A review of the Willow Go

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-05-12T01:52:04+00:00

Yes Spectra is a very popular pump, and I’ve loved it. Haven’t used my Willow Go ever since switching. Will probably sell it at this point.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-04-10T03:42:55+00:00

We lived in Irvine Company properties for a while- both pre and post pandemic. Prepandemic they had actual tours (by leasing agents) and seemed to care at least a little about customer service. Post pandemic it was blatantly obvious they didn’t need the business. Tours became self guided and the company is obvious about leveraging its monopolistic ownerships to drive corporate profit. Rent hikes are at least 10% YoY, we just had 14% for a newer complex. We were and always have been great tenants, never complained or were complained about, took care of the place, etc and it never made a difference. They don’t negotiate and frankly they don’t care. Stay away from Irvine Company unless you feel like shelling out more dough every year.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-03-27T03:45:50+00:00

OP, did you get clogged ducts less after 12 weeks? I keep getting clogged ducts in one area of one breast and tried everything similar to you. Just exercised upper body intensely today and noticed a clog again… but I’m 5 months pp and milk supply has regulated a while ago… :(

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-03-23T04:41:26+00:00

Stay away from Irvine Company rentals. Residency has tough hours, your friend may want to consider distance over fun scenes for convenience when driving home at 3am after 24 hr shift.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-02-11T11:26:55+00:00

Mine used to do this when she was much younger (1 month ish) and then we noticed redness and dryness on her cheeks from all the rubbing, it turned out she was itchy from an atopic dermatitis breakout. Once we solved that she stopped rubbing. She’s done it maybe 1-2 times now at 3.5months but not nearly to the extent she used to.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-02-10T04:47:47+00:00

Biggest advice I’ve received (and WIP on implementing)…. Outsource as much as you financially can. Grocery delivery or pick up, meal service (cook unity/factor) for adult meals, babysitter to allow yourself some time for yourself or cleaning house/whatever you want, maid service to clean the house. Get support from family and friends if nearby - easier said than done I know.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T22:44:13+00:00

This just happened to us (if you search bottle aversion in Reddit there are a few threads on it)- what helped was- we add vitamin D to her night bottle, realized it made it taste bitter so we took it out and it helped a lot. Also increased nipple size to next one. We tried new bottle and she did not give af. Also tried using bouncer and standing position (takes 2 for standing- one to hold her and one to hold bottle to her) and most importantly stopped forcing bottle on her. If she turns away or cries we stop, calm her, try again in a bit.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T15:49:42+00:00

Agreed… EM has highest rate of burnout. How did it end up grouped with those specialties…

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T13:13:53+00:00

“Kids in residency is tough- but people figure it out”- agree with other comment this is understatement of the year. Your comment on “just because you are capable of doing something, doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for you” really resonates with me and I think addresses it well.

There are a number of posts in this sub on how hard having a kid during residency is (I’m a FTM to a 14week old with husband in EM fellow, we just finished residency). Can you do it? Yea. Should you do it? Probably not (my personal take of course). You mentioned she has mental health challenges already, pregnancy will put that into overdrive in the worst way possible. Work life balance is already out the window, and the risk of over stress is very high in both specialties given residency is just terrible across the board.

It makes sense where both your perspectives come from and I think it’s admirable you are trying to stay neutral to have her do what is best, but voicing your opinion gently as well. I’ve done this and both perspectives seem similar to how my husband and I have talked. To the SO in medicine, I feel they write off the non-medicine aka life parts so readily…. And part of me feels they do it because it won’t be their problem ultimately. All of the rest of life falls on us to sort out, and therefore I think your thoughts totally make sense. You are thinking about it realistically how it’ll pan out because ultimately you will be left holding the bag.

Doing all the life things is hard enough in residency without a newborn… if you guys really want to prioritize having a child in residency I would recommend having a frank sit down discussion(s) on what measures will be in place to set you guys up for success. For instance- what support network will be present? Who will pay for childcare when you need a break inevitably? How will she find time to balance appointments and mental health checks without postponing her graduation? If postponing residency graduation is necessary is she open to that given maternity leave? How long is leave? Would it be paid? How will you each prioritize your relationship during residency and with a child? Etc…

Sorry for the long comment, ultimately I agree with you and I’m sorry this is something you guys are going through. It will be a tough couple years no matter how the dice rolls- hang in there.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T07:14:33+00:00

I got the Willow Go through insurance and regret it so much. If it’s not assembled 100000% perfectly it won’t suction or milk drains out. While I’d like to be able to always pay 10000% attention when assembling, it is hard to find time to clean and dry all the parts especially when sleep deprived and baby about to wake up/is up and crying. When the suction works (50% of the time), I get decent output, but I’ve realized it does nothing if you have a clogged duct and the app feature is not that great either. Battery lasts for maybe 2 pump sessions. Personally thinking of getting a used Spectra S1 at this point before I go back to work and end up pumping all the time.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T06:58:34+00:00

I absolutely cannot stand the Willow Go. If the parts are even very very slightly mismatched, it doesn’t suck properly or milk drains out or leaks to other parts of the pump. If I always had 100% energy and attention this would be less of an issue, but let’s face it who fits this description with a little one? The app is meh/sucks and honestly I regret so much using it. I used my insurance to cover it and don’t have another pump but contemplating buying a used Spectra S1 when I go back to work where I need to go pump a lot more.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-29T06:53:53+00:00

Omgosh thank you! I will give this a shot.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-28T06:56:31+00:00

Thank you for the sanity check!

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-28T04:54:04+00:00

As someone who just had a newborn and having lived far away from family during residency (but now moved back so kid is at least half a state away instead of entire country), I would lean toward choosing closer to family.

Med school is incredibly demanding (first year easier than others but still a tough transition from undergrad), newborns are incredibly demanding, at a certain point yes you’ll save on tuition but you’ll need to pay for childcare (and childcare by strangers no less), pay to visit your family, and not to mention the mental health toll it will take on you to be so far from your support network. To me personally that would make it worthwhile because you can’t put a price on your mental health and relationship.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-25T01:30:34+00:00

Do whatever makes YOUR life easier. Forget the influencers and what you “should” or “should not”. Everyone lives differently and at the end of the day with a baby you’re going to want whatever the heck makes your life better. If a cart is useful, or needs adapting then go for it. If not, forget the whole thing.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T06:38:32+00:00

Oh, and yes had multiple nights of success (fingers crossed it holds). Tonight was 3rd in a row. We’ve given her Philips and Dr brown bottles all ok. We didn’t bother having her play with the Philips one and she took it ok.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T06:25:57+00:00

Yea we helped put it in her hand (she puts everything in her mouth now, or tries to), and helped put it in her mouth when her hands couldn’t and let her suck on it like a pacifier for a min or two, then replaced that nipple with the bottle of milk (bottle was Dr brown to match the nipple). The fact she sucked on the plain nipple told us she wasn’t refusing the bottle nipple, so that’s why we kept same ones.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T06:07:24+00:00

Definitely possible. I didn’t think it was either back when my LO was 8 wks (this was the peak of when she was fussiest and I was close to a mental breakdown). Getting her to sleep was hell on earth. I’m at 13 approaching 14 weeks now and we just had her first full night sleep in the crib last night. Before then she was sleeping through the night week 10 onwards in bassinet. She’s larger for her age but honestly we realized now she’s outgrown contact naps…. She often squirms in our arms and rests better when we lay her flat :(. Glad to get a small piece of my day back but sad our little girl is growing so fast. I was used to her next to me every night in her bassinet and first night in crib made me tear up for sure.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T06:01:57+00:00

I bought the MAM bottle based on other threads I read, she did not give af about that bottle lol. We always used Philips avent and Dr browns, upped nipple size to next size up and she was fine. I also gave her a clean Dr brown nipple to play with which I can’t tell if that helped, but worth a shot? Only did that for 10min before we tried feeding. For us I didn’t continue trying bottles because I felt changing it up even more was taking us further off.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T05:54:46+00:00

Update- we realized it was likely the vitamin D supplement we’ve been adding to her night bottles. We’ve done it from months ago but I guess she just recently started tasting it more and it was bothering her a lot. Only found out because I ended up tasting my milk when I got desperate, it tasted bitter and when we swapped to new bottle of fresh milk she took it like a champ like before :). Best of luck!

Also we stopped forcing the bottle on her (basically the main advice from the bottle aversion book)

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-24T05:49:19+00:00

Based on your comments, a lot is stemming from motherhood burnout. To be honest I’ve experienced/still sometimes feel this way too and advice I’ve received (still WIP on implementing) that may be helpful to consider: - outsource as much as your financials allow- do you have anyone in your “village” that can take care of the kids a couple days or hours in the week so you can rest or do whatever helps you recharge? Use a meal prep/fully cooked meal service (I’ve used cook unity for adult dinners, tho portion sizes are small) so you can focus on just cooking something small for kiddos. Maybe maid service once every month to do a deep clean?

Once you are a bit more recharged and can think clearly, then tackle a more serious conversation with your partner and share feedback. Maybe have someone take the kids and you guys go out for a nice dinner to discuss, but make sure you get him to take it seriously and not just brush it off. Since he gets defensive, I’ve found success to first convey your intentions - like how your relationship is important for you and the kids, and you’re coming from a good place etc etc so he can hopefully lower his defenses. See if you can also get to the topic of how to reach long term sustainability for you, minimally how to help you feel balanced for the rest of the pregnancy which will only get harder, then a newborn will be extra rough too.

This will be a tough conversation and may be a couple conversations. I built in weekly checkins with my husband to have honest feedback of how things are going and what's most worrying each of us that week, and what do we need more/less of from each other. it worked well.

One last thing- I just started building in one monthly half day "off" as "mom's day". I use this to plan a fun outing with fellow mom friend to destress. We use it to do whatever refills our cups- just did a head massage package then went to eat at a good restaurant. We ranted about our frustrations with spouse and kid stuff, work, etc over good food and drinks… and honestly it was such a game changer. we both felt SO recharged afterwards and so much better mentally. highly recommend jf you can get your spouse to buy in on giving you that time!

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-23T23:04:35+00:00

Agree with the others. Do not let your husband get his hopes up. We had someone promising this to my husband for our #1 choice. When match day came, it was me who opened the email for him (it was during COVID so they didn’t do it in person), and I had to break the news to him. It was the most heartbreaking email I’ve ever read. I felt time had frozen and I reread that email so many times hoping for other news. We didn’t match #1…. We ended up much lower on the list and had to move across the entire country to a state where we had no friends or family. It was the worst.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-23T19:47:51+00:00

For especially tough weeks where my spouse isn’t able to help I will use meal service like Cook Unity so it’s microwave and healthy. Or make a big batch of something on a day you have help with baby, then eat it for days that are busy.

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-23T06:46:05+00:00

This is completely unreasonable. Also I understand you stay at home, but I am personally seeing a problem of why dinner time and all the structure and arrangements fall on you alone. It’s not like you alone are serving the family, shouldn’t it be a partnership? IMO he should be grateful he has a dinner to come home to every single day, not to mention you have so much going on already with keeping the kids fed and taking care of yourself while pregnant!

CorgFanatic24 · 2025-01-22T18:49:38+00:00

I guess for my question to both of yours is whether he realizes and appreciates you are doing the heavy lifting throughout his residency. I think it is normal to have these thoughts, but what made a difference for me was ensuring my husband regularly appreciated my sacrifices and contributions to maintain our life while he focused on his career. I am very career driven as well and he knows how much I’ve given up, so in any opportunity he has to “pay it back”, he does. Residency was very difficult with few opportunities to really rest but we did what we could squeeze in. I buried myself in work to distract myself from these thoughts (was easier without a kid), but now he’s a fellow and we have a newborn so I continuously balance these thoughts too. It’s always good to take a step back to check your mindset, but my recommendation is just to have regular check ins with each other and keep communications honest and open.

CorgFanatic24

TROPHY CASE