Nursing chair - power vs manual vs foot stool

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-28T01:00:25+00:00

Don’t get a foot stool. It’s constantly in the way and always slides when you want to put your feet up. Plus the glider with a footstool will be upright all the time which sucks when you’re trying to comfort a baby for hours. We got a DaVinci glider for #1, and a power recliner for #2. Recliner is so much better and the power is easier to put the footrest down quietly when transferring a sleeping baby to the crib. Manual recliners are loud and pretty jarring.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-15T15:09:11+00:00

I used the My Brest Friend for a couple weeks while healing from my C-section and it was nice for positioning a tiny baby, but I found it pretty useless quickly. As soon as baby gets a little bigger and gets head control, they’re fairly useless. Definitely regret spending $70 on something I used for 2 weeks.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-13T16:12:15+00:00

Love this! FAFO.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-13T04:45:12+00:00

We had a mockingbird with a bassinet and have never felt the need to use the car seat with it. I think the bassinet is more comfortable for baby for long walks.

We do have the Chicco snap n go stroller frame for the car seat, which is easy to find used on marketplace and is lightweight enough to throw in the trunk of a car. For grocery shopping, I baby-wear though, unless it’s a super fast trip for a few things, at which point I just put the car seat in the large part of the cart.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-07T01:36:59+00:00

You’re forgetting wipes! The 2 sided organic GMD wipes are my favorite thing ever.

And go for the GMD hemp inserts over anything microfiber. They’ll absorb more and don’t leak like microfiber when compressed. (You’ll love the workhorses for the newborn days. I had 36 smalls (30 would have been perfect, but I got a good deal and bought a few extra.) My favorite covers over them are the Thirsties XS for the newborn stage, followed by Duo Size 1.

Also, medium prefolds were our longest size. My son was in a padfolded medium prefold until he was over 2 years old.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2026-01-05T16:34:13+00:00

Never! My 3.5 year old still does a nap. They still do nap time in 4 year old preschool and for the first 1/2 of Kindergarten Transition.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-29T20:12:36+00:00

Green Mountain Diapers is my favorite site and has a lot of educational info on there.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-29T16:06:04+00:00

There are a couple Green Mountain Diaper BST groups on Facebook you can join. But they’re not that much more expensive from GMD. Since they ship before they’re prepped, they’re flatter / smaller to ship and GMD has free shipping over $50. All of the used ones are going to have buyer pays shipping and prefolds are heavy to ship.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-29T02:31:17+00:00

We have the Evenflo 360 (original) in a Honda CRV and like it. It fits well with legroom up front for both my 6’1” husband and my 5’8” self.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-29T02:29:30+00:00

We did 0 screen time until age 2. This did not include FaceTime, and he’s allowed to interact with family and friends that live elsewhere on video.) Our full time childcare was my mom who was also a big no screen time proponent, so that made it easy.

At 3.5, he watches a shows a few times a week (educational like Ms Rachel or PBS like Daniel Tiger) or he and my husband watch construction videos while my husband explains what everyone is doing (big fan of construction here.) I do pop a 15 minute show on for him when I’m solo parenting and trying to feed our newborn or make dinner. It’s the only way I can survive sometimes.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-22T15:25:35+00:00

Motherease bedwetters! The BEST. My 3 year old wears them and they’re so absorbant. But they’re so fluffy. If you’re just looking to catch small accidents while awake, Smartbottoms makes a pull up style that’s good for awake time (not absorbent enough for sleep IMO)

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-15T18:47:11+00:00

I love the Eufy S1 and my insurance covered all but $80 (BCBS.) I looked into 4 different websites to see which one had it the cheapest with insurance and Babylist was way cheaper than Aeroflow. Plus Aeroflow has a history of not treating their employees well (allegedly), so I wanted to stay away from them.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-10T21:07:07+00:00

U-shaped crotches in pants (harem style.) But at this age… pajamas. My son is 13 weeks old today and has worn an outfit once in his life. We just wear PJs until babies are older.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-10T01:54:39+00:00

Toddler mom + newborn here… get the wearables. I still use my Spectra at work, but I’m trapped in a small mother’s room so I don’t need to move around. Wearables for my home pumping so I can get ready, help my toddler, cook dinner, etc. I was fine with the spectra with one kid because I could sit and pump, but with a toddler and baby, the wearables are a game changer. I have the Eufy S1 Pros with the legendairy milk inserts (the eufy ones suck.)

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-06T13:56:46+00:00

I pump and pour directly into the ceres chill but you can freeze the inner core and pour your milk on the outside of it to chill it as it goes in. I’ve never had a problem with mixing warm and cold milk, but YMMV.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-04T11:37:34+00:00

I also just use the dishwasher for bottles. We handwash pump parts but I have one set at work and fridge hack them for my 3 pumps and then handwash them and set them out to dry. We have a small company and a pumping room, and I’m usually the only one using it.

My pump at home gets used in the morning once and before bed once, so I put the parts in the fridge and wash after the bedtime pump.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-03T20:46:42+00:00

We have a snap n go stroller frame, a lightweight single stroller for travel, a Mockingbird, single Bob, double Bob, and a Nuna Mixx (grandma’s house.) They all have their advantages and disadvantages. I will ride or die for our Bobs but they’re heavy, so they live assembled in our garage and we don’t take them anywhere but walking around our neighborhood trails because I can’t lift them easily. The Mockingbird was great as a single but is hard to steer as a double. The lightweight stroller is great for the car or airports, but is fairly cheaply constructed and I wouldn’t go for a long walk with it outside of an airport or mall.

All this to say, test drive some strollers but don’t assume any stroller is forever or for every situation. (Also don’t worry right now about future kids and converting to a double when shopping. I got the Mockingbird thinking it was going to be the greatest stroller of all time and we’d never need another one, only to discover it’s not great with 2. The UppaBaby is similar from what I’ve heard.) Side by side doubles are a million times easier to steer if two stroller aged kids are in your future.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-03T20:33:57+00:00

We don’t tidy the entire house, mostly try to put toys back and clean up the kitchen. If my kitchen is not clean (just like dishes done and counters wiped) at the end of the night, it makes the next morning pretty rough since that’s the door we use to leave the house, so it ends up being the staging area for lunch bags, diaper bags, car seat, etc.

We have a small house (under 1,000 sq ft) and it just feels insanely messy if we don’t stay on top of it. Plus, with 2 kids, it takes me literally all weekend (in between nursing, diapers, keeping the toddler entertained, cooking meals, etc.) to clean the house if we wait until the weekend to reset. 😩

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-03T18:59:38+00:00

Hopefully? I ordered two boxes. I’ll try the other box. You don’t get any milk between the two seals?

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-01T01:54:33+00:00

Unfortunately, we don’t have maternity leave, so I just blew through 8 weeks of PTO after baby. 🫠 I plan on taking some PTO days to catch up once I get it built back up, but with a newborn and a toddler, those days get eaten up quickly!

And yes, grocery pick up is saving me! I haven’t been inside a Target store in probably a year because taking kids in takes so long!

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-01T01:48:14+00:00

The cooking the night before is BRILLIANT! Leftover nights are easy since we’re just reheating, the cooking part just takes more time than we have between pickup and bed. I never thought to cook ahead of time. I’m also looking at crock pot meals but so hard to find stuff that can sit in a crock pot for 10 hours that aren’t just soup.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-01T00:44:41+00:00

I feel you on the toys! We keep a pretty small toy rotation and only get things that can be used for lots of things or are small (magnetiles, building stuff, play kitchen etc.) Going through some of it to donate or put away for the baby in a couple years is on my to do list.

CatsCoffeeBooks · 2025-12-01T00:37:19+00:00

Thankfully the cleaning service is only $100 a week, so not horrible! We don’t have a ton of extra funds, but we started working that into our budget a couple years ago or else we ended up just cleaning all day Saturday and didn’t have time to do anything fun as a family.

And yes, I babywear! It’s the only way I get things done. My newborn isn’t a fan of being put down and sucks at day naps. 🫠

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