This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Hat tip to Corporette editor Kate, who found this fun nursing bag at Nordstrom. The idea behind it is that all of the breast pumps come with the same boring, basic black bag — wouldn’t it be great if there were something with a bit more personality and color? The bag is compatible with “most brands and models of breast pump,” too. My favorite is this fun gray/white/yellow bag, which reminds me of Orla Kiely designs — it’s $129. NURSE PURSE Breast Pump BagSales of note for 4.18.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 50% off full-price dresses, jackets & shoes; $30 off pants & skirts; extra 50% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything; extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off select styles; 60% off swim; up to 40% off everything else
- J.Crew – Mid-Season Sale: Extra 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off spring-to-summer styles
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Spring Mid-Season Sale: Up to 50% off 100s of styles
- Nordstrom: Free 2-day shipping for a limited time (eligible items)
- Talbots – Spring Sale: 40% off + extra 15% off all markdowns; 30% off new T by Talbots
- Zappos – 29,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Up to 70% off baby items; 50% off toddler & kid deals & 40% off everything else
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off spring faves; 25% off new arrivals; up to 30% off spring
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Up to 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off kids’ spring-to-summer styles
- Old Navy – 30% off your purchase; up to 75% off clearance
- Target – Car Seat Trade-In Event (ends 4/27); BOGO 25% off select skincare products; up to 40% off indoor furniture; up to 20% off laptops & printers
See some of our latest articles on CorporetteMoms:
Click here to see our top posts!
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- If you’re a working parent of an infant with low sleep needs, how do you function at work when you’re in the throes of baby’s sleep regression?
- Should I cut my childcare down to 12 hours a month if I work from home?
- Will my baby have speech delays if we raise her bilingual?
- Has anyone given birth in a teaching hospital?
- My child eats everything, and my friends’ kids do not – how should I handle? In general, what is the best way to handle when your child has some skill/ability and your friend’s child doesn’t have that skill/ability?
- ADHD moms, give me your tips to help with things like behavior in the classroom, attention to detail, etc?
- I think I suffer from mom rage…
- My husband and kids are gone this weekend – how should I enjoy my free time?
- I’m struggling to be compassionate with a SAHM friend who complains she doesn’t have enough hours of childcare.
- If you exclusively formula fed, what tips do you have for in the hospital and coming home?
- Could I take my 4-yo and 8-yo on a 7-8 day trip to Paris, Lyon, and Madrid?
KJ says
Do most people use a separate bag for pump stuff? I commute via foot and metro, so I just put everything in my Lo and Sons OG bag because I hate juggling multiple bags.
ANP says
My Pump in Style came in its own bag, but I left mine at work and just threw the cooler and spare parts in my work bag each day.
hoola hoopa says
+1
Although if pumping in your own office isn’t an option (such is an cube land, where I work), it’s not uncommon to hear women wish that they had a non-standard bag for the walk through the office to the pump room. I never minded carrying the obvious-to-pumpers-current-and-past medela bag, but some do.
Spirograph says
When I had a walking+metro commute, I always ended up with two bags : my purse, and a reusuable grocery bag with lunch/umbrella/book/whatever else. When I was pumping, the pump bag just became the 2nd bag; there was enough extra room I could shove everything else in there with the pump.
Now I usually drive to work, so I make no attempt to consolidate anything. I kind of prefer to carry two smaller bags vs one big, heavier bag, but the OG looks so great I might change my mind on that if someone happens to give me one for Christmas…
Erin says
I have the PISA tote where it’s built-in. My laptop (Macbook Air) actually fits in the bag (I just un-velcro one side of the piece of fabric covering the pump itself to slide it behind) and “purse stuff” fits on top, so I just carry the one bag. On days that I have it together enough to bring lunch, that’s usually a second bag. (I often bring a few days worth of food at once and keep it at the office, so I don’t have to do this every day.)
Nonny says
OK guys, after 4 cumulative hours of sleep last night, I think I am ready to get more serious with the sleep training.
We co-slept until my daughter was almost 6 months, then transitioned her to her crib. After that, I worked on getting her to fall asleep without nursing. Then about a month ago we moved her crib from our room to her own room. I still generally bring her to bed about 4:30 in the morning (i.e. at the point where it seems more productive to just let her sleep with me rather than spend the time putting her back to sleep), but that has to stop. I also need to teach her to fall asleep on her own when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Recently when she has woken up, she’s stayed awake for close to an hour and I end up nursing her back to sleep out of sheer desperation, which is not the kind of result I should be reinforcing.
I’m pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished using no cry/minimal cry techniques (bed to crib, reducing reliance on nursing, etc.) but I think I hit a breaking point last night. My very stubborn little girl really needs to learn how to go back to sleep without relying on me. She is over 9 months now and I am sure she can do it. Yes, I know there are sleep forums on BabyCentre and the like, but what have the rest of you done and do you have any good suggestions? I know cry-it-out is an option but do I really want to do that?
In House Counsel says
I wax poetic about it to all my mom friends but the sleep lady shuffle!!!
The method is described in detail in the following book:
http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Ladys-Good-Night-Tight-ebook/dp/B003P8P8II/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
I downloaded about 5 different sleep training books in my quest to find the right approach for us but found this to work the best on my difficult sleeper. It took about a week of the training before she started sleeping through the night (at 14 months — it was a LONG first year as a working mom) and she’s now consistently sleeping through the night and if she wakes up, able to put herself back to sleep 9 times out of 10. We have had a couple of setbacks w/ teething (esp molars) but doing nights 1-3 of the training seems to “re-set” her and get us back on track to better sleep for all. Good luck
eh230 says
Go to the troublesome tots website. It is so useful. I tried to navigate babycenter with my first, and it was just too hard. The biggest things to remember are to watch wake times (the time awake between naps) and to teach baby to fall asleep on her own. To help fall asleep on their own, loveys, darkness and white noise have worked best for me. Have a short bedtime routine, and make sure nursing is the first thing you do in the routine so that baby stops thinking that she needs to nurse in order to fall asleep. That is the quick and dirty version. Good luck!
mascot says
We swore by a ceiling fan and sound machine to help my son sleep. She may miss some of the ambient noise from sleeping in your room. By 9 months, he didn’t need to eat in the middle of the night (had gone to bottles by then) although he still woke up pretty early. Will she take a pacifier? Is she just awake at 4 am?
We also used the FP seahorse and a crib soother to give him something calm to look at/play with until he went back to sleep. Sometimes he was awake but not fussing so we just let him be. Even if he was fussing, he would sometimes stop after a few minutes, so we resisted the urge to jump up and see what was going on. We would check the video monitor to make sure there wasn’t a real issue like a stuck foot.
Anon says
Is she teething? Maybe try advil for a few nights to see if that helps?
At that age I nursed my daughter to sleep around 8pm, did a dream feed at midnight before I went to bed and she usually made it through the night. When teething (at one point, it was a two week stretch) she got tylenol at bedtime and advil at the dreamfeed – her ped. okay’d this. Not sure if you have a specific reason for not nursing to sleep but it worked for us. We also only went in for actual crying not a few minutes of fussing. She may just not be used to waking up and not hearing you in the room so the various white noise suggestions might help or leave the doors open if your rooms are close.
Also, maybe have your partner do the night wakings for a few days – our daughter always settled faster for her father because she knew comfort nursing wasn’t happening.
One caution I would say about ‘cry it out’ – especially the more hardcore versions – every friend I’ve had who tried that had the baby develop separation anxiety to some degree. Even at 3 years old, my daughter is much more confident in new situations when she can’t see me vs. her same aged friends.
Nonny says
Thanks, Anon! I don’t really want to do CIO so maybe something in the middle. All I know is that what I am doing now is not working anymore.
One of my issues is that my SO sleeps through all night wakings – so I cannot rely on him to take care of them at all. So aggravating.
Anon says
Your SO is sleeping through her waking up but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be the one to actually get up.
DH and I alternate baby responsibility nights – now we do that he gets up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday nights and I get up Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights. We alternate Sunday nights. Under this system, even if he doesn’t wake up – you give him a shake/kick whatever and he has to get up to deal with the baby.
This works even if you are nursing – he gets up, tries to soothe baby, brings baby in to nurse if absolutely necessary but once baby is done nursing – his job to get baby back to sleep.
Carrie M says
FWIW, we decided to try CIO when our baby was about 4/4.5 months. I wasn’t sure if she was ready for it or if it would work for her temperament. But I figured we could try it, and if after 10/20/30 minutes (or however long), I decided it wasn’t working, we could stop. I just figured we could give it a shot, and that it wouldn’t harm her long term if we tried it once without success.
She cried hard for about 20 minutes and then less hard (but still fussing/crying) for another 20. Then that was it. Sometimes she still fusses if she’s overtired, but for the most part, she sleeps 7-7 (except for set backs for teething, developmental milestones, etc. … but so far has always gotten back on track).
So obviously do whatever you’re comfortable with and what you think will work best for you and your baby. But just wanted to throw it out there that CIO isn’t always a horrible / scarring experience for parent and/or child.
Nonny says
Thanks everyone for the initial feedback.
More info:
– we have a good nighttime routine. The only thing I might change is to not have nursing be the last thing – at the moment it is – but otherwise we are in a good, consistent bedtime routine.
– we are using a white noise machine and her room is dark
– her wakings vary. In general she is now waking up less than she did when her crib was in our room, but when she does wake up, she is awake for longer. Sometimes she sleeps until midnight and then wakes again at 2 and 4:30, then sleeps until 6:30. About 10 days ago she went to sleep at 7:30 and didn’t wake up until 4:00 (I couldn’t believe it and was so hopeful that it was the “new normal”!). Last night she woke up at 10:00 and then pretty much every hour after that. I was so tired by the time 2:00 rolled around that I brought her into bed then (bad, I know). Then she woke up for the morning at 5:15.
Argh, cannot concentrate on anything this morning.
Anon says
Is her room noisier than your room? if yes, then white noise might help. Our daughter used to wake up from the school bus stopping on the street (her room faced the street) whereas that noise was much less noticeable in our room.
HM says
Are you changing her diaper when she wakes up? My daughter, who previously slept through the night, starting waking up about 3-4am. She’s on the edge of sizing up diapers, and apparently is becoming more sensitive to wet nappies, so the “overnight” diapers weren’t cutting it. A quick diaper change (mostly in the dark) and a few rock steps puts her back to sleep.
Anon says
We always used a larger size diaper at night (e.g. when she was in size 3 diapers daytime, she got a size 4 diaper at night so she wouldn’t wake up from a full diaper)
Spirograph says
This is not super helpful, but I kind of feel like anything that helps ME get more sleep is good… so if nursing to sleep lets you go back in bed faster, or bringing your daughter in bed at 4:30 lets you both get some sleep, maybe just be glad you have something that works? There’s so much pressure to have babies be independent sleepers – and definitely there are good reasons/benefits, but if your baby’s fighting you about it, maybe she’s just not ready. Nothing wrong with that either. FWIW, my son is a year and a half and if he wakes up after about 5:00 and isn’t back asleep within 5 minutes, I still just bring him in our bed, because I’d rather spend a minute scooping him up and getting back under the blanket for another hour of sleep than comfort him or listen to him cry for 15 minutes. It happens almost every day.
Anyway, we’ve sleep trained several times starting probably around 6 months, and what works best for us is a modified cry it out (I actually haven’t read any of the parenting books about this, so I’m not sure what the “right” method is). One of us goes in every 5-10-15 minutes to give him a hug, or pick him up and sing a quick song, or just pat him and tell him we’re here and we love him. Eventually he gets tired and gives up. After a couple days he gives up a lot more quickly, usually after a week at most, he puts himself back to sleep within 5 minutes and we’re good for another couple months. We’re going to have to do another round soon – between the weather changing, which wakes him up more often, and me being lazy and letting him get away with sleeping with us in the morning for the last month, he’s gotten out of the self-soothing habit.
OCAssociate says
I’m sure you know, sleep training is completely dependent on your child’s temperament, so it’s so hard to figure out what to do compared to what anyone else did. With that out of the way, here’s my experience:
I was adamant with my son that we wouldn’t cry it out. At the time, we were holding/rocking him to sleep for over an hour every night. And then he went through a phase where he woke up every hour all night long for 2 weeks. So we agreed to a modified crying plan: Nighttime routine, put in crib sleepy, let cry for 3-5 minutes, go in and comfort him for a minute, then let cry for another 3-5 minutes. We were incredibly lucky: on the first night, he cried for 5 minutes, was comforted once, cried for a couple more minutes, then fell asleep. After his 2 am feeding, he didn’t even cry – just fell asleep. Obviously this isn’t everyone’s experience, my son just needed to learn how to fall asleep on his own, and we were probably overstimulating him by holding him instead of letting him figure it out.
One piece of advice that I think helps almost everyone: Get a crib soother (Fisher price aquarium or similar). When you put them down sleepy, play the music/lights. It will start to trigger sleepiness once they’re accustomed to going to bed with it. Then, they’ll start turning it on themselves when they wake up in the night. It’s so comforting when you hear the music in the night, because you know the baby woke up and figured out how to soothe himself to sleep.
You’ve probably heard of the No-Cry Sleep Solution, but if not, it’s definitely worth a read.
Good luck!
hoola hoopa says
“I’m sure you know, sleep training is completely dependent on your child’s temperament, so it’s so hard to figure out what to do compared to what anyone else did.”
THIS. This, this, this.
What I recommend is starting somewhere and giving it three days. At that point, it’s either working or it never will. If it’s not, move onto the next on your list.
I’ll put in a plug for Ferber’s book. Even if you don’t do his progressive CIO, it’s a wealth of helpful information and other techniques that don’t require any crying at all. For example, adjusting waking and/or bedtime (which was life changing at our house).
Carrie says
I am in the third trimester and starting to experience lower back pain. I wore a pregnancy support brace for a few hours today (cloth thing that goes around my waist and supports the bump), and since I took it off, my lower back is killing me — almost like really painful menstrual cramps. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice on whether to wear the belt more vs stop using it? I will ask my doctor tomorrow when I see him but figured I would ask around here as well. Thx!
Anonymous says
Add regular massages and chiro visits if you haven’t already. Check yor shoes especially if you wear heels to make sure the soles are in good condition.
31 weeks, don’t use any kind of support for belly, still going strong in 4 inch heels. XD
KJ says
I wore a belt and did PT for back pain. Both were a big help. You might ask your OB for a PT referral in case you decide to try it.
Anastasia says
I never found my doctors to be good resources for pain management. Once they establish that it’s not some kind of shooting, alarming pain, they say “oh that’s just part of being pregnant” and move on. If the belt helps, I’d stick with it. Also, although it seems counterintuitive, strength training can be really helpful, but that’s a longer term solution, and you need to be VERY careful to use good form.
Prenatal yoga was a godsend for me. The most helpful pose was cat-cow (on hands and knees, slowly alternate between arching and rounding your back); 5 minutes while watching TV and you feel like a new person! You can do the same motions just tilting your pelvis while sitting at your desk and it’s better than nothing. Also standing with your legs wide apart and bending forward to put your hands on the ground. Not a great one to do at work, unless you can close your office door, but being not-vertical is the fastest way to relieve back pain.
I actually did not do well with prenatal massages. It felt great to have someone rubbing my back, but within 2 minutes I’d get very overheated, lightheaded, and short of breath, and need to flip over to lie on my back, which is not terribly conducive to a back massage. :) Definitely worth trying, though.
hoola hoopa says
I’m sure you know but I have to say it to appease my conscious. Cramp-like pain in third tri can be a sign of preterm labor.
As for back pain:
– I’m pro-support all the way (I’ve done it every way), but they aren’t all equal. I know it’s a hassle and somewhat costly, but if that one didn’t feel right, then you might try another. My favorite is actually sized-up, non-maternity shapewear (high-waist). If you’re far into third tri, you can try a maternity option but I find they are less belly support. For me, the belts seem to trade one issue for another, although I did find them helpful if I were going to be on my feet for an extended period.
– Ditto PT or chiro. At this point, it will be routine because your body will continually be slipping out of shape, but it’s sooooo worth that weekly appointment.
– Recruit your partner to help apply pressure and give a short massage a night.
– Get. In. A. Pool. Get in a pool. Get in a pool. Walk, swim, water aerobics, whatever you want – but submerge yourself in water at least twice a week.