Stitch Fix - Fix #2 June/July 2015

Stitch Fix is a monthly styling subscription service. When you sign up you fill out a surprisingly in-depth Style Profile about your sizes, your style, and pricing preferences, and then your personal stylist sends you 5 items to try once a month. This can include or exclude accessories as well (although I opted out of this option).  The fee for this service is $20, and that includes FREE shipping and FREE returns. If you decide to keep any of the items they send you, you get to deduct the $20 fee from the total. (If you decide to keep all five items in your "fix", you also get a 25% discount!) 

Once your Fix is delivered, you get to try them all on and decide if you want to keep any of the items or send them back in the prepaid return envelope.  Whatever you keep, you pay for.  If you don't like anything, you send it all back and you are just out the $20 styling fee.

My friends have been trying to talk me into Stitch Fix for months and I just wouldn't take the leap.  After losing all of my pregnancy weight, and having no new clothes and ZERO time to go shopping now that I'm busy with a 1 year old, I finally decided that I deserved this little package of happiness to be delivered to my door.

Stitch Fix - Fix #2

Loveappella Shenley Mesh Detail Knit Tank - $48

Thoughts: The color was beautiful and I loved the "mesh" detail.  However, the material wasn't forgiving on my mommy belly, and showed every bulge!

Verdict: Sent back


Papermoon Burns Crochet Detail Knit Tank - $38

Thoughts: Oh my goodness, I love the crochet detail on this tank!  Wasn't a fan on how it fit me in the front though.  These style of tanks always fall weird on my chest, and I just wasn't feeling it.

Verdict: Sent back.


Kut From The Kloth Kate Distressed Boyfriend Jean - $78

Thoughts:  My friend, Megan, has raved about the jeans Stitch Fix sends her, so I knew chances were good that I was going to love these.  And I did.  How are they able to send you perfect jeans?? I've been buying from the Buckle since high school because that is the only place that I can find jeans that fit me correctly.  Yet, Stitch Fix nails it on the first try! The price is on target with what I usually spend on my jeans, but I'm still debating.  Gotta talk it over with the husband.

Verdict:  Regretfully sent back :(


Pixley Rachel Maxi Dress - $78

Thoughts: I specifically asked for a maxi dress and my stylist delivered TWO for me! This one, just missed the mark for me though.  I didn't like where the waist hit me, and it made me look wider than I am.  I like to accentuate my waist, and this didn't do that.  The color was also off for me.  It was pink and purple, and I just wasn't a fan.  Oh, and I'm pretty over chevron at this point.  Can we please move on to another print now?

Verdict:  Sent back.


Market & Spruce Rami Maxi Dress - $78

Thoughts:  Another maxi! Yay! I'm tall, so in my requests I asked for extra long maxis if they had any.  This dress was actually long enough for me! I love navy and I loved everything about this dress.  I feel like it does great things for my figure and the neckline works for church, work, beach, anything!

Verdict:  KEPT!


VERY pleased with Fix #2! I fell in love with two pieces in this fix and am trying really hard to talk myself out of buying both because of the price.  I feel like this fix was dead on with my style and I am going to request to keep this stylist since she really nailed my style.


If you decide you want to give Stitch Fix a try yourself, please sign up via my link! Keep in mind that your fix will be totally tailored to your style and my fix doesn't reflect what you would receive at all.

Grant - 1 year, 1 month

Is it weird/annoying to keep doing Grant updates?

He is growing and changing so much, that I want to keep them going! I think I will change up the format since he's officially a TODDLER now :)

Age: 1 year, 1 month

New Stuff:  Man, he's changed so much since his birthday.  He walks 100% of the time now.  No more crawling unless he's trying to go under something (the coffee table, legs, cat door, etc.).  He starting to pick up speed when he walks and he thinks it's hilarious to "run" away from you.  It's funny to me that he actually thinks he stands a chance of getting away lol.

He moved up to a new daycare class and I think he really enjoys the older kids.  They have toys more suited to his age now and when I drop him off he heads straight for the balls.  That kid LOVES balls! It's crazy.

He waves and claps and he thinks it's funny to drop his cup and food when he's sitting in the highchair.  I'm constantly retrieving his cup.

We've started "crafts" in his new daycare class too.  What do you do with these things? I was all sentimental at first, but already at 3 crafts in, I'm thinking "what do I do with all of this??"  I feel awful trashing it, but I know it's not logical to keep everything.

Summer is officially here with the heat index staying over 100 and very high humidity.  It is H.O.T. in East Texas people.  I  walked outside with a Kit Kat and it melted in like less than a minute.  No lie.  It's that hot.  So fishing and walking are out for now, but we bought a splash pad and baby pool and have been using that some.  Grant is a fan for a bit, but once it hits his face he's done.  Cold water in his face is a deal breaker apparently.

He has 8 teeth now.  4 on top and 4 on bottom.  Poor thing looks like he got my dental genes.  His teeth are so spaced apart! I know they are just baby teeth, but I think braces will be in this kid's future.  I had them twice, so he probably didn't stand a chance.

Oh and fit throwing has officially begun.  You take something away and he completely loses it.  You give it back, it totally stops like it never happened.  Nope not gonna be played little man.  I'm on to you.

We are down to just one bottle a day.  He drinks whole milk and water from his sippy cup during the day and before bed he gets a bottle with breastmilk.  He refuses to drink BM from anything other than a bottle.  I want to use up all of my frozen BM (which will take forever since we just do 4-5 oz a day now...) and I know that it is still so good for him! He finds comfort in a bottle before bed, and honestly it makes bedtime super easy, so I'm fine with it for now.  We will completely wean from the bottle eventually, but for now it's what works for us.

Words:  Not really talking yet.  He will say Mama and Dada and Bye Bye, but doesn't seem to relate it to to anything yet.  Still just babbling. 

I'm just going to take a little break and lay here in the middle of the floor.

I may not do these monthly anymore, but do an update here and there when he starts doing new things.  I really like to have a record of it to look back on.

Weaning from the Pump

I'm officially done pumping.  I have been for 3 weeks now, and thought I'd give a run down on how I decided to wean from my breast pump.  I read A LOT of articles, blogs, etc when I decided to stop pumping. Some women stop cold turkey, others wean verrrrry slowly, and others are gradual but quick.  I had already dropped down to 2 pumps a day (each pump about 15 mins) by 11 months, so I really didn't think I would have any problems.  I didn't get engorged anymore even if I skipped a pump, I just felt "full".  So I decided to drop my pump before bed and see how 1 pump went.  It went fine (no engorgement), so I did that for a few days and then started pumping every other day for about 10 minutes.  After the fullness between pumps started subsiding a little I started decreasing my pump time to 7 minutes and then I did 5 minutes for a couple of days.  Since I still wasn't having and pain or anything I decided to just stop completely and see what happened.  I felt full, but didn't have any pain.  And that was the end! I honestly expected that I'd have to pump at least once to relieve the pressure, but I never did.  I had one small lump form, but it worked itself out and didn't even hurt.

At church there was a baby crying and I felt an all too familiar "tingle" and thought "seriously??" THREE WEEKS LATER??  Sure enough, I am STILL producing milk.  I'm not sure how long it will actually take to dry up completely, but I am for sure done with the pump until Baby #2.

I still have a deep freeze full of frozen breastmilk, so I am giving Grant 1 bottle of BM before bed each night.  I know, I know, no bottles after 1! Well, he REFUSES to drink BM from a sippy cup.  Water and whole milk he will drink from a sippy cup happily, but BM?  Nope. Not doing it.  Throws it on the floor as soon as he figures out what it is.  So for now, it's 1 bottle before bed of Mommy's milk, so I can use my freezer stash up!


So, as a word of encouragement to any exclusive pumping moms out there, YOU CAN DO IT! You can make it to your goal! It's tough and time consuming, but you can make it!  And if you do decide to stop early or your supply just isn't there, that's fine too.  Do what is best for your baby and YOU! Your baby needs a happy, healthy mom!

Stitch Fix - My First Fix! (Fix #1) June 2015

Stitch Fix is a monthly styling subscription service. When you sign up you fill out a surprisingly in-depth Style Profile about your sizes, your style, and pricing preferences, and then your personal stylist sends you 5 items to try once a month. This can include or exclude accessories as well (although I opted out of this option).  The fee for this service is $20, and that includes FREE shipping and FREE returns. If you decide to keep any of the items they send you, you get to deduct the $20 fee from the total. (If you decide to keep all five items in your "fix", you also get a 25% discount!) 

Once your Fix is delivered, you get to try them all on and decide if you want to keep any of the items or send them back in the prepaid return envelope.  Whatever you keep, you pay for.  If you don't like anything, you send it all back and you are just out the $20 styling fee.

My friends have been trying to talk me into Stitch Fix for months and I just wouldn't take the leap.  After losing all of my pregnancy weight, and having no new clothes and ZERO time to go shopping now that I'm busy with a 1 year old, I finally decided that I deserved this little package of happiness to be delivered to my door.

I am by no means a model, so please judge the clothes, not me!  My husband was going to take nice pictures for me, but got called out of town for work. So mirror selfies had to do :) 

Here we go...

Stitch Fix - Fix #1

First impressions: I love the colors and lace! It definitely seems to match my style.  I'm feeling positive!

1.  Skies Are Blue Wella Sweater Knit Tank - $54

Thoughts: I loved the color, but immediately HATED the material.  It is thick and sweatery, but almost see through at the same time.  I live in Texas.  It is about to reach 100 degree weather, I won't be wearing any thick knits for a while and when I do they won't be sleeveless.
Verdict: SENT BACK

2. May Pink Gander Lace Back Cardigan - $48

Thoughts: I really, really, really wanted to love this cardigan.  I love the colors, the stripes, the lace detail on the back is gorgeous and the material felt wonderful.  However, I felt like a bat.  I just can't wear this style.  I felt like it hung weird when my arms were down and it just didn't sit well.  If this had been a regular long sleeve cardigan I would have fallen in love immediately.
Verdict: SENT BACK

 3. Ezra Coaling Knit Top - $48

Thoughts: I liked the look of this shirt in the box, but when I tried it on it didn't do anything for my body.  The material felt stiff and almost itchy too. This one wasn't a winner for me.
Verdict: SENT BACK

4. Fun2Fun Darlene V-Neck Top - $38

Thoughts: I loved it in the box.  The print was great.  The color was great.  When I put it on... It felt AMAZING on! I felt so comfortable in this shirt and it was just so soft!  It could have been a little tighter on me, but my weight tends to fluctuate so I don't mind that it's a little loose right now.
Verdict: KEPT!

5. Brixon Ivy Romford Stretch Lace Knit Top - $64

Thoughts: My first thought was, "man that is a LOT of lace," and after trying it on, I still thought that.  There was a spaghetti strap cami that was attached and it did not fit me right at all. There was also a big strand of lace that was already hanging from the sleeve as soon as I took it out of the box. I made sure to include it in the picture.  Even if I had loved the shirt, I wouldn't pay $64 for clothing that is already frayed.
Verdict: SENT BACK

Overall I am pleased with Fix #1! I think my stylist (Rebecca) did a pretty good job of pulling pieces for me for the first go around.  The only obvious miss for me was the Sweater Tank.  Just the name itself sounds like such a contradiction that I really don't understand it, but I do live in Texas where it gets humid and hot during the summer.  I'm very happy that I actually fell in love with a piece on my first fix and I look forward to seeing what I get next month.

If you decide you want to give Stitch Fix a try yourself, please sign up via my link! Keep in mind that your fix will be totally tailored to your style and my fix doesn't reflect what you would receive at all.

Grant's 1st Birthday - Circus Theme

We celebrated Grant's birthday over the weekend and since I already did a post with his 12 month stats, this post will just be all about the party!

We went with a Circus theme, and I think it turned out pretty cute.  Unfortunately the day of the party was I.N.S.A.N.E. and I am just now realized that we barely took any photos.  Our electricity went out that morning and was off for 6 hours, the party store lost our balloon order and Grant was refusing to take a nap, so I ended up being frazzled and rushed for most of the day.  So I will share the pictures that we DID manage to take!

The cake was my absolute favorite part.  Village Bakery did a fabulous job like always!

Had to throw one in of me and the birthday boy, even though he was more interested in looking at all of the presents instead of the camera!

We borrowed a popcorn machine from David's mom, but I didn't manage to get a picture.  I am so sad because it was adorable and really fit our theme! Everyone loved the popcorn though and we did manage to get one picture of some popcorn on the table.

He was very tentative with the cake eating. He just picked up tiny pieces and ate it very slowly.  He didn't even eat very much before he decided he was full and wanted out of the high chair.

As party favors, everyone got to take home a box of animal crackers.

David grilled burgers and hot dogs for everyone and we all just relaxed and had a fun time celebrating Grant.  Since all of our family lives out of town, they enjoyed getting to spend time with Grant and see how much he's grown.  They hadn't even seen him walking yet, so they were all very impressed!

Here are links to everything I used for the party:

Invitations, Banner, Favor Tags: Etsy - OllieAndLulu

Birthday Hat: Etsy - DaintyCouture

Bowtie & Diaper Cover: Etsy - CuteAsClaire

 Cakes: Village Bakery

High Chair Decor:  Fisher Price 1st Birthday Circus High Chair Decorating Kit (2pc)

Misc. Decor:  Fisher Price 1st Birthday Circus Room Decorating Kit (10pc)

Not pictured:

Fisher Price 1st Birthday Circus Jumbo Letter Banner Combo 2 Ct.

Grant - 12 months!

My baby is one.  ONE! How and when did this happen??? I cannot believe that it has been 1 year since I gave birth to a tiny 6lb baby boy.

And here we are 1 year later. Here come the waterworks...

Age: 12 months

Weight:  25lbs (this boy is solid!) Now that he is walking and much more interested in moving around, I expect that he will slim up a bit :) He's always been a lazy baby, but he's starting to explore more now.

Eye Color: Looking hazel or green now.

Clothes: PJs: 12-18M, Onesies:  12-18M. Shirts: 12-18M Pants: 12M & 18M

Diapers: Size 4
 
Milestones:  *Walking like a champ now! 95% of the time he walks everywhere, rarely crawls anymore. SO stinking proud of my little boy for walking by his birthday!

*Has 6 teeth
*Claps
*Waves Bye Bye

Best Moment(s) This Month:  The walking! I am such a proud mommy :) He took to walking so quickly that it really surprised me.  He works at it so much and even when he stumbles, he stands back up and keeps on going.

Loves: *walking
*throwing toys

*eating GRAPES and WATERMELON

*Splashing in the bath

*clapping
*playing with Tiger
*the remote

Favorite Toys:

Fisher-Price Light-Up Lion Stacker

Hates:
*getting his face cleaned after eating baby food
*getting his snot sucked out/wiping off his nose
*not being able to splash in the cat's water bowl

Food:  Getting about 10-15oz of BM a day and 3 meals a day like a big boy! We also do a morning and afternoon snack.  He much prefers to feed himself now than to be spoon fed.  He LOVES fruit and is kind of refusing veggies at the moment.  I try to give him the veggies first when he is hungry and then save the fruit for last.  

Side note: Since he was down to just 2-3 bottles a day, I decided to wean myself from the breast pump and it's been over 1 week since I stopped completely. It's unreal the amount of relief and freedom I feel.  I can have Red Bull, 2+ cups of coffee, and wine in the evening without having to time it around my pump times.  On top of the relief, I feel SO proud of myself for making to his first birthday.  There were many times that I wanted to quit so I could have that time and my body back to myself, but I really wanted him to have BM for 1 year exclusively.  So other than the small amount of supplementing I did before my milk came in, he was 100% breastfed. He's been so healthy and only had 1 ear infection (the only time he has had antibiotics) even though he's been in daycare since he was 4 months old.  I really think BM helped his immune system!  I still have a deep freeze completely full of BM, so I plan to mix that with whole milk once we start introducing it.

Looking Forward To:  His 1st birthday party! We are having a Circus themed party and I can't wait to recap the party next week.  Be on the lookout :)

11 months postpartum

I'm always doing updates on Grant's progress, but I thought it might be nice to give a little update on me for a change and to highlight what it feels like to be 11 months (almost a year!) postpartum.

First off, here's a picture from the week before I had a positive pregnancy test.

The week before my positive pregnancy test

Little did I know that I would retain SO MUCH WATER 9 months later!  This picture is from the week that I had Grant.  Man... It's hard to even look back at pictures from that month. 

9 months pregnant with Grant... oh the swelling!

 Here is a picture from a couple of weekends ago at the zoo.  I am SO happy with my weight loss progress.

11 months postpartum!

 So how much did I gain/lose?  Well I gained a total of 65 pounds during my pregnancy and I've lost 70 to date.  I blame the majority of the weight gain to water retention to be honest.  My ankles and legs were so incredibly swollen the last few weeks and the day I came home from the hospital I was already down almost 35 lbs.

I credit my weight loss 100% to breastfeeding.  I haven't had any spare time to go to the gym although I have been pretty consistent about getting out and taking Grant on walks around our neighborhood.  I haven't dieted at all and breastfeeding actually makes me pretty hungry! In the beginning I was an overproducer.  Since I exclusively pump, this meant I was making 50oz of milk a day which calculates to around 1000 calories burned.  I'm now down to around 30oz a day, but that's still 600 calories being burned a day.

I was also very lucky that I didn't get any stretch marks.  I'm not sure if it was due to good genes or just all of the product I slathered on my belly every night.  If you're interested I used:

Erbaorganics Mommy-To-Be Stretch Mark Oil

DreamBelly Stretch Mark Butter

 The DreamBelly smells DELICIOUS.  I'd alternate using regular cocoa butter lotion and mixing it with the oil and then using the Dream Belly.  Like I said, it could just be good genes, but I didn't get 1 stretch mark and my belly was BIG!

It's hard to tell if I'm back to normal hormonally since I'm still pumping.  I'm down to twice a day as of this week.  My goal is to be totally done with the pump by Grant's first birthday.  I have so much milk frozen, that I plan on weaning myself slowly now that he's 11 months old and using frozen if I don't pump enough in those 2 pumps. I'm so ready to be done worrying about where I'll be during my pump times and having to tote my pump when we go out of town.  I'm very thankful that I was able to give him 100% breastmilk and that my supply was enough to make it to his first birthday.

I've noticed that I've been having hot flashes lately.  I've wondered if this is due to weaning and my hormones attempting to regulate. They aren't too bad or too often though, and coming off of pregnancy hot flashes, these aren't even much of a bother!

I feel like I'm almost back to my normal self by this point and I'm so glad.  I feel comfortable in my own skin and like how clothes fit me again which is a relief.  Pregnancy really takes a toll on your body (and self-esteem) and it doesn't immediately improve after you give birth.  I honestly think that now, almost a year after giving birth, that I feel pretty close to the way I did pre-pregnancy.

So there's my pitiful attempt at an update on where things stand with me right now.  I'm busy with work and planning Grant's birthday party, so be on the lookout for his birthday post next month :)