubbanubs brought our little boy. As we approached his third birthday, the time had come for him to ditch the pacifier. We started making some changes in order to make the eventually removal of his Wubbanubs easier and tear free. Here is what we did.
Only use the Wubbanub at sleeptimes (or during extreme meltdowns)
We did not achieve this by simply taking his wubbs or making him leave them in his bed. Both of those tactics lead to extreme distress for our son. Instead we would slip them away once he was up and focusing on something else. On occasion, we would ask for him to trade his wubby for something else that he wanted more. “Want to play outside? Okay, but you cannot bring your wubby”.
Only one Wubbanub allowed out at a time
Instead of having a wubby available in every room to ensure that he never went without as we did during his baby days, we only allowed one Wubby to be active in the house at a time. The out of sight, out of mind effect worked best when there was only one Wubbanub to worry about hiding from him.
Find a favorite stuffed animal
Part of the allure of the pacifier for my son is the comfort that it brings him. Rather than just taking away his pacifier and leaving him with nothing, I wanted to set him up to have a replacement item once it was gone. Our house is FILLED with stuffed animals. At around 2 years old. he started showing a preference for a little stuffed horse we got as a baby shower gift. The Easter Bunny and his new baby sister each gifted him another baby horse. This created back ups in case the original ever goes missing.
Use separate and distinguishable Wubbanubs for our infant baby
Very early on we made it clear that Adalyn’s Wubbanubs were hers. Riley bought into this and would proudly find “baby’s wubs” and return them to her. It was important be able to wean Riley off his Wubbanub without having to make our infant daughter also go without. I will say, she only uses her Wubbanubs at bedtime by her own choice, so that has helped.
Cut off the Tip of the Wubbanub Soothie
I never brought myself to completely destroy a perfectly good Wubbanub. We did have a few that ended up with small rips in the soothies. For safety, I snipped the ends off of those Wubbanubs to remove the affected area. The first one happened long ago (which is what prompted me to find a way to fix them). Riley was devastated. However, as he got older, he would simply tossed the broken Wubbanubs aside. I kept this as a last resort solution to simply cut off the tips of all of his remaining Wubbanubs. We didn’t have to do this, but I think it is important to mention.
“Lose” the Wubbanub on vacation
This is ultimately the last step that we took on our Wubbanub adventure. I was worried that blaming an imaginary “fairy” that comes and takes pacifiers to new little babies would cause resentment towards his new baby sister. Or that he would decide that somehow the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and all other unseen magical creatures could not be trusted. We were planning on going to visit my parents for a couple of days. They live on a farm and Riley literally does not stop moving the entire time that he is there. He hikes in the woods, moos back at the cows, rides the horses and generally skips his afternoon naps. I knew the constant activity and lack of a nap would lead to an easy bedtime. Even with the absence of his Wubbanub.
It has now been 4 weeks since Riley’s puppy dog Wubbanub disappeared from his life. He has asked for it a couple of times but really he has done extrordinarily well. He has not cried AT ALL over his absent Wubbanubs. Can I get an, AMEN?? When he does ask, “where’s wubby” our response is generally along the lines of “I don’t know, buddy. Where did you leave it?”. So far he has accepted this answer and just accepts that “its lost”.
Good Luck to all you other mean, Wubbanub stealing mamas and dadas out there!!
Let me tell you all about the Snuza Hero, aka my most used baby product. It is a wearable device that clips onto your babies diaper and detects movement. Specifically, it detects the movement of your baby’s breathing. If 15 seconds pass without detected movement, it vibrates in an attempt to rouse baby. If an additional 5 seconds pass with no movement detected it sounds a VERY loud audible alarm. This same alarm will also sound if it had to rouse the baby with vibration three separate times. It will also alert you if it detects infrequent or weak movement by sounding a low beep with each detected movement. This little movement monitor is responsible for me being able to sleep soundly without waking up in a full on panic mode anytime my babies have slept through a feeding session.
To help it get a really secure grip on our diapers, I usually fold the top of the diaper down so that it has two layers to grab onto. You can also clip it onto the waist band of elastic pants. I generally only do this if I forget to put it on the diaper. I remove Snuza Hero during tummy time or when we are in the car seat for her comfort. Otherwise, it is always on. There are two buttons on the Snuza Hero. Pressing down the left button will turn the unit on. Holding both down at the same time will turn it off. You can also use the right mode button to make it so that it beeps with every breath. The light in the middle of the Snuza Hero will blink green with each detected breath. This little light can easily be seen through clothing and a swaddle in the middle of the night.
Both of my babies have gone to daycare and I love that I can send the Snuza Hero with them. No phone app or base unit is required. It gives me so much peace of mind knowing that even when my tiny babies are sleeping far away from me at daycare, where chaos may be going on, they will be safe. Our daycare teachers love that it is so easy to use.
My son wore our Snuza Hero 24/7 from day 1 at the hospital until around 9 months. At that point, he was rolling around so much during the day that it would continually fall off of his diaper. We continued to have him wear it at night until around 11 months. Fast forward another year and now my daughter is wearing the same Snuza Hero 24/7. We JUST replaced the original battery! Have we had a few false alarms? We sure have. I honestly do not mind a bit. I would take a hundred false alarms over the option of my babies not wearing a monitor. Have we had a real alarm? Yes.
The Snuza Hero alarm sounded while we were staying at my parent’s farm. My son was 8 weeks old at the time. Riley was napping upstairs at my parent’s house and most of my extended family was all downstairs. The alarm went off. I figured it must be a false alarm but I still ran upstairs as fast as I could. When I got up there, the Snuza Hero was perfectly in place. Thankfully, the loud alarm and vibration had done what it was supposed to do. It helped to rouse my sweet baby and it alerted me that there was an issue. We never had another real alarm but I still think of that day and wonder what might have happened if he hadn’t been wearing his Snuza Hero.
I tell all my pregnant friends about the Snuza Hero (heck, I tell most of my non-pregnant friends, too!) because I really believe in this product.
Update: Since originally posting this review, Snuza has created a newer and better model, the Snuza Pico that is 40% smaller than the Snuza Hero.
Maybe it is the nerd in me, but every time I go somewhere busy with my kids, I think of the quote from Lord of the Rings “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” My toddler is a mad man who loves to explore everywhere, to pet strange dogs and to see ALL the things there are to see when we are out and about. He generally leaves his listening skills in the car, which can make going places stressful.
My husband and I take the divide and conquer approach with our two kids. I usually have our youngest and he takes the lead with our toddler. I have always felt like I could, like I should, do more to ensure the safety of my child. Specifically, the toddler since he is the one on the move. This feeling lead me to discover My Buddy Tag. It is a tag that is wearable as a wristband that connects to your phone through Bluetooth.
My Buddy Tag offers three main functions:
Helps keep your kid close: an alert will be sent to your phone if your child ventures out of your proximity
Allows your kid to alert you if they need your assistance: My Buddy Tag has a panic button your child can press
Helps avoid drowning: A Water Safety Alert that will send you an alert if the wristband is submerged in water
We have taken My Buddy Tag along on a few adventures and overall we like it. At a $39.99 price point, it is extremely affordable. There is no monthly service fee. Because the device is waterproof, you do have to send your tag in for a replacement battery (~$15). The company states that the battery should last for a year, so even with the additional cost to replace a battery, this GPS tracker is still much more affordable than other options on the market.
My son loves wearing a watch like daddy. Once on, it cannot be removed without the use of a screwdriver. This means a stranger cannot easily remove it. The app is easy to use and allows you to adjust the distance your child can wander before an alarm is sent.
The wristband is available in multiple colors. You can purchase your own My Buddy Tag, here!
Overall, we love our My Buddy Tag wristband. It is easy to use and gives this mama extra peace of mind when we venture out into the world.
Have you ever heard of a silicon breast pump? The most well known brand in the game is the Haakaa. Right after I weaned my first baby I learned about them. If you haven’t, don’t feel bad. I didn’t learn about these until after my first baby had weaned. After my second baby was born, I couldn’t wait to give them a try! The second night after I got home from the hospital, I started using the pump during my night feedings. To my delight, I immediately began collecting large amounts of breast milk. Total game changer for me!
How does it work?:
The concept is pretty easy. You attach the Haakaa it to the breast that you are not feeding your baby on. Rather than losing the breast milk that would normally be released during your let down, you collect it in the silicon pump. The silicon pump provides suction, so it collects more breast milk than other passive breast milk collection devices. I found that I could easily collect 2-3 ounces from the side that I was not feeding on.
How to use:
In order to put the pump in place, you flip back the flange.
2. Squeeze the bulb of the pump to create a suction.
3. Then you position it so that your nipple is inside of the opening of the pump.
4. Before releasing the pressure on the bulb, flip the flange back so that it is cupping your breast.
5. If done correctly, it should stay in place when you completely let go of the pump.
Tips:
Angle the bottom of the pump to the outside of your body to create more leg room for baby. If you are an over producer, keep a second pump on hand so that you can collect even more milk! Remove the pump before you move baby- this reduces the chances of an accidental spill. The pump will lose its hold on your breast as it fills up. Keep an eye on the breast milk level and be ready so that your breast milk doesn’t spill.
Other benefits:
If you are like me, than you have woken up more times that you would like to admit, covered in breast milk. Having half my shirt sopping wet, isn’t comfortable and it definitely isn’t an attractive look. The silicon breast pump helps to avoid that, because rather than feeding baby and going back to sleep with incompletely drained breasts, you are removing more of the milk. Using the pump during your let down also keeps you from soaking your breast pad or a cloth diaper. I always used a cloth diaper to catch the milk on the side I wasn’t feeding from and hated how much laundry I created each week. Feeding Adalyn has been less of a hassle because of this!
Limitations
I have attempted to use my silicon breast pumps to actually pump instead of simply using them to collect my let down. I find that while they will express some milk, they do not empty my breast completely. I maybe can express 1 oz whereas I usually could collect 4-5 oz from the same breast if I were using an electric pump. They are good though, when you will be away from baby for a short while and do not want to return with completely empty breasts.
Which to buy?
A quick search of silicon breast pumps will show you that there are a ton of options. The best option is the Haakaa version that comes with a lid and a suction cup base. Why? Because these two features make a HUGE difference in terms of limiting the chances of you accidentally spilling your pumped milk before you are able to get it into a bottle.
The other day I was getting lunch with a few fellow mamas. We each had at least one kid in tow, so our public lunch was quite the spectacle. In the conversation that we were able to sustain between the tantrums and random crying we got on the topic of who does what in each of our relationships. Who does the laundry, the dishes, makes the bed or vacuums. Who bathes the kids, who tucks them in at night and so on. I realized that all of us, myself included, kept referring to our husband’s efforts with the qualifier of “he helps” before everything we stated our husbands did. I started getting annoyed with myself for talking like this because my husband doesn’t “help” me.
Using the word help implies that all of these tasks are mine to do and that my husband is making it easier for me by offering his services. Our marriage is a partnership. We are together working towards the same goals. Financial goals. Cleanliness goals. And the goals that we have set for raising our babies. He owns and lives in this house with me, so he should also clean the house. He eats food on our dishes in the house, so he should also cook and clean those dishes. The children are his children, so he should also provide care for them.
I got lucky in the husband department. My husband cleans and folds his own clothes, our towels and our bedding each week. He unloads the dishwasher each time that it is run, early in the morning before I even wake up. On Fridays, he vacuums all of the floors and even uses the wand to get the edges between the floor and the walls. He makes our bed in the mornings. He wakes up our toddler and gets him ready for daycare while I do the same with our new baby. At night, he tucks Riley into bed, while I nurse Adalyn to sleep in the other room. He mows the lawn each week and gets the mail every afternoon. Your husband may do more, or he may do less and that is okay. Each marriage has to find a balance that works best for both individual involved.
By referring to my husbands efforts as him “helping” me, I am belittling his actions. I am making it sound like everything that he has done, was done because I asked. As if he couldn’t have figured out on his own that our child needed to eat or needed to have his diaper changed. My husband is fully capable of determining these things on his own. Referring to my husband as helping me also implies that he is in some way doing me a favor by completing these actions. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate him doing all these things, BUT he isn’t doing me a favor by being an equal participant in our life.
So I challenge myself and I challenge you. Stop referring to everything your husband does as “helping” you.
I am a breastfeeding mama that also works full-time away from home. That means that while I am at work, I have to pump. When I return from work each day, I have to prepare bottles for the next day at daycare. I love my babies, but the routine of pumping bottles can become a quick frustration. Our daycare requires our child’s name and the date on both the bottle and the bottle cap.
I won’t lie, the best part of my son weaning was that I no longer had to pump at work or prep bottles for daycare. My daughter has just started going to daycare 4 days a week, so we are back to the daycare bottle grind. I have searched and searched for products that help to make the process of prepping bottles faster and easier. Her bottles are also required to come in a labeled Ziploc bag each day. Here is my bottle set up:
This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure here.
InchBug Orbit Labels
On the bottle itself is a silicon band that has our daughter’s name on it. InchBug has a bunch of colors and design options. We send 4 bottles with her each day, so I have 2 sets. 1 will go with her and the other will come to work with me to pump directly into. These bands can be reused on sippy cups later down the road.
InchBug Circle Label
Also from InchBug are the round name labels. These labels can withstand the dishwasher or being steam sterilized. These also come in a bunch of different colors and design options. They come in a pack of 20, so after labeling your bottle lids, you will likely have a few left over. I find it much easier to have her name permanently on her bottles and caps, rather than to have to rewrite it again each day on a piece of tape.
Why buy the cow when you get mama’s milk for free?
Name Bubbles Date Labels
We tried a BUNCH of different options for dating the bottles. I found that I really did not like to have to physically remove a sticker each day. Then make replacement labels. AND then replace them onto all of the bottles. The write-on labels from Name Bubbles are placed onto the bottles and bottle lids. They come with a marker and a pencil that allow you to write directly onto the labels. The pencil marking can be removed by being rubbed with your finger and warm water. The marker can be removed with rubbing alcohol. We just use the pencil and make sure to rub off the date when we are rinsing the bottles at the end of the day. At the end of each day, while prepping the bottles with nipples, I simply add the date to the lid and bottle. This system is SO MUCH EASIER for us. These labels are also dishwasher and steam sterilizer safe. Use this link to save $5 off your first order from Name Bubbles!
Reusable Ziploc Bag
Rather than using and throwing away a new Ziploc bag every day or every week, we have opted to use reusable ziploc bags this time around. To wash, you can hand wash or use the top rack of the dishwasher. We have two bags and use each for a week. We use the Planet Wise gallon sized bag. Besides clear, you can get this bag in a few different fun colors. Because we will be reusing these, I even used one of our Round InchBug labels to label her bags!
Breast milk is better than any udder milk!
When you are a pumping mom, the every day routines can start to feel so draining. This set up has made the bottle prep process less frustrating and less time-consuming for us. I can’t imagine ever going back to the time that we were writing names and dates on new pieces of tape each day.
Looking for a way to label clothing and other personal items? Look no farther…!
These are one of the most recommended items I have gotten from my readers. Save time, mess and effort apply these no iron kids daycare labels directly onto the surface without bothering with an iron. Name labels are water resistant and durable enough to withstand multiple washing machine and dryer cycles !!
Keep reading for more tips…!
I am going to let you all in on a little secret… pumping sucks. When my son was born, I was on a mission to breastfeed to at least a year, and nothing was going to stop me. My twelve week maternity leave came to an end and I was shocked at how much I hated the entire process of pumping. Carrying everything I needed to work was difficult. Storing all of my pump parts was a pain. Washing all those parts at the end of the day was such a strain on my husband and I. During my 14 months of pumping at work for my son, I picked up a few tricks to make the daily routine more manageable.
Invest in a Pump Bag
When I first started back at work, I would carry my purse, a lunchbox and a tote bag with my pump. I looked and felt ridiculous. At the three-month mark of pumping, I figured that there HAD to be a better option out there. Thankfully, there was! I discovered Sarah Wells’ pump bags and have never looked back! I am currently on baby number 2 and am using a Sarah Wells’ bag that I love. It has two insulated pockets on the sides. I fit my Spectra S2 pump and parts on one side and use the other side for an ice pack and 4-5 5oz bottles. In the main compartment of the bag I can easily fit my wallet, 1 bag filled with snacks, a cosmetics bag, my lunch and an insulated water bottle.
I make milk. What’s your superpower?
Use a Hands Free Pumping Bra
These allow you to have free use of your hands during your pumping sessions. Need I say more? There are a bunch of different options out there. I prefer the Simple Wishes hands free bra, because it has a huge range that it can be adjusted. Compared to other hands-free bras that I tried, I also found that this one held its shape and didn’t get floppy over time.
Rinse And Refrigerate Your Pump Parts Throughout The Day
In between pumping sessions, you can store your pump parts in the fridge and reuse them for your next pumping session. Just give them a quick rinse to remove any milk after your pumping session. Full disclaimer, sometimes I don’t even rinse them and just stick them into my wet bag. This will save you space in your bag from needing to bring another set of pump parts. It will also save you time from having to fully clean the pump parts after each pump session.
Pump Into The Bottles You Will Be Sending To Daycare
Pumping into bags may take up less space in your bag, but unless you will be freezing the milk, you are making more work for yourself later on. If you pump directly into the bottles that your baby will be using tomorrow, you will save so much time prepping bottles once you are home.
Keep a Spare set of Pump Parts at Work
This is a lesson that I learned the HARD way. I was already 20 minutes behind my pumping schedule, my boobs felt like they were going to explode and surprise, no membranes for my pump. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing worse than going to pump and discovering that you are missing parts. Balancing work and motherhood is hard enough without having a mid-day crisis. Do you attempt to hand express? Do you leave work and go home to pump? Learn from my mistake and have a spare set of parts at work as a back up.
I used to POP bottles and now I PUMP them!
If You Can, Leave Your Pump At Work
If you don’t utilize your pump at home or on the weekends, then there may not be a need for you to ever bring it home. My Spectra S2 weights 3.3 lbs. That’s a lot of extra weight to lug around when you consider all the other things that are also in your bag. If you do use it on the weekends, but not during the night, you can also leave it at work during the week and just bring it home for the weekend.
Use Machine Washable Wet Bags To Store Your Pump Parts Between Pumping Sessions
I have seen and tried a bunch of different options for storing my pump parts throughout the day. Tupperware is bulky in my bag and is not at all discreet sitting in the work refrigerator. Some bags specifically made for pump parts have to be hand washed and hung dry. I found this to be a pain in the butt during the week. Plus, those bags usually cost more. My perfect solution is machine washable wet bags. At the end of the week, they get washed and are ready for the next week. Having a bag ready to go the night before also helped by making it possible to pre-pack my pump parts the night before. The bags I use each have 2 compartments, so I can use each bag twice (one day in each compartment). These are super affordable on Amazon.
Invest in a Bottle Sterilizer
I stumbled across these while pregnant with my second baby and I am still mad that I didn’t have one while pumping for my first. With my bottle sterilizer, I now only have to lightly rinse my bottles and pump parts. They then go into the sterilizer and 45 minutes later they come out completely dry. Every day we save at least 10 minutes that used to be dedicated to cleaning bottles and pump parts. I also love the fact that each and every day my pump parts are actually sterilized, not just washed. I can fit 6 bottles and my pump parts in this sterilizer. We purchased this from Amazon and my husband refers to our bottle sterilizer as the best money we have ever spent.
I hope these tips help make your pumping journey better! Happy Pumping!
I am going to let you all in on a little secret… pumping sucks. When my son was born, I was on a mission to breastfeed to at least a year, and nothing was going to stop me. My twelve week maternity leave came to an end and I was shocked at how much I hated the entire process of pumping. Carrying everything I needed to work was difficult. Storing all of my pump parts was a pain. Washing all those parts at the end of the day was such a strain on my husband and I. During my 14 months of pumping at work for my son, I picked up a few tricks to make the daily routine more manageable.
Invest in a Pump Bag
When I first started back at work, I would carry my purse, a lunchbox and a tote bag with my pump. I looked and felt ridiculous. At the three-month mark of pumping, I figured that there HAD to be a better option out there. Thankfully, there was! I discovered Sarah Wells’ pump bags and have never looked back! I am currently on baby number 2 and am using this Sarah Wells’ bag. It has two insulated pockets on the sides. I fit my Spectra S2 pump and parts on one side and use the other side for an ice pack and 4-5 5oz bottles. In the main compartment of the bag I can easily fit my wallet, 1 bag filled with snacks, a cosmetics bag, my lunch and an insulated water bottle.
I make milk. What’s your superpower?
Use a Hands Free Pumping Bra
These allow you to have free use of your hands during your pumping sessions. Need I say more? There are a bunch of different options out there. I prefer the Simple Wishes hands free bra, because it has a huge range that it can be adjusted. Compared to other hands-free bras that I tried, I also found that this one held its shape and didn’t get floppy over time.
Rinse And Refrigerate Your Pump Parts Throughout The Day
In between pumping sessions, you can store your pump parts in the fridge and reuse them for your next pumping session. Just give them a quick rinse to remove any milk after your pumping session. Full disclaimer, sometimes I don’t even rinse them and just stick them into my wet bag. This will save you space in your bag from needing to bring another set of pump parts. It will also save you time from having to fully clean the pump parts after each pump session.
Pump Into The Bottles You Will Be Sending To Daycare
Pumping into bags may take up less space in your bag, but unless you will be freezing the milk, you are making more work for yourself later on. If you pump directly into the bottles that your baby will be using tomorrow, you will save so much time prepping bottles once you are home. You can read about my daycare bottle set up here: The Best Way to Label Daycare Bottles
Keep a Spare set of Pump Parts at Work
This is a lesson that I learned the HARD way. I was already 20 minutes behind my pumping schedule, my boobs felt like they were going to explode and surprise, no membranes for my pump. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing worse than going to pump and discovering that you are missing parts. Balancing work and motherhood is hard enough without having a mid-day crisis. Do you attempt to hand express? Do you leave work and go home to pump? Learn from my mistake and have a spare set of parts at work as a back up. I use the Spectra S2 pump and found that these spare parts from Nenesupply worked just as good as the original parts! I recommend having 2 spare sets- one for work and an extra set at home.
I used to POP bottles and now I PUMP them!
If You Can, Leave Your Pump At Work
If you don’t utilize your pump at home or on the weekends, then there may not be a need for you to ever bring it home. My Spectra S2 weights 3.3 lbs. That’s a lot of extra weight to lug around when you consider all the other things that are also in your bag. If you do use it on the weekends, but not during the night, you can also leave it at work during the week and just bring it home for the weekend.
Use Machine Washable Wet Bags To Store Your Pump Parts Between Pumping Sessions
I have seen and tried a bunch of different options for storing my pump parts throughout the day. Tupperware is bulky in my bag and is not at all discreet sitting in the work refrigerator. Some bags specifically made for pump parts have to be hand washed and hung dry. I found this to be a pain in the butt during the week. Plus, those bags usually cost more. My perfect solution is machine washable wet bags. At the end of the week, they get washed and are ready for the next week. Having a bag ready to go the night before also helped by making it possible to pre-pack my pump parts the night before. The bags I use each have 2 compartments, so I can use each bag twice (one day in each compartment). At the cost of 2 for $8 on Amazon, they are extremely affordable.
Invest in a Bottle Sterilizer
I stumbled across these while pregnant with my second baby and I am still mad that I didn’t have one while pumping for my first. With my bottle sterilizer, I now only have to lightly rinse my bottles and pump parts. They then go into the sterilizer and 45 minutes later they come out completely dry. Every day we save at least 10 minutes that used to be dedicated to cleaning bottles and pump parts. I also love the fact that each and every day my pump parts are actually sterilized, not just washed. I can fit 6 bottles and my pump parts in this sterilizer. We purchased from Amazon and my husband refers to our bottle sterilizer as the best money we have ever spent.
I hope these tips help make your pumping journey better! Happy Pumping!
2. Squeeze the bulb of the pump to create a suction.
3. Then you position it so that your nipple is inside of the opening of the pump. 
4. Before releasing the pressure on the bulb, flip the flange back so that it is cupping your breast.
5. If done correctly, it should stay in place when you completely let go of the pump.
Rather than using and throwing away a new Ziploc bag every day or every week, we have opted to use reusable ziploc bags this time around. To wash, you can hand wash or use the top rack of the dishwasher. We have two bags and use each for a week. We use the 
