Friday, April 8, 2016

Favorite Baby Items: Take 4

Another post for my Favorite Baby Items series!
If you missed the previous posts, click below to catch up! :)

Favorite Baby Items: Take 1
Favorite Baby Items: Take 2
Favorite Baby Items: Take 3 (Breastfeeding Edition)

As Bennett starts getting older, I'll start grouping our favorite items by his age - better organized, and more helpful for those mommas-to-be out there! :)

Night Light - We have this awesome night light, which is oddly enough for camping! I bought it off of Amazon, it was on sale while I was looking for a dim light to keep in Bennett's room and I'm so happy that we selected this one. In fact - I purchased a second one to keep at my parent's house for when we travel there and have sleepovers (less things to lug back and forth!) You can control the brightness with easy arrow buttons. I wanted a light that was dim enough to see while changing diapers or feeding him in the middle of the night, while also being not as bright so that it disrupted his sleep. I didn't have to wake him up even more with turning a brighter light on for these things. Also another great thing to mention about this light is that at our house, it's usually on for 10-12 hours each night, and we'll only have to re-charge it every 3 weeks... the battery is amazing! Highly recommended!


Glider - We love our Stork Craft Glider. We purchased ours from Toys R Us when it was on sale, with rewards points. We usually feed Bennett his bed time bottle in the glider, his middle of the night bottle (if he wakes for one), and sometimes his morning bottle. This glider was also amazing while I was pumping. We read books in the glider, and Bennett loves face-timing with our family, so usually we face-time while rocking in the glider - he loves it! It's the perfect size, extremely comfy, and isn't too bulky in the nursery.


Pajamas with Zippers vs. Buttons - Zipper pajamas are amazing, especially when you're changing diapers more frequently. Our little man is a pee machine - he's usually in need of a new diaper every hour. When you're constantly changing diapers, trust me - you'd rather have the zip ones vs. the button ones. Buttons take so much time. We definitely have button pajamas, and extremely cute ones that he does wear constantly - but if it's up to you and you're picking pajamas out, my recommendation is going with the zippers! :)


Britax - We are obsessed with our Britax travel system. As a shower present, we received this system from family members, which included the car seat, a base and the stroller. It was highly recommended by a friend who has the same system. Not only is Britax one of the safest brands for car seats (which, when picking such things for your precious baby, is one of your highest concerns) but the functionality of every piece is so easy to use. We recently received the convertible car seat for Bennett once he outgrows his carrier, and we went with a Britax! This brand tends to be more pricey, but you can't beat the safety and trusted recommendations/positive experiences that come along with it - it is definitely worth it to us!


Avent Natural Bottles - These bottles are amazing! I actually just had another 5 pack delivered to our house. We received the Avent Natural Bottles as samples, along with samples of the Munchkin Latch bottles and Tommee Tippee bottles. We tried all of them when Bennett first arrived and the Avent bottles are by far our favorite. A few reasons - there aren't a ton of pieces (easy washing and assembling!), the bottles are thick and high quality, along with the nipples. When using the Tommee Tippee bottles in the beginning, they worked out well. However - as Bennett has gotten older, is eating much more, and his suction is obviously becoming more stronger - the Avent nipples are the only ones that don't cave in or collapse mid-feeding. When feeding with others, we'd have to pull the bottle from his mouth, let air get back into the bottle so that the nipple would reform, and then pop the bottle back in Bennett's mouth. Also with Tommee Tippee bottles, you have to make sure the vent hole on the top of the nipple is below the baby's nose each feeding, which in the beginning while you have many middle of the night feedings with a starving baby, can be quite frustrating to find in a jam. Avent Natural is definitely the way to go!



OXO Formula Dispenser - This is our favorite formla dispenser. We also have an Avent dispenser that we keep in our diaper bag. The OXO Formula dispenser is much easier to use, because it's more round - it doesn't take you forever to tap the formula out into the bottle, and you're able to shake out every last piece of formula when preparing a bottle. We've found that with the Avent dispenser, you have to shake it around numerous times to clear the formula from each of the sides, and it often left small piles of formula in the side of the little sections.


That's it for this post! Stay tuned for recommended products for our 3 month old... It's hard to believe he'll be 4 months in just a week!

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Easy Side Dish: Oven Baked Asparagus

Being the picky eater that I am, I always avoided asparagus when my parents made it. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally agreed to trying it (yes... can you believe that I was 26 years old without ever trying asparagus?! Judge away - I totally deserve it!) After I finally tried it - I can't believe that I put it off for so long - it was delicious!

I love simplicity when cooking, and this was the perfect recipe for that (thanks, Mom!)


Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- olive oil
- 3 small garlic cloves/sections

Instructions:
- Line your asparagus in a baking dish
- Drizzle with olive oil
- Use your garlic press to add garlic all over the tops of your asparagus.
- Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees

Enjoy! :)

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Crock Pot: Newlywed Beef Tips

We had this crock pot meal today and it was amazing :) 
With just two simple ingredients, it was so easy!
We will definitely be making this again :) 


Ingredients:
- 2 lbs beef tips
- 3 cans of french onion soup

Cook in the crockpot on low for 6-7 hours.

I served mine with steamed broccoli and jasmine rice - delicious! :) 

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Mom's Favorite Steak Marinade

This is my absolute favorite steak marinade recipe! Every time we go home to my parents' house and they ask what we want for dinner - you can guarantee that this (along with mom's mashed potatoes) is one of the dishes that I ask for! :)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp. vinegar
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
- sprinkle of garlic powder

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Put your steak in a sealable container and add the mixture over top of the steak. Refrigerate for 24 hours. The following day when you are ready to start making dinner, add the steak to the grill and enjoy! :)

Monday, February 22, 2016

Favorite Baby Items: Take 3 (Breastfeeding Edition)

If you've missed the previous posts to this series...
Going through this mommy journey, I've been so thankful for all of the help and recommendations from all of my mommy friends and family - which is what inspired this series of posts. If I can help new or soon-to-be mommys even just the slightest based on my own experience, I hope to! :) This take on my favorite baby items is dedicated to breastfeeding and the tons of products related to breastfeeding that are available! I'm exclusively pumping, so these recommendations may be different for those mommas that aren't pumping just yet and/or that are able to nurse. Regardless - here are some helpful items that I love that have made pumping a little easier for me, in no particular order:

Hands-Free Pumping Bra - The Simple Wishes Hands-Free Pumping Bra has made pumping much easier and it makes a world of a difference not having to hold the flanges from your breast pump each session. This one came highly recommended to me and I'm so thankful that I received it as a shower present!



Nipple Cream - I swear by Lansinoh Nipple Cream. While you don't necessarily need to use nipple cream each time you pump, I use it after each pumping session and I swear it's one of the main reasons that I haven't experienced any issues or discomfort! I tried a few brands that I had received as samples and Lansinoh's cream has been my favorite.



Medela Quick Clean Breast Pump & Accessory Wipes - These are great to use between each pumping session so that you don't have to sterilize your pump parts after each pump. I used these throughout the day and sterilized all my parts in the steam bags (below) once a day.




Vehicle Lighter Adapter - This was a huge lifesaver, especially in the beginning when I was pumping every 2-3 hours. When having to leave the house to go to doctors appointments or other places, I'd pump right before leaving and would usually always need to pump again before we arrived back at home. The car adapter allowed me to stick to my pumping schedule to keep up my supply and also made the opportunity to leave the house much, much easier!

Up & Up Milk Storage Bags - These are my favorite brand of storage bags. I read a ton of reviews on different brands of storage bags and these came highly recommended! They are sturdy, are great quality and they're great for freezing flat. My second recommendation for storage bags would be the Lansinoh brand. They've received a lot of reviews from moms indicating that they leaked when thawing from the freezer, but I haven't had any issues with them yet.


Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags - These are wonderful for quick sterilizing. You can use each bag 20 times. I use these bags to sterilize my breast pump parts, bottle caps, and you can also use them to sterilize bottles and nipples. They're great for pumping on the go or at work - it's easy to pull the bag out, put your parts in and quickly pop them in the microwave to sterilize when you need to.

Medela Bottles - You can't have too many of these bottles! The more you have, the less time you're spending washing and sterilizing bottles each day. Now I have about 30 of these bottles (thank goodness for great hand-me-downs too!), and I can go a full day without sterilizing pumping bottles - giving me so much more time during the day.


Kiinde Kozii Breastmilk / Bottle Warmer - This is an awesome warmer that also has great reviews online. It's fast and doesn't overheat the milk like other brand reviews have reported. What's nice is that you can pop frozen freezer bags right in to thaw, or you can pop in a bottle to warm.



While there are a TON of breastfeeding products available, and many more that I've used and could recommend, I think that this is a good list of my favorites :)