Life-Hacks from Med Mommas

OK, I recently joined an online discussion forum for physician mothers and it's like being in a virtual sorority! I LOVE it. We chat about everything from complex medical cases at work to the best dry shampoos on the market. I really can't get enough.

There have been some fantastic threads formed and I'm looking to compile the best contributions so as to have an easy-access reference moving forward. I will start out with the "life-hacks" that have proven to be invaluable. -- And that should say a lot seeing as how most of these women are working way over 40hrs a week and have a family.

Source

Without further ado, I present the can't-live-without life-hacks for medical mommas:

Tech

1. Wemo. A gadget that allows you to control your electronics from anywhere. 
2. Shutterfly iPhone app 
3. Wunderlist "to do" app
4. Audible.com for listening to books while doing other tasks
5. Roku (consolidates TV viewing)
6. Xfinity
7. Amazon Prime (BIG winner)
8. Out of Milk app (for groceries)
9. Baby Monitor app
10. Personal Cap app for budgeting
11. Teamup.com calendar
12. Mint.com for personal finances
13. Google calendars
14. Apple TV

Cooking/Dieting

1. Hamilton Beach 6qt. slow cooker
2. Stash of nuts at the work desk to avoid binging
3. Jura coffee maker
4. Blendtek
5. Vitamix
6. Immersion blender
7. Le Creuset (another big winner)
8. Ina Garten cookbook 
9. Sancerre wine
10. Hello Fresh
11. Cuisinart food processor
12. Henckels professional knives
13. Tiger rice cooker
14. Caphalon grill pan
15. Hamilton mini-personal blender
16. Breville espresso maker
17. Parchment paper
18. Cooks Illustrated
19. The Science of Good Cooking
20. Farmfreshtoyou.com

Cleaning

1. Dyson cordless vacuum
2. Roomba (including industrial strength for pet hair)
3. Laundry sorter
4. Braava hardwood floor robot
5. Clorox bleach tablets for toilet bowl

Clothes

1. Stitch Fix

Beauty, Fitness, & Hygiene

1. Microplane foot file
2. 30min or less Beach Body workouts
3. Living Proof shampoo and conditioner
4. Bikram yoga
5. Argan oil 
6. Shiseido eyelash curler
7. Yogaglo.com quick workouts
8. Dry shampoo
9. Clarisonic face brush
10. L'Occitane almond shower oil
11. Armani face cream
12. Gel manicure
13. T25/P90X3/Piyo
14. Deva Curl products
15. Skinceuticals
16. ReTress
17. Bath and Body Works Stress Relief 
18. Lasik eye surgery
19. Laser hair removal
20. Neutrogena healthy lengths mascara
21. Eyelash extensions
22. Microfiber hair towel
23. Origins On the Spot Relief
24. Pure Barre Workouts
25. TNS essential serum

Kids

1. Baby Bjorn plastic bib to contain mess
2. Clip-on highchair
3. Pump adapters for milk to go directly into bottle
4. Lotus travel crib
5. Go-go-babyz for travel
6. Snap N Go Stroller
7. InchBug juice box holder
8. Puddle jumper floaties for the pool
9. Mommy hook attachment for stroller

Organization and Other

1. Label maker
2. Container Store Elfa system
3. 3 basket hamper, each piece removable
4. Retailmenot.com for coupons
5. Merchandise tags for organization & simple gift cards

Know When to Hold 'Em

And know when to return 'em, so that they get folded by someone else. :(

If it's for the children and/or costs more than $20, our purchases need to be approved by each other. So what I do is buy what I think is charming at a good price, hold on to the receipt, and run it by the man when either one of us gets home. This is our system. It works for us. I believe in it.

Except when it causes heartbreak like this:

Boden girl skirt

Goodbye awesome puppy skirt, you didn't make the cut. You were deemed pathetically puppyful, and not worth $19. Waaaaaaaaahhhhh.

The two shirts shown above, they are keepers. (But really, a sparrow wearing a crown is less offensive than a pack of cuddly pooches? C'mon! That bird could be a gang banger.)

The shoe decision is also hard. My girl has thick wide feet and our options are limited. You'll see a theme there above, this is the shoe type with the easiest toe entry. The purple & orange Tom's and the glitter knock-offs are the same size. The knock-offs (from Meijer) are pretty flimsy, have very little cushioning, but are almost half the price as the others (though all things shown above were on clearance). We're trying to decide between those two first, because if it looks like the Tom's are not worth it, then that means the other pair in red & white, which are in a larger size for down the road, will be returned, too.

Ugh, having a girl, if you don't watch out your closets will be filled to the brim with the cutest stuff known to mankind. . . Wait, is that so bad?

Etsy Faves Right Now

Swirl by Tastes Orangey

Deer Words Baby Blouse by Treefall Design

Rolling Sky oil painting by Donna Walker

Out and About

The kiddos in a field of wild chamomile, on the Mississippi.

We've made a resolution to get out there and do more stuff with and without the kiddos. We have a bunch of fun things planned for the summer months and I'm really looking forward to it.

One thing I realized is that mothers need to be very organized and pro-active about planning activities for kids. While I think it's important to have unstructured playtime, there is also a lot of value in taking advantage of educational programs and activities nearby. There were several options available through our local park district, but of course the good and cheap stuff went quickly. Now I know that early May is the time to start signing up for activities. 

The buddy-system is always good for keeping commitments, so I invited my friend Mimi over and we went through our calendars to make play-dates for our kids. Our goal is to enjoy as many activities as possible, for the lowest cost, and to save on transportation by car-pooling. We'd also like to spend more time in the city, Chicago.

A goal that Tim and I share is to do more road-trips. Now I must confess something, we got a minivan. Egads, what has happened to us?! Here's the deal, though. I see it more as a party wagon. -I'm Latino, we travel in packs and this vehicle is fulfilling my destiny, OK? Anyway, we went on a maiden voyage with our new ride (named Donatello because it's green and looks like a ninja turtle) over Memorial weekend and it was glorious.

We went to a town called Nauvoo (IL) on the Mississippi, though we stayed in Keokuk, Iowa. It was perfect for my boy, Leepo. They put on demonstrations of how things were made in the mid-1800s, with the actors dressed in period clothes. We learned how bricks, wagon wheels, ironwork, ropes, bread, clothing, and candles were made. As for souvenirs, we were given our own brick with an impression of the town name, a ring forged from an iron nail, ginger cookies, and Leepo got to keep the rope he made himself.

Let's lasso everything in sight. 

More important, we survived our 4 hour car ride and managed to have a bit of fun during it. This is what helped:

Stay tuned to see what adventures lie ahead!

When a Picnic is No Picnic

Lately we've been going to our beautiful arboretum that is so close to our house. The trip is only 5min, but the packing takes forever. This is what my bag contains, including blanket. What do you carry in yours?

Teaching the Kid(s) How to Read

On my list of things to start on my maternity leave, I included the task of teaching my son, Leepo, how to read. I think we're off to a really good start, so I'll share what has worked well so far.

This is obvious, but we started with the ABCs. We sang the alphabet until it was memorized, then we went through this stack of flashcards as often as we could many months earlier. I just love the Eric Carle letters because they're so vibrant and display all different kinds of animals. I admit to using fruit snacks as an incentive, though I have mixed feelings about rewarding kids with foods (am I laying the ground work for eating disorders later on?).

Once Leepo mastered letter cognition with the accompanying sound, we moved on to this nifty paint chip idea I found, where else?, on Pinterest.

Here you see my son playing with word stems that contain a window view box (got these from Lowe's) on a color sheet that contains first letters (from Home Depot). We sound out each component first and then put them together. I think he's starting to grasp the concept now.

The only thing to warn you about is that since these are paint chips, and they're good quality paint at that, even permanent marker will smudge off. Also, be warned about unintentional curse words. The nice thing about using a fold-out book for the initial letters is that you can plan ahead and separate out Tr for truck and F for food if you know what I mean.

Some high yield word stems:

-it
-ig
-at
-oy
-ook
-oon
-ite
-ing
-ove
-ack
-ob
-eep
-ain
-est

Feeds and Toileting, No Big Whoop

Since life is not hectic enough, I've decided to add on toilet training Leepo.

He is a very lovable child, but once he sets his mind to something (or I should say against something) it takes a tough-as-steel parental decree to get him to do otherwise. I was avoiding doing that because everyone kept telling me that boys need more time to make the transition out of diapers, and he still has a few months until he's at the average age for toileting among boys. Yesterday, however, after changing his diaper of what can only be described as 'man poop,' I'd had enough. I figured he's going to spazz out a few months from now or he's going to spazz out now, so why don't I just get all this over with while I'm on maternity leave and have some control over the situation?

There is this factor of having a newborn who likes to feed every 1-2 hours, which complicates things just a little. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment, like most doctors, frankly.

Lo, the decree has been made!

Last night I turned to Leepo and said "This diaper change is your last one during the daytime. You can wear diapers at night, but tomorrow you're going to wear big boy underwear." He didn't like that one bit. He knelt by the sofa, placing his face in his hands (he has a touch for the dramatic, what can I say?) and every time Tim and I tried to comfort him he'd say: "Don't! I don't want you to talk like THAT."

I should explain right now that toilet training was not sprung upon him for the first time just then. We did have build-up to this moment. There was a lot of talk about making this transition, even some earnest attempts to train him in the past, but the moment I've just described is the official 'there's no going back' starting point.

And we're not so cruel as to deny him a reward. Or two.

We told him he'd get cookies. His eyes lit up. Shrewd business man that he is, Leepo said "I'm getting cookies and a big working truck from Goodwill!" -Like how he slipped that last part in? We couldn't help but agree to the terms.

So this is day #1. I know people are divided over their love/disdain for the Itzbeen, but I dragged this out to handle both Beanie's needs and Leepo's toileting.

My system:

Diaper = Time since toileting Leepo

Bottle = Time since pumping milk (lets me know when to put it in the fridge)

Zzz = Time spent sleeping, also indicative of when Beanie needs a diaper change

* = Time since breastfeeding 

The rest of my gear includes the following:

• Child toilet seat with handles
• Training underwear
• Construction-themed PJs and book. This is a combination of negative and positive reinforcement (thank you, psychiatry rotation!). Leepo does not want to soil his PJs because they are so cool. He is also starting to look forward to toilet time because that's when I read to him all of his ridiculously long books about building things.
• Chux pads. After years of treating incontinence in the elderly, traumatic brain/spinal cord injured populations, I've come to trust these. I ask Leepo to sit on a Chux when he's playing on the rug or sitting at the sofa to avoid a clean-up disaster.

I've also been reading up on this process all over the place, more recently looking at these tips (located through Pinterest, of course). **Nerd alert!** I admit to using some of my education on 'central' incontinence, as well. -Namely making use of the 'gastrocolic reflex' that assists bowel movement within an hour of eating (helps to time things) and making diet adjustments for more predictable patterns of voiding. 

Thing is, as wacky as this appears, adding toilet-training to the postpartum period has provided a nice opportunity to create "just us" time with my firstborn. Leepo gets my undivided attention when we're in the bathroom, which may end up being his favorite spot in the house afterall. 

Product Reviews: Beauty and Kid Wash

Betting on this 'miracle cream.'

I'm practically bathing in this stuff nowadays. I wish I had done the research to determine if StriVectin-SD is really so much better than Mederma for the treatment of early stretch marks. The latter is way cheaper. Right now I've got three red lines near the dark disc that used to be my belly-button. I'm praying they will later invert, but for now I'm treating them. It's day two and I don't see any changes, but StriVectin doesn't promise anything noticeable for 4 weeks.

My Clinique dream team.

Every two years I restock my skin supplies. I've used Clinique for the longest time, but am thinking about Origins for my daily foundation. I will stand by my SuperDefense cream, though. It's amazing. It provides SPF protection without feeling greasy. I pounced on the mini-kit special and got all this other free stuff, too. -Laser repair, under-eye treatment, mascara, eye shadows, moisture surge and tinted lip moisturizer (not shown). I also purchased that little tub of black eye liner shown on the left. It too is a cream and comes with a tiny brush. I think if you have very fine features, you're better off with one of those micro-eyeliners, but for me this is perfect. It goes on easily and stay on all day.

Forget what you knew!

We were given a bunch of Johnson & Johnson supplies when our son was born and we finally spent the last drop. Knowing that the next head-to-toe wash I'd purchase would be used on my 3 year-old and newborn, I decided to give this one more thought. I didn't want to buy something very expensive or difficult to find, so I found myself at Target. This product, Shea Moisture, was definitely more costly by the ounce than the standard stuff, but it had the lowest toxin profile (note: California Baby recently changed their formula!). It's all natural, and has fancy ingredients like shea, frankincense, and myrrh.

The price difference still gave me pause (seriously, I think people thought the preggo lady had decided to build her nest in Aisle 3), but the label says it only takes a dime-sized amount to fully bathe a baby, so I eventually told myself it would all work out. The funny thing is, the scent also made me wonder if this was the right choice. You see, it smells good. Really good. Like something you'd get from L'Occitane. The problem was that we've been so conditioned to associate "that new baby smell" with Johnson and Johnson's yellow stuff that it's hard to wrap your brain (or nose) around anything else.

Well, I'm glad I took a chance on this one. It feels luxurious and cleans well. Plus, the no toxin thing is definitely a plus.

Zuzii Barefoot Sandals

ZUZII 

(Hope you like baby products because that's about all you're going to get these days leading up to my due date.)

I just purchased this 'barefoot sandal' DIY kit and couldn't be more excited about it. I think this little footwear will be perfect for my summer baby and offer just enough of the feminine touch to balance the rest of her wardrobe that is a bit more gender neutral.

Compared to buying expensive shoes that she'll only wear once also puts this purchase in the Score! category. Can't wait to get this in the mail!