Sick Days & Working Mamas

My girl is sick, and I'm not even mad.  She's at that sweet spot, just ill enough to not be allowed to go to the babysitter's, but not so ill that we can't enjoy spending the day together.  

There is quite a lot of sleeping going on among the diaper-wearing crowd here today.

It has been sweet, crusty eyes and crustier noses and all.  

Yesterday, I cried when I picked her up from the sitter's.  She hadn't taken her afternoon nap, which meant that she had been awake for hours, and the babysitter got to just hang out and play with her.  She said they had a great time.  And I was sad, because I wished it were me.

The decision to go back to work wasn't really a decision that I liked, on a day-to-day way of looking at things.  I don't love dropping my baby off every morning, and picking her up in the afternoons, even if its just for 5 hours.  It makes me sad.  It hurts my mama heart and leaves me with morning tears and afternoon jealousy.  It doesn't matter that her babysitter loves her, and takes almost-as-good-as-mama care of her.  It doesn't matter that RG gets excited to see the babysitter's little boy, and that they miss each other when they're apart.  It doesn't matter that she's learning social skills and building friendships.

It only matters that I'm sad.

WFMW: Stop Washing Bottles

So I've got a baby girl around these parts.  Most of you know that.  She's pretty cute, and I talk about her pretty much all the time.  Like, a lot.  Seriously, though, can you blame me?

See??  Super cute.
My gosh, I just want to pinch her and snuggle her and smooch her and...
Sorry, got a little distracted.

I'm loving being a mama, fo sho.  Wanna know what I don't love?  Washing dishes.  Never have.  I very nearly paid somebody to wash them for me back in my undergrad days, and my feelings have pretty much not changed at all.  Now that I'm back to work, I have to do this *ahem* pumping thing in order to keep my girl RG fed while I'm gone.  And know what that means?  Double dirty bottles, one type that attaches to the pump, and one type that baby actually eats from.  Not. Cool.

So the other day, I'm hunting on my favorite shopping grounds (aka: amazon.com), and I found these bags that allows mamas to skip the first bottle dirtying, which cuts the dirty dishes in half!  Only problem? They cost 2 or 3 times as much as the regular bags.  But when I looked at them a little closer, I figured out that I could make something similar!  You can, too!  Here's what you do:

You've got your bag, your pump attachment, and some good 'ole scotch tape.

Assemble like so.

Voila!

Word of warning - be careful when the bag is close to full, you don't want to pour out all of your hard work (she said, tearfully, from experience).  Also?  Don't but the ziploc brand bags.  They've got holes, which is a real issue for something that's supposed to hold liquid (she says, irritably, from experience).

<3 M.

Linking up with Works For Me Wednesday