It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but I wanted to throw up a quick first impressions of this gorgeous bag from Jemma – the Emma Traveler 39. I’m always in search of the perfect work bag so I was really excited when I came across this option.

Before I got pregnant, I swore that I wouldn’t buy special clothes for pregnancy and postpartum. After all, it was only a short season of my life, why should I spend the money on that? Then, I realized that this was the only time in my life I could truly, shamelessly, shop the pregnant lady section of the internet and stores and thought I should take advantage of that. On top of that, I realized that postpartum life had its own special needs, and my go-to wardrobe staples of knit pullover shirts and blouses just didn’t quite fit those needs anymore. Namely, I wanted to pump at work without having to completely undress and take my top off and sit half naked in a room where I may or may not get inadvertently walked in on. My workplace does not have a dedicated pump space, so, yay! After a bit of trial and error, I got my perfect formula down for dressing for work while pumping for baby.

I used to always sleep in a T-shirt or nightgown, and this was more than adequate well into third trimester. After a certain point though, the belly was just too big for the T-shirt to comfortably fit over. I also realized that I would need something with nursing access, as I figured I’d be nursing the baby all day and all night long. I needed it to be still ultra comfortable, hopefully stylish, and I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg!

Recently on my international work trip I found myself thinking a lot about how I would bring all my mom stuff (e.g., pumping stuff) with me everywhere and on the plane for a 15 hour flight. I needed something big enough to to fit all my pump stuff, including a large industrial strength milk cooler to keep everything cold, and ideally be able to carry on beside me in addition to a very large backpack I intended to keep in the overhead compartment. It had to be durable and lightweight. Something fashionable would be a bonus, as well as something expandable (in case I needed to bring back more than I brought over), and shrinkable to a reasonable size to double as a daybag if needed.