Bottles, Boobs & Bag

This weekend I received a personal lesson on how to use my Medela Pump in Style. One of my best (breast? ha!) friends came over and showed me how to work it. Thank goodness for her, for all I know I would have stuck it on and not been able to get it off of me. Well, that's worst case scenario, but it could happen. I did try to stick it on Petey. He wasn't into it. I'll try the dog next. :)

I am going to be an exclusive pumper. Now don't try to give me any flack about that, I have personal reasons why I want to exclusively pump and give George Thomas breastmilk from a bottle. So, because of this, I will not only have to set aside time to feed him, but also to pump milk. I figure the first month after he is born, I will be feeding and pumping continuously. I'll probably walk around topless, it just makes it easier.

(FYI...Give me a call before you come by my house so I can put on a shirt at least. If you are lucky, I'll put on a bra too.)

The whole contraption looks scarier than it actually is. Now that I know how to work it, I'm confident that I can get this whole pumping thing down. I might lose my sanity and ALL of my sleeping time, but we'll try it out and see. Doesn't hurt anyone to try, right?

I have all my bottles & breast pump accessories washed, sterilized and ready to go. I'm not sure how many bottles I'm going to need per day (can anyone help me?). I know it just depends on how much washing I want to do.

I have 10 ready to go and 6 more on backup (meaning I haven't washed them and they are still in boxes), is that enough? The Dr. Brown's bottles fit on my breast pump, which helps, and then I have the actual Medela bottles that fit too. I also have the Medela bags that fit on the breast pump, in the event that I don't need the milk immediately.

Sigh. I don't know. I guess I'll figure it out when we are in the middle of it all.

I need to put mittens in the hospital bag. I would hate for George Thomas to scratch the crap out of his face and look like he's been abused while we are still in the hospital. I told Petey that his job is to cut his fingernails, but to wait until he is sleeping to do it. It scares me and I can't do it at all. Can we file them down instead? I guess not.

All this worry!! I can't stand it any longer! Will it come to me automatically? Will I just figure it out for myself? Will GT be fed well and be a happy baby? Can I make it work? Can I do it all in 6 weeks? ACK! I'm losing my mind!