I’ve been told that having twins is a pretty logical business decision for a mommy blogger like myself. Naturally I did not plan it this way, but my third baby surprising us by being TWO babies has opened my eyes to a whole new parenting—and parenting gear—world that goes beyond just having double trouble.
Being the naïve and optimistic gal I am, I just assumed I would be tandem breastfeeding my boys from day one till they weaned well into toddlerhood. It didn’t even dawn on me that I might need to bottle-feed them.
My breast pump has been my conjoined twin since the Cub Twins were born. I was able to pump enough for them to switch to exclusive breast milk in the NICU early on, and they were fed by bottle, gavage (a tube in the nose) and some nursing at the breast. When we brought them home two weeks later, the reality of full-time pumping and bottle-feeding twins sank in, and it wasn’t pretty.
So. Many. Bottles.
And all of those bottles need to be sterilized! Sterilizing baby’s feeding equipment is recommended until they are four months old. My boys use anywhere from eight to twelve bottles per 24-hour period, and I have three separate sets of breast pump parts. You do the math, because I certainly can’t. (My brain is mush!)
We started with a microwave sterilizer that holds a maximum of four bottles and takes 16 minutes total to complete sterilization. Once removed from the microwave, the bottles need to dry. If I’m really on my game, they’re dry before I run out of already-sterilized bottles (it takes longer than overnight for them to air dry, though). But I have not been on my game since I conceived … so I wind up having to dry the bottles using my fancy chopstick-inserting-paper-towel-into-bottle technique. The entire process takes up time … and with my two big kids and the twins and pumping every three hours for the twins and feeding the twins and changing the twins and never sleeping more than two hours at a time … I WILL ACCEPT ANY AND ALL APPLIANCES THAT HELP SAVE ME TIME.
And here it is, my new breast best friend!
It looks like a spaceship, and it is out of this world! The Baby Brezza Steri-Dry Steam Sterilizer kills 99.9% of germs with an 8-minute steam cycle. If you are really behind on your chores and you need a bottle right away, you can remove one and dry it by hand, but ideally, you can wait and let the Brezza do the drying for you. I use the 45-minute dry cycle and unsurprisingly don’t even notice the time passing. The next time I’m in the kitchen, my bottles are dry.
The Baby Brezza Steri-Dry Steam Sterilizer can be used with any brand of bottle, and it can sterilize six bottles and all their accoutrements at a time.
This is the perfect amount: I typically have six bottles to wash and sterilize while I am pumping my milk first thing in the morning. I can also use it to sterilize their pacifiers and all of my pump parts. If it’s designed to withstand sterilization, the Brezza space ship can do it!
After four months, when you might not be sterilizing anymore, you can still use the Brezza to dry your bottles quickly: just skip directly to the dry cycle!
I tried to be super prepared for twin parenthood ahead of time, but a bottle sterilizer wasn’t something I thought I’d need. But now I am grateful that my boys take bottles: pumping is hard. I’d rather have them on bottles, and even take some formula, than full-time at the breast because let’s face it—I’m the only one with the boobs but any other willing party can hold a bottle and a baby for me! Alas, breastfeeding is more convenient in some ways, since you don’t have to sterilize your boobies.
My body gave me the unexpected gift of twins. My Brezza sterilizer is giving me the desperately needed gift of extra time. And time may not equal money, but it definitely equals my sanity.
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