News & Confessions

  Hey y'all! Tuesday I was officially 23 weeks. So I thought I'd give y'all a little update on how Baby H and I are doing!
   First of all I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before, but I've finally felt him kick!!!! I felt him when I was just over 19 weeks(I know I'm talking about it a whole month later, but I guess it's better late than never). I was absolutely ecstatic to finally feel the first twinges of movement from Baby H. Now I'm constantly checking to make sure he's moving frequently. So basically I jump from one crazy to another. Oh well!
  

    Apparently Baby H is the same size as a bunch of grapes(see above picture), which explains my craving for grapes haha! He should weigh about 1 1/4 pounds, and measure over a foot in length.  Another exciting tidbit, he now has taste buds!!!
    As for me, my indigestion has been a lot better since I switched vitamins, but when I do have it I've found popsicles help the issue. Something kinda cute is how Dillon's has had sympathy indigestion. I'm wondering if he'll be having anymore of my symptoms haha!
    According to my pregnancy app swelling is common at this point. Which I think I noticed when my finger turned purple from one of my rings Sunday. Yikes! Thankfully once I took it off and ran warm water over my hand for a few minutes it went right back to normal.
   Also I've heard I could be experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions about this time, but so far I haven't felt anything resembling one. Honestly I'm a little freaked out to know I could be having them now, even though I've been reading up on how to make sure it's just that and not the real thing. Definitely not something I'm looking forward to.
   The other day I ran into a friend of mine who just happens to be pregnant as well. She's about 10 weeks ahead of me and I'm still bigger than her. I'm beginning to think I'm about to have a 15 pound baby, or I'm just fat. I guess I'll find out in March. She's a pretty outspoken friend of mine, so naturally she turned to me and asked "why are your pants so big?!". I couldn't do anything but laugh. To know her is to love her!
    I've found that the bigger my belly gets the less I want to take a shower. Which is weird for me since I'm the kind of person that usually washes her hair everyday. It's like I would go the whole week without a shower if I could. I know, I know, super gross to admit that, but at least I don't actually do that!
    I don't know if I've shared this before, but I've really missed hotdogs more than any other food during my pregnancy. I even had a dream where I had 4 chili dogs at once. I was severely disappointed to wake up from that dream.

    Oh by the way, the pregnancy app I mentioned above is called Ovia Pregnancy. I know I just talked about an app in my last post, but it's a cool app! And this one is free as well. You can track what you eat, check that you took your vitamins(which comes in handy if it's hard for you to remember), read up on what to expect for that week in pregnancy, and so much more! I really like it because it's an easy way to keep a record of your pregnancy, something I'm sure I'll one day share with Baby H.  Ovia also has an awesome fertility app if you're trying or planning to in the near future. FYI, the picture of the grapes is from that app!
     That's all for now, thanks for reading!    

Holidays On The Cheap

   Hey y'all! I'm sure everyone is busy making plans and lists for Thanksgiving next week, I know I am! According to the buzzfeed quiz I'm the tradition enforcer. I was pretty surprised by how accurate that is haha!
   Speaking of traditions we just finished up a tradition at our house of putting up all of our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. It really makes it feel cozy to have all our decorations up for Thanksgiving. Plus we have longer to enjoy them before we have to take them all down. If the stores can put up their Christmas decorations now why can't we?!
   Here's what I did with our mantel:

   I felt like doing something a little different this year, more simple. All, I repeat all, of the items on the mantel were purchased from the dollar store. We actually used those glass vases as centerpieces for our wedding. I really like these led candles better than the plain white ones. First of all for looks, second of all for the effect they give off. They're way brighter than the small white ones.
   In other news, the other day when we were picking up our weekly groceries, Food Lion had a bin of pumpkin flavored baking goods on sale. And I may or may not have bought 10 boxes of pumpkin pudding on sale for 30 cents each... I also found a few boxes of Jello brand pumpkin cheesecake mix for 50 cents, so I made 2 of the boxes the other day, and here's a picture of the end results:

   It didn't firm up quite like I expected it to just from chilling in the refrigerate for an hour, so I put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes, which seemed to help. It had great flavor and everyone enjoyed it in our house, but it was nowhere near like what you think a pumpkin cheesecake would be like. I can't wait to see what I can do with the pumpkin pudding.
   By the way!!!

  I'm sure y'all don't care about this but I just had to share my phone background since no one really gets to see it and I think it's adorable haha! I made it on this app called Marley Lilly(it's free by the way). I know the app is suppose to be used to shop on their site but they have a great feature where you can choose from tons of different backgrounds patterns and colors. And as you can see you can add your own monogram to it! And yes I've already made my Christmas background....and one for when Baby H arrives....
   That's all for now, just a post to say hello! What kind of traditions does your family have around this holiday season?

Dress For The Occasion

 Hey y'all! I got my dresses last Thursday and Friday, and now I'm ready to give you my feedback on them! First of all I was super pleased with how fast they got here. The first dress I ordered was here a day earlier than the earliest day they told me to expect.The second dress was here on the day they told me. I love dependability!
    Okay, here is the first dress I ordered (and the first one received) on me:

   This is the Momo "Suki" dress! The fabric is silky and has no picks or blemishes. It is true to size. The neckline is a little deeper than I had expected, so no bending over haha! All seams appear to be well made. It's comfortable, and it feels like it could accommodate a bigger bump. Bonus: it came in a nice box with a hanger and a clear bag to keep over it. The verdict: I'm very impressed and can't wait to wear it this holiday season!

Now let's take a look and the second dress from Amazon:

  This the Japanese Weekend dress! The fabric is soft and stretchy. The size is perfect. The neckline is exactly what I expected. All of the seams are well made. It's comfortable, and just like the other dress it could definitely grow with me during the pregnancy. As for it's packaging I was a little disappointed that it came in a plastic shipping bag, and of course there was no hanger or bag. Bonus: it's nursing friendly! Which means it has two slits on the chest area, but there's no worries of anything popping out. The verdict: I love it, and I love that I can use it beyond pregnancy.
   Initially I was hesitant to order clothing from Amazon simply because I never had before, other than the ties for our groomsmen at our wedding. But I was really surprised! I do have a few tips before you buy anything at Amazon:

- Research before you buy anything on Amazon. Make sure that another website doesn't have it cheaper before you click order.
- As a general rule don't buy clothes that don't have the brand name on the item or say generic, simple because you don't know where it's from. And you're more likely to get irregular.
- Keep packaging and any papers until you've tried it on or tried it out.
- If you plan to do most of your shopping online and you shop a lot, Amazon prime could be a good choice for you. As for me I just can't warrant spending $100/year on a subscription to "save" money. Besides, Amazon has plenty of good deals already.

  Please let me know if you have found any cool tips on finding online shopping deals!

Buy Maternity Clothes, Keep The Prices Down?

    Hey y'all! I hope everyone is adjusting well to the time change. If you're like us the only clocks that have changed in your home are the ones that do it automatically!
     In my last blog-post I briefly mentioned how I've been having trouble finding good maternity dresses for the holiday season. Part of me thinks the reason it's so hard to find maternity clothes in a lot of stores is because it's become almost trendy for women to wear their regular clothes well into their pregnancy. Therefore making a lot of stores up their prices on maternity clothes and other stores eliminating maternity altogether. I guess you could say maternity clothes are a victim of supply and demand as hinted in my title.   Anyway here's a summary of where I looked this past weekend:

- Kid to Kid: I told y'all last week that I was planning to check out this local store. When we got to the  parking lot it was packed, we were lucky to find a parking space. Although I must mention that they have a   small parking lot. Once we were in I tried to find the maternity section but it was hard enough to get around   since no one wanted to let you get by haha. Finally I got close enough to the counter to ask the sales woman where I could find the maternity section, she told me it was over in  the corner. When I looked over to the corner I saw a small section of maternity clothes which had a obstacle course of trash bags and other things. Very convenient. I looked through their dresses, but unfortunately couldn't find something worth trying to find the dressing room. My opinion is they're probably a better store if you're looking for baby or children's clothes or some kind of baby gear, and try to go on a weekday if you can.

- Target: I actually looked in 2 this weekend. The first store had 1 black maternity dress, not even on sale. Yes you read that right, and no I don't mean it was the only dress that was black, it was the only one. The second store I checked out had more options but they were very casual, like a jersey material. I thought I had found a dress I was interested in, and it was on sale, then I realized it was a shirt.

- Goodwill: They had no maternity section. I tried to just look through the regular dresses, picked one up, tried it on in the dressing room, looked awful on me.

   Those were the only stores I got to this weekend. Although my sister-in-law told me she found some good dresses at Old Navy for maternity when she was pregnant. I looked them up online and didn't see much that wasn't summer dresses, but I might still look in store next weekend.
   Finally I went back to my first idea for maternity dresses. Amazon. Surprisingly I found not 1 but 2 dresses I have already ordered and should receive in the mail by this Saturday.  Here's the first one I ordered:

  This is the Momo Maternity brand "Suki" dress in black. It was $10 on Amazon, and they said it was originally $80. Pretty good deal to me! I looked up the brand and some of their dresses sell for like $120, so I'm expecting this is of good quality. By the way, I didn't even have to pay shipping for this one!  Here's the second dress I ordered:

     This is a Japanese Weekend maternity dress. This dress was originally $118 and I ordered it for $25 plus shipping. I looked it up like I did with the other dress and Japanese Weekend is suppose to be an expensive maternity brand. I would have never known! Around the back the lacy and gold pattern continues, which I really like. If these 2 dresses are like I hope then I'd say I got found some great finds! I'll be sure to update y'all next week about what they're really like once I have the dresses in my hands. Here's hoping they fit!