Nursing Pad Tutorial

If you follow me on facebook, you'll know that last night I was working on a POST maternity project--one that DOES involve a new baby arriving in this house hopefully in May. 

I am a proponant of breastfeeding (when possible) and have loved it every time.  That doesn't mean I don't have my days of wishing it was over, but after a couple months things really DO settle down and it IS easier than bottle feeding. 

It has been my goal with each baby to breastfeed for the first year.  My first child and only son was born at 37 weeks and slept for the first three weeks of his life.  I pumped and bottle fed at every feeding until the day he was due...when he finally latched on.  (I am leaving out a ton in that story!  Tons of tears and frustrations and almost giving up!)  At 11 weeks old, we found out he was HIGHLY allergice to dairy products...as in, anaphalactic shock allergic.  So, to insure I wouldn't mess up, we quit nursing cold turkey. OUCH

Baby #2 nursed for 13 months...her NICU nurse helped me get her completely nursing by the time she was released from the hospital.

Baby #3 was magical. 

I remember the delivery nurse cleaning her up from across the room.  I could see my newborn rooting on that nurses hand from across the room!  She was perfectly latched and nursing within the first 30 minutes of her life...and weaned herself at 8 months old. 

So....

all of that to say that I am prepping for a full term baby (fingers crossed!) who nurses wonderfully.  This POST maternity project is a week supply of WASHABLE NURSING PADS! 

After doing some research...and finding a couple things online about this topic, I purchased 2 used flannel receiving blankets from my local thrift store.  (I had already gotten rid of the ones I didn't want a couple years ago so I had none that I was interested in cutting up!)  I already had some white and pink fleece.

Here's what you'll need:

flannel (that has been washed a LOT)

I used a 30x30 receiving blanket and a 30x40 receiving blanket.  This cut the perfect amount of 4" circles for my project.  You need 90 flannel circles cut.

1/4-1/3 yd of fleece (preferably white or ivory so it doesn't show through your clothes)

You'll need 30 fleece circles cut.

white thread

sewing machine

4" circle template

Step 1: Cut your flannel and fleece into 4" circles.  For mine, you'll need 2 inner flannel circles, 1 outer flannel circle, and 1 fleece circle.  I made enough for 1 week, 2 sets a day.  That's 14 sets, right? I went ahead and made an extra set which took me to 8 days worth. 

Step 2: Sandwhich two flannel circles between a fleece and flannel circle. 

Step 3: Zigzag stitch all the way around the circle.  You can do this two ways: sew over the edge of the circle or sew just inside the edge and trim off the excess.  I sewed over the edge and it worked perfectly! No trimming.

Step 4. Finish all of the 30 circles.  A completed nursing pad should look like this.

And my completed stack of 30 nursing pads! 

You CAN make them contoured but I never found that to be all that helpful so I skipped it.  Do I have any nursing mama's out there?  Do you think you would be willing to try something like this out if it was going to A. work and B. save you $$? 

Just wondering if I should post these in my etsy shop?