Category: Everything Else

Categories
Everything Else Pregnancy

My New BFF

As soon as I announced my pregnancy, a few friends proclaimed, “get you a Snoogle!”. I looked it up on Amazon & brushed off spending $50+ on a body pillow.

Then I became 28 weeks pregnant & was sleeping in 1 hour spurts surrounded by 5+ pillows, behind my head, propping up my shoulders, between my legs, by my hips & on either side for belly & back support. It was getting ridiculous. Husband had no room in bed & I was still uncomfortable.

At childbirth class last Saturday, another pregnant momma-to-be mentioned loving her Snoogle. Jason googled it this time & said $50 is worth it if it helps you sleep. I still said no on Saturday evening. Then slept rough Saturday & Sunday nights before emailing him Monday morning & saying “I give in, Amazon prime that shit”.

The Snoogle arrived Tuesday afternoon {right before we headed off to the hospital for our PTL scare}, & I whipped it out of the package Tuesday night. I’m not sure who loves it more, Jason {who has more room in bed}, Moekitty {who loves sleeping up against it}, or me. I think me since I’ve been sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches since having it in bed. My favorite position is having it under my shoulders, resting one arm under & one arm above it, the belly on it, & having the curvy parts in between & under my legs. Even if I only use it for the next 7 weeks or less, it’s money well spent.

New BFF

Snoogle & Amazon have no idea who I am. While it would’ve been awesome for them to provide it to me; they didn’t & this is just my own glowing opinion.

Categories
Everything Else Pregnancy

Prebabies To Do List

Since y’all can keep & hold me accountable, I thought I’d post this list here. It’ll also help my pregnant brain remember! I’m sure there’s more we need to add, but it’ll be nice to be able to follow up & virtually check things off this list! 7 weeks to go until our 36 week goal date! We got a few things accomplished this weekend, so I’m updating it already!

Sell 3 2 vehicles. Get Jason new car.

Remove computer & desk from nursery. Have TWC or AT&T fix internet spot {Wednesday}.

Put together & set up cribs in nursery. Set up dresser/changing table. Put diapers & sleepers in it.

Wash remaining blankets, crib pads, wash cloths, hooded towels & organize linen closet.

Trip to Buy Buy Baby: Buy second crib mattress, changing pad covers & crib tent.

Move den changing table to final location. Make room for hand-me-down rocker in den. Remove pile of baby things in corner. Put 3 mo clothes bins on top of babies closet. Move organizer into that corner. Set up packnplay in our room.

Clean out garage. Make place for second frig/freezer in garage.

Put carseats in van. Get ok’d from fire station.

Organize nursery making room for skinny chest from Mom & Dad’s. Put tiny baby stuff {socks, mittens, pants, shorts, bloomers} in that chest. Make room for & purchase glider for nursery {started looking this weekend}.

Set up video monitor. Buy second video monitor camera {Trip to Babies R Us}?

Childbirth class 4/14 & 4/21

Breastfeeding class 4/18. Finish reading Mothering Multiples. Attend LLL meeting?

Cloth Diaper class 4/19. Wash new cloth diapers. Buy few more cloth diaper covers.

Pack hospital bag.

Just a few things to do in the next couple weeks right?! 😛

Categories
Everything Else Pregnancy

Seraphine Maternity Wear

I’m to that point in this pregnancy where certain maternity clothes I *loved* at first no longer will work for me. That includes anything without a full panel. But what was been my go-to all winter & I believe will continue into the spring, tunics. Especially one’s that work with black leggings as I haven’t been able to find full-panel leggings in other colors.

So when a rep from Séraphine contacted me to see if I’d be interested in trying out their maternity wear, I jumped at the chance. I chose the Panel Tie Tunic in black & it arrived super quick {from the UK no less}. Séraphine was a new company to me, but I realized I recognized their maternity wear from seeing celebrities like Jennifer Garner & Jessica Alba wearing it in magazines.

My favorite thing about this tunic: the material, the cut & feel of it. It’s so soft & also one of the only maternity tunics/dresses I have that I don’t *have* to wear a tank under it so that I’m not flashing a ton of cleavage.

I also love that I’ve been able to both dress this tunic up & will be able to dress it down for regular work days & weekends. So far I’ve worn it to my VA baby shower a couple weekends ago & then again this past week at my work conference {photo taken in hotel room mirror}. To both events, I wore it with leggings, black patent flats & a pink cardigan. Really cute, right?!

Seraphine tunic love at my shower, work trip & hanging in my kitchen

Oh & this lazy pregnant chick loves that my tunic is machine washable & hung dry without me having to then iron it!

I now have my eyes set on some of Séraphine’s spring maternity clothes. My favorites include the white & navy striped breast feeding top & the ruched sleeved jersey nursing dress {how cute would both be to wear this spring & then summer?!}. I’m pretty sure I’d wear this knot front dress while pregnant & hope I could still make it work even when I wasn’t! If you’re looking for pretty yet practical nursing bras, Séraphine has those too.

Séraphine has generously offered to help all of y’all, my readers & friends, bring home a cute Séraphine item of your choice {over $30} at 20% off with the discount code: ST20. Happy shopping!

I was given the tunic for the purpose of this review but was not compensated in any other way. All the opinions listed above are unbiasedly honest & my own.

Categories
Everything Else Reading

BlogHer Book Club: Born Wicked

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood is the first of The Cahill Witch Chronicles series. Y’all know I love a good series {think Outlander, Hunger Games & even dare I say Twilight?!} & figured why not try reading this one.

Born Wicked is historical fiction set in New England in the late 1800s. But it took me a while to realize that. Based on clothing, diction & home descriptions, I gathered almost immediately that it wasn’t a modern day story. But then I was getting confused where & when the story was taking place. Finally, a couple chapters in, the author specifically states New England & mentions the witch trials of the 1780s being about 100 years before. I wish the clues in the novel had been more specific so I wouldn’t have been so confused for the first third of the book.

This is also one of the first witch books I’ve read in a very long time. I wasn’t sure about that part of the story, but I ended up enjoying the magic portions. I enjoyed reading about the sisters, Cate, Maura & Tess, from Cate’s view point. We were able to see the struggles of all three but I cared most about Cate. The stress of her raising her sisters after their mother’s death. The “love” triangle she finds herself in between her childhood, boy-next-door BFF & the bookkeeper-turned-gardener in her backyard. The sisters trying to fit into town society when they’re different & have been sheltered away.

At first, I truly didn’t think I’d like this book, but the more I got into it, the tougher I found it was to put it down. I’d recommend it for light reading & do look forward to the next story in the series!

You can learn more & join the discussion about Born Wicked at the BlogHer Book Club Born Wicked discussion page.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are all my own.

Categories
Everything Else Food

Everyday Desserts


By this point, y’all are familiar with how much I’m continuing to eat in order to grow & sustain these babies. A lot. Still something every two-three hours.

The weather here has been in the 80s for the last couple of weeks. So now not only am I looking hugely pregnant, I’m also looking sweaty. But the one one of the great things about warm weather & spring/summer is that fruit will soon be in season locally! Bring on the NC strawberries, blueberries, & peaches!

And while bananas aren’t grown local, I didn’t get the childhood nickname of Suzanna Banana by coincidence!

Fruit is by far my favorite go to when I’m hungry. Add COOL WHIP whipped topping, and even the most basic fruit becomes a special, exciting, delicious snack or dessert.

Top plain white cake with strawberries & COOL WHIP, BOOM, you’ve got Strawberry Shortcake. Perfect for Easter weekend when our fresh strawberries should be coming out.

But my all time favorite dessert is banana pudding. {if any of y’all try to call me Suzanna Banana though, it’s on.} Since I eat dessert every night now, & since Target had both bananas & COOL WHIP on sale this past week, I took advantage and whipped up this banana pudding for the weekend. This recipe makes a lot. Like feed-a-family-reunion, take-to-church-pot-luck, perfect-for-girls-beach-weekend lot. Or, you know, feed-Suz-&-her-growing-babies lot. 🙂

I’ve shared this recipe before but it’s been a while, and it’s my favorite & also one of the easiest Banana Pudding recipes I’ve ever made. I swear the reason for it’s awesomeness~ COOL WHIP. I used two small containers of COOL WHIP this time & it made the pudding part so moist & light. The recipe is from my friend Kim’s Mississippi Momma. You can’t beat a southern lady’s recipes y’all!

Homemade Banana Pudding
Ingredients
1 large pkg instant vanilla pudding
2 c cold milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container COOL WHIP, slightly thawed
4-5 bananas. sliced thin
1 box Nilla Wafers

Directions
Make pudding as directed on package: Using wire wisk, mix pudding into cold milk for 2 minutes in large bowl.
Continuing whisking while pouring in condensed milk then COOL WHIP.

{ingredients; adding the good stuff}

In 2+ qt container, place layer of wafers, then thinly sliced bananas. Top that with pudding mixture. Continue to layer until all gone. Enjoy!

{1.5 qt full; COOL WHIP containers make great banana pudding holders}

And for some reason you have COOL WHIP & bananas left over, throw them in a dish with strawberries & blueberries & call that breakfast! Happy spring & summer eating!

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