Super Simple and Super Cute and Our Super Fun Halloween!

Halloween time was a whirlwind of a time in The Stronghold. The weekend before, we took our first airplane trip to South Carolina for my brother's wedding- more details of that adventure to come. So needless to say I was very behind on making our Halloween costumes this year. All my life I have worn homemade costumes- not once- ever, have I worn a store bought, packaged in plastic, made of paper thin polyester costume. It just worked out that way. It was our family tradition as a kid to head over to the fabric store and flip through the pattern books to choose the perfect get-up and then pick out the fabric. My mom is a wonderful seamstress and passed on that sewing to me, though I'm not as skilled as she.

Anyways, mix this with my type-A attention to detail in costumes and throwing something together the night before isn't easy, but I made it work. We'd planned on dressing up the toddler (!!!!!) as Jessie from Toy Story. I had several of the parts of the costume, but when we got back from Charleston it was my job to put it all together. Since our flight was delayed getting home I had 1 less day to do this. The costume still came out great. Below is what you'll need if you're so inclined to dress up you little one as a cowgirl or cowboy next year.

We kept our Halloween night SUPER simple this year. We had homemade pizza (thanks to my MIL) and Mummie Dogs (thanks mom) and witches fingers for dessert. There aren't many trick-or-treaters in my in-laws neighborhood so it was a pretty quiet evening. Ok- actually there were I think only 4 kids ALL NIGHT!!! So pretty much we just sat around the fire pit and watched our little Jessie run around "Yee-Ha-ing!" It was actually very refreshing to veg out after our big trip and after a wild day with my 3rd graders at school. Sometimes- no, a lot of times- less is more.

Here comes November!!!!!!

 Jessie Costume Materials:
Cowboy boots
Cheap pair of jeans
Long-sleeve white collared shirt (I used a boy's onesie)
Brown belt- attach a big western belt buckle to it for added cuteness
Jessie Hat (we bought our at Disneyland)

1/2 yard of yellow cotton fabric
1/4 yard (maybe more if your child is bigger) cow print fabric
red roping
fabric glue
1 package Heat n Bond Iron-on adhesive/ fusible interfacing
Peal/silver western style buttons 4-6 *optional for the detail freak ;)
2s sheets of newspaper to make your patterns
Iron on Velcro dots or strip that you'll cut into 1/2" squares
Red marker, fabric chalk or pencil

Prep your fabric:
I always wash & press cotton fabric before I sew it. So I did this a head of time.

**I didn't want to have to sew hem/seams to prevent fraying because honestly I didn't have time. You totally could do this, but I think the way I did it was much faster and it came out perfect. (If you were going to use this as dress up and needed to wash it many times though taking the time to cut out the pattern and then hem the edges of the yellow fabric may be worth it.) For Halloween it wasn't worth it to me.

1. Cut the yellow fabric in half. You're going to fuse these two pieces together to make a nice crisp, but flexible piece to cut the pattern from. To do this just cut a piece of the Heat n Bond to the size of the half. Follow the directions on the package for ironing temps/times. Peel off the paper backing and then place the other half and fuse them together by ironing again. *Now when you cut the fabric won't fray! :) Side note: before you fuse the fabric do a rough check on how big you'll actually need it to be for your child. I was able to cut the shirt piece and the two cuffs from doing it this way, but I have a little bitty 18 month old... I trimmed out the pieces in rough squares so I didn't need to fuse more than I'd use. Make sense? I hope so!

Making the Shirt: 
1. Take one piece of newspaper and fold it in half. Hang the white shirt on a hanger and poke a hole in the center of the newspaper (on the fold) to poke the hanger through. Trim the news paper so the edges go just to the shoulder seam on the shirt and so that it goes down the front and back just to below the arm pits (a little farther down in the front than the back since you'll be trimming more off the front to shape it.). Also mark how wide the neck hole needs to be.
2. Take the newspaper off and use a pen/pencil to outline the front edge of the yellow piece for the shirt. It kind of makes two shallow arches. I just did my best at eye-balling it. The points should end up where a pocket would be on the shirt.

3. Pin the newspaper to the yellow fabric (the pieces you fused together already) and cut along the lines you drew and the edges of the newspaper (where you trimmed it up to fit the shoulders). Remove the paper and cut out a neck hole. **You will need to make the neck hole bigger by cutting a slit down the back- just see how big of one you need for your kiddo's noggin' before cutting. Big heads gallop in our family! Give it a test by hanging it back over the shirt to see how it fits- trim accordingly.
4. Cut out, from the scraps of this, 2 rectangles approx. 2"x 8" for the cuffs (again if you're not sure on the sizing make a test run with the newspaper to assure a good fit). Sew on 1 button onto the end of each and cut a small button hole. *Be sure to fit this to your child's wrist before cutting the button hole so you can size it correctly. I also glued on a small piece of felt I'd cut to look like fringe. (Details people!) Use a red permanent marker to draw the loops on the cuffs. I guess you could use roping here too, but since our cuffs were so small the roping was a bit to bulky.
5. Use the iron on Velcro dots or cut pieces and apply them to the corners & middle of the yellow piece so it attaches to the white shirt. Iron the other part of the Velcro onto the shirt. I did this on the front and the back. I also added a piece where the slit is on the backside so it would stay closed after putting the thing over her head.
6. With the yellow fabric removed from the white shirt, use fabric chalk or a yellow highlighter to draw on where you'll glue the red roping. If you're awesome you can just wing it- I'm not. (Actually my hubby did this part, and it was a good call since he is also a perfectionist.) Then glue on the red roping in the same looping way as it is on Jessie's shirt. This will need to dry for several hours- over night is best.
7. **Optional Detail: If your shirt has buttons, remove the 2 that will show once the shirt is tucked in and the yellow fabric is in place. Attach the cute pearly buttons in their place.

Making the Pants/Chaps: (this is the easiest part and only take about 5 minutes)
1. Lay the cow print fabric out flat on the cutting board and then lay the jeans on top. Use fabric chalk or a pencil to make an outline of just the pant legs. The chaps will start just at about the same level at the crotch of the jeans and be the same length as the pant legs. Round the the corners on the bottoms. 2. Cut out the chaps. Cut out 2 small pieces of felt to make the fringe- glue onto the backside of the chaps on the outer edge.
3. Cut out two pieces of Heat N Bond the same width as the top of the chaps and about 3" long. Iron each piece onto the top edge of the chaps. Remove the paper baking and place the chaps onto the jeans where you want them to be. Iron the part that has the Heat N Bond on it. BAM! Jeans with chaps!


Sorry if my directions are a little vague and not with exact measurements. I hope you can follow them if you're looking for a way to make an adorable Jessie costume. It seriously was so fun to watch our daughter love wearing her costume. It was comfortable for her to wear and cheap to make (especially if you have some of the sewing materials laying around and if you buy the shirt/onsie, belt and jeans at a thrift store)

Happy creating!

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Summer Time Fun

I'm so blessed with a career that allows me to just be a mom for 2 months out of the year. (Please note that teachers only get paid for the days they work- so before you get all cranky about how you work all year keep in mind that you also get paid all year.) I absolutely love teaching. I'm passionate about giving ALL kiddos the access to high quality education. That being said.

Teachers are people too. For 2 months out of the year I get to just be with my family and not worry about other people's children. I get to rediscover the things I enjoy doing in my personal life that always get put on hold during the school year. I can devote 100% of my attention to my family, which Lord knows doesn't happen, as much as I try, during the school year. Even most weekends during the school year get filled with things to do for school. I get to relax, stay up late to watch movies, get up early to go running, reorganize my house, cook dinners that aren't ready in 30 minutes, and my favorite- part play all day long with our daughter. Summer is a magical time for me and if it were a location, rather than a season, I think it would be in Neverland... If you just squint your eyes you can see it all year in the not too distant future.

So. This summer is extra special. We won't take an official vacation, we didn't pack our schedule with things to do all summer. We are just playing it by ear week to week and day by day. The only place we have to be is at swim lessons twice a week. It is very freeing for me since all year I'm literally dictated by my iCal. (I couldn't get to all the places I need to be without it during school.) Here are a few highlights from our summer so far.

Talking, talking and more talking! Lill is such a chatter box! She went from saying mostly nouns to adding some adjectives and verbs and now she has complete and compound sentences. She also has big opinions about everything. She started changing the tone of her voice depending on how she feels about whatever she is saying. For example, "Hi." became "HI YA!!!Mama!!!!" *my heart melts for this one, especially when it is followed by a huge hug* 

Road trip! Immediately after school was out my dad, Lill and I took a road trip. We visited Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, and Sedona. I learned that my daughter is a fabulous traveler! My mom's trick of the car bag full of new books & toys worked great!! The travel potty was also super helpful since she is almost potty trained- only 4 wet diapers in 1 week!

I love making homemade ice cream!!! Summer hits so far: chocolate with marshmallow fluff & pretzels, vanilla chocolate chip with black cherries, and mint chip. I will post recipes soon. 

The garden is bursting with zucchini, cucumbers, basil, mint, jalepeños, and watermelons. Our tomatoes are almost ripe and that means it's almost time to make fresh mozzarella! I'm also excited because we tried growing watermelons this year and we have 3 almost ripe ones and 5 little ones on the way!!!!!! I cut one open today. They need a week or so more. It's so tough to tell if they are ripe or not!

 
What do you love to do during summer with your family?

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We're Taking the Challenge!

How many times do you think you use your dryer each week? For us it was usually 3-6 times!!! When it was SO stinking hot here in July I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the dryer. I found a clothes line and started line drying everything. I loved it! The clothes were coming out a little crunchier than I'd hoped so in doing some searching for what to do, I came across a very fun blog! They happened to be doing monthly challenges and guess what August's challenge was? No Dryer! I wasn't brave enough to post this before bc I wasn't sure how long this no dryer thing would last for us, but it's been over 5 weeks now and I'm not missing it! Colin is even into it! So here's to the No Dryer Challenge- we did it and probably will keep it up for months to come!!! By the way, adding less detergent to the laundry made a big difference in how crunchy the clothes were once dry.



 

So for this month the next challenge is "Eat Your Pantry" Something we need to do. I know there are the makings for lots of good meals in there I just need to cook the stuff! Going to spend some time this week coming up with meals (or side dishes more likely) from what we have in there.



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What We Don't Do

"Sometimes I think what you don't do has a just as big- if not bigger- impact as what you do do." This thought popped into my head the other day as I watched my sweet girl have one of her first melt downs. I don't mean to say that doing things doesn't have an impact, of course it does. But, sometimes the things people don't do, especially when it comes to their children, can greatly impact (positively & negatively) the children's lives. I'm sure we could brainstorm tons of examples. I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that when I see children struggling in their lives a lot of times it's caused by things the adults in their lives aren't doing. It's also true that when I see successful children there is a list of things their parents aren't doing also. I guess the implication for me reflecting on this, as a new parent, is to be aware of the things I'm not doing. Then decide if by not doing these things I'm benefiting my children. Food for thought. Pin It Now!

Feeling Sew Crafty!

One of the nice things about summer is that I have time to catch-up on projects I've been putting on the back burner during the school year. Today, I checked one such project off my list that has been there since Fall!
I've really been unhappy with changing pads since my daughter has out-grown the one that came with one of our diaper bags (I think that one was maybe 20" long by 12" across.) I know this seems kind of trivial, but those public changing tables gross me out so much. I just want to sterilize the whole thing! I know there are disposable changing table covers, but since we are trying to be a waste & money conscious family I don't think those are up our alley. I shopped around a lot and the ones I liked all came with "changing kits" to hold wipes and diapers. If we were using disposable diapers or maybe even different cloth diapers these would work. However, with what we have they didn't fit well. Soooooo I made my own! I have to say I love how it turned out! It was SUPER easy. Check it out!

Making a changing pad:
Decide what size changing pad you want to end up with then add 1-inch to allow for a 1/2" seam then buy a little more than that so you can make sure you can trim it so all sides are straight.

Materials:
-PUL fabric (I used Babyville PUL fabric available from JoAnn for about 12.99-$14.99 per yard, but use a coupon for goodness sake! Note: They sell 3 packs of this fabric, but it is only 21" x 24" I wanted my changing pad to be longer so I bought the fabric off the bolt instead. If you're ok with a shorter pad then the 3-pack is a good option.
-Fleece or terrycloth to add absorbency and a little cushion (I used fleece for this one.)
-Cotton or flannel print fabric

Step 1: Cut the fabric to desired size including 1/2" seam allowance. 

I cut mine to 19" x 31"

Step 2: Pin the fleece to the back of the print.

Step 3: Stitch around several of the owls to tack down the print to the fleece. (This could be optional, but I think it looks nice and keeps these two fabrics snug together.)

This is how it looked from the back of the fleece.

Step 4: Lay the PUL fabric and print fabric face-to-face.

Step 5: Pin around the perimeter and several in the center to hold all three fabrics in place. Then stitch around the perimeter with 1/2" seam, leaving about 6" in the middle of the bottom open.

Step 6: Turn it right-side out.

Step 7:  Push out the corners & seams nice and tight. It's really important to then iron the seams flat. *This is before I ironed.

This is after.

Step 8: Finish the seams. I used a zig-zag stitch to finish the seam. I also ran 2 straight stitches down the length of it at 6" & 12" to hold it all together in the middle for washing and to make folding easier. I threw it in the dryer of 20 minutes to "seal" up the holes in the PUL fabric around the stitches per the manufactures recommendation.

Step 9: Come up with a closure. I sewed one end of a ribbon to the changing pad and attached a large button to it. I then sewed it into a loop at the other end of the ribbon, folded the changing pad into thirds and secured it shut with the ribbon. I'm sure snaps or Velcro could do a good job of closing it up too.

Folded up, not smashed down at all, it is about as tall as a spool of thread. It is able to be compressed much more though. if it was folded differently it could be thinner, but it would have a larger folded perimeter.

Folded up it is only  7" x 9" approximately! Nice and compact.

Unfolded it is 18" x 30"!!!!!

Ta-Da! It fits perfectly into my diaper bag!

I think it came out pretty well for my first attempt and I think it could easily be used for more than a changing pad. I like that it is waterproof so if she goes to the bathroom mid-diaper change it won't soak through. It could also be used a great outside tummy time blanket/picnic blanket if the grass is a damp. I obviously haven't washed it a bunch yet, but I imagine it will hold up well. I plan on line drying it with our CD covers since this is supposed to prolong the PUL's life.

I hope this has inspired you! If you like it & need more details please feel free to ask.


UPDATE:
I've now been using this changing pad for a year and it has been washed multiple times. It has held up beautifully! I always line dry it, though.  Pin It Now!

The Best Worst Camping Trip Ever

In 2009, my husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary. We were entering that "almost broke, but at least we're broke together" phase of our relationship. We decided that to celebrate year #1 we'd take a cheap little camping trip up to Big Sur. The campground I really wanted to stay in was booked up (San Simeon Park). So I found another, private campground, that has plenty of sites open for the weekend. The website made is seem like it was a great place- with a stream large enough to play in and float around on tubes lazily. There was also a little store and bar beside it. There were several trail heads within walking distance of the campground and the sites were nestled in between Giant Sequoias. Beautiful, right?

We'd also be celebrating my birthday since it is only 2 days after our anniversary. For my birthday I'd asked for a new Colman camping stove. I received one, it wasn't Colman, but it seemed to work just fine so I was thrilled. (This becomes an important detail.) Now, I've been camping with my family since I was too young to remember. We usually went camping in a small trailer, but sometimes tents too. Over years of watching my meticulous mother, grandmother, and aunt pack for tons of camping trips, by osmosis, I inherited their type-A precision in packing all the necessary camping supplies, beyond the basic tent and sleeping bag. Everything we needed would fit into a.) the cook stove's storage bag, b.) the Rubbermade tub, which doubles and a nightstand in the tent or side table by the campfire, or c.) the ice chest.

We hit the road nice and early and drove to Anaheim. (Pit stop for the day at Disneyland!!) The next morning headed up the coast to Big Sur. Gorgeous drive once we got on the 1! We found the campground fairly easily got checked in, found our site and set to work pitching the tent.

The downward spiral:
The camp site was SOOOOOOOOOOOO small and sooooooooooo close to our neighbor's. We figured it'd be ok since no one else was checked in around us, and online the campground wasn't booked to capacity. WRONG! By nightfall it was packed was LOUD large camping groups. So whatever, we cracked open the wine, and got that fire going and cooked a delicious meal. Our nearest neighbors arrived after us and literally set their tent up within arms reach of our camp fire. Really!!! Who does that?

Camping Pet Peeve: Blasting loud music. I'm not a fuddy-duddy (well maybe a bit) but I go camping to get away from this kind of noise. I don't wanna hear your "Best of the 90s mix tape", R&B slow jams, or anything else for that matter. I just want to hear the sound on the wind in the tree, crickets, birds, crackling fires, and kids riding their bikes. That is it.

Then, all night, seriously all night one of the neighbors' infants cried and cried and cried. I'm talking like ear infection horrible screaming. Camping with babies is totally fine, but if your child is screaming for hours on end at 2am and you're tent camping.... go sit in the car, go for a drive- everyone in the campground will thank you. Poor baby. Poor baby's mom bc you know she was stressing out. Poor campers within earshot- it was baaaaad.

We should have known the day was not going to be quite as we planned. I got up and set to work whipping up some eggs, bacon and pancake batter for breakfast. Guess what wouldn't light? Yep- the dang camp stove (Note to self: buy the Coleman brand when it comes to things you really need to work well! So we had PB & J instead. :(

We were looking forward to a day of floating lazily in the water...... wrong! There were SOOOOO many people it was rediculous. It was more like a kid stew- yuck!

See that tent to the right of Colin- that's NOT ours!!

Plan B to the Rescue: Hit the road and explore Monterey. Neither of us had been since we were kids so it was a great adventure. The aquarium was awesome. The weather was beautiful. I love that my husband is easy going. Our nice relaxing camping trip turned into day tripping up and down the coast for the next few days, but we had a blast.

Seriously- how darn cute are these Sea Otters?!?!?

We got creative with our camping cooking. Yes, I know we had a fire, but we had planned on the cook stove so we didn't have the things more suited for fire cooking.

The trip could have been ruined. So what we didn't get to have all the delicious camping meals we'd planned. We could have been grumps and been cranky about the situation, but we made the best of it and ended up having a fantastic trip! What matters most is how we spend the time with those that we care about most- it doesn't really matter if everything goes as planned or not.

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Getting Going with Cloth Diapers

So... long before we even entertained the idea of having kids, I got it into my mind that I wanted to use cloth diapers. My mom had used them for my brother and me, but other than that I knew no one who was presently using them. I figured that I would just make it work when the time arrived. Well as soon as I found out I was pregnant, before we'd shared our good news, even before I'd even tiptoed into the huge world of baby stuff, I announced/asked to my husband "We're going to use cloth diapers, ok?" This question honestly wasn't really a question, but I put it that way to test the waters. To my surprise, Colin was pretty much on board. He had a lot more questions than I had even begun to think about, but we decided to make it work.

I did tons of research and I now know more about cloth diapers then I'd even imagined I would and there are still a few things I don't quite get, like wool covers for example. (More on this later.)

Anyways, I decided that an easy way for us to ensure that we would be able to continue cloth diapering through all stages of a pre-toilet trained toddler was to get diaper service. We are very fortunate to live a city that has diaper service available- Earthy Baby Diaper Service (update: Earthy Baby was bought by Pannalino Diaper Service- I've been super pleased with them!) is fabulous! (If we didn't I would be washing them myself though.) I'm the kind of wife that is great at somethings, but laundry is one of my LAST priorities. Luckily, Colin seems to be ok with this. We tend to put off laundry as long as we can and then once its clean I'm notorious for having 2 baskets of clean laundry sitting about for days. I know, I know it's a bad habit. I'm working on it.  I also was realistic with myself that washing diapers probably would be a higher priority, but not a task I was willing to take on with everything else especially once I went back to work. So our wonderful relationship with our diaper service began! There a bunches of sites out there that can walk you through starting up with cloth diapers (either with a service or self-washing them). After a year of using 99.9% cloth this is what we've found works the best for us.

Here is what our stash includes:

-Diaper Covers: Bummis & Thirsties have been our fav. I'd like to try making them, but haven't found the time to get sewing. Both brands' sizes run different so we used them at different weight stages. The Bummis x-small was perfect for my little 6lb 14oz 21 inch long!!! newborn. Talk about a string bean!

-Fleece liners: Helps to wick away moisture on long car rides and over night.

-Bio-degradable liners: Start using this when you start your babe on solid foods. Up until then all the poops wash right out and you don't have to remove it before washing. I've tried a couple brands- they both worked fine. I think I'll keep buying which ever is cheaper at the time. These you just lift out and plop into the toilet and flush away most of the mess. (Yes, sometimes you still have to rinse off poo that missed the liner, but really it's no worse than wiping up that cute patootie on your baby.)

-Diaper Pail, aka Trash Can with a good lid: Honestly the Simple Human rubbish cans are really nice, but so pricey that I couldn't bring myself to buy one. We use a Safety First diaper pail at my MILs house (she cares for our daughter during the week), but this pail is not big enough to hold a weeks worth of the larger diapers (I think it's only 10gal.). So this is a good purchase (cheap) if you'll be having someone else care for your baby during the day or if you're going to wash your own more than once per week. At our house we picked up a 13 gal. bin at Bed, Bath & Beyond, which is the perfect size for the large wet bag our diapers get delivered in. We also have mini trash can for wipes. (We use disposable wipes. I think this summer we'll switch to cloth, but for now this is what we use.)

-Extra wet bag for the diaper pail at our MILs house makes bringing them home e-a-s-y.

-Wet Bags for your diaper bag 2-3 to rotate. I've been though several kinds and my favorite is the Bummis small wet bag for day trips and the medium one for over night trips. Update: I found some time and made a bunch of wet bags in various sizes from PUL fabric I picked up at JoAnns.

I get most of our Fluff on amazon. The only down side is you can't touch it first, but once you find what you like its easy. Returning stuff to them isn't too tough either. There are several good baby stores in San Diego that carrier CDing supplies, but amazon has just been easier to buy from.

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How do you measure a year?

Seriously! The fastest year of my life just happened.

So, I feel like I'm not alone in the "Yep, I went through a RENT phase......" (No shame!) I was thinking about how to measure this past year and tapping into my past love affair with RENT seemed slightly appropriate...

 This past year has been measured in....

Weeks, months, days, minutes, seconds, and lots of contractions.

Us!

In tears (Lill's and ours), 2 hour nursing/sleeping schedules, and ounces of precious milk. 

In visits to Hemet, trips to Disneyland, and skillfully packing a car for camping.

Papa Lee and 2 week old Lilly

Sleepy smiles

Sometimes all you can do is rock.

In tummy time, tubby time, and first smiles and giggles.
In diapers, in bottles (not finished), in stuffy noses.
In quiet moments at 2am and Saturday morning snuggle time.

A perfect day

Baby toes!

Really, it doesn't get any better.

On the move!

In rolling, scooting, and finally crawling!
In pointing, babbling, and first words, Dada, tat (cat), a-dog-a (dog), and finally Mama!!!

Beginning to stand up

Practicing hunting for eggs

In teething, and standing, and stepping around.

"Hello? Grandma!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day

In sloppy kisses, in hugs, and in those big baby blue eyes!!!









Measuring in love doesn't even begin to explain it!

Look out I'm ONE!

 Thanks VERY MUCH to everyone who has given us support in our first year as parents. We are loving every minute of it!!! (Yes, even at 2:30am.) Lillian you are better than we ever dreamed you would be, you make us smile every day, we have fallen deeply and madly in love with you, and we treasure every moment we get to be with you. God bless you Lill!




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New Nursing Mother's Essentials

There are so many reasons to choose to nurse your baby. I'm not going to go into that because I'm not an expert and I'm sure you're capable of trolling the internet for that info (the website I linked below is fantastic by the way).

Like many moms-to-be I went to a breastfeeding class which was very informative, but really even though I was 30 weeks pregnant at the time it all seem so far off and foreign to me. What I really wanted was someone to tell me what I really needed to have on hand to make nursing something I would want to continue doing for as long as possible. So here is the advice I wish someone had passed on to me:

Nursing Essentials:
1. Lansinoh Nipple Cream- think chapstick for your nips- apply before/after nursing EVERY TIME to keep things from getting dry and cracking. By the way- its also great for extra dry spots on your own hands and on cradle cap! There are other brands available too. I went with this one. Which every kind you pick get one that you do not need to clean off before nursing.

2. Nursing Cover- you don't "need" this, but it seriously makes nursing in public WAY easy and comfortable. I never leave home with out it and we use it for SO many other things too. It makes a great: car seat cover to shade the baby in the car or while sleeping in the car seat or stroller, blanket, and a shopping cart cover when I've forgotten it. (Hooter Hiders are my favorite brand, but there are other options out there, too. I think those ones are larger though- which is very good when your LO gets bigger and more wiggley.)

3. Good nursing bras for day and night. (Target has some great ones!)

4. Heating pad or one of those rice filled microwavable packs (a warm compress before nursing really helps get things flowing and helps to be sure you fully drain your breast when pumping).

5. Bookmark this website: www.kellymom.net one of the BEST nursing resources I've found.

6. Pick out a good breast pump.  I have the Ameda pump and I love it. I also used the Medela pump I rented from the hospital. It was fine too. If you're going to be pumping 3 or more times a day while at work just get a good one. Before I was pumping I thought it was SO odd to get a "used" pump, but now I get it. You could get a used motor and then you buy a fresh kit of the actual part that goes on you (the flange) and fresh tubes. It wouldn't be unsanitary at all. But really, if this is your first child and you're planning on having more kiddos- just get you're own. The investment will be worth it.

7. Nursing pads. There are a bunch of brands- just try a few until you find what you prefer. I like the Lansinoh kid as far as disposable ones go, but I have some washable ones too.

Don't worry if nursing doesn't go perfectly in the hospital. I was so frustrated with it there, but once I got home (and didn't have nurses and people watching my every move) it was WAY easier. 

Find a lactation clinic (or visit a consultant if your insurance provides them). It is really helpful to visit the clinic to see how much your baby is getting in a feeding and to be sure his/her latch is correct. 

Happy nursing and don't give up if you're having trouble- seek out some support. AND if things really don't work out... don't beat yourself up over it. You're not a terrible mother. The most important thing is that your baby is nourished and loved.
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