When I only had one kid and loads of spare time, I didn’t need a travel system. But for a mom who has three kids going 1800 different directions, I can’t live with out it.

PS: I can’t stand the thought of the tummy tub. How are you supposed to wash the baby’s bottom? In my infant tub it’s one quick swoop to lean her over my forearm and wipe her bottom clean and set her back into the tub to splash. (A standard bathroom tub would be fabulous too, but ours is out of commission and you just don’t shower an infant in a stand-up shower stall… )

1. We couldn’t live without our swing either, it’s still the only way we can get him to nap most of the time. We have the same one, and we still only use it fully reclined with the side-to-side, since he only uses it for napping. But if I was recommending a swing for someone else, you MUST spring for the rainforest version – you can probably get it used for the same price as this one new. It’s almost the same but it PLUGS IN. If dollarama didn’t sell D batteries we’d be broke!

7. Medela SWING, SWING, SWING, SWING, SWING! I LOVE my pump! My favorite thing is that it runs on batteries and is so little, so it’s so easy for me to take it wherever I feel like sitting at that time. And I can hook my nursing bra up over it so it will just sit there and I can walk around and do things while I pump (it even has a little waist clip to hook to your pants, or a strap to go around your neck). Mine has overflowed before too and the suction is still OK. But, I did have a nervous break down one morning when I had no suction – turn out if the little white membrane isn’t sitting on the yellow valvy thing really flush, you get no suction. We examined it and realized the yellow thing had a little bump in the plastic – my husband played with pushing it down with a knife or something and got my suction back! (He’s bringing suction back, yeah! You other husbands don’t know how to act, yeah!) lol. Anyway, that might be the issue with yours – try putting it on with no bottle screwed in and playing around with pushing on the membrane and yellow thing to see if it helps.

8. Also LOVE the Medela bags – not the twist tie ones, the ziploc ones with the strap to hook to the pump. I often pump right into them, it’s great.

A couple of comments about the money wasters too:

2. Want a tummy tub soooo bad, but I think it’s a little late now (he’s 3 months, 17 lbs, 26 inches). Hope to buy one for my next one though.

6. We don’t use bumper bads or anything yet either, although I’ve heard people say you might want to use them later if you have a big mover who bangs against the sides and gets their limbs stuck. But Zellers, Wal-Mart, etc. sells the sets for a lot cheaper – like $80 or so – so if you’re not worried about a super pretty set, just wait and get a set there later if you need one. Or, buy one used or borrow one – they’re often still in great condition! (We got given a set by friends that we’ve put away in case we want to use them later).

7. My sister has a bottle warmer that she used for formula and loves it. I think it was the same one in the picture actually. Maybe it just doesn’t work as well for breast milk? You could probably experiment with using less water to see if it helps. My husband just often gives him the bottle still fairly cool though, and he doesn’t seem to mind.

8. I REALLY like my Bravado nursing bras. I’m fairly large chested, and always had to use underwire before to have enough support. Luckily I lived in Southern Ontario until 2 months before my due date, so I was able to find a store that sold them to go try one on. I tried on the one that’s supposed to be for large chested women – the super duper one or whatever it’s called – and it sucked major ass (can I say ass on your blog? lol). Like you said, I’ve never hung so low. I was not feeling optimistic, but tried on another kind – the newest ones, I think they’re called the seamless ones or something like that – and they’re really good! They’re not the MOST supportive bras I’ve ever had (no good for jogging, for example) – but they’re OK, and they’re 100 times better than any other nursing bras I’ve tried on at Wal-Mart, Zellers, etc. So if you can find a store near you to sell them, go try that one on and see what you think. They’re around $45 I think, which isn’t much more than I usually pay (being large chested, I always had to shop from the back well at La Senza lol – could never get the cheapy sale bras).

And re: mentionables

2. Bibs: We use a lot of bibs too. I don’t find it adds to laundry that much, I do a lot of laundry for him anyway, so they just get thrown in with everything else. There’s a store near me that sells these really need bibs with a thick roll at the neck that I think would be great to soak up all the milk he drips when it’s coming out too fast or he’s being lazy. But I don’t think there’d be enough time between feedings for it to dry, and it’s too expensive (14.99) to get multiple ones, so I haven’t tried it.

Wow, that’s almost as long as your post, hey? lol
Oh well, hopefully my comments are useful to someone. I should probably just start my own blog, but I’m too lazy haha. Much easier to just leave long comments on yours!