Happy Friday!! Jeff is on a business trip today and I'm off work, so I'm excited for alllllll of the Mia time. And for Jeff to come home tonight :) After today I only have one more of these extra Fridays off, is it bad that I'm already sad about losing that extra day with Mia? I'm telling you, I've got that separation anxiety bad. Is that something you've gone through? Any tips for getting through it?
It's funny that my finds for the week always end up following a similar thread? Once again, I've accidentally come up with a mini capsule wardrobe haha. Particularly loving these jeans, they're also available in more lengths here (but sizes are going quick!) and I maaaaay have ordered them for myself :)
Sweater Tee - LOFT / Skirt (similar here and here) - BP / Booties (similar here and here) - Steve Madden / Bag (similar here and here) - Coach Factory / Barrette - Forever 21
'90s style has been back for a couple of years now, at least with the youths ;) But this summer is when I really saw it hit the average adult consumer and not just tweens wearing tattoo chokers and Kylie Jenner in slip dresses. The '90s are back, and so are mock necks and socks with your boots and ditsy florals.
None of these pieces are distinctly '90s in and of themselves. I mean, it's just a short sleeve sweater, a mini skirt, booties, and a barrette. But wearing them all together, I felt like I could be strutting my stuff through the mall with Cher and Dionne. Or, you know near them while they talk about how I'm a tragic wannabe ;)
This brown color was around last fall, but is everywhere this year. I 100% jumped on the bandwagon - give me all of the brown! It's such an easy fall neutral and looks so good paired with black. Yes, you can wear brown with black! The only time you don't want to mix brown and black (or navy and black for that matter) is when the colors are really close to each other. Then it looks like you meant to match but didn't quite. When the brown or navy has enough contrast from the black that they look like distinctly different colors, you're good to go.
And yes, this barrette. I resisted the barrette trend for a while, and definitely said I would never ever wear them. And then I found myself inside of Forever 21 with an old store credit and suddenly found myself with a bunch of hair accessories in my hands. I guess I'm in on barrettes! If you're going to go in on a trend like this, definitely pick the cheapo stuff so when barrettes go back out of style in a year, you don't feel bad about getting rid of your four dollar pair.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find myself a slap bracelet and some Bonnie Bell Lipsmackers and put on an episode of Saved By the Bell. Peace out!
Sweater Tee - LOFT / Skirt (similar here and here) - BP / Booties (similar here and here) - Steve Madden / Bag (similar here and here) - Coach Factory / Barrette - Forever 21
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I'm writing this as Mia is snoozing in her crib in her own room!!
For months Mia slept in a pack-n-play approximately 17 inches from where I slept. When she was teeny tiny and sleeping (or not sleeping) at random hours that was fine, but as she got bigger it started to turn into a pain. If we had anything we needed to do in our room (pack for a trip, put away laundry, clean, shower in the master bath or any other beauty things) it had to be done before 6pm. Especially tricky for Jeff since he didn't usually get home until 5:30 or later! At bedtime, Jeff and I would tiptoe into our room, hoping we would be able to find our pajamas and the bed in the dark and crossing our fingers every time we flushed the toilet.
The current recommendation is to keep your baby in your bedroom until she is anywhere from 6 months to a year old, and then to transition into her crib in her room. But that just wasn't working for us anymore! We talked to our pediatrician, who is actually a nationally-known baby sleep expert, who said there wasn't really a reason our baby needed to be in our room anymore. Since she was sleeping through the night we didn't need the convenience of her sleeping next to us, and we would all probably get a better night's sleep in separate rooms!
I will say that I probably would have kept Mia in our room for longer since it supposedly reduces the risk of SIDS, but we have an Owelet smart sock which gives us peace of mind knowing that she is alive and well throughout the night.
We were ready to move Mia downstairs to her room at 4 months, but we were about to head out on a trip and decided to wait until we got back. Then the dreaded 4 month sleep regression hit when we got home. Mia went from sleeping through the night every night to waking up a couple of times a night and needing to be fed every day around 4am. No bueno. That went on for a couple of weeks until we started introducing baby cereal, and it was lights out all night again. It was time.
Mia was just shy of 5 months old when we made the switch. To ease things, she'd been taking naps in her crib in her room basically since she was born, so she was already used to the space. We also added a white noise machine to the space and used blackout curtains to help her fall asleep on those late summer nights.
On the big night, she got into her sleep sack and nursed just like we always did upstairs, then we sang our goodnight song (not one you've heard of ha! - it's actually something my friends wrote for a Destination Imagination skit in high school hahaha). Then we closed the door to her room and crossed our fingers.
And she slept for 13 hours straight. 13 hours.
I know. It was incredible.
Jeff and I were joking that Mia was like, "Thank God Mom and Dad aren't keeping me up anymore!" And she kept sleeping 12 or 13 hours a night, every night. Since she's been sleeping in her room (for almost two months now!) I've gone down into her room three times in the middle of the night, and one of those nights it was when she had a temperature. That girl loves her little space, and we love having our room back.
Is there anything you did to help transition your baby into her own room? Let me know!
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Happy Friday!! It was a bit of a tough week from me, the separation anxiety from Mia was real. No one prepared me that week three of coming back from maternity leave was going to be the hardest. I actually had to take off one afternoon because I had to go get her right then. Like I physically couldn't be apart from her for another second. Yeesh, get it together Kristina! My work is basically the most amazing place ever though, and I get today off as a part of easing back into work. So it's all day mommy and Mia time! I think we are going to go roll around in the park, and then in the afternoon one of my friends is coming by for some Mia snuggles. I can't wait :)
Oh hi! I recently ordered approximately one thousand things from the internet (after buying basically nothing in August) so I thought I'd share! Everything came a week+ ago, but it turns out trying to take a bunch of mirror selfies when everyone in your house keeps getting sick is tricky! I managed to fit these in after showering but before nap time ended while avoiding Jeff wandering around trying to get dressed himself - made things a little tricky haha ;) So I basically took these as fast as possible without moving anything (really, I couldn't have kicked that laundry basket over?! 😂) so you can have fun seeing our mess and watching my hair dry ;)
LOFT
This dress is from the Sneak Preview section at LOFT - basically, where they put their brand new merchandise before you can use any sale codes on it. I think the dress itself is gorgeous, the print is so pretty and is somehow one of those prints that will work for spring, summer or fall. It definitely looks so much more expensive than it is, the fabric is so pretty. But I'm still in this post-pregnancy mindset where I'm confused about what size I am, and ordered up a size. It was quite a bit too big in case you couldn't tell. I don't think this will work on my body type even if I go down a size though, because then the buttons would pull.
This dress is also from the Sneak Preview section and I went up a size in this one too, but it works! It has some invisible seaming that gives it more of a defined waist than a typical shift, and also has an invisible zipper up the back. So pretty and again, looks really high quality. I normally would not advocate buying anything full price from LOFT, but I'm keeping this one. In Chicago there are very few weeks when you can comfortably wear a fall dress without tights, and I am not wasting any of them waiting for this beauty to go down in price!
This striped sweater tee is actually a really dark green (it's very subtle in person) and is a nice staple to have on hand since it wears like a tee but is very easy to dress up. I had high hopes for this ponte skirt for work. The cut is really flattering and cute, with the a-line and slight flounce at the bottom. I did get a tall for some extra length which makes it perfect for work. The only thing, I'm not sure if it's my body or if the skirt was cut slightly wrong, but on my left hip as you're looking at this photo there was a flare out for hips that I definitely don't have. Weirdly the right side fit perfectly. So I'm going to try again on this one and hope that the second one I receive is cut correctly!
J.Crew
This top is so pretty, I love the swiss dot pattern and the pretty neckline detailing. It isn't the most flattering on me though so I'm sadly sending it back. These jeans are a mid-rise super dark wash, which I always want to have on hand since they work so well for dressing up. This pair is cut slightly smaller in the waist than my other J.Crew jeans and the material is thicker and less stretchy, so they are super flattering but aren't quite as comfortable.
I ordered this sweatshirt while wearing rose-colored sale glasses, forgetting that I already have a towering pile of sweatshirts threatening to bury the next person who unwittingly enters my closet. It is really pretty in person. I love the gold hardware - makes it look so luxe! The fabric is a terrycloth, so it isn't that super soft inside. Instead it's lighterweight. The length is slightly cropped which makes the top of the pocket hit at the bottom of my chest, making it not so flattering on me.
I remember last fall being like 'ughhhhh why is that ugly brown everywhere' and now this year I'm like GIVE ME ALL THE BROWN hahaha. This tee is adorable and I can definitely see wearing it dressed up with skirts, or dressed down with shorts or jeans. The cut on this is loose and a little more boyfriend.
I've been eyeing these mules for a while, and they are so pretty in person! The leather is gorgeous. I think they look fine in pictures, but in real life I thought they made my feet look gigantic. I already have big feet so I'm a little conscious about making them look too long ;)
This blazer has also been on my wishlist for a while. I love that the brown can be worn with black, blue, or grey dress pants. I got a tall and the shoulders and sleeves are both big enough for me - yay! This tee is supposed to be fitted, and it is pretty tight and stretchy. I usually go for oversized tees these days, but sometimes it's nice to have something fitted so I think I'll keep it.
The week before I had Mia (read: the week I was past my due date and NOT happy about it haha ;) I read a bunch of articles on preparing for baby and what to do in the hospital and other people's birth stories. Mainly in the hope that I would catch something my body was doing and realize it was actually going into labor.
While most of what I read was decidedly not helpful, one thing really stuck, and it wasn't really baby advice. It was, before you leave for the hospital, download the 1 Second Everyday app. I'd heard of it before - it's basically an app where you take one second of video every day for a year, and then can watch all of your memories back in one video.
We started taking videos on day one in the hospital, and have managed to fill in something every day since. The app is really easy to use. You pick what day you want to start (it can be any day in the past - or today!) and it automatically pulls up videos you took that day. You choose a video and where to cut the one second clip. Then whenever you want, you can have the app mash all of the clips together to make the combined video!
I've been watching it back at least once a week since she was born, and it's so sweet to see her as that tiny little newborn and then slowly get bigger and learn to do new things. I've got clips of her first bath, her first time rolling over, and her first food in there. We've also tried to get other people in the video, so you can see her with her grandparents and great-grandparents and cousins and friends. We're only at six months right now, and I'm so excited to see how she's changed by the one year mark!
There have been a few days we've missed along the way, because hey, we've got a baby! But the app will let you put in a "live" iPhone photo which sort of looks like a video clip when the video all mixed together. What I've been doing instead is cheating a little. If I miss a day, I'll pick one of the extra videos I took the day before or the day after and pop that in instead! The app will let you go into all of your videos and arranges them by day so you can easily find what you're looking for. Or, you know, if you aren't into cheating, you could just skip that day in the video. The days fly by so fast you would never notice.
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Yay Friday!! Keeping this short and sweet, but I wanted to let you know that I tried on the wrap (number 1 below) in stores and it is SO soft and beautiful in person!! I usually recommend for this type of thing to go for the smallest size available, but for this one definitely stick to your normal size. The tie helps make it more flattering than the typical wrap, and with the side slits you want it to be a little bigger so they don't pull.
I was in Target a couple weeks ago sans baby and therefore doing all the browsing (as one does) and happened upon this cardigan.
(Sidebar: is this really the way I'm writing? Currently have Schitt's Creek on the TV and Moira is definitely affecting my writing patterns haha.)
Anyway, I snagged a super similar cardigan while I was pregnant, and loved the fall version so I obviously had to get it. Plus it looks a heck of a lot like that Madewell cardigan that was so popular during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, but at $30 instead of a cool hundred it fit much better into my budget.
It dropped down to like 68 degrees in Chicago so I decided it was definitely time for fall and broke out the new cardi. Of course it was also sunny and humid so then I immediately had to loose the cardigan. And then the baby started pulling on my ears so I had to loose the earrings. And then we had to walk a couple miles so I swapped my flats for sneakers.
So really I wore this for about 20 minutes and then I was suddenly in a completely different outfit. But hey, someday I plan to wear this all day.
Oh the swaddle. Such a lifesaver at first, and then for some people, such a nightmare to transition out of.
We loved swaddles, even though neither Jeff nor I could ever figure out how to swaddle with a regular blanket. In fact, I currently have a drawer full of mostly-unused swaddle blankets - any takers? While we couldn't figure out the swaddle blankets, we loved the little baby straightjackets and sleep sacks and hands up swaddles. They made swaddling so easy, and while Mia wasn't immediately comforted by them they did help her stay asleep.
I was dreading having to transition her out of the swaddle - what if she stopped being able to sleep through the night? If you aren't currently a parent, you have to stop using swaddles as soon as your baby shows signs of being able to roll over. Basically, your baby might roll over and then wouldn't have her hands free to push up her face to breathe - scary! I was basically crossing my fingers that Mia would take her sweet time when it came to rolling over.
I sent my family a picture of Mia happy as a clam in her swaddle, and my brother asked me when we would stop using them. I said of course when she started to roll. I literally put the phone down from typing out that message, looked over, and Mia was rocking back and forth. Within 24 hours she was rolling onto her side and trying to figure out how to get onto her tummy. It was time.
We had been using these hands up swaddles, so I immediately hopped on Amazon to order the transition version. The transition version has little wings that zip off, allowing you to release one hand at a time. That makes the transition out of the swaddle easier, as your baby can still be partially contained while still having a free arm.
I know that a lot of people swear by the Magic Merlin suit, which we had been given as a hand-me-down. People love it because it gets those little arms out, but weighs them down a little so your baby still can't startle. I'm not sure if I just didn't give it enough of a chance, but Mia hated going into it the first time and then refused to nap in it, so I rejected it after that first day.
The first night, I zipped off that little arm after Mia had already fallen asleep, put her in her crib, and held my breath. Amazingly, since she was already asleep, she didn't notice. The next night, her arm was already out before she went to sleep, and when I put her in the crib, that hand immediately went into her mouth and she fell right asleep. It turned out, the hands free thing was pretty great because it let her self soothe - a mama's dream!
We did one more night with one hand in, and then bit the bullet and took the second arm out. With two hands out, we did notice her waking up in the middle of the night, but she was able to get those hands into her mouth and fall back asleep on her own.
These days, Mia is actually still sleeping in that transition swaddle with her arms out, as I think the tightness around her midsection provides some comfort (especially at daycare!). But now that she's starting to size out of it, we've been putting her in a loose sleep sack instead for her naps at home, and she doesn't seem to notice the difference.
It turns out that the whole transitioning thing wasn't as scary as I thought it would be! Here's hoping these tips help you unswaddle with confidence :)
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