Thank you kind commenters on my post "chaotic mornings"!
According to your suggestions, I have moved half my pump parts to work and have made a little station for cleaning the parts that involves my hot water kettle and a couple of coffee mugs that allow me to sterilize the vacuum chamber of my pump each time I use it (Medela Pump-in-style). I had the sterilizer bags, too, stashed away and have moved them to work. Now I just carry the pump itself in. Moreover, after I pump I put the milk bags in the departmental freezer, and at the end of the day I collect them and take them straight to the day care and leave them in their freezer overnight. The milk doesn't even come home.
I have ditched the diaper bag by leaving a couple of changes of clothes at each daycare. I ditched the purse and put my wallet etc. in my work bag. I have given up on schlepping work home since its true, I rarely work on it once it gets home anyway. I move a few things to network drives so I can work on electronic stuff at home. I will contact the publisher for additional desk copies (free!) of all of my texts so I don't carry them back and forth.
I put my gym bag in my trunk where it will stay until I can smell it up front (its a hatchback, relax). So yesterday and today I carried only my work bag and my pump (and the babyphone wallet.) I have forgotten to pack my lunch both days, but still can fit that in the work bag. (Discursion; my work bag is actually a Timbuk2 messenger bag that I got in 1998. It has had heavy, daily use for 13 years now and is still in great shape. Highly recommended.)
I could shave this further by getting a breast pump for work. We'll give it a few weeks to see if I can better use that $200 elsewhere. Moreover, I took a sports bra (earlier) and cut two slits right at the nipple. I put the shields on the inside and the rest on the outside and now I pump hands free.
Now If I can only get the toddler not to dawdle going up and down stairs...
I am very impressed. Excellent organization!
ReplyDeleteI bet that feels so much better.
ReplyDeleteHiya, I've commented before because I'm in a very similar situation, off-set from yours by about a year (my kids are now 4 and 18 months, my hubby works and mostly lives 3.5 hrs away, and we are both professors). A few things that have really helped me, most of which others have mentioned. Definitely dress them the night before -- you avoid fights in the morning about what to wear. Pack lunches and put them in the fridge the night before, and lay out as much other stuff as you can the night before. I feed both kids breakfast in the car -- usually a cup of Cheerios or something like that. When I was pumping, I used those cleaning cloths that Medla makes to clean my pump parts at work, and had extra bottles and pumping accessories at work (cheaper than a whole other pump at work).
ReplyDeleteIf the older one is likes to take his time in the morning, you can always make it into a competition to try and hurry him along -- "Who gets in the car first? Okay, I guess your brother will get buckled in before you!" But this becomes a more dangerous tactic when the younger one starts to toddle, and they are pushing each other out of the way to get to the car first. (Not that I still don't use it).
It really does get easier once you get a pattern down -- we can usually get out of the house in 30 minutes. Congrats again on the new addition! You will make it.