Persevering Momma

Taking The Day One Spoon At a Time

Breastflow Feeding – Perfect For Breastfed Babies

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I received First Years Breastflow Starter Set free in exchange for my honest opinion. 

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For the past month I have been wanting to tear my hair out because my son decided he hates bottles and will not drink breast milk or formula from them.  (Do not even think about bashing me for feeding him formula. Mama bear will lash out.)  A little over a month ago I was getting to have a date night and my son up and decided he was not going to take anything from a bottle.  I had already stopped formula because he would not drink that and my breast milk supply in the freezer was not much so I was nervous and started pumping on top of our daily nursing routine.

I was desperate for a date night or two seeing as I am home all day with my love bug and did not want to have to stop these rare treats completely.  I had a variety of bottles here at home and tried all five or six different bottles to no avail.  I even got so desperate that I tried getting him to drink something out of one of his three different sippy cups, but those were a no go as well.  I know my son is getting older and should be starting to hold his own bottle or sippy cup, but he is just not ready to do that either.

It was during all of this craziness that First Years asked me if I would like to review their Breastflow Bottles.  I was over joyed to try a bottle that supposedly mimics how he feeds from the breast.  I was so excited in fact that I watched the mail every day waiting to see how these bad boys worked.  Before I go any further, let me tell you this…

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These bottles are Da Bomb!!!

As a mom who has seriously tried a huge variety of bottles that I could not be happier with these bottles.  I now understand why they call them Breastflow Bottles.  The nipples on these bottles are unlike any other nipple that I have come across.  I tried many one piece and multi-piece nipples, but none matched how these work.

The nipple is comprised of two parts; the soft outer nipple mimics the feel of a breast (much like other bottles) which allows the baby to place his tongue in the same position while feeding.  I personally love this because Raiden has a deep latch and with the wide nipple he is able to have a deep latch and get a lot of suction (where he collapses the nipple completely, but unlike other bottles when he does this it does not create a vacuum keeping him from getting milk).  The inner nipple allows my son to control the flow naturally like he does when he is breastfeeding.  This means that he is able to completely stop and start the flow on his own.  This part is huge because he tends to try to stop the flow when drinking with a normal bottle and I end up having to take it from his mouth and unscrew the lid to let the nipple pop back into its proper position.

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If you have a child who has issues taking a bottle I would highly recommend trying these bottles because I will not go with any other kind of bottle in the future.

You can find these bottles on Amazon with free shipping if you have Prime.  They are also a great item to add to your Baby Registry so that family and friends can get you stocked up before your little one arrives.

Have you tried these Breastflow Bottles?

How to Make Time For Personal Reading While Raising Children

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This is an advertisement for SheSpeaks/St. Martins Press

Make time for reading

Do you have young children?  If you do you might feel over whelmed like I do and have struggled to find time in your busy schedule to actually read an entire book from cover to cover.  I used to be a voracious reader and would complete a book a day with ease.  Sometimes I wonder how I was able to read a book a day while working and going to school, but I was able to and I am determined to get back into the flow once again!  If I can do it with a needy, clingy five month old who only wants his mommy then you can, too!

No excuses allowed!

I know you were already working up that excuse; about to say, but I have _________ to do.  Fill in the blank with whatever excuse was about to pop out of your mouth.  If you have time to sit on Facebook, or sit on your computer then you have time to read a book.  I know some of these things can be a lot of fun, but reading has benefits that you might not realize.

Benefits of Reading

The following are some great reasons to stop and read everyday:

  • Reading, unlike television, gives your mind a chance to unwind and de-stress from your daily life.
  • Reading can also give you a chance to get a little peace and calm and a little me time away from the children.
  • Scientists have also found that reading helps your mind to stay fresh and alert.  It can help to keep the mind from declining by exercising your thought processes, memory, and imagination.

Booklovers would love to be able to sit down and read for hours on end, but that is not always possible.  Many people’s lives are way too busy to be able to sit down and read for hours without something needing to be done.  Having children around can make it impossible to sit down for hours to read.  That is why it is important to know that even just a few minutes of reading can do a body good.

Making Time For Reading with Children

Making time for reading when our children are around isn’t always the easiest of tasks.  I can tell you that I struggle to find time to read with an infant in the home,  My son is currently five months old and he requires my attention most of the time, but I have still found time to sit down and read.  If I didn’t find this time I would certainly go crazy from stress.

  • Keep a book close by.  This is very important because sometimes you can only find a few minutes to read, but those few minutes can mean the world to you.
  • Take a bath instead of a shower.  If you take a bath instead of a shower while your partner takes care of the children you can take that time to freshen yourself as well as unwind and relax with a good book for a little while.
  • Bring your book to play-dates and kid’s sports or other activities.  You can still watch your children and have some time to read.  It is a chance when you have someone else taking care of your children and can let your mind get lost in the book.
  • Choose shorter novels.  If you choose shorter novels you won’t feel like you are stressed about being able to finish the book.  It gives you a goal. but not one that seems impossible to reach.
  • Read when the children go to sleep.  You might be exhausted from a long day, but even reading for just a few minutes can make a huge difference.  It can give your mind the chance to unwind so that you can sleep better and more soundly.

Behind Closed Doors Reading

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Finding the perfect book to start with might be a little daunting; that’s okay because I have the perfect book for you.  Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris is the perfect book to start your new path on regularly reading.  This book took me a few hours to read and I was drawn into the story moments after I opened the book.  It is a psychological thriller that will immerse you into the world of the characters without a second thought.  This book may take you longer to read if you are not a speed reader like I am, but that makes it even more of a reason to choose this book as your next read.

It is long enough that you don’t feel like it was short and didn’t have enough detail in the story while also not being extremely long so that you don’t feel daunted by a crazy long novel that will take you weeks to read when you already don’t have a lot of reading time that you can set aside from family time with your children.  On top of all of that, I love that you can find the book on Amazon in a variety of mediums like Kindle format, paperback, and hardcover.

SheSpeaks’ #BehindClosedDoors Twitter Party

The SheSpeaks’ #BehindClosedDoors Twitter Party is on August 9th at 2pm EST.  Participants will have the chance to win Behind Closed Doors prize packs and chat with the author & other book lovers about summer reading and the book of course! Participants must RSVP to be eligible to win.

RSVP here for your chance to win an awesome prize at the Twitter party!

ModCloth Holiday Gift Guide‏

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This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

‘Tis the season for gifting! And ModCloth wants to help you find the perfect presents for everyone on your list with their 2014 Holiday Gift Gift. Shop using their handy categories, or check out presents inspired by trendsetting bloggers, including A Beautiful Mess, Oh Joy!, Girl with Curves. Utterly unique and endlessly fab.


Their vast collection of utterly unique gifts is the perfect place to find something to wow your favorite gal (or guy)! Plus there is always something fun on sale, be sure to check back often –http://www.modcloth.com/shop/sale.

Get a FREE book with Audible + up to 1,000 SB! [US, CAN, UK only]

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Are You An Amazon Prime Customer? You Might Want To Rethink It.

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My posts here on Parsimonious Pash are normally not all that long, but I have to warn you that might not be the case with this post.  I have a lot of feelings and anger backed in this post which might seem kind of silly to some of you, but I hate when companies do really dumb shit.  (Sorry for the profanity. You might see quite a bit of it because it is going to be hard to censor myself.)

Let’s start this off by saying that I have been a big supporter of Amazon.com for a long time.  I have made many purchases on Amazon from downloadable content, to  Kindle Fire (The Kindle Fire is on sale for $169 through today), eBooks, among other random items.  Anyway, I have earned credit to Amazon.com from various blog posts I have written here on my blog as well as from using Swagbucks.com.  I had decided I was going to use some of my credit to buy an Amazon Prime membership.  I thought this was a great idea.  I had the money and I wanted to catch up on Season 3 of Covert Affairs before the new season starts.

Anyway, I went through the process on their website.  I clicked the button next to where it says Your Account and went to the Join Prime screen.  It looked simple enough.  I read through what was on the page describing what you get with Amazon Prime.  I already knew all of the benefits that I would get with the service.  So, I went ahead and clicked the ‘Get Started’ button thinking it would take me to a payment screen.  Oh, no that is not what happened.  It took me to a screen that told me that my Prime Membership would be active in a couple of minutes.  That completely baffled me.  How had it paid for it?  Would it use my Amazon credit?  Would it charge the card on my Amazon account?  I had no idea how it was going to pay for the membership and I did not want it charging my bank account.


Well, I went and searched my email.  No email from Amazon.  Well, that was weird they even email me when I purchase free eBooks, and free apps for the Kindle Fire.  The question running through my head was: “Where is my confirmation screen or email?  Where is the proof of my purchase?” I decided from there to test out Amazon Prime.  I got it all set up on our Xbox 360 and it worked.  Prime was active on their even though the website said that it wasn’t active yet.

If you aren’t baffled by all of this then I feel stupid at this point because I was so confused.  How could the service be active in one place and inactive in another?  I really did not understand that at all.  Well, my confusion quickly turned to anger and frustration when I could not find any answers to my questions on the help menu on Amazon.com.

My next step was to contact Customer Support.  I sent a message over to them and I waited for a representative to come to the chat I had created.  Mind you I was doing this in the middle of the night.  It took about five minutes for someone to join the chat and the person’s name is one I had never seen before, obviously a foreigner.  I am guessing that Amazon hired Indians from India to work the night customer service shifts.

So, I got him into the conversation and he was such a slow typer. I had to wait at least a minute in between responses which just agitated me even more.  I felt like I was going to scream, but I didn’t I was nice and polite.  I asked him what had happened and how I was charged.  He never actually answered those questions.  He was not concerned with the fact that I had not been sent anything as a confirmation for my purchase.  The most that I did get out of him I will post below that I copied from our conversation.

02:51 AM(GMT) Ngoruh(CSA): Currently, only credit cards can be used to purchase a membership to Amazon Prime. Payment options such as an Amazon.com line of credit (eg. Amazon Store Card), Amazon.com Brand Business Cards, checking accounts, pre-paid credit cards, or gift cards cannot be used to purchase a membership. Debit cards shouldn’t be used.

This was the first thing that I got out of him that made me want to scream.  He said that I could not use Amazon.com credit as a way to purchase Amazon Prime.  Not only that but I cannot use a pre-paid card, or debit card.  How is that fair?  Why should I be required to use a Credit Card?  Redbox lets you use credit, debit, or pre-pay and they have their own gift cards for their service.  Netflix doesn’t care what you use.  Hell Netflix even lets you use PayPal!  I could go on.  I know Gamefly is flexible with what payment form you use.  So, what makes Amazon so special that they have this additional rule for their Prime service?

I do not have a Credit Card so I will not be using their service unless they change their ways.  Not only that but I continued to talk to him and he did not care that I was a disgruntled customer.  It did not matter to him that I was unsatisfied.  I asked him what he would do to make up for the confusion, frustration, and time that I had wasted on this task and the most that I was offered was this:

02:59 AM(GMT) Ngoruh(CSA): Ashley, If you are placing the order now, I can waive the shipping cost for Two-day even if I cannot give you free prime for one month.

*Note: You can get one free month of Amazon Prime if you have never had it before, but you need to give them an active credit card to activate it and can cancel the renewal whenever you want and still keep that free month.  They also have a special program for students signing up with their .edu email addresses as well as an even better one with deals and specials for Moms.

Does that seem fair?  Is that what customer service is like when you go to a store?  No, never.  A good company pleases their customers.  They hold their customers up high on a pedestal.  Why, do they do this?  They do it so that they come back and so that they will not spread negative feedback about their service.  They do not want to risk losing their loyal customers.  Maybe I should have taken him up on the offer and bought Covert Affairs Season 3 but I was so angry that I didn’t think of that at the time.

This other part of the discussion really irked me because I know there are a few different ways to get free months of Amazon Prime.  I asked the representative if I could have a free month for all of my troubles and I was informed that was not possible.  You can see that tidbit of the conversation here:

02:54 AM(GMT) Ashley Pomykala: Would you be able to give me a month free due to the inconvenience and the fact that I did not get to a billing screen?
02:55 AM(GMT) Ngoruh(CSA): I’m sorry, I wish I could help you however, the system is not configured to do so.

I really am writing all of this out because I do not want this to happen to anyone else.  I want Amazon.com to make the necessary changes to make their services user friendly.  after it all happened I decided to look up some stuff about the company and I found a couple of little tidbits that seemed appropriate to share with you all.  Read this quote from BuisnessWeek.com and then I will explain it further:

“Bezos Doctrine proves powerful. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to appeal to customers. As long as consumers are consuming and shareholders are buying what Bezos is selling, Amazon looks fairly unbeatable.” -Brad Stone and Jim Aley

What gets me is that if their doctrine has to do with pleasing customers and keeping people consuming and buying products off of Amazon.com why wouldn’t they make it as easy as possible?  They even recently expanded Amazon Prime to Canadians which makes me think they want to appeal to people, but they are not doing it the right way.  The other thing that gets me is in the above linked article they quoted the CEO as saying “Percentage margins are not one of the things we are seeking to optimize” which feels crazy to me.

Amazon is not a profitable business so they should want every dime that they can get from people and they have to know that I am not going to spend more money at their store until I use up all of my Amazon.com store credit.  It only seems logical that they would want me to get rid of that $79 Amazon credit and be that much closer to spending more of my own personal money on their website.

Please, I want you opinions.  Am I being too critical of a big company?  Does any of this hit home with you and bother you?

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