Monday, April 25, 2016

My favorites: Nursing and pumping



My little baby turns 6 months old this week!  Hitting that milestone is a big one for the both of us.  Nursing didn't come easy for me and my fist kiddo, and I was determined to try to make it work, and last longer.Now here we are at six months and still going.  

It is so interesting to see how different two kiddos can be.  Yes, all babies need diapers, a place to sleep, something to eat and time to play.  It is how they receive all of those, which is so different.  But these are the things that worked for me these past 6 months.

Nursing and Pumping items I love:

Breast milk Storage Bags


Lansinoh Breastmilk Storage Bags - I have honestly never tried any other brand. My sister told me she liked these and I haven't looked back. I have seen blog posts about testing different brands. But for this rare exception I am brand loyal (that does happen often - I usually am 'off brand' loyal).

Hands free Breast pumping bra

Medela Easy Expressions White BustierMy husband had to talk me into getting this with baby #1 right after I went back to work. One of my sisters said that she's is able to hold both with one hand and still have a free hand.  I am just a cluts and can't do that.  With this I am able to be 'hands free' and still able to work on my phone.

I tend to be more on the frugal side,  so I don't normally spend this amount of money. But I am so glad I did. Now with baby #2 and use it again 2x a day at work, it was money well spent in my opinion

Homemade burp cloths

Three of my sisters make burp cloths. I have only used two of them but they are great! On my baby registry I had a basic cloth diaper burp cloths. While those are great, let's be honest, they aren't pretty.  I received burp cloths from my sisters and they are cute enough to have sitting out (not displayed, but where I nurse) and we aren't always playing let's hid the ugly burp cloth or where is the burp cloth.

Breast pump


I was fortunate enough to be gifted a pump from an former coworker. Link to same brand, but not the same. Long story short, she had a friend who's pump broke, the company replaced it but by the time the replacement came, she wasn't pumping/nursing. 

With that being said I know you can get ones through your insurance, but the one I had does what it needs to do. Down the road, if mine breaks I will look into that but 1. Why get one when I have one that works and 2. I hate messing/dealing with my insurance.  So I will avoid them at all cost.

Bottles (daycare)


Playtex Vent Air  - With baby #1 I registered for the Playtex bottles from my sisters recommendation.  There are honestly too many bottles to choose from and I go on recommendation, both babies have taken this bottle so why fix what isn't broken?

Yes there are multiple pieces 6 pieces if you still have the lids/covers. But it works. Plus since I nurse when I am at home I haven't had to wash a bottle in a few months. Daycare does though. Baby #2 wasn't the quickest at learning a bottle but my nursing experience can be saved for another time.

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Is there anything else you really need? Anyone have a great bottle brush out there? I don't LOVE mine, it barely fits into my pumping bottles and flings water everywhere when I pull it out. I love recomendations!

2 comments:

diana said...

Glad you're blogging more!! We used those same bottles (but had 3 sets...). And I'll gladly give you some of my burb cloths to try! Haha. =)

Unknown said...

Erin was finally smart enough to schedule a post and it actually work... baby steps. I wasn't trying to get burp cloths out of you ;-) honestly when I started to think about this post, I didn't even know you made them!