Hi friends,
As most of you know, I’ve been traveling for work quite a bit these past few months. This summer, pumpspotting has been on a cross-country tour to show up for breastfeeding women and the experience has been incredible! I’m seriously so lucky that I work on something I am passionate about.
Just a couple of weekends ago, we were at The Chicago Baby Show. I took the train from Milwaukee to Union Station and met up with the pumpspotting team to work there for a five day stretch. It was so, so fun! As always, I could count on my friend Kelly for the best dining recommendations. If you’re going to Chicago anytime in the future, you’ll want to get tapas at Ema and definitely stop at True Food Kitchen for lunch. But, I digress.
At The Chicago Baby Show, I was able to meet and greet mamas on the Breast Express to celebrate them and support them. Yes, the 40′ RV nursing and pumping suite pulled right into the Expo Hall at Navy Pier. We hosted another event in partnership with JCPenney Portraits after the Baby Show ended and I was able to meet some of the most incredible people. It was such a joy to meet you, Mama Fresh!
I wanted to take a moment to share some of the best of the Baby Show with you though. Since becoming a mama just over four years ago, a lot of new baby gear and essentials have come on the market. It was really fun to take a minute off of the bus and wander around the show to see what is the latest and greatest. It’s crazy how much can change + how many new things there can be in such a short amount of time. It was really hard to narrow it down, but I’ve picked my top three finds that you should definitely check out for yourself! (ps. my best of best is pumpspotting, obviously.)
The Best of the Chicago Baby Show
1. Evenflo EveryStage DLX All-In-One Car Seat
Any mom or dad who has ever struggled to install a car seat NEEDS to look into this new seat. Not only does it get 3x tighter installation (is safer because of it) but it has a really easy to use latch system that rachets the installation process. I was seriously amazed! Other bonus points: This seat grows with a child from infancy up to 120 pounds + can be used for up to 10 years. Also, the price point is 🙌🏼. I’ll take three of them, please.
We love the convenience of “squeezers” in our household to help us get some great nutrients in our kiddos. Inspired Start products are not only healthy but designed also as early allergen introduction. “Early introduction is the process of feeding a potentially allergenic food to infants early on in their immune system development and on a consistent basis as they continue to grow and develop.” Read more about this term and starting baby on solids here. These would be great to start with your little ones as early as 4-6 months!
3. Snoo Smart Sleeper by Happiest Baby
Have you seen this yet?! For real, it’s pretty incredible in terms of safe and healthy sleep development for babies. This is a responsive bassinet that boosts sleep for parents and babies. This is directly quoted from the website: “Adds 1+ hours a night by automatically responding with increasing levels of white noise + motion to quickly soothe fussing. Newborns start sleeping better in 1-2 days…babies older than 6 weeks within 3-7 days.” What any parent wouldn’t do for more and better sleep! At a very steep price point, it may not be for everyone, but I surely had to showcase how remarkable the product is!
Honorable mentions of mine would include:
- Baby K’tan: I am a huge fan! Read more about that here.
- Motherlove: I trust their More Milk Plus product to boost my milk supply. Plus, they were so kind to send me a little care package when I had influenza over the winter.
- Micralite: These strollers are designed with so many accommodations in mind for all terrain and for ease of use. I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these.
- Thule: I not only love their Sleek City Stroller, but Mark and I are really interested in getting a Chariot and Child Bike Seats so we can go on family bike rides. We’ve been hiking + nature walking quite a bit these past couple of years, but now that Maven is riding a bike, we think this would be a fun transition!
There was so much to see, so if you have an opportunity to attend one of the baby shows in the future I highly recommend it.
I’m home (not traveling for work) for a few weeks now. We are going to settle into fall as a family of 5 and continue to enjoy as much time together as possible. We have a lot of new and exciting things happening in our family that I can’t wait to share more about. But as for now, our upcoming weekend agenda: a whole lot of relaxation.
I hope you all are doing well!
x,
Lisa