Review: Munchkin White Hot Duck Tub

With our first big trip as a family of three just two weeks away, I’ve been researching baby gear to help make our travels smooth. I’ve been a big fan of the Puj Flyte since Paloma was born, but now that she is over fifteen pounds, it was time to find a transition bathtub that could be used for both home and travel. I decided to go with the Munchkin White Hot Duck Tub because at $12, I wouldn’t have been heartbroken if it didn’t work out.  

I wanted to test the tub before throwing it into my suitcase. Inflating it without a pump was certainly tiring but not impossible.   It fit into my bathtub easily, but it was a little challenging to angle underneath the water flow. I had to awkwardly prop it up to get the water inside but again, it wasn’t impossible. I really liked that the tub has Munchkin’s White Hot technology built in, but I still did a quick check before putting Paloma in.

At almost 5 months old, Paloma isn’t completely sitting up but she is pretty close. Munchkin claims that the tub is non-slip, but when I pulled away to take a picture, she quicklu started to slide. I was able to prop her up a little better by sticking a towel inside of the tub with her. 

I found the drain on the bottom very easy and convenient. When bath time was over, I hung the tub on the wall overnight to dry. The next day, It was easy to deflate and relatively easy to fold compact.
For $12, I feel like this was a really good purchase and an affordable option for transitioning Paloma to the big tub. I anticipate that we will get a ton of usage out of this tub in our home and on the road.

Deal Alert: Lansinoh 100 Count Disposable Nursing Pads from $5.54 (regular retail price $12.99)

It’s been 4 1/2 months of breastfeeding, and I’m still leaking on a daily basis so I was pretty excited when I found this deal. Jet.com currently Lansinoh 100 Count Disposable Nursing Pads  for $6.52  per box when you buy 6 boxes (you need to spend over $35 to get the free Jet shipping, hence the 6 box quote). I know 6 boxes sounds aggressive, but trust me: you will easily go through them! Plus, if you are a new customer, you can use coupon code TRIPLE15 to get 15% off of your first 3 orders, knocking your total down to $5.54 per box.

If you don’t want to purchase in bulk, there is also a great deal currently available on Amazon for $7 per box if you purchase this as an add-on item.

Stay dry, ladies!

Mom Hack: Momsicles a.k.a. my breast milk in an ice cube tray with pacifiers

Are all babies particular when it comes to their pacifiers? I swore I wasn’t going to be the Mom whose kid always had a pacifier in their mouth, but that, like almost every other preconceived idea that I had about parenting before actually becoming a parent, flew out the window within the first few weeks. When Paloma denied pacifier after pacifier, I was delighted. My baby didn’t need a pacifier. She rejected the adorable MAM paci with a bunny on the front and the little round, cutesy Avent pacifiers and every as well as every other pacifier that made its way into our home. And then I gave her the cheap looking, ugly Nuk binky that came from a registry bag and well, that was it for her. I still hate this pacifier for many reasons other than its lack of asthetics, but it is still the only one she will take at 4 months old. So in all of our S.O.S. places around the house, you will find a “Cutie Girl” sucker waiting to deliver us from meltdowns.

I’ve saved all of the failed pacifiers in a mason jar in the kitchen. I probably could have returned them, but while I am cheap, I’m not that cheap (but I’ve definitely considered it). We recently started teething, and I’ve noticed P really enjoys the cooling relief of the Munchkin Ice Heart Teether. So…insert momsicles! What better way to soothe her sore gums than using our collection of unused pacifiers and breastmik to make paci pops? And you know what?  She LOVES them! For anyone not familiar, they are incredibly easy to make. Pour freshly expressed breast milk (you could also use formula) into an ice cube tray, and insert a pacifier upside down. Let these sit in the freezer for a few hours, and you’re all set! It’s a cheap and easy way to bring your little ones comfort and relief.

Do you have any teething hacks?

My girl enjoying a momsicle along with her avocado.

“Being a working Mom is sometimes really fucking awful (and almost always really hard).”

It’s 4am and my 4th waking on the 4th night of the 4 month sleep regression that is currently taking our household by storm. As I’m woefully dragging myself out of bed, I just want to scream in my tired delirium because, “Being a working Mom is sometimes really fucking awful (and almost always really hard).”

I wish I had something witty or insightful that I could say about how balancing my Mom life and my work life and my marriage is easy or about how the 4 month sleep regression doesn’t totally suck after 3 months of sleeping-through-the-night bliss, but the truth is that being a working Mom is incredibly difficult and unbearably exhausting 99% of the time. It’s a good day if I’ve been able to function on less than 3 cups of coffee, and it’s a great day if I’ve been able to wash my hair and had a full 15 minutes of alone time. There are consistent piles of laundry, a sink overflowing with dishes and floors that desperately need to be vacuumed and mopped. There is always a list of things that I should be doing and not even close to enough time in the day. There are friends that I should be trying to connect with, and family that I forget to call back. I can’t even remember the last time there was a day where I didn’t feel completely overwhelmed or weighed down by anxiety. But then there are those baby giggles that just melt my soul and make everything seem right. And I am truthfully ok with everything else in life taking the back seat for now.

I decided to start this blog after finding almost every single Mommy blog to be completely unrealistic and not relatable. Almost all are written by stay-at-home Moms and painted with perfectly edited photos and thoughtfully crafted words. In the United States, about 70% of women with children under 18 are actively working or looking for work meaning that while these blogs may be someone’s normal, they are not THE normal.

I may come across as bitter, and I will be the first to admit that some days (ok most days) that is somewhat true. Who wouldn’t want to spend the day returning gummy smiles or doing cute crafts or documenting sweet mid-afternoon naps? I am definitely not one of those Moms that would be lost without my career or feels like they just have to work, but that isn’t my family’s reality right now. I’m grateful to have a job that I love that is such an organic lifestyle fit (I work for a baby brand). I am blessed to have free childcare almost all of the time (thank you, Father-in-law). And when I’m not traveling for work, I am so lucky that my office is located in my home. The fact that I am often able to pop downstairs when I hear my little girl having a hard time to let her know Mommy is still here is invaluable to me. Financially, it’s also important to me to be able to save for my family’s future and to be able to give our little girl a life full of travel, experiences and of course more love than she knows what to do with. I want her to grow up independent and strong and smart and well-rounded, and I hope that some day she admires the fact that I continued to work so that I could give her the best life I possibly could.

But for me, and I think probably many women, the balance is still so hard. The sleepless weeknights rock me, and they almost always happen when I have something important the next morning thanks to Murphy’s Law. Or now with the 4 month sleep regression they just happen every night. When I finally make it through these next few weeks? months?, I’ll be sure to let everyone know my tips for survival. For now, I constantly remind myself, “Embrace this season of your life, for it is just that…a season.” And then I have a good cry in the shower…while constantly pausing because I swear I’m hearing the baby cry. Anyone else?

Stay strong, Mamas! I look forward to bringing you plenty of more honest mothering from this far-from-perfect Mom.