It was just one of those days where I found myself packing lesser…and lesser for the kids when we go out. I mean, sure as the kids grow up, we probably won’t need to lug a luggage out anymore. Now we just use a normal diaper bag. Kidding. But you know what I mean.
First time parents, we pack EVERYTHING and anything that we think we might need. I remembered the first time we brought Ollie out and went to Vivocity, we packed so much stuff. I actually think the bag was heavier than Ollie. Haha. Oh the horrors of a first time mom nursing in a nursing room. Shrieky hungry baby and poor latching. *le sigh. Thankfully it was a lot easier with QT. So much so that I was taking him and Ollie out shopping when he was 3 weeks old. Whee!
as 1st time parents
That was what we took out when we brought Ollie out. Except we had probably 2 milk bottles with formula (excuse the then unsure breastfeeding mom) plus 2 sets of clothes, loads of small towels, a full pack of wipes, 5-6 diapers and that hot water flask. The swaddle served as both a swaddle and a nursing cover.
Review: Tommee Tippee Formula Dispenser (3 pack, $7.90 at Mothercare)
I’m not a big fan of lugging an old school formula dispenser. I think we bought this fairly quickly when we were using formula. Before going out, we would fill the bottles with cool boiled water, and then sit the formula dispenser in the bottle. That way we don’t have to bring an extra bottle of water, or a old school formula dispenser container.
Review: Aden + Anais Swaddles ($39.95 – $79.90 from Mothercare)
We love the Aden + Anais swaddles. Daddy Ting bought the Classic swaddles (think we paid about $49 for these?). The cheaper ones (when they are on sale at $39.95) are muslin swaddles, and are the smaller sized ones (44″ x 44″). The Classic swaddles are 47″ x 47″ and I find are a lot softer than the muslin ones. I use the swaddles as both a swaddle and a nursing cover *auntiemodeon*. To make it into a nursing cover, just fold into half, get one of those huge safety pins for muslin nappies, pin the corners, and tadaah! I love using it as a nursing cover cos it will have both my and baby’s smell. So comforting.
Review: JJ Cole Collections System Diaper Bag ($129 from Mothercare) / JJ Cole Diaper Change Clutch ($36 from biglittleme.com)
We were using a backpack before we bought this diaper bag at a huge discount (paid around $65 for it). Trying to get stuff out of a backpack whilst standing and babywearing..totally not fun. I was queuing at the Mothercare baby fair at Harbourfront. I bought it. Just cos I could haha. It was a great diaper bag, enough space for what we wanted to fit in, it came with stroller clips so we could hang the bag on the stroller. But on hindsight, it was a heavy bag. Heavy even when its empty! So you can imagine. Still, we used it even for QT. The diaper clutch, which is also a change mat, that came with it was fantastic! We could just stuff wipes and diapers in the clutch and go to the toilet. No need to bring the whole bag!
how the diaper clutch works
When you become a second time parent….
2nd time parents
With QT, it was just the above. No need for proper diaper bag. Just a tote bag’s fine…and oh, plus/minus the bottles, thermal bag & flask. That was for like the first couple of outings with Daddy Ting (gotta make him do some work and bond with QT!) After that, it was just swaddle, diapers and wipes. Tadaaah.
Review: Tommee Tippee Travel Bottle & Food Warmer (USD$13.49 from Amazon.com, S$39.90 from Mothercare)
I only discovered this before QT came along. No need to wait for the waiter to bring you a bowl of hot water anymore. Nor find a nursing room to warm up bottles. We can warm it up ANY time, anywhere! Good grief. Having said that, I recently found out that Avent has a travel warmer like this as well, except that it was a lid to cover the container, to prevent spillage from the container. But the price is about 1.5x that of the Tommee Tippee warmer. No brainer right…haha.
Review: Tommee Tippee Insulated Bottle Bag (2 for USD$13.49 on Amazon.com)
I bought it based on the reviews that the insulation is really good. And I second that! I have on a few occasions warmed up BM and put it in the bag before going to sleep. When I woke up about 3 hours later, the BM was still lukewarm. And the bag was placed in an air-conditioned room! When QT was on solids, I would use it to hold Avent containers containing frozen puree cubes. If I was put a frozen container of BM, I would add an ice pack to it to keep it cool longer. It would have thawed by probably about 4-5 hours later.
Review: Tommee Tippee Storage Lids (pack of 6, USD$7.99 from Amazon; pack of 2, S$6.90 from Mothercare)
I was a low breastmilk producer when I had Oliver. A bad latch plus the lack of discipline plus the lack of knowledge about breastfeeding meant I wasn’t producing enough to warrant buying heaps of bottles and BM bags to store breastmilk. We did have enough milk bottles tho! Haha. I was determined to latch QT more frequently and figured I would just pump and store them in the feeding bottles so that I didn’t have to do a lot of transferring!
You would have noticed that I am using a lot of Tommee Tippee products. I love that their products are so versatile and compact! We had read up on bottles before Ollie was born and decided to give the Tommee Tippee bottles a shot. Ollie took to it like a champ, so being able to play around with so many other accessories was a bonus. Apart from the above, I also bought a Tommee Tippee Microwave Steam Steriliser. I had a standalone electric steriliser and it just took up SO much space on my countertop. The microwave steriliser allowed me to shift it anywhere when I needed the space! I do buy my Tommee Tippee products from Amazon cos of the free shipping (from spending USD$125) and it is a lot cheaper. Some of the items like the steam steriliser, they don’t carry it in the Mothercare stores here.
I’m all for lesser is better when I take the kids out. Hope this gives you some info about the products out there and tell me about the products you use that are your lifesavers!