Versatile Blogger Award!

I was checking in on my blog the other day and noticed that I had gotten a comment from a fellow blogger Ashley from Keeping Up With The Joneses stating that she had nominated me for this award! I haven't received an award in quite some time because I was a bad bad neglectful blog-mommy! So this brightened my whole day basically!

Thank you Ashley!

So now, it's my turn to pass on this award. The rule is to pass it on to 15 wonderful blogs that you regularly follow, so here goes...

1.) http://team-t-adventures.blogspot.com/

2.) http://ashleysthriftyliving.blogspot.com/

3.) http://somedreamscometrue.blogspot.com/

4.) http://hisforhillman.wordpress.com/

5.) http://casbacreations.blogspot.com/

6.) http://diyshowoff.com/

7.) http://www.shasherslife.com/

8.) http://candacetodd.blogspot.com/

9.) http://mybeautifulcrazylifex33.blogspot.com/

10.) http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/

11.) http://ngowhitcombfamily.blogspot.com/

12.) http://blog.bitsybaby.com/

13.) http://twistedfate-rockinmama.blogspot.com/

14.) http://unskinnyboppy.blogspot.com/

15.) http://www.katiesnestingspot.com/

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The next step is for me to share 7 random things about myself...


1.) I hate tomatoes. I will eat pasta sauce, salsa, ketchup etc, but the idea of eating a raw tomato makes my stomach turn.

2.) After having my first baby and getting through the rough first few weeks at home, I'm already thinking I want another one.

3.) 9 times out of 10 I will not buy something that isn't on the clearance rack unless I have a percentage off coupon to use. I'm a cheapo

4.) However, when it comes to clothes for Piper, I splurge!

5.) I'm terrified to go back to work on April 15th, even though I will only be working 32 hours a week, and 3 days max.

6.) Im also afraid that I will have forgotten how to properly cannulate a fistula/graft.

7.) When I first found out I was pregnant I was hellbent on naming my daughter Harlowe. Scott vetoed it, and that's how it wound up as her middle name!

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Thanks again to Ashley for nominating me for this award!
If you were nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award please follow these rules:

1. Thank the person that gave you the award in a blog post.
2. Include a link to their blog in your post.
3. Pass the award on to 15 bloggers you follow.
4. Include 7 random things about yourself in your post.
5. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog.

Wubba-WHAT?!

They literally make everything for babies now. I have purchased and received gifts of things I had no idea even existed. And I love them. One such example? The Wubbanub. When I received this as a gift I kind of scoffed at it thinking it was just a silly gimmick to sell a pacifier for more money. But it's absolutely amazing, and a lifesaver at times. Especially in the car when I can't reach her to pop that paci back in!

 

Wubbanub

 Now what the heck is a Wubbanub you ask? The Wubbanub is an Avent soothie pacifier sewn into the mouth/head/front of a small stuffed animal. It comes in a variety of different animals and critters, and is meant to make it easier for baby to hold their pacifier in. It is super easy to clean, and it's hard to lose or forget baby's paci anywhere you go.

Grandma was nice enough to purchase the red dog Wubbanub for Piper from Babies R Us. 

As you can see, Piper approves!

Piper seemed so enamored with her "Wubby" as we've affectionately shortened it to, that I decided to get her a second one, so one could go in the diaper bag and one could stay at home. I wound up ordering this one from www.amazon.com.

Cute and definitely helpful! A toy and a soother all in one. These retail for anywhere from $9.99 to $14.99 from what I have seen, and can be purchased in stores at Babies R Us, and there is a very large selection of them on amazon.com. Piper seems to love them, and as silly as they may sound, they have definitely been worth the splurge!

Linking Up To :

Total Re-Vamp

Last night I went on a bit of a bender fixing up this old blog. I missed writing in it, and now that Piper is getting a little older, I have a little more time to play here. So I changed up the header and the buttons and etc. I like how it came out! Plus after almost 3 years I'm not sure it's fair to still refer to myself as a newlywed. Plus I am 100% in love with being a mommy!

That being said, I've recently discovered two AWESOME websites for moms and kids!

Zulily

AND

Totsy

Normally I am not a huge fan of these kind of websites, as they generally don't have anything that interests me, or the prices aren't as good as one is made to believe. However on both of those sites They have had HUGE blowout sales where I was able to get great merchandise for us at amazing prices! You can sign up at the links above, there is no financial obligation whatsoever!

My latest NON-baby oriented snags?

$6.50 at Totsy Blowout Sale

$6.75 at Totsy Blowout sale

Totsy's blowout sale is still going on for another couple days, but items are moving FAST!

Linking Up To:

Welcome Wednesday

I leave you with.....

A picture of a small, giggly little girl!

Baby Product Rave! Crane Cool Mist Humidifier!

When I first found out that I was pregnant, after the initial shock and doctors appointments and ultrasounds started tapering off and I became REALLY pregnant I began researching baby products. This became like a sick addiction to me, and I would spend hours at a time doing it, all while eating Freeze Pops by the truckload.

I had no idea that a humidifier was a recommended item for a new baby! After doing my research I came across the Crane Cool Mist Humidifiers. Not only are they affordable they are ridiculously cute. They have a variety of shapes and colors and animals. Sticking with our nursery theme we wound up purchasing this one on amazon.com

Mr Owl here provides moisture for nasal congestion, dry skin and cough, and sinus irritation. It is also super easy to fill, assemble, and start using, and is able to run on plain old tap water, although me being the nutcase that I am we use distilled water. This unit is quiet enough where it won't disturb sleep or make really freaky loud gurgling noises, and provides a minimum of 11 hours of moisture. The mist output can be controlled with the knob on the front of the unit, and when the water runs out, it has it's own safety shut-off feature!

If you can't tell I love the humidifier.

But as with anything, even the best products have a dud now and again. My first unit worked for about a week before it stopped producing mist. I was sad and disappointed in it's life span, so I decided to e-mail Crane's customer service department in my post partum wacky hormonal stage. Within a day they were back to me, and shipping a brand new unit my way, as we were still under warranty. 2 days after that initial e-mail, my new unit arrived via UPS. It's been going strong for 2 months now without a hitch! Their customer service team was amazing and helpful, and it's definitely nice to see a company that strives to keep their customers satisfied.

You can purchase these humidifiers at Babies R Us, Target, Home Depot, etc, however your best variety will be purchasing online!  One unit will run you about $40, but it's $40 well worth it!

2 Months? Already?!

My daughter is almost 10 weeks old! HOW did time move so fast? It's been a learning experience for sure, but I am loving every second of mommyhood. She recently began sleeping pretty solid through the night, which has been amazing for my mental health!

2 Months and rocking the air guitar'

Not much time to update today, but I will be updating soon with some useful information on baby products, mommyhood, and everything in between.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Being half irish and all, St Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is my favorite color (kelly green) EVERYWHERE, but I don't feel guilty drinking a Guinness in the middle of the day. Piper decided she needed to celebrate her St. Patrick's Day in style!

I'm glad I have such a fabulous little model at such a young age!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!!

 Piper likes her bottle too ;)

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.

Mom Chop

For a while now I've been growing my hair out to do a donation haircut.  The time finally arrived and I couldn't be happier with the results. We chopped 9 inches of hair off, and it's been donated to the Pink Hearts Fund, which is a non-profit charity, provides free wigs for kids and adults who suffer from medical hair loss due to illness or cancer treatment.  I'm glad to know something as simple as getting a haircut can do someone else some good.

Plus now I'm totally ready for a newborn, now that there isn't as much to grab on to! Not the greatest photos, but they get the point across!

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.

First Christmas Cookies of The Year

On December 3rd, I am having 3 of my good friends, their husbands, and their babies over for a small holiday dinner party. We have all known each other since elementary school, and will all have children super close together in age. I decided on my day off today to do a test run on a batch of cookies I wanted to make for this occasion! They are called Peppermint Kisses, and this recipe was taken from Family Circle Magazine. Start to finish it took me maybe 30 minutes to complete them, and they are delicious! If you like peppermint I definitely suggest trying these!

Finished Product??

YUM!

Our New Casa!

Moving day on October 15th came and went. It was stressful and tiring, but the end product is totally worth it! The apartment is old, but it's cute, and we are doing upgrades to it that we were told we can take the cost off the monthly rent for the supplies/materials. First - a few before photos!

So, outdated and old fashioned, yes, but we love it! Here's a bit of the work we've put in so far :

 We painted the nursery before moving day! The color is called Luminary by Behr. Our nursery bedding is raspberry pink, brown, and orange, and we didn't want a typical pink nursery, so we went orange on the walls and love it!

This closet is right outside the bathroom on a half wall, and clearly visible from the bedroom. There is no door that we could get to stay up on it, so I made the green leafy curtain to contain all of our toiletries. 

We've done a few other things, but I have not taken pictures of all of our progress. We did however find time to put the Christmas tree up :)

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!

It's That Time Again!

Christmas cards anyone?? I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by! It seems like a whirlwind since I got pregnant, and I can't believe in 2 months I will get to meet my sweet baby girl! Unfortunately she isn't set to be here by Christmas, so I had to find other ways to incorporate her into our photo card for the year.

Last year I joined the Shutterfly promotion for free holiday photo cards in exchange for a blog post. I was SO happy to see that they were doing it again this year. Especially since there were so many card designs that I loved. And I'm a big fan of the cards with multiple spots to put your photos, and Shutterfly did not disappoint in that department either!

Two of my faves were:

 Mod Merry Ornaments

Flurry Of Snowflakes (available in 4 colors!)

This year I decided to go with this card:

Cheers Filmstrip

They showed up a few days ago and they look amazing as usual. Shutterfly has never disappointed me with the quality of their photo products before, and this year is no different.

In addition to cards, Shutterfly has a lot of other holiday gift options! More and more people are going the route of personalized gifts :) 

Some of Shutterfly's Holiday Products available include:

FLEECE Photo blankets (how cool are these?!)

Holiday Greetings

Invitations

And of course my favorite:

Holiday Photo Cards! Go browse through their amazing selection :)

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....
• 
  
• 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 :)