Morning guys! Happy Friday. And thank you for the breakfast ideas on Tuesday’s blog post! I’ve been really into egg wraps this week – so fast and easy. My go-to has been scrambled eggs with wilted spinach (tossed into the pan right before the eggs were fully cooked) and cheese. Yum!
A few of you have asked what wraps I’ve been using lately – they are the “Kock Your Sprouts Off” sprouted grain wraps from Aldi. So good – great ingredient list and they don’t totally fall apart on you either. As for cheese, I’ve been into Cabot’s new grated sharp cheddar (they originally sent me a sample of it, but I already bought more) – I know it’s easy to grate your own cheese but this is such a timesaver! And I love that it’s still super sharp/flavorful unlike some other pre-grated cheeses.
Another food highlight this week was this awesome shrimp salad that my mom made for me (and Riese – she tried a strip of shrimp, and had some mashed avocado) for lunch on Wednesday. It had shrimp, goat cheese, avocado, roasted red pepper, apple, chopped romaine, and a really good orange juice vinaigrette. Thanks for feeding us, mom! :) I also had some cheese and triscuits that went unpictured.
As for dinners, we’ve been into tacos this week – we had homemade chicken tacos on Monday (but I forgot to get a photo), and then on Wednesday night had shrimp tacos. This was a Blue Apron meal and it was soooo good. The carrot and celery slaw on the side was fun – it was made like normal slaw but with carrot and celery instead of cabbage. Nice way to mix it up! I also loved how colorful this meal was – eat the rainbow, my friends!
As for fitness this week, I’ve done my usual long walks with Riese and Freyja. This is becoming more and more of a workout as Riese gets heavier, especially if hills are involved!
And I also made it out to a yoga class with my high school friend Joy, who is in town visiting right now. This was such a treat – great class and great company.
Time to wrap up some to do list items, hop on an AnneTheRD client call, and then start the weekend! It’s rainy right now but I’m hoping the weather will clear in time for me to take Riese on a nice walk this afternoon – fingers crossed!
Also, thank you so much to those of you who provided tips regarding pumping logistics while traveling away from your baby via my request on Instagram stories! I’m going on my first trip away next weekend (ahhh, going to miss her so much) and appreciated the advice. :) If you’ve done a lot of pumping while traveling via plane, happy to hear more tips! I have a 6 hour flight so I’ll have to pump mid-flight – planning to do so at my seat with a cover because I don’t really want to monopolize the bathroom for ages. I just ordered a battery pack for my pump so fingers crossed it works okay, because I don’t want to assume there will be a plug at my seat! I’ll definitely bring a hand pump as a back up, though, just in case.
Have a great weekend guys!
Hi anne! I had to travel without my son when he was 3 months old, and I learned so much on that trip! But I googled “airports with nursing rooms” and found that most of the major airports have nursing rooms. I’ve used them in 3 different airports, and they were all super nice and private. Perfect for pumping before and after a flight! I also used the medela cooler and it kept my milk cold for 10 hours- I loved it. Lastly, the medela wipes are awesome for cleaning pump pets when traveling. Good luck!!
Awesome, thanks Susie!
This may be an obvious comment, but bring extra batteries! My Madela battery pack lasted like 4 pumping sessions (if that) before I needed new batteries.
Oh that’s actually not obvious at all – thank you! Great tip, I wouldn’t have thought to do that!!
One other tip… try pumping with the battery pack once or twice before you leave. I noticed that sometimes the battery pack didn’t give me quite as much suction… which is totally fine for a random session here and there, but the stress of realizing it while mid-flight in an uncomfortable plane seat wouldn’t be fun! Try to minimize the surprises so you can be as calm as possible. :) And definitely pack extra batteries as someone else suggested!
Great idea… I’ll try that tonight! Thank you!
I travel for work often, and my advice would be to brush up your knowledge about breastmilk and security. I have had to dump precious breast milk down a drain before I read up on it.
I printed out the TSA info online about traveling with breastmilk, so hopefully I can show that if anyone gives me any problems! Any specific things you wish you had known before that led you to have to dump the milk? Hopefully I’m not missing anything!
I pumped and traveled a lot because I travel for work! I also traveled East to West Coast a lot… So, a lot of 5 to 6 hour flights. You might be surprised that you can last the whole flight without pumping and just bring a hand pump to express in the bathroom for comfort. I found this a lot easier then pumping on the plane. I usually just pumped right before I boarded in the boarding area with a cover and then found a place once I landed or in my rental car right away! Also, if you don’t have a car adapter, get one, if you will be traveling around in a car. Since you will have to pump many times a day, it is nice to be able to fit in while in the car.
Traveling with Milk. You can fit a lot of milk in a soft sided cooler to bring home with you and if you just say it is breast milk, it does not count as an extra bag. Also, if you can freeze, it is a lot easier to travel through security and I found easier to keep cool that way. Layer the milk in a soft sided cooler, put newspaper in between and then just a few ice packs.
Hope this helps!
Thank you, I appreciate the tips!
Neat to see Riese make the gradual transition from breast feeding!
Kock your sprouts off 😂
I love your blog!
I read this at just the right moment too…I neeeeeded a good belly laugh.
Your little baby is sooo presh! And goodnesss does she look like your hubby.
Thank you for all the delicious recipes, and meal ideas. I’ve used a bunch.
Also, my husband is from Pittsburgh area too (Washington, PA). :)
Aw yay, thank you for reading! :)
Do you have enough milk at home for baby? Or do you have to deal with logistics of formula or similar while you’re gone? Trips like this are what stashes are for though
I’m more or less an exact producer so I have never been able to save much milk – usually I don’t have more than about a day’s worth in the freezer. She always gets an evening bottle before bed of pumped milk (I don’t have enough milk at that time of day and she always wants a ton before bed, so I pump at night before I go to bed and then occasionally after the first morning feed, too, to make up enough milk for her evening bottle – and occasionally I’ll have extra to save), though, so a few weeks ago in anticipation for this trip we switched that evening bottle to formula so that I was able to store/save the extra breastmilk I pumped. By the time I left I had about 3 full days worth saved, and I sent back a full day and a half’s worth of milk on Friday afternoon via Milk Stork, so that made up enough for while I was gone. It was good to have the formula as an option just in case they ran out of milk, though – and it’s nice to know now that she has no problems with the formula if we need to use it again in the future. Great to have options!
That’s great! Good planning ahead. Glad it worked out!
When I came home there were only two bags of breastmilk left! Whew, just made it! So glad I saved and brought home the milk I pumped so I replenished my stash. :)
So, I’m not a mom, but I saw one of the Mamava pods in an airport on a recent trip. Just a head’s up to you and / or anyone else who might be interested that they might be an option. I can’t vouch, obviously, for the cleanliness / set up / etc., but… they get pretty good reviews online, from what I can see. Also, there is an app for locating nearby ones, and they’re not just at airports: https://www.mamava.com/locations/
Sounds like you rocked your trip! Go, you! :)
I saw one of those in Seattle – so cool! There was one right by my gate. I didn’t use it because timing didn’t work out, but so good to know those exist and that you can look up locations! I peeked in and it looked pretty nice!