Hannah Morrison

Gift Guides: Top Purchases/What I Bought

How are we doing, y’all? I sincerely hope you can reply “GOOD!” For me, feeling less chaos this Christmas season started with being well-prepared in our budget/plans/shopping in order to truly get to enjoy things. Our Family Advent Calendar has been so fun to do with each other every day, and surprisingly not stressful. I created a shopping list budget specific for it in advance in order to fulfill each night’s event if it requires supplies or an outing of any kind. For our budget hack, I relabeled some of our accounts *read more here* Christmas Budget and House Savings (we are supposed to close mid-February!) so that I don’t miss goals in the midst of all the fun. The Christmas Budget “bucket” is for gifts and Advent events. I have another document that breaks down each of those and what is allocated to every dollar in there! It isn’t too late to plan your own Advent Calendar either! You could do a 12 days of Christmas Countdown or just start today.

Truly, my most swiped-up stories ever are about my budgeting, so I hope this helps you as you navigate money for your own household. Like all things in life, rules and boundaries allow for freedom. I have never felt more “free” in our finances than when I buckled down and started running our budget so tightly. I share so openly about it because I want the same for you!

All that to say, I wanted to share with you the top purchases so far from my gift guides as well as EXACTLY what I have bought Knox and Rory for Christmas to help you with your own baby and toddler shopping.

The Boys

Because Rory is only 4 months old, I took it very easy on him. I wanted Santa to bring him something for the sake of Knox’s magic while recognizing he is… 4 month old hehe. I am on the lookout still for some great teething toys, etc. But in general the Skwish and the Zebra are his gifts! Knox has talked about the Mighty Pups Tower for months… MONTHS. It’s quite the investment, because the tower is a little pricey and so are each of the figurines that go with it. I plan to have it all set out from Santa for him to walk out to!

Your Top Purchases

My FAVORITE Gifts

Amazon Items We Own

Happy shopping! Today is Cyber Monday, and in addition to my gift guides being almost ALL nearly on sale… here are some top Amazon sale finds that we personally own!

Hannah’s Home Guide

As you know, we are building our dream industrial farmhouse meets boho vibes… hehe. I have been sharing posts the last couple of months with the items I have in our cart for each room in the new house. And today… nearly ALL OF IT is on massive sale. I rounded up my favorites below, but you can shop the two rooms I have shared thus far in full blog posts via the links as well. Nearly everything in my shopping carts are from Mcgee and Co. or Anthrologie (both of whom are having site-wide sales today!!)

The Kitchen

The Living Room

Peloton Bike Review

All I want for Christmas is… A PELOTON BIKE! Guys, if the Peloton is on your Christmas list then you best just copy and paste that URL and send this post to Santa, because I AM TEAM PELOTON.

I have never been more thankful for home workouts than this season of life. Our gym is amazing, but a trip there is 30 minutes + 1 hour workout + 30 minutes back… it’s a 2 hour endeavor to go at minimum. Some seasons of life have been great for that set-up. This is not one of them… lol. From being stuck at home by force with quarantine to having just small spaces of time to devote to a workout with two boys and running multiple new endeavors, my Peloton has been the freaking best thing ever. When I lived in Dallas, I went to a dome-style cycling studio. I LOVED IT. I would ride every single day after getting home from my shift at Pure Barre. So I was doing barre and cycling every day… I was in the best shape of my life. The Peloton gives me both of these now in my office whenever I can make it happen. I legit did a 30 minute barre class last night before I made dinner with Rory in his chair watching, and Knox even ran in and out doing it with me. I love the instructors, I love their “vibe”, and I love having so many options to pick from every day. Whether I have an hour or just 15 minutes to squeeze something in, they have a wide range of options for me at different lengths of time.

Every single penny we’ve spent on this has been worth it. 

For my mental health, my physical health, and overall ability to have some “me time”, the Peloton has delivered above and beyond my wildest dreams. 😉 Only slightly being dramatic.

Right now, the original stationary bike is under $2k because they just released their Bike+! The Bike+ has a screen that moves so you can do the cardio and ride combo classes easier. However, I will say, it’s not necessary. I have the stationary and I just do the floor classes behind my bike! They also have bite-sized monthly payments for the bike if you need to. This thing is WORTH IT. Especially for my work from home/stay at home/entrepreneur mommas out there.

My Fit Guide:

Exclusive Pumping Q&A

Well y’all, I have never been asked so many specific questions about something before! I realized over the last 4 months as I have casually mentioned I exclusively pump to feed Rory that it’s not so simple and (in some cases) something other mommies didn’t know was okay to talk about. I am the #1 advocate for FEED YOUR BABY. Breast fed, bottle fed, formula… whatever you do… do it and do it proudly. You, momma, are a rockstar. You grew a human inside you, brought that human into this world, and work tirelessly to keep that human alive all day… Like, woah. You’re amazing.

With this all said, I rounded up the most asked questions I have received about exclusively pumping to hopefully help some of you with your own feeding journey. For starters, I have been an exclusive breast feeder, hybrid, and now exclusive pumper. I have pretty much done it all, and I am an open book about it. With Knox, I had to FIGHT for a supply and was exclusively breast feeding for the first two months. But, we just weren’t getting enough for him so I started adding formula to the mix with bottles at night and eventually adding a scoop or two to his breast milk as I weaned off of breast feeding. We did breast milk until almost a year with Knox, but about 4 months of it was pumping.

Why do you exclusively pump?

First, having breast milk on hand and doing bottles in addition to feeding has worked really well for us. It’s allowed Paul the ability to help with night feedings for both boys, and allowed us to really carry the burden equally together so we could both get sleep and take turns. We are both entrepreneurs and business owners, so we a. work non-stop jobs but also b. have the flexibility to take turns.

My plan with Rory was to breast feed again and hopefully with fattier milk to be able to avoid formula for as long as possible. To be super honest, though, I really don’t like breast feeding. *gasp* I don’t feel like I need it to feel connected to them, and in fact enjoy seeing their face better with the bottle. So when Rory ended up in the NICU the whole first week of life, starting night 1, I had to start exclusively pumping almost immediately. When you have a baby in the NICU, the nurses pretty much tell you to go home… I slept with Rory the first night but caught on they didn’t want me there as much as I was, and they had their reasons for it. I tried honoring their request as much as possible… but still went up for hours every day. Having a baby in the NICU is just freaking hard.

That said, I had 1. to pump milk to bring up to them to feed Rory with for when I wasn’t present to breast feed and 2. had a HECKUFA supply. I nearly lost all my baby weight that first week because I was pumping 90-100+ oz a day, y’all. [Random fact: 22 calories an ounce is what you burn]. Both a blessing and a curse, to be honest. By the time we brought Rory home, he was so well-trained on the bottle and I didn’t feel like fighting to breast feed, so I just ran with exclusively pumping!

How do you establish a supply?

As somebody who had a very difficult time with supply the first time around, I do really feel like I have something for you to try due to the STARK contrast of supply my second time around. I started pumping at 37 weeks, and began getting colostrum almost immediately in small doses. Then at 38.5 weeks I started eating MiracleMilkookies a few times a week. I believe I had 5 by the time I delivered, and my supply was already almost FULLY in by night 1 with Rory. I was pumping 8-10 oz. of COLOSTRUM y’all. All my nurses who came in were baffled by it.

Because I was getting SO MUCH MILK a day (normal pumping is like… maybe 25-40 oz. a day – I was consistently doing on average 100), it was only a matter of time until I got mastitis. And, boy, I got it BAD. My left side was nearly completely shot dry. I was getting maybe 3 oz. a day all of a sudden while my right side was still producing as normal. After a few weeks of pumping/or keeping the Haakaa on what felt like ALL DAY LONG to get anything I could, my supply started to build back up. But, it hasn’t returned to my original supply amount (but I am actually thankful for that).

How Often Do You Pump?

At first, every 3 hours 24/7. If I went too long after letdown, it was bad news and I had to work harder to get it all out. I tried my best to start pumping WHILE I felt the tingling of letdown. After Mastitis (in September), I dropped one pumping a night (the 11 PM) so that I could start getting a bit more rest. I literally was going to bed at like 7 PM and waking up around 2 AM to pump and then again at 5 AM, etc.

Scheduling Pump Times

It really just develops off your body’s natural rhythms at first, and then making sure you’re following the every 3 hours rule with letdown. It worked out where my pump times lined up exactly with feeding times, and they were like CLOCKWORK. This was sorta a drag in the beginning because it meant I was up at night every 3 hours no matter what [even if it was a “Paul feeding”]. Eventually I started to extend time in between for better sleep.

Storage

Breast milk is good frozen for a YEAR. It’s fridge life is 8 hours and “room temperature” is 4 hours. With that, we store my milk in Doctor Brown’s bags *not all bags are created equal!!!!*, and had SO MUCH that we had to keep in our spare freezer out in the garage in addition to 1/4 of our massive freezer in the main fridge. If you saw my stories, though… our garage fridge evidently died and we didn’t know. Our electricity briefly went out last week and we think it never came back on for that fridge. Y’all… I stopped counting how much I lost because it was too depressing. We are talking at least 2 months of overflow supply. SO, check your overflow freezer regularly. My biggest takeaway from that. *insert tears here*

Which pump do you use?

Well y’all, I have used it all… haha. Not really. But almost. With Knox, I had the Ameda that my insurance covered. It was great, but SO FREAKING LOUD. I got rid of it after I stopped pumping with Knox. Then, I got the Elvie for Rory and LOVED IT. It was a game-changer. I told everybody about it… and then… it just stopped working one day. Like, legit starting spitting my milk out everywhere. Obviously, as an EP-er, that’s a huge deal. Because I was losing so much milk, I would shorten my sessions which was cutting my supply. It was bad. Long story short, Elvie Customer Service was a hellish ordeal (and y’all had SO MANY stories of the exact same issues with product AND customer service) and I had to FIGHT to get to return my product. I originally just wanted to replace it because I really did love the product. But, after my customer service experience, I demanded a refund. I returned the product last month and have yet to receive my refund. *They claim a 30 day grace period before you see your refund – so I will keep you posted)

The Evenflo Electric pump is a favorite one and I really enjoy having it on hand. It’s just not discreet, which is shocking after you’ve had the Elvie. You also have to replace the flaps, which I didn’t know at first, and is why I was having trouble with mine recently. I am sure their double electric is probably just as great and would suggest giving it a shot! While having trouble with my Evenflo last week, we purchased the Lansinoh double electric pump and I really like it so far!

ALL IN ALL: I love exclusively pumping. I am currently trying to build back up my supply, because of how much I lost in our dead freezer. I was starting to wean down to only 30 oz a day because between both freezers, I had about 4 months of milk + my daily pumps. Basically, I was already prepping for weaning off pumping. Womp. So, it’s back to Miracle Milkookies and pumping a bit more frequently again to restock some spare. Pumping isn’t for everybody just like breast feeding isn’t. You  make the choice for YOU. Do what’s best for YOU. If you’re a WFHM or have an office job, though (but EP-ing is NOT exclusive to only those categories!), I hope this helps because I really believe pumping makes it easier to still fully give your baby breast milk if that’s something you feel committed to providing while you go back to work. You can do this, momma!

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