I have a hot date tonight....

.... with a bottle brush and twenty two dirty Dr. Brown's.

Yup, it's bottle prep time. I secretly dream of the day my kids happily slurp whole milk from their sippy cups. 'Till then, I spend 45 minutes making sure my kids won't starve for the next two days. We use Dr. Brown's bottles, which have the same nipple Jeffry, the ticky-tail, would only take because it was the same size as the nipples used in the NICU.



The pink and blue bands are their Inchbug labels, which have their names lasered into them. Daycare requires their bottles to be labeled, and Sharpies, although they say permanent on them, certainly are not. After one washing, you're back to scribbling on them again. Which is a pain in the butt when you've written their names so cute with dots on every letter. =(

I invested in tons of bottles because it is so time consuming making bottles every night - now we have enough bottles to get us through about 48 hours before having to wash and remake. When I first started making batches a day in advance, this little pitcher saved my life.



It's made by Dr. Brown's, and it stirs formula with its nifty little butter-churn-like handle. It was great for the first, oh, eight weeks. After that, I pulled out momma's Kool-Aid pitcher. Does double the duty for a lot less $$$.

For you other MoM's out there, I sat down and did the math on how much the kids drink each day, and how much I need to make. I measured out one 12.9oz powder can of formula, and counted 36 scoops to the can. Multiplied by two, each can of powder plus 72oz of water yields 80 ounces of formula. So, I use the Dr. Brown's pitcher to measure out the correct amount of water, dump an entire can of formula into it....



.... and give it a vigorous mix with my kitchen whisk. We make five ounce bottles with rice cereal mixed in for reflux. So after the cereal is measured out and funneled in....



.... I use the "zoot zoot" to mix it all up. The zoot zoot is what we call the travel formula mixer, because of the sound it makes when you turn it on. It also makes an amusing toy for two teenage cousins during the church's Christmas choir presentation (they took turns flicking each other behind the ear with it).





So, after the daycare bottles are put in their cooler bag and the others are on the bottle shelf in the fridge, I can wipe my brow and settle down to my Hostess cupcake and can of Coke.