Newborn Favorites: Sleeping and Eating

I wanted to round up some favorites from my experiences with 2 newborns, totally different from one another. Let me first start off by filling you on how I fed/am feeding my children {America is fascinated by that right?!?} With my first, Weeks, I started exclusively pumping after about 2 weeks of unsuccessful and frustrating breastfeeding, and him losing weight or not gaining weight. In no way was I going to let my goal of breastfeeding get in the way of him gaining weight, so I started pumping. I exclusively pumped for several months and generated a decent freezer supply to keep him breastfed a while after I stopped pumping. I threw in the towel on EP after we introduced formula, because 1) he liked it 2) it kept him full with his big appetite that was hard to keep up with {round the clock feeding every 2 hours!} Exclusively pumping is a huge undertaking. Can't even put it into words. It was incredibly hard to do this and feel like I could care for a newborn at the same time. This experience was pretty hard at the time...I was discouraged and felt like a failure for not making the breastfeeding work. However, I stand by that breastfeeding was not in our deck of cards and no matter how long it took we weren't going to get it. I am especially sensitive to any mothers that choose formula and bottles for whatever reason it may be. I know the struggles and I completely feel for any woman battling the breastfeeding issue- emotionally and physically. 

Frances Ann is so far doing a wonderful job with breastfeeding, much to my surprise. As soon as I arrived into our room from recovery, girl was ready to eat. Our nurse even commented that it was the best "first feed" she had ever witnessed from a newborn. I only mention this because I want other Moms that may have had a tough experience the first time to be encouraged for the second child. Enough about my experiences though, {I usually don't share things like this!} but I wanted to fill you all in on how I have this "wealth" of knowledge for the range of products below! {totally joking on the wealth of knowledge part too}...

Having a positioning pillow is key, especially with breastfeeding. I am using the boppy pillow this time around- learn from my mistake and don't use a knockoff like I did the first time! I always heard the best things about tommee tippee bottles and Weeks did great with them.  I was religious about using this  bottle sterilizer for pump parts and bottles to keep everything clean. Right now, I am using this hand pump after some feedings just to keep my supply up and to have some milk in storage for occasional bottles. This is my double pump  that works really, really well. I would prefer it to the hospital grade pump we borrowed with Weeks, just for convenience and size.

 Both babies knew how to escape the swaddle from the get-go and blanket anxiety immediately ensued for me. Luckily, both babies love their sleep sacks and I do too! This one is recommended by our doctor as well. The rock and play was a game changer for Weeks....nights became exponentially easier after we started using it! Frances Ann goes in it occasionally for naps- she is still a little small to be really comfy in it at night I think. She is currently very content in her bassinet for night time. This time around, I went with a smaller, portable swing and love it! It is so nice that it takes up minimal space as far as baby equipment is concerned. It folds up for easy travel too. We are using it for naps and for a place for Frances Ann to be when I am in the kitchen, doing laundry, etc. I use these swaddle blankets for draping for nursing and for light layers when we are out and about. I don't actually swaddle with them.  Both babies started out with these pacifiers, although we might switch Frances Ann soon.

Whichever way you are feeding your baby, or plan to- I bet you are doing a good job at it! Hope these tips can help you in some way or another if you are the market for it. If I could change one thing it would be to give myself a little more grace however we handle the feeding, sleeping and parenting thing ;)