apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I found all I needed was a comfy chair and my iPhone. You can read email, play games, listen to music or podcasts, read news articles, watch YouTube videos, keep up with your favorite blogs!, check the weather, post pictures of your baby onto your Facebook etc, twitter useless things... and all at any time of the day or night. I don't know what I would have done without it. Add a place for a glass of ice water and you're perfect.

I second that! I keep my iphone in bed and its a lifesaver during middle-of-the-night feedings! My friends ask why the timestamp on my emails are 4am, lol:)

A well-stocked tivo was a lifesaver for me. I did a season pass on Golden Girls reruns so I always had something to watch for all of those middle of the night feedings.

With my first child, the rocking chair was in the nursery, next to a little table that held a clock, phone, paper/pen, book, and water bottle. But with my second child, we moved the rocking chair out into the living room so I could keep an eye on my toddler during the day. Since there wasn't room to bring the side table along with the chair, I made a set of pockets that draped over the arm of the chair to hold all the essentials.

I always nursed on the living room couch... baby's room was too boring!! After she got older and more efficient a cozy chair in her room was fine, but otherwise I wanted to be where the action was!

I didn't breast feed, but ditto the iphone/itouch. Get the Baby Activity Logger app! With that there's no need for pen & paper - it tracks feedings, diapers, sleep - genius!

Oh, and we have the rocker shown in that photo and it's the comfiest thing ever. Such a good investment. We put our money into that rather than a fancy crib - our comfort at 3am was more important.

Some other items:

- A cozy blanket. I was cold a lot when nursing in the winter in the middle of the night, so a warm blanket was a really nice thing to have during those times when I decided to nurse in a chair instead of laying in bed. An electric blanket would have been even better!

- A fan. If I wasn't too cold, I was too hot. A fan is nice to have near your nursing station.

- An ottoman or foot stool.

- I used a small booklight quite often. There are also various portable night lights like the Mobi or Candela that are useful.

- I used my laptop often during nursing, but in retrospect it was a major time waster and usually left me feeling spaced out. I won't spend so much time on my laptop when I nurse my next child. During the night I used my iPod frequently, which was more relaxing. I put some nature sounds on the iPod and listened to those all the time. Short podcasts were also great, like The Moth... just about the perfect amount of time for a feeding :)

- I found it useful to have a small station with baby nail clippers, cotton swabs, baby oil, etc nearby our nursing station. Much easier to groom baby during a feeding!

I recommend nursing outdoors as often as the weather permits. Or in bed, so you can easily transition to a nice nap :D

My laptop and my "Dave" laptop table from Ikea.

i generally tried to sleep while nursing! :p or . . . talk/sing to my baby and supervise my toddler, during the day. not that i blame anyone for hopping online. certainly during those newborn days of looooong nursing sessions, i watched way more television than at any other point in my parenting life.