#5: Throw Money at It

Your Auntie Shannon, my close friend, told me while I was complaining to her one day about the various chores I had pre-pregnancy. She has a philosophy that there are some problems that are just worth throwing money at instead of spending significant amount of time and effort.

I’ve thought about this philosophy every day, since we’ve been “throwing money at it” daily.

When you’re dealing with a newborn, this applies for as long as you can afford it.

That combined with sleep deprivation and a baby that only fits preemie clothes is how we ended up with a 2-hour pickup window at target, cycles through the washing machine and finally a fussy baby trying to get her arms into a X (a sleep sack to start) before heading to the bassinet…. Ultimately – cutting the bottom half of the sleep sack off Clara. She had pooped all over it, and the wet sleep sack was too difficult and bothersome to get back over her head, off her arms, and off her tiny body. So I say X because first it was a sleep sack, then it was zippered pajamas, followed by a long-sleeved shirt, and ultimately it was a long-sleeved side-button snapped shirt. That’s where we landed before I bought 3 more, and then 5 more today.

It wasn’t just shirts though. There have been a lot of problems worth throwing money at. I can’t remember which order they came in, but I think our first problem came from very very watery stools and a concern that we may not be cleaning her bottles well enough.

Paying attention to bottles was not on my radar of high priority items during pregnancy.

We noticed that the bottle parts and the pump parts started getting mixed in with our regular dishes, and there wasn’t a good system yet for having everything to the standard of clean that a <1 week old required. We had a sterilizer, but the sterilizer still required a good washing first. Since we were supplementing and pumping, there was a high volume of pump parts and bottles getting washed multiple times a day. We needed some designated spaces that were sterile a part from our day to day living.

✅ Basin for the sink just for bottles/pump parts
✅ Small countertop bin just for clean bottles/pump parts
✅ Designated drying space
✅ The Baby Brezzo Bottle Washer Pro, our biggest splurge so far

The Baby Brezza Washer Pro is a mini dishwasher dedicated for baby bottles and pump flanges. It sits on our counter and replaced our Dr. Brown’s hand-me-down sterilizer. It washes, sterilizes and dries all in one. Drying, surprisingly is the hardest part. Using dish rags totally defeats the purpose of sterilizing unless your rags are also sterile, but drying them on a rack goes by pretty slowly. Having a machine that also dries is chef’s kiss. Who knows, Clara, what technology you will have if you ever become a mom. I know for my mom, this was a lot of new tech, lots of small parts – bottle valves with tubes, different nipple and bottle shapes. Maybe some day you’ll think back with your gadgets and wonder how I ever got by with what we had in 2025.

For now, I’ll enjoy the Baby Brezza splurge.

On the subject of bottles – before you came, we had Tommy Tippee and Avent bottles for the most part. The glass Avent bottles are really comfortable to hold and glass is a much more sustainable and durable material. However, when you, baby girl got nipple confusion/bottle preference, it was clear that we had to find another solution for my anatomy. A friend recommended Evenflo and Pigeon bottles.

✅ Overnight shipping on Amazon for two sets of Pigeon and one set of Evenflo bottles

Pumping wasn’t high on the priority list either.

In pregnancy I thought I would be 85-90% breastfeeding and 10-15% pumping, just enough to keep up a stash for Pablo on a nightshift. Then we had the formula + pumping push at the hospital and pumping became a big focus for a few nights. Leaving the hospital, the nurse asked if I wanted to take the pump parts with me, and I said “nope! I already have them.” I should have taken them.

There’s nothing like waking up at 3:30a only to have to wash tiny multiple pump parts and search for a disc that looks just like another disc but it fits inside the other one (and explain all of this to Pablo in Spanish so he can search for it while I breastfeed you, tears starting to roll down my cheek slowly because she won’t take my breast). Don’t worry this only happened once, and then we threw money at it.

✅ Overnight shipping for a second set of pump parts

It felt like every night I would spend 20 minutes frantically reviewing Amazon for some solution to some problem I had that day that I could throw money at. I can’t spend much more time, because you’ve just woken up from a nap, dear Clara, but I’ll give you the Cliff notes (with AI, I doubt those are still a thing, but one day I’ll tell you about them).

The rest of our Amazon orders looking back looked like the following:

Your Items (baby items):

✅ Preemie clothes since she was smaller than expected (who knew a newborn would not fit newborn clothes?). Side snap clothes because why are baby clothes made in a way that’s impossible to put them in without crying?
✅ Active Baby K’Tan carrier, that seems more appropriate for newborns than other carriers and easier to get on
✅ Travel bassinet for the sofa
✅ Basic regular and rectal thermometers. The Frida one had readings all over the place.
✅ Different elimination communication potty with a handle – the top hat is not my favorite
✅ Hemp (overnight absorbency) inserts for cloth diapers
✅ Additional pre-folds and wet bags for dirty cloth diapers

Household Items:

✅ Dish soap, a new drying rack, and a blender top to replace the one that broke on day 3 of being home
✅ Laundry hamper to keep downstairs

Comfort Items for Me:

✅ Regular feminine pads since the ones from the hospital end up being too big after a week or so when everything regulates
✅ Twice daily pill reminder box for the week (to remember to take my vitamins)
✅ 2 additional pumping/nursing combo bras + 3 additional camis
✅ Bamboobies nursing pads and gel packs for nursing
✅ Turkey Jerky for my nursing cart so I can snack while I feed you

It’s only week 2, and we had to do a lot of catch-up spending as we figured out the new ropes of being with you and meeting your needs. Your mom likes to be prepared, and I definitely thought I was! Turns out some things you can’t prepare for until you’re explaining to your husband in another language at 3am what quarter-sized part to look for.