Review: Bravado Designs Essential Nursing Tank

During my pregnancy I did  a lot of research on feeding, both formula and breastfeeding, to try and choose what was right for me. I decided to go with breastfeeding, as I wanted to pass all the antibodies that I could to my sweet little girl. And hey! It's free! Once it was decided, I started looking around at nursing clothing, and came across Bravado Designs website. They had a bunch of bras and tanks to choose from, which was refreshing, as all I could find in the stores was maybe one or two options. 

I decided to order myself The Essential Nursing Tank in Black.

Below pictures come from the Bravado Designs Website:

 

The Essential Nursing Tank comes in a variety of colors, and comfortably fits and supports up to a G cup size! Not only that, but I find it to be the most flattering article of nursing wear I found. 

What Makes It So Special?

1.) It's got a built in bra, but not one of those crazy scrawny shelf bras that generally come in tanks.

2.) It's LONG! I don't know about you, but after my c-section, aside from feeling like death for a few days, I felt FAT. The length on this was perfect to cover everything without exposing any inch of my poor abused skin.

3.) The fabric is able to retain it's shape time and time again.

Mine was a double whammy, as I was able to wear it while I was pregnant as well, and it never got all funky shaped and useless!

Right now at Bravado Designs you can score this tank for $49.00 in the basic original colors (white, black, and chocolate) and the seasonal colors are on sale for $39.00 each. Occasionally it will show up on Baby Steals. I believe I paid $24.99 when it was their daily deal, but they go FAST!

A little on the pricey side? Yes, but it's so worth it. I had to quit breastfeeding about 1 month in, but I still wear this tank if I want to feel slender!

I Have Someone I Would Like You To Meet

My little angel has finally arrived! Piper Harlowe made her entrance into this world on January 15th, 2012 at 6:03 PM, weighing in at 8 lbs even, and 19 inches long. I have never seen anyone so beautiful in my whole life. Hard to believe she is already one month old and thriving! Sorry it took so long to update, but it's been hectic with a newborn!

I was scheduled for an induction on 1.16.12. We were planning on that. Saturday I went and walked around stores with my mother for 4 hours, and then came back home. Cleaned house a little bit, and then laid down to re-read The Hunger Games. Just as the games were about to start in the book, BAM. I felt a weird gushing sensation, so I got up to go to the bathroom. My water had broken. It was 9 PM. My husband got everything together and in the car for the hospital while I called our mothers and my doctor.

We arrived at the hospital around 10 PM, and got settled into our room. I was still only dilated to a 1 at this time. They started me on pitocin, since my contractions were irregular and not progressing my cervix at all. They got them down to a nice pattern, but by the next morning at 7 AM I was only at a 3. They checked again at noon, and I was still at a 3, but my contractions were becoming painful, so they went ahead and gave me my epidural, which was HEAVEN. All I felt was little twinges of discomfort, and was finally able to get some sleep.

Cut to 4 PM. I was in and out of sleep when all of a sudden my contractions got HORRIBLY painful, and were all directed at my back on my right hip. I was literally screaming through an hour and a half of these, and we did everything we could to get me to progress further, but we were definitely stuck at a 5 and I was screaming and crying. I stayed like this for 90 minutes. 5:30 hit, my OB showed up at the hospital, and they took my BP and temperature, and I had managed to spike a fever of 101.2, which concerned them because at this point my water had broken about 21 hours prior, and they were worried about infection. So they gave me a dose of antibiotics, and told me that we were going to have to do a c-section, which broke my heart. I was really hoping to avoid surgery. At that point though, baby girl had to come out and we all knew it. And all I really wanted was a healthy baby in my arms.

They prepped me for surgery and gave my husband his scrubs to change in to. At 5:45 I was being wheeled off to the OR, where they gave me another dose of pain meds via the epidural since it had started wearing off. I wasn't even aware that they had made the first incision when my husband came to my side. He held my hand as I shook and shook and shook, and then all of a sudden we heard a HUGE baby cry, and my doctor say "Hey Hubby, did you want to see your little girl?" So he peeked over the sheet and the first words out of his mouth were "she has the chubby cheeks you were hoping for" and then he started crying. He went over to the babys side while they started stitching me up and 3 minutes later they walked the baby over to me and put her to my cheek. At this point I completely lost it and started sobbing.

The anesthesiologist snapped a couple pictures with my phone during our first meeting, and then they took Piper to the nursery to get measured and weighed, and hubby went with her while I stayed to get stitched up. As it would turn out, the reason I was unable to progress enough to deliver without a c-section was because my little darling had flipped sunny side up, and the way she was positioned her head was tipped back onto my back in my right hip. There was no way for her to get any further into the birth canal in order to put the necessary pressure on the cervix in order to dilate the rest of the way.

About 20 minutes later I was wheeled into my recovery room, and 15 minutes after that my hubby came in with a nurse and the baby in the bassinet. We immediately tried breastfeeding, which seemed to go really well. Then our parents came in to meet their new grand daughter.

So, long story short. Scheduled an induction for my due date, water broke 2 days before said induction and baby was born the night before her due date at 6:03 PM. 22 hours of labor ended in a c-section, but it doesn't matter now because I have the most precious gift in the world in return for it.

39 Weeks and Impatiently Waiting!

Everyone keeps saying I'm so close, I'm so close. It's almost time. I AM SO IMPATIENT! Everytime I see a baby picture my uterus starts twitching and I get all antsy. I cannot wait to meet this little person that I've been growing for 9 months!

Here is my 39 week and 1 day bump in all it's glory!

Check In:

• How far along?: 39 weeks and 1 days

• Total weight gain: I was up 30 lbs at my last appt on 12/21/11 - I would add maybe another 2 that will appear at tomorrow's appt.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a watermelon this week, still. OB's weight guess-timate is 7 lbs 10 oz at birth. We shall see!

• Maternity clothes?: Clothes? Since being put on modified bedrest at 34 weeks it's all about yoga pants and maternity tops!

• Movement: Baby is a party animal. She's always moving. And with how little space she has to move most of said movements are actually a little painful at this point! She's not so much able to kick, but when she wiggles free and finds enough room to kick HOLY CRAP does it hurt.

• Stretch marks?: Not yet! Maybe this will be the one pregnancy symptom I can get away with not having!

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time. My sleep the last couple nights has been awful. I will fall asleep early, wake up 2 to 3 hours later, and not be able to fall back asleep until close to 5 AM. Thank goodness for Angry Birds.

• Symptoms?:Can't. Breathe. Shortness of breath has been terrible. I also have blinding lower back pain, and have been having contractions for 3 weeks. Heartburn is still in the running too, and restless leg hasn't gone away. And I literally ALWAYS have to pee. Always.

• Food cravings:  Popsicles are still my #1
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• Food Aversions: I love food.

• Belly button in or out?: Depends on little one's position! She moved lower the other day and I had an outie for a little while!

• What I miss: I miss having energy. I miss not looking like I swallowed a beach ball. I miss feeling good in general. And I miss being able to wear cute clothing.

• What I'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to meeting my little girl! I'm so impatient about it that I sometimes randomly burst into tears when she moves, not because it's irritating, but because I just want to hold her and snuggle her and love on her.

• Best Moment this week: Nothing new this week! Hoping to pop out a baby any day now!

38 Weeks Down The Hatch

I can't believe I'm under 2 weeks away from Baby Camera Happy's due date. On the same token, I cannot believe I'm still pregnant. It feels like I've been pregnant FOREVER. 

Barebelly Alert!

Bump picture from 1/3/2012

Check In:

• How far along?: 38 weeks and 2 days

• Total weight gain: I was up 30 lbs at my last appt on 12/21/11

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a watermelon this week

• Maternity clothes?: Clothes? Since being put on modified bedrest at 34 weeks it's all about yoga pants and maternity tops!

• Movement: Baby is a party animal. She's always moving. And with how little space she has to move most of said movements are actually a little painful at this point!

• Stretch marks?: Not yet! Maybe this will be the one pregnancy symptom I can get away with not having!

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time.However I am also uncomfortable to the point where I can't sleep worth crap. I can't breathe when I'm laying down, my back hurts when I'm propped up, and I don't have enough velcro to velcro myself to the wall so that I can sleep standing up.

• Symptoms?:Can't. Breathe. Shortness of breath has been terrible. I also have blinding lower back pain, and have been having contractions for 3 weeks. Heartburn is still in the running too, and restless leg hasn't gone away. And I literally ALWAYS have to pee. Always.

• Food cravings:  Popsicles are still my #1
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• Food Aversions: onions gross me out.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie, but it's completely flush with my belly.

• What I miss: I miss having energy. I miss not looking like I swallowed a beach ball. I miss feeling good in general.

• What I'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to meeting my little girl! I'm so impatient about it that I sometimes randomly burst into tears when she moves, not because it's irritating, but because I just want to hold her and snuggle her and love on her.

• Best Moment this week: Nothing new this week! I got my OB appt moved from tomorrow at 2, to today at 2. I also passed my CCHT exam for work, and can officially enjoy being off work without worrying about anything.

33 Weeks!

Baby Camera Happy is 33 weeks and 1 day today.

My belly is protruding A LOT now and I feel HUGE. Like just swallowed a house huge. My lungs cannot expand, and just rolling over in bed or walking to the bathroom to pee for the millionth time in a day makes me short of breath. Baby girl is quite active, and she likes to kick and flop around, especially at bedtime. I cannot believe in under 2 months I will be able to snuggle my outside baby!! I passed my glucose test with no problems whatsoever, so it's been nice not having the added worry of that.  :)

Past Events?

October 22 - Our Maternity Photos

November 6 - family baby shower

November 13 - friends baby shower

Upcoming events?

-December 4th - Having a dinner party with a few friends and their babies 

 - December 9th - Work luncheon/baby shower

 - December 10th - Having another dinner party with a few friends

 - December 11th - Work Christmas party

 - December 25th - Christmas!

 - January 9th - First day of maternity leave!

 - January 16th - Baby Camera Happy's due date!

Check In:

• How far along?: 33 weeks and 1 day

• Total weight gain: I was up 25 lbs at my last appt.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a Honeydew Melon this week

• Maternity clothes?:Oh yes. And I've upgraded to the full panel on my maternity jeans, thankyouverymuch. Got a bunch of hand me down scrubs from girls at work so that I should be able to make it through my pregnancy without having problems with work outfits.

• Movement: Baby likes to have dance parties. Upside down dance parties, where her feet dig into my ribs and her head smooshes my bladder. She especially likes bed time!

• Stretch marks?: Not yet! Fingers crossed! <--Still this! My belly is shiny and I have quite the linea nigra going though.

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time. Not just sleepy, yawn a couple times and deal tired. More like falling asleep on the nurses station at work tired.

• Symptoms?: Right now it's rapid pulse, shortness of breath, swollen hands and feet, and pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome. Not to mention continuing on with restless leg syndrome and heartburn so bad that I can throw up foam sometimes. FUN!!!!!

• Food cravings:  Popsicles. All kinds of popsicles. I can eat 12 freeze pops in a sitting. I especially love the Snapple Sorbet bars from Walgreens. They are delish!
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• Food Aversions: Seafood (which I normally dont' like anyway) smells so vile to me that it can induce vomiting.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie, but it's completely flush with my belly.

• What I miss: I miss having energy. I miss being skinny. I feel so fat and uncomfortable right now!

• What I'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to meeting my little girl!

• Best Moment this week: This week started my new, less hours at work due to pregnancy. Love it. It also put me under the 2 month mark in terms of due date!

Time's A Wasting!

When oh when will life slow down for a few?!?! First off, Baby Camera Happy is 25 weeks 3 days today.

My belly is protruding quite a bit more now, I think little one had a growth spurt this week. We had our 20 week anatomy scan, and baby is measuring right on track, and is quite playful! She continuously kicked the u/s wand on my belly as the tech moved it around, and we even got to see her stick her tongue out at us! She's also quite the diva, as her foot was in front of her face, one hand under her chin, and the other hand behind her head. It was adorable, and we love her to bits and pieces already!

In more recent news, we are moving! We found a great old apartment (it's in a big old house that's split into 3 apartments). 2 Bedrooms, 1 bathroom, we get a parking spot in the garage, and the best part? It has a huge fenced in yard and deck, so Riley can be outside playing with the upstairs neighbors dog. We met them on Monday when we did our final walkthrough, and both the neighbors and their dogs seem great! Our moving date is set for October 15th! So there is a lot to be done in a short time span. But it'll be worth it to have a nice separate nursery for Baby Camera Happy to enjoy :) Will post pictures of apartment when we move in, and then as we update it :)

Past events? My birthday was yesterday! DH and I celebrated by staying in, eating chinese food, packing, and watching TV.

Upcoming events?

 - October 12 - My glucose challenge test! Wish me luck!

-October 15 - Moving day!

 - October 16 - Maternity Photo Shoot

 - October 23 - My best friends baby shower (she's due on December 27th!)

 - HALLOWEEN!

 - November 6th, my family baby shower

- November 13 - My friends shower

 - November 18th - BREAKING DAWN PART 1! Can't wait :)

Check In:

• How far along?: 25 weeks 3 days

• Total weight gain: I was up 15 lbs at my last OB appt.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of an eggplant this week

• Maternity clothes?:A Million times yes. I don't think my tummy will fit into normal clothes for a while!

• Movement: Baby is a party animal. She's relatively motionless when I'm up and walking around, but when I lay down to fall asleep she starts kicking, and if I'm sitting and eating she kicks as well.

• Stretch marks?: Not yet! Fingers crossed!

• Sleep?: I am still tired all the time. I fall asleep with no problems at strange hours.

• Symptoms?: Nausea has stayed away pretty well. I have troubles bending over to tie shoes or put on pants or socks. I grunt like an old man when getting into or out of my car. I feel kind of like a turtle, and have begun to master to art of rolling off things when I need to get up.

• Food cravings:  Changing all the time. My biggest desire the last two weeks is chocolate milk. I have no idea why, since I hate milk....
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• Food Aversions: Red meat still skeeves me out. And the smell of popcorn is enough to turn my stomach.

• Belly button in or out?: Hanging on as an innnie by a thread! It's now very shallow, and wide. I'm glad I took my belly button ring out early on!

• What I miss: I miss being able to go out for drinks with the girls, I also miss being able to go out. I'm always too tired to do anything.

• What I'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to lots right now. I can't wait to move into the apartment so I can begin the nesting process. I can't wait until October 16th for our maternity photo session. Most of all I cannot WAIT to meet Baby Camera Happy.

• Best Moment this week: Our final walkthrough on the apartment, and getting told by the landlords that they had absolutely no issues with us painting :)

Busy Bee!!

So I'm still horrible at updating, but I swear I'm trying to get better about it! The pregnancy has been progressing smoothly! I am currently 19 weeks and 2 days.

 We went in for an elective ultrasound on August 19th, and found out that Baby Camera Happy is .........
A LITTLE GIRL!!

My hubby and I are both very excited as we were hoping our first child would be a girl. Her name is Piper Harlowe, and she enjoys kicking her legs and playing with her umbilical cord.
We are working now on getting the nursery together!

We have purchased a crib for a KILLER deal at Babies R Us ($299.99 marked down on clearance for $99.99)

 

Cute bedding from Burlington Coat Factory:

In The Woods by Cocalo ($169.99)

We found a glider at a garage sale:

$10.00, we purchased fabric to make new cushions though, as this color doesn't go, and the cushions themselves have definitely seen better days.

We are also getting a free dresser in fabulous condition from a close friend, but I don't have pictures of that yet! 

All in all I would say we've gotten a good jump on baby things! 

Now if we could only find the right place to move to....

Check In:

• How far along?: 19 weeks 2 days

• Total weight gain: I was up 9 lbs at my last appointment in August.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a mango this week!

• Maternity clothes?: Yes please! At work I'm wearing big scrubs, and in everything else it's maternity all the way!

• Movement: I felt my first movement last week. I was singing along with Adele in the car, and I'm pretty sure baby was telling me to shut up :)

• Stretch marks?: Not yet, but my Linea Nigrea has shown up!

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time. Still. I think the majority of this has to do with getting up at 3 am for work.

• Symptoms?: Nausea has subsided for the most part. I'm still sleepy all the time. My boobs are getting huge. I call them circus boobs.

• Food cravings:  Still changing constantly.
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• Food Aversions: Red meat. Ick.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie. Although it's gotten a lot wider at this point.

• What I miss: I miss being able to go out for drinks with the girls.

• What I'm looking forward to: My next ultrasound (September 9th!)

• Best Moment this week: This week we are still high on life after finding out little one is a girl.

A Surprise On Mother's Day!

I know it's been ages. Sorry blog world! There's been a lot happening in my life, and I intend on catching everyone up today!! Which basically means this will be long long long!

Let's start with mother's day. Was just like any other day, when suddenly something amazing happened!

I was in SHOCK! I was questionable about certain symptoms I'd been having which is why I took the tests, but I was definitely not expecting a positive. Let alone 5 of them, since my natural worrying personality couldn't trust just one test. or two. I took 5. All different brands.

I called my primary care doc that day and left a message on the machine there asking if I could come in for a  blood pregnancy test, they referred me to my now OB, who I have my first official appt with on June 8.  I got 3 beta tests done to confirm the pregnancy! 1st test was at 3 wks, 5 days : 321. Second was 4 wks, 1 day : 1104. The third was at 5 wks 6 days: 27290. The doctors said my numbers are phenomenal.

Unfortunately that didn't keep me away from having a couple trips to the ER. On May 22, out of nowhere my blood pressure plummeted and I nearly fainted. I had also been having some abdominal cramping. We took me up to the ER, where they monitored me, gave me fluids, and gave me an early ultrasound to make sure everything looked okay with the pregnancy. The ultrasound was great, and we even got to hear a faint heartbeat at 5 wks 6 days, which blew my mind! I cannot wait to hear the heartbeat now! The md determined that the low blood pressure was just a symptom of my being pregnant, and told me to monitor myself carefully, and eat salty snacks like pickles if I started to feel lightheaded. So far the blood pressure has been stable. Still a lot lower than it usually is, but not totally unmanageable like it was that couple of days.

My second trip to the ER was on May 25th. I had been throwing up nonstop for over 48 hours. I couldn't keep ANYTHING at all down. even water. Once my vomiting turned to vomiting up a decent amount of blood, my dear husband decided it was time for another trip to the ER. They ran my labs up there, gave me fluids once again, and gave me the most amazing thing ever to happen to morning sickness. Zofran! It's an anti-nausea medication available by prescription that is safe during pregnancy. Dissolve one tablet on your tongue every 8 hours and you are golden. I actually have not thrown up at all since I began taking it. I'm hoping to be able to stop taking it soon. I am weary of any medication during pregnancy, but it's either this, or starve, and at least this way I'm able to get nutrients to the baby.

My Estimated due date is January 16th, 2012. This dates me at 7 weeks and 3 days today.  We are very excited, and hopeful for a healthy and happy pregnancy!

Weekly Check In:

• How far along?: 7 weeks 3 days

• Total weight gain: Won't know until June 8th.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a blueberry this week!

• Maternity clothes?: I had to switch to maternity bras almost immediately. When they say sore boobs, they mean business! My poor girls couldn't take regular bras another day. I also bought a maternity dress on clearance that can work even if one isn't pregnant. Since I wear scrubs for work and have not gained much weight, I have not deemed it necessary to make the change over to maternity yet.

• Movement: I can't wait until I can report something in here!

• Stretch marks?: Nothing yet!

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time. Not only am I tired all the time, but I find I have the ability to sleep for 14 hours if I don't have to go to work or anything.

• Symptoms?: Exhausted, sore sore sore boobies, I'm extremely queasy when I don't have Zofran in my system. I'm peeing at least twice as much as before.

• Food cravings:  They honestly change daily. Yesterday I decided I wanted a beef sandwich from the pizza place. The day before that the thought of meat made me want to vomit. Today it's been fruit. Bananas and canteloupe to be specific
• Food Aversions: Anything sweet. Chocolate, ice cream, candy. ICK.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie.

• What I miss: I'm missing my Coca Cola. I figured by this point I would miss my cigarettes too, but that wound up being easier to quit than I had expected!

• What I'm looking forward to: My first official prenatal appointment on June 8th.

• Best Moment this week: So far it's been all the time my husband and I have spent together dreaming up names and talking about baby.

• Milestone: Baby is about 1/2 an inch long this week. Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs, and the brain continues developing. Baby has an appendix and pancreas.

UH Oh....

I think I've caught it. The fever....

BABY fever.

Is there a cure for this?!