This post and giveaway are sponsored by Philips AVENT. We put this new pump to the test with an experienced mom, my longtime friend, Crystal. Crys is an active pumper unlike me, a passive weaner. Giveaway below.

Some background. Before Baby No. 3 came into the world, I had spent 34 months of my life nursing. Two separate babies, mind you, but after nearly three years of latching, let downs and nipple cream, I felt like I knew what I was doing. After all, by the end of my second go-round, I could nurse my son hands-free in a Baby Bjorn while I made dinner. (I was very disappointed when my husband didn’t give me a standing ovation after finding me this way the first time.) So, after our third baby was born, I felt a bit smug in the hospital when the nurse came in to check on us and my little ladybug was already nursing like a pro. Look at me, I’m an experienced Mom! I know what I’m doing! I got this!

Ha.

Our story. We arrived home and my milk arrived, as did the accompanying engorgement. The changing state of my breasts confused my little one and she seemed to forget how to latch. As she struggled, my nipples took a beating. Feeding became so painful that I would wince and cry when it was time for the next feeding. I also felt confused – Could I have forgotten how to nurse? Why was this so difficult? To add to the experience, we (both myself and the baby) developed a raging case of thrush. There were clogged milk ducts, which then led to me waking in the middle of the night with a fever and violent shivering due to mastitis. I was a wreck.

Enter the pump. I hadn’t thought about pumping much in the months leading up to her birth. I figured that would be something I would deal with later down the road. But I was happy to have a breast pump on hand so I could give my raw nipples — and my defeated psyche — a break during those first early weeks. Near the end of my pregnancy, the Rookie Moms had asked me to try out a new breast pump, the Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump, so I broke it out in desperation near the end of week one. I loved nursing my two older sons and wanted the same experience with my daughter. As I sat, cracked and sore and whimpering, my husband figured out quite quickly how to assemble the new pump, then sterilized all the parts for me in a boiling pot of water before giving me the Cliffs notes version of how to use it.

The flanges, or pieces that fit around the breast, were outfitted with a flexible, rubbery cover called the “soft massage cushion” that actually did soften the experience of having my breasts sucked into a machine. I was able to use the pump successfully on extremely sore breasts so I was happy with the comfort level. When turning the pump on, it automatically starts off with a “gentle stimulation mode” that’s intended to get the milk flowing like babies do with their quick little sucks at the beginning of a nursing session. Then once the milk is flowing, there are three pump settings to choose from, which is helpful depending on the state of your nipples. I used the low to middle setting during those early tender days, but have moved onto the fastest setting with no discomfort. I do have to fit my breast into the pumping pieces an exact certain way for the pump to have the right sucking effect. But once I get it in there correctly, the pump is very efficient. Thankfully, we recovered from the mastitis, the thrush and the war wounds on my nipples. I was able to move on to using the pump for more regular, non-emergency sessions.

With my previous babies, I struggled to get even 2 ounces of milk out of a pumping session. But this time around, my husband plans to give our daughter a bottle once a day while I work. I will need to have much more of a milk stash to cover that daily feeding. Plus, with the two older kids needing to live their lives, I will want more flexibility to give her bottles of pumped milk.

But how to increase my stock? One morning while I was pumping, she started freaking out and was trying to eat my husband’s face while I expressed milk into the machine. I decided to see if pumping while feeding her would increase my output. I positioned the baby in the clutch or football hold on my left side and used the pump on my right side. I won’t lie. The first two times, it was very awkward and required my husband’s help to hold the baby in place. But by day three, we had it down solo. I am now getting 6-7 ounces per session, and this method saves precious nap time from being used up by pumping. I can’t attribute the increase in milk solely to the new pump because I never tried using my old pump in this manner, but I’ve been pleased overall with the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump’s efficiency and performance. I pump/nurse at the same time every morning and am feeling more relaxed to see my freezer filling up with milk.

The results. After a few weeks with the right nipple cream, a breast pump, and a corrected latch, we bounced back from our breastfeeding challenge. But of course, as is often the case with parenting, now that we have this nursing thing down, a new problem has cropped up: She’s refusing to take the bottles I’ve worked so hard to make for her. Sigh.

Win a pump of your own!

Please wait patiently for the rafflecopter widget to load and you can enter to win an Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump (retail value $275).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Disclosure: We are compensated ambassadors of Philips AVENT trying to get the word out about this new comfort breast pump. All opinions and experiences are our own, like that 7 ounces of milk in a single pumping session? That really happened!

[Photos from flickr Tiarescott

This post was sponsored by IntelliBED, a premium mattress company, all tips are my own. My favorite story I heard about the founders — who are all grandparents — is that they were already well into making their adult-size mattress and decided to create mini mattresses for all their grandchildren; when they received positive reports that the children all slept better, they decided to make it a product. I don’t know if that is myth or legend but in this case, necessity was the Grandparent of invention.

Save 10% off a mattress, either large or mini. Or enter to win a child’s mattress (for a limited time)!

There have been so many scary studies about environmental hazards impacting our babies that it can be hard to know where to start when trying to create a healthy nursery. Fear not, new parents. Let me guide you. Before you freak out designing your baby’s non-toxic bedroom, consider three important regions:

1. Walls – look around.
2. Furniture and mattresses – sit down.
3. Floors – get all the way down.

That’s not so bad, right? Let’s go through them one by one.

Beginning with the walls.

Once you’ve pinned the perfect baby room, odds are high you’ll want to change the walls. If you want to repaint, choose No-VOC paints to limit the exposure to dangerous fumes. You know that “new paint” smell? That’s the nasty chemicals. No-VOC paints don’t have that. Alternatively, you can leave the paint that’s already on the walls and liven it up with artwork or decals. But if you’re gonna tackle wall color, let someone else paint your baby’s room (relax, mama!). [Read more: Paint without the fumes.]

A few things about furniture.

If you’re a rookie, you might not realize how much babies and toddlers explore their environments with their mouths. It is 99% certain that your baby will chew on the crib (my own stat) so paints and coatings are especially important.

Also many recent models of cribs have been recalled — like every single drop-sided crib (!) — so pick a new safe one and check the recall lists before setting it up, ok? [Check recalls.gov for your crib and other gear. Make sure you know about the latest crib standards; they evolve to keep babies safe not just to prevent us from saving money with hand-me-downs.]

Baby Atlas from Making a House a Home enjoys his healthy nursery.

Going to the mattresses.

Did you know that a newborn baby sleeps for 14 to 20 hours in the early days? The place he lays his head is super important. The intellIBEDmini mattress is composed of non-toxic, hypoallergenic, anti-microbial intelli-GEL. One of their team members told me that the filling is so safe you could eat it (not that you’d want to, but it’s nice that you could). Atlast (above) enjoys his. [Read more about the links between mattress toxins and infant health.]

Moving down to the floor.

After your baby’s bed, the next place you’ll be spending lots and lots of time is the floor. While it may be tempting to choose a floor covering based on how it matches your color scheme and theme — which I have totally done before I knew better — I urge you to spend your money on a safe choice or just leave what’s already there. Trust us. A brand new synthetic rug may do more harm than good. Hard-wood is good. Eco-flooring is good. Wool rugs are good. [Read more tips on choosing non-toxic flooring from Toxic Free Kids

Save on a new mattress!

Save 10% on any mattress from IntelliBED with the discount code: COIHeatherRookieMoms98. You can enter to win a healthier child's mattress (for a limited time)!

Related:

• Cheat sheet of non-toxic tips and eco-wisdom
• 5 Honey-dos for the nursery

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Disclosure: This post was sponsored by IntelliBED. All mattresses and mattress toppers/wrappers are made from the same material that is used in very high-end hospital beds for burn victims. It is a premium price product and very heavy (which becomes an issue if you have to change the sheets a lot).

[Photos from Whitney, Lana, and myself]

This post about putting my children to bed was sponsored by Huggies.

We recently asked our fabulous facebook community what you’d like to read from us and Kristal said “Bedtime routines, specifically for multiple kids of varying ages and stages without going nuts.” Welp, Kristal, this one’s for you though I can’t promise the without going nuts part.

5:32 Walk in the door. I like to rewind my getting to bed routine back to coming-home-having-dinner because it happens so fast you could miss it. We return home from our various jobs, after-school programs, and daycare between 5pm and 6pm. Ideally, I plant my children — age 19 months, 6, and nearly-8 — in front of a Curious George show (either one mini-episode for 12 minutes or two depending on the time I need to prep dinner).

Around 6:10, my big boys start their table-setting jobs and by 6:15, we’re eating. On a normal night — if there is such a thing — my husband gets home at 6:35 just as the first of us are finishing up. Sawyer is always done first; in fact, we’re lucky if he eats anything but that’s a story for another day. He is allowed to run around for a little while, literally, until I am ready to whisk him off to the next phase.

6:40 moving on. Depending on time available, level of dirtiness, and recency of last bath, I will bathe him or not. Regardless, he will ask for “BATH, BATH, BATH.”

If bath is a go, my toddler throws every toy in the tub as I strip him. I start washclothing as the tub fills. I begin draining the tub once it’s full. And I rarely wash his hair because Daddy does it. He hands me back the toys as the last water swirls away. Done. Sawyer will run around the downstairs in his towel while the other guys finish their food.

By now, it is 6:53. Sawyer and I will head upstairs saying ‘night ‘night to everything we see including the menagerie of animals in the neighbor’s backyard (when it’s time to wake up and return to breakfast, we get to say good morning to all the different items again). Once we make it upstairs, we might ‘night ‘night a few more toys. I find that it helps with his transition toward sleep to say these goodnights a la Goodnight Moon. There may be a song involved. I do what it takes.

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the neighbor’s backyard, the ever-changing scene is a constant source of delight to Sawyer.

Speaking of “whatever it takes,” all activities are intended mellow him out: he gets a fresh diaper with booty cream, pajamas, snuggling, 4 oz. milk, books, a huge yawn — I make sure to yawn until he does! — and a song. I hold firm at two books. Lately, I’ve been putting him to bed with a sippy cup of water in the crib (PRO: no more whining for water at night or in the morning; CON: must use the hard core diapers or he wakes up with wet pajamas!).

If all goes well, bed is between 7:00 and 7:15 for the little man. I pat his back as I tuck him in. If he’s happy, I leave him face down with butt in the air snuggled between two loveys by either cheek. If he’s in a bad mood, he may be standing and yelling as I leave the room (just keeping it real, people). I leave the dark room (AKA windowless closet nursery) while loudly shushing him and anyone else who might be within earshot.

Reasons he might be in a bad mood? I gave him the green water cup instead of the blue; I chose the books instead of letting him pick; I wouldn’t let him read while balancing on one foot on the glider ottoman; he’d rather stay awake and play; I sang the wrong song; or just “Daddy do it” on anything. He usually settles himself rather quickly once he realizes I mean business.

If he’s still fussing after 12 minutes, I’ll check on him and make sure he’s okay. That happens very seldom.

Meanwhile, the big kids start their bedtime responsibilities around 7:00. If Rookie Dad Alec is home, we play zone defense and he moves the older children along. They bathe or shower, pee, brush teeth, and read books until 7:40 then pee again. When their dawdling happens — and it does — it cuts into the book-reading time which they treasure. At 7:40, he leads a guided meditation in their beds to dial down the energy level even further.

At 7:45pm. It’s lights out for the big boys. Usually Daddy reads and tucks in the Bigs. When I’m doing their tuck-in, I remind them of their sleep rules. I’m pretty sure they keep whispering for a while afterward, but if that’s the worst that happens, I’m okay with that.

And if it’s just me? One or two nights a week, I’m on my own or vice versa. Most of the routine is the same with a few shortcuts: I skip baths if possible; the big boys finish eating on their own while I put Sawyer to bed; if they’ve cleared up the kitchen, I offer a tiny dessert.

Reasons I might be awakened at night? And our preventions.

• Potty accident. Big kids double-pee before bedtime to increase the likelihood of nighttime dryness. Little one gets super tough diapers.
• Water break. Big kids can get their own small cups in the night. Little one gets a sippy in the crib.
• Nightmares or night terrors. Not much we can do there. We give la pause when we can and rub backs as needed.

Phew. I get tired just thinking about it.

What does bedtime look like at your house?!
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Huggies®. To get coupons and other great rewards, visit the Huggies Test Town! Or check out the Huggies® Facebook fan page to learn more now!

Thanks again to Huggies Snug & Dry Diapers with NEW SureFit Design for sponsoring this post and the very true story of how I put my children to bed.

First comes love, then come marriage, then comes baby, and then another baby, and then HOLY HELL what happened to us?

When I was about to take my first maternity leave, a senior executive at the company where I worked called me into her office and then got misty-eyed as she told me how magical the first month with a new baby is for two new parents to share.  She described awesome joy and pride and compared it to a second honeymoon. My husband had planned to take four weeks off from work, and I’m so glad he did.  We were so pleased with ourselves and even though I felt like I had been run over by a truck between my C-Section recovery and my excruciating nursing pain, I felt the love for my husband that had been predicted by that veteran mom. When I tell expectant moms about it now, I get teary-eyed myself. It’s an amazingly special feat to create a child together and enjoying that bond is truly a great pleasure.

When my second child was a fussy newborn, the honeymoon– and paternity leave– was shorter. My husband had the same compassion and sensitivity for my recovery and renewed job as a mama cow, but with a two-and-a-half-year old in the mix, I spent more time thinking about him as another set of hands than as a fantastic guy that I had chosen to marry. I suddenly started to suspect that all the times I heard my own divorced parents and other divorced parents say, “It is not about you,” to their child, might not be entirely true. How could it not be? Children impact a marriage. Even if they’re not a strain, they’re certainly a distraction, and if we don’t acknowledge that, we’re in serious denial.

It’s never surprising to me when a reader or friend, especially one with kids under four years old, asks what strategies will help keep a relationship on track during the most intense, hectic child-rearing years. When such a question came in recently, I was inspired to share some wise words from our friend Asha of Minimalist Parenting.  She made this video for Kids in the House and I think it offers some great perspective: Tips for maintaining a strong marriage while parenting.

{video}

This guest post is by my friend Karen from OffTheMeathook.com, about her son, Laz.

We are among the lucky few who had a baby that slept through the night from a pretty early age. We didn’t really do anything to make it happen – but around 4 months old, our son just stopped waking up at 2 AM and started sleeping for a good 10-hour stretch almost every night. If he did wake in the night, we would leave him to cry in his crib and he would very quickly get himself back to sleep. I probably don’t have to tell you that this kind of thing can really lull you into a false sense of sleep security. There you are, getting used to finally waking up all rested and refreshed, thinking you have made it through the hard part.

Ha! It turns out we had merely passed Level 1 of this multi-player game we call sleep training.

Fast forward to 9 months old, and our son had proudly learned to grab onto those crib rungs and get himself to a standing position. He had also, seemingly overnight, developed a hyper-acute Spidey-sense to detect the very moment that one tiny part of his deep-sleeping, limp body hit the crib mattress, which would jolt him awake and set him into a screaming, crying fit. Unlike the sweet little baby of just a few months prior, who would quickly roll over and settle in the crib and get back to sleep, we found that our kid was now standing up in the crib, hanging on to the edge, to continue his tantrum from a fully upright position.

The problem? Once he was standing up, he couldn’t figure out how to get down again. So he would cry standing up, until he fell asleep standing up, at which point the fact that he was standing up would jolt him back awake. And the cycle would start all over again, ad nauseum. We had a few nights of feeling exhausted, frustrated, and powerless before we found a way to wrest back control. Of course, we didn’t know if it would work – but we felt relieved to have something to try.

The plan: to “emotionlessly” and silently lay him down over and over until he went to sleep. The first night it took about 50 times of laying him down before he finally got to sleep, sniffling and sobbing. I don’t have to tell you that it was a super hard night. But the next night, it only took 30 times. And the night after that – 10 times. The fourth night, after laying him down just three times he figured the jig was up, and passed out.

What this experience taught me is that my husband and I can handle these parenting hurdles so much better if we work together on a plan that involves specific actions we can take. We both took so much solace in the idea that we were trying something consistent to solve the problem, even though there were really challenging moments (OK, hours.) Luckily, in this case, it worked out. But if it hadn’t, I now know that the right thing for us would have been to make a new plan and try it until we got it right.

It’s been about a month since all this happened, and it’s still working great. If he needs to be laid down at all, it generally takes fewer than 5 times before he gives up and remains lying down. Last night he was acting up at bedtime and standing sentinel at the edge of the crib, whimpering. I went to lay him down and something fabulous happened – he laid himself down and went to sleep.

I love Karen’s rookie mom stories about Laz. We have more if you want to read them: their international baby travels, their nice stuff, their cute monthly photos!

We asked our Facebook community of 9000 moms to answer this: What piece of advice do you give to new moms?

There were so many responses that we have to break it up into several posts, and I thought this list of books and DVDs might be a good place to start.

Do you agree or disagree with these recommendations? Did any of these items help you? Did any of them make you feel terrible or confuse you?

What to read or watch when you need help with your new baby, in no particular order, according to our readers:

1. The Baby Sleep Solution book by Suzy Giordano
2. The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD
3. Dunstan Baby Language DVDs will help you understand what your newborn wants.
4. Itsy Bitsy Yoga has some poses that help calm babies and improve digestion. One mom says, “The Divine Drop was a lifesaver.” (Google it!)
5. The Dr. Sears library of books
6. Babywise
7. Baby 411 book
8. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding book
9. Secrets of the Baby Whisperer

I notice that no one mentioned Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which was one of Heather and my most trusted sources. Is that book out of fashion?

Most of the safety lessons I carry around instinctively, I learned the hard easy way by watching friends make the mistakes. Thanks to my village, I know that breastfeeding is not sufficient birth control and that I should never fly in flip flops. Here are five family-safety tips from my peeps:

1. Don’t put your car seats on high surfaces. Car seats tend to fall off tables and couches. It happened to my friend Joanne. Her baby flipped from the coffee table to the floor in seconds. Ouch.
2. Create your own family disaster plan. Because one time, Wendy told me that she watched the Oakland Hills burn from her college dorm room. Now that you’re someone’s mom, you gotta be prepared! I hadn’t updated mine since 2009 but I did it this morning.
3. Teach toddlers to cross the street silently. VDog told us this and she knows from being a nanny. She’s hella smart.
4. Baby-proof a hotel room (or in-law’s house) with duct tape. Carry along a little kit to keep your kids safer on the go. Debbie takes her three young children everywhere and knows how to tie it back and strap it down.
5. Role play to teach little ones about fire safety. Rookie Mom Whitney, queen of the costume box, knows how to get the kiddos to stop, drop, and roll. Do you?

What lessons have you learned the easy way (by watching your friends make mistakes)?

Some photos are not quite worthy of Facebook, but are must-sees to extreme enthusiasts of your child. That’s why my husband and I set up a few Photo Streams on our iPhones.

A photo stream is simply an album that can be shared with a group. The photos are located in the cloud, so no need to send group texts, emails with photos attached, or push them out to Facebook. You don’t need any special app. All you need is iOS 6.0 or later.

Since my parents all have iPhones, but don’t check Facebook very often, this is a way to push all the grandparents a photo at once. We invited them all to subscribe our family photo streams by adding their email addresses. When we share a picture to our stream, they get an alert on their phone. If they want to look at the stream at anytime, they just click the icon that says Photo Stream and has a cloud icon at the bottom of the screen when you are in the Photo app.

To get this photo sharing party started, on your iOS devices, go to Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream, and turn on My Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams.

Now, when you take 17 pictures of your baby sleeping, instead of putting them all on Facebook, simply share them with the Photo Stream you’ve created. To do this, click the sharing icon that you normally use to decide if you are going to push a photo to a text message, email, or Facebook, and a new choice will be Photo Stream.

In addition to the stream intended for our parents, I also created one just for me and my husband called “House”.  When I was shopping for dining tables for us, I walked around a store snapping photos with my phone. I added the photos to the House stream. Ryan’s phone alerted him that there were pictures added, and we were both able to post comments on the pictures. Now that the House stream exists, we can use it whenever there’s a need to share a photo just between us. Perhaps he’ll receive a picture of an overflowing toilet one day, while he’s on a business trip.

I can imagine using this feature if you have a shopping BFF who you’d like to share ideas with. (Note to Heather: If you tend to like the clothes I send you, set up a Photo Stream for us to share. If you don’t, pretend like you haven’t read this post.)

Here’s how it looks after you’ve shared a photo and your stepmom, who does not have a Facebook account but does have an iPhone, sees it.

My friends, Magnus and Cheryl, are amazing nomads who have been around the world and back only to set off again with a baby and another time with two toddlers. They have chronicled their journeys, triumphs and tantrums on a blog, with loads of tips on touring the world with young kids. Since they’re expecting baby number three any day now, I caught up with them and asked them to share some stories and advice. Merci!

Lessons learned from international trips with tots

We planned an 8 month soiree from August 2011 until March 2012, with hopes to travel from Scotland to Barcelona, dip into America, zip across Japan and Korea, traverse New Zealand, dot around Australia, take time out at Thai beaches before ending up in scrumptious Sri Lanka.

Traveling the world with young kiddies – exhausting chaotic craziness, yes, but with the payoff of a close-up view as our two tiny people grow and change with each passing day.

Destinations: Where’s safe & fun to go with the wee ‘uns?

Recommended child-friendly itinerary:

• Camping across Western Europe: safe, manageable but a lot of driving miles.
• Drive the U.S. East and South: family friendly but again, large distances to cover.
• Japan: Nuclear reactor cooling down (though we kept south to be safe) and a country that can use our tourist cash as it rebuilds.
• South Korea: Diverse, safe, user-friendly and not widely visited.
• New Zealand: Stunningly beautiful and family friendly parks and barbecue spots everywhere.
• Australia: Sunny beaches and familiar culture but scary poisonous critters to avoid.
• Thailand: Asia fun-style with great tourist infrastructure, lovely people and no malaria in the south.
• Sri Lanka: Cool varied culture, civil war in the past, a bit like India-lite!

{Read how and why we picked our Destinations}

Packing: What to pack on a world trip with toddlers

We found packing to travel with kids worked out fine: just keep your grown-up kit to a minimum. Also remember the obvious fact that there are children everywhere: you can most likely find any essentials wherever you are in the world. Be ready for a few embarrassing interactions, though, like Magnus mistaking the label for ladies sanitary pads for nappies (diapers) in a Japanese store!

Of course, some things have worked out better than others: the pram turned out to be a god-send, giving control over our crazy kids in busy train stations (but less handy going up and down subway stairs); the child-carrier allowed us to take the kids on a multi-day trek in New Zealand and the ukulele has brought joy to neighboring rooms in hotels across Japan and Korea. On the downside, e-books are not as easy to use as an old-fashioned print, we couldn’t survive without running shoes to keep us in shape and the kids needed a regular refresh of their toys and books to keep them interested.

{Read our actual Packing Lists and how they changed}

Travel Days: Surviving long transit days with toddlers (planes, trains, & automobiles)

Japanese trains are particularly cool because you can sit in the front carriage and look through a glass window to watch the driver pull his knobs and turn his dials to drive the train – great for inquisitive youngsters.

However, the magic lasts for but a few minutes until their tiny attention spans turn to the rest of the carriage. The cool, polite silence of the carriage with the people and occasional children sitting with restraint and impeccable manners.

Books, toys, treats and threats can also buy you a little time but, again, a journey of over 2 hours made the train carriage seem like a prison, with us the inmates being punished with the shame of damning eyes as our uncontrollable toddlers charged up and down, climbed the seats, fought and wailed when reprimanded. {read more Travel Days}

Even more reflections on our world trip with toddlers:

• The Fear Factor: Founded and unfounded fears when traveling with toddlers
• The Jabs!: Kiddy inoculations/vaccines

I excerpted this post as part of our series on traveling with babies, toddlers, and small children. Sheryl and Magnus have been some super amazing places. Go visit their blog to see inside more of their adventures. 

[All photos from MagnusandCheryl, all rights reserved]

This post is part of a series sponsored by Philips AVENT in support of the launch of the double electric Comfort Pump.

Pumping breast milk was still a mystery to me as I made secret lists of baby names and notified my boss of my pregnancy. I learned about it when my co-worker Mimi, newly back to work after having her first baby, invited me over to her house to show me the ropes of having a newborn.  That those ropes would include a tour of her freezer was totally news to me.

What rookie moms need to know about going back to work while breastfeeding:

1- You will need to own a breast pump. This is a device with a small motor that uses suction to extract milk from your breasts into bottles. (Not shown in this picture is the plug.)Place the suction cups over your breasts and press the power button. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, goes the pump, squeezing your nipples, making milk flow through the funnel into the bottle. When you are finished, you’ll unscrew the bottle tops that have the funnels attached and replace them with a regular flat cap for storing the bottles in a lunchbox or small cooler during the rest of your workday. At home, remove the flat cap and replace with a rubber nipple. Now someone else can feed your baby breast milk from the bottle.

2- Pumping will require a private place to be and a 15-20 minutes break a couple of times each day. Your company is probably legally required to supply this for you and if you are not the first woman to go back to work and continue nursing at your workplace, your HR person will know exactly what you need and help you make it happen. If you work at a big enough place, ask someone who has already taken a maternity leave to show you how she does it. [Read the stories we've compiled in our pumping project to feel less alone.]

3- Stockpiling milk during your maternity leave is a really good idea. Thanks to Mimi’s advice, I began pumping about a month before returning to work. My goal was to have enough milk in my freezer to provide a cushion so that when I went back to work, I didn’t have so much pressure to produce the same amount of milk my baby was consuming in my absence from the get-go.  Pumping takes some practice. Getting used to the pump at home will help you relax more when you return to work.

4- Buy some Sharpies. You may develop a different system, but here’s what I did: Locked myself in the “Maternity” closet at my office; pumped into the bottles that came with my breast pump; stored them in a small lunch bag in my office’s refrigerator; brought the lunch bag and my pump home each day; transferred breastmilk into resealable bags for storing in the freezer; washed and dried bottles and pump parts for the next day. I would use a Sharpie to mark the date on the bag. When my husband or nanny used milk from the freezer, they would use the oldest bag first. Breast milk can be reheated from a frozen state for up to four months.

5- You get what you get and you don’t get upset. KIDDING! You will definitely get upset at some point. Frustrating things that pumping moms face are: inconveniently timed work activities that compromise your pumping schedule; having to remember to bring all the components to work each day — and that one time you forget the lunchbox and have to hide a bottle of breast milk in a mug of ice in your desk drawer; producing less milk than you hoped for; co-workers not understanding your need to pump. Other pumping moms will have experienced those disappointments. Feel free to complain to us.

While this post is sponsored by Philips AVENT, all advice and experiences are my own. Heather and I pumped for five breastfed babies between us and we strongly believe that whether you’re going to pump for a couple of months or a whole year, you should treat yourself to a good double electric pump. You’ll be glad you did. (Read more about the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump on Amazon.com >)

Photo Credit: dianaschnuth via Compfight cc

This post was sponsored by UrbanSitter.

My very first time with a babysitter, I was so choked up with emotion about leaving my five-month old in anyone else’s care that I had to excuse myself to another room and cry for a bit (while she was still there!). There was so much to communicate and I had no idea how to say it all.

Since then, things have gotten a lot easier; I am eight years into my parenting journey and have 3 sons so I know a thing or two about their needs. Also, I am more comfortable with leaving my children in another’s care and I have a solid network of sitters. I maintain an evolving list with their evening routines, forbidden foods, and emergency contact info on my fridge for reference.

Despite my preparations, I still find that there are surprises with every new caregiver. Most of the differences are minor and I don’t sweat it (like when the kid’s bedroom doors are left open, which we never do at sleepytime) but other discoveries make “the list” for next time.

This piece of legal paper lives on the side of my fridge forever. The top part includes my kids’ names and birthdates, so I don’t need to frequently update ages, as well as our address and emergency contact info. The bottom part contains my peculiar instructions.

In addition to my overly thorough notes, I have the verbal instructions. I realize that what’s normal for me, might sound wacky to you so I offer a partial list of what I tell a new babysitter in the hopes that if I show you mine, you’ll show me yours:

• Take off your shoes, wash your hands. I’m a nut about this. If I see them do it first thing, I can relax. Otherwise, ummm, please don’t touch my kids or their food.
  Pro tip: If you’re weird like this, tell the sitter before they come over, so you’re not accusing them of being unclean. AWKWARD!
  
• Clean up the mess you make. I don’t need my house to be magazine-ready when I get home but please tidy up the dishes and food prep stuff as well as the toys you got out.
  Pro tip: For this reason, I nearly always ask sitters to make dinner so they’ll do the clean up.
• Keep up with the toddler. The little guy is the craziest. No matter what, always have one eye — if not hand — on him; the bigs will probably be fine.
  Pro tip: I have safe zones set up in every room so adult caregivers can go to the bathroom or open the oven door.
• Lights out at bedtime. I was surprised to learn that my toddlers negotiated for the lights to stay on… and the sitter wondered why they didn’t fall asleep. In our house, lights go off, all the way off. No matter what the kids say.
  Pro tip: I have the whole bedtime routine written down for reference.
• No toys in the bed. Again, my kiddos negotiated for puzzle pieces and blocks to be in their beds overnight. Huh? Actually, that one probably goes into the category of bedroom door left open and other things that are no big deal.
  Pro tip: Let go of what you can. Bedtime 15 minutes late? So what!
  

I’d love to hear what’s on your “list” of instructions for babysitters. Does anything unusual make the cut?

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This post was sponsored by the fabulous folks at UrbanSitter.com, who make it so easy for you to find sitters that your friends and contacts already like. All experiences with sitters described above really happened to me.

This is part of our series of posts sponsored by Pediacare.

Ever stay home from work to take care of a sick child, and half-way through the day, you’re wondering where to take him to work out his energy — that won’t contaminate other kids?

Sometimes a fever will make little ones sluggish and ripe for a long afternoon of cuddling and quiet play. Other days, getting sick kids the rest they need is like leading a horse to water. Is it just me? As soon as my child gets in a laying down position, it turns into “let’s pretend I’m a dog” complete with panting and asking for a toy to be thrown for a game of fetch.

Will you brainstorm with me? What tricks do you have to help your bambinos get enough sleep, especially when a cough or cold is in the air?

Here are a few tricks that I’ve seen work:

1. Objects of affection are only allowed in the bed. Once my children stopped napping on the go, their pacifiers and lovies stayed permanently in the crib. They were eager to go to bed at night because they wanted to get their suck on. They were eager to nap as well because their beds represented those soothing items.

2. Ramp it up before you ramp it down. As Heather shared recently, meeting a kid at his own tempo may be less of a struggle than coming at them with a “You are feeling VERRRRRY SLEEEPY” command. Play or dance at a higher energy level for a few minutes and then slowly wind it down until you are both laying horizontally and still. This is an exercise in patience, for sure. Heather’s toddler music playlist will take you from sixty to zero.

3. A special light show. A variety of products project stars or rainbows on the ceiling, intended to help children fall asleep. My daughter’s friend has a light device that’s on a timer and she knows she gets to push it twice before she goes to sleep. Scarlett loved sleeping with her friend and using it. We also had a LeapFrog plush toy that played music for a few minutes, and I know a lot of parents swear by the Sleep Sheep.

Clearly kids don’t know what’s good for them or they would stop putting marbles in their mouths the first time you ask. Sleep is one of the hardest things to force on someone. What tricks do you have up your sleeve?

This post is sponsored by Pediacare.  Take note of their children’s fever reducing product Cough and Runny Nose, plus acetaminophen.