Photo credit: IsabellaOliver.com

Love Jennifer Garner and her casual style – always.  She’s no different pregnant and doesn’t she just look adorable in this Isabella Oliver Maternity Denim Skirt ($109)?

Love Isabella Oliver too for maternity clothes.  They currently have a coupon code for 15% off too for their VIPs (very important pieces)!

Use coupon code FW15 for 15% off at IsabellaOliver.com.

I am off to stock up on a few essentials for when the cooler weather hits. They are having a fabulous sale right now that I had to share.  It is their spree sale and everyday the percentage off goes down a little bit. Today is 41% off, tomorrow 38%, Thursday 35% and so on through Sunday. Visit Isabella Oliver online and use code “SPREE” at checkout.

They provide attractive, comfortable hospital gowns designed to work when you are laboring and make you feel prettier. They have openings in all the right places to accommodate fetal monitors, epidurals etc.

The gowns are one size fits all and are made of a 100% cotton, they even have organic cotton gowns. Pretty Pushers are even made to be thrown away after use (though you would never know it from the high quality), because really who wants to come home with a soiled gown. Pretty Pushers are both functional and fashionable.

Comment on this post with your due date or if you are entering for a friend when they are due for a chance to win your own Pretty Pushers gown. One lucky reader will be randomly selected on August 31th.

Baby Carriers -n- More is currently offering 15% off Pretty Pushers products if you use the discount code “LABOR15.“

At the hospital:

• A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my excitement over wearing my dearjohnnies designer hospital gown. I had planned to wear the gown while laboring, but my nurse suggested I save it for after I give birth when I have visitors. I ended up going this route and wearing the gown on day two in the hospital, which was a great idea since I looked and felt much nicer and fresher in my new gown than the ugly (and big) hospital gowns. I also got great use of the dearjohnnies robe when I was laboring and afterwards.
• We don’t always think of the dad-to-be when we head to the hospital, but the day you give birth is equally as exciting to them. My husband got to wear Daddy Scrubs while at the hospital as comfortable and cute lounge wear that also celebrated him becoming a dad again. Daddy Scrubs carries a ton of great gifts for an expectant dad, including hats, t-shirts, scrubs, sweatshirts, and a nice book store that has a ton of books for dad and baby. Daddy Scrubs make a great Father’s Day gift idea, too! Enjoy free ground shipping for orders over $40.

Coming home:

• After two boys and my basic gray and black Graco car seat, I was excited to freshen up my carrier with a pretty car seat cover for my daughter. I looked online for the perfect cover, and found it at hipncozy. These covers are gorgeous yet affordable. I splurged and bought not only the car seat cover, but a matching head rest, shoulder strap covers, and blanket. We are definitely in style when heading out!
• I am working diligently at getting my daughter on a schedule. I know it’s hard to do with a newborn, but I am using the Itzbeen, a great little device that keeps track of your last diaper change, feeding, sleep or awake time, and more. With a simple push of a button, you can keep track of how long “itzbeen” since the last time your child was changed, etc. I love that you can set an alarm if too much time has elapsed. I also like the night light and back-lit features for use at night. What a great product for the first few weeks/months at home!
• My daughter seems to love her paci already. A friend recommended I try WubbaNubs, adorable little critters that permanently hold a soothie pacifier in place. They are so cute, and are really functional in that they keep the paci from falling. My daughter can grab onto the little animal, too, like a little lovey. They have tons of cute little critters to choose from.

More to come in the next couple of weeks with some of the other products I am trying out! Stay tuned!

Thanks to Daddy Scrubs and dearjohnnies for samples to try out. The other products mentioned in this review were purchased. As always, all opinions are my own.

I was looking at pictures of myself from my last two births, and honestly, that big, gross, ugly hospital gown couldn’t have made me look any worse. I understand childbirth may not be the most glamorous time for a woman’s appearance, but really, those hospital gowns don’t fit, expose everything, and don’t do anything to make you feel special on your extra-special day.

Enter dearjohnnies designer hospital gowns. These beautiful gowns are soft, well-fitting, beautiful, and are hospital friendly with snaps on the sleeves and down the back, allowing easy access for breastfeeding, IV lines, etc. They are perfect to wear while laboring and giving birth, afterwards, or at home for ease and comfort. I plan to wear mine when I labor and deliver so I look and feel as good as I can!

The gowns are made of 100% cotton in a number of beautiful prints, trimmed with grosgrain ribbon. dearjohnnies also makes coordinating robes made of cozy, yet lightweight, 100% cotton flannel, trimmed with fabric from their pretty Wellesley Collection. The robes are perfect to wear while laboring and walking, for added warmth and comfort, or just for additional coverage. Monogramming is available on the robes as well as every piece in their collection!

Each gown is sized so that you have the perfect fit (instead of the huge, unisex hospital gown that always seems to be open or falling off).Sizes include XS, S/M, and L/XL.

Celebrities love dearjohnnies and have many wonderful things to say about them. dearjohnnies also make great gifts for any mom-to-be, and come wrapped in a ready-to-gift bag.

I am so excited to meet my new baby and the first step when I get to the hospital will be to put my dearjohnnies gown on. I can’t wait!

I was provided with a complimentary dearjohnnies gown and robe for the purpose of this review. As always, all opinions expressed here are my own.

Breastfeeding 3 week old Cole with my Bebe Au Lait Nusing Cover. Look at his tiny little legs sticking out!

This week’s topic for #BumpMonth is Breastfeeding.

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I think I have a somewhat unique experience as I formula fed my first and breastfeed my second.  I’ve written about this a few times so here’s a little excerpt from a review I published here last year:

I formula fed my first son when he was an infant.  I walked into the hospital at 41 weeks and if someone had stopped me and asked me if I was going to breastfeed or formula feed as I was walking in, I would have responded, “I’m going to try and breastfeed and see how it goes.”  But I didn’t know much and after a horrible first time delivery that ended up in an emergency c-section, I gave up breastfeeding after two weeks.

When my second son was born in 2006, I was a little better prepared.  He was breastfed until he was 11 months old.  It was easy.

While I have two totally healthy and happy children and I don’t believe in regrets, I do often wonder if I would have made it beyond two weeks with Nate had I been given more breastfeeding support.  But I didn’t know that I needed to get it. I had cans of formula, I was depressed and breastfeeding was hard, so it seemed like an obvious path.

While I find nothing wrong with formula feeding, I do wish for every new Mom that they could receive as much support as possible to make the breastfeeding choice.  To know that, hell yah, it’s really hard in the beginning – but if you power through it, it gets easier.  It may not work out for everyone – and everyone has to do their best to do what’s right for both their baby and themselves but I wholeheartedly feel that making the effort and having the support in the beginning is key.

I wanted to add too that besides the obvious better choice health-wise, I think in the end breastfeeding can be so much easier on Mom too.  It was for me.  I got more sleep when I breastfeed since I was the bottle.  Getting up with Nate to get a bottle, heat up the formula, etc ended up being much more a hassle than when you’re a walking milk machine.  And of course going out is the same – I loved not having to lug around a bunch of supplies when it was Cole’s turn.  (Other than a nursing cover.  Which I will also note was huge for me as I’m a modest person and having a cover made it possible for me to comfortably nurse in public.  But I digress…)

Check out the other Bump Month posts for the month of May.  I also have a giveaway for over $1000 worth of baby products in conjunction with Bump Month.  Haven’t entered yet?  You can do so here.

This post is apart of a series of posts inspired and sponsored by “All about the Bump Month.”  To visit our sponsor page please click here.

Meet the 9 Bumpin’ Bloggers

Kelly Whalen              The Centsible Life @centsiblelife
Julie Meyers Pron    Just Precious @justprecious
Andrea Fellman        Savvy Sassy Moms @savvysassymoms
Jessica Rosenberg   It’s My Life @kikarose
Laurie Cooper         Guessing all the Way @clueless_mama
Leticia Barr               Tech Savvy Mama @techsavvymama
Alison Ray                Sassy Moms in the City @sassymomchicago
Grace Duffy               Formely Gracie @graceduffy
Whitney Wingerd    Mommies with Style @WhitneyMWS

Hubby and I with our babies in 2011

For the entire month of May, I’m a part of a campaign with 9 other bloggers for Bump Month.  Nine websites across the country will all be particpiating in celebrating everything pregnancy.  We’ll talk maternity and newborn and of course we’ll have some fab giveaways along the way to let you all play along and have some fun.

For this first week, we were tasked with sharing a personal birth story.  Now I have two kids and two birth stories and this one really made me hesitate because I have two very different stories.

The first involves 22 hours of excruciating back labor with very little pain meds. It involves a distressed baby Nate.  It involves panic and fear and my scream to my mother to please make sure my husband takes good care of the cats if I die because I was that petrified that neither I nor my baby would survive as they rushed me on a stretcher down to the operating room because my baby had to come out ASAP via emergency c-section.

It involves a healthy baby but a horrible recovery.  I had a lot of pain during recovery and I was depressed.  The latter wasn’t helped by the fact that I gave birth during the cold month of December.

And while it’s been seven years and I can look back and say, “well that sucked but I’m over it,” I still don’t like to dwell on it much.

December 2003. Crying while holding Nate for the very first time. Happy, traumatized, overwhelmed & relieved.

#2 was the complete opposite experience.  A planned C-section, I happily chatted through my operation and still remember being on an endorphin high holding Cole in the recover room.  I walked the hospital literally hours after the surgery because it was such a smooth and normal operation without the exhaustion of hours of labor. I felt great.

November 2006. Introducing Cole to big brother Nate just hours later. Totally relaxed & elated.

Two totally different experiences physically.

But here’s the bottom line and what I remember the most when I think about my two experiences giving birth – I remember the love I felt both times looking down and seeing my sons’ faces for the first time.

I remember the awe of knowing this little guy came from inside of me and that he was ours to love and cherish and take care of for life.  I remember the innocence I had the first time around with Nate – being shocked that within minutes I could love someone so completely that it overwhelmed me.

And that’s really what it boils down to for me when I hear about anyone’s birth story.  It doesn’t really matter how your kid came out. It doesn’t matter if they’re adopted.  It doesn’t matter if they were sliced out of your stomach or they ripped out your vagina.  What matters is that you’re a mother.  And a baby is a miracle.  Your life is forever changed in a way I can’t even explain in words.  But I don’t need to explain it.  If you’re a Mom reading this, you know what I mean.  And if you’re not a mother yet but reading this as expecting Mother, you’ll get it soon enough.

Some of the fab Bump Month sponsors:

Other Bump Month Birth Stories:

So how fun is this one guys:  for the month of May, Splash Creative Media is hosting #BumpMonth, or an online baby shower.  9 Mom bloggers will be talking  pregnancy and everything good that comes along with having a baby.

Some fab sponsors are on board like Zulily and Babycenter. And of course the most fun for our readers:  giveaways!  There will also be some in-real-life events at three local venues:  Chicago, Philly and LA so if you live in one these three places and want info, leave me a comment and I’ll be sure you get it.

Meet the 9 Bumpin’ Bloggers

Kelly Whalen              The Centsible Life @centsiblelife
Julie Meyers Pron    Just Precious @justprecious
Andrea Fellman        Savvy Sassy Moms @savvysassymoms
Jessica Rosenberg   It’s My Life @kikarose
Laurie Cooper         Guessing all the Way @clueless_mama
Leticia Barr               Tech Savvy Mama @techsavvymama
Alison Ray                Sassy Moms in the City @sassymomchicago
Grace Duffy               Formely Gracie @graceduffy
Whitney Wingerd    Mommies with Style @WhitneyMWS

I discovered a great book for any mom-to-be, called One Year to an Organized Life with Baby by Regina Leeds (professional organizer) and Meagan Francis (parenting expert). I really enjoyed this book. It gives you a week-to-week guide to get ready for your baby and helpful suggestions on how to keep your family organized (keeping you sane in the process!)

As it should be, this book is extremely organized and is laid out in a very easy-to-read format. It’s also very digestible, broken up into month segments and then by week, so you can focus on what you need to do each week in a logical and organized manner. The book has two parts, one is “getting ready” and the other is “baby’s here!” Both sections help you with practical suggestions, timelines, checklists, and tips.

As a mom with two other children, I didn’t know how useful this book would be to me. However, I did find a lot of great tips and reminders on what I should be doing and when to get ready for my baby. For first-time moms, this book is priceless. If you are an organized person who likes to plan ahead, you will absolutely love this book. And if you are not that type of person, you will still love this book because it will help you get organized (something you will need to be once baby comes!)

This book will help you get your home, health, work, and life ready for your new baby. Some of the topics the book covers include creating your nursery, determining what baby gear you need and what you can skip, preparing for maternity leave and going back to work, packing your diaper bag, creating effective household routines, organizing baby photos and documents, childproofing your home, and much more.

If you are pregnant or know someone who is, One Year to an Organized Life with Baby is a great addition to your pre-baby/baby library. Definitely don’t skip this book!

Want to win a copy for yourself? Comment below on what you feel you need to organize before your baby comes (or now that your baby is here) and you’ll be entered to win a free copy!

I happened to have some Belevation undergarments in my drawer that they were kind enough to send me to sample. I gave them a try and was SO THRILLED with the comfort and support that I had throughout the day around my belly. I wish I had tried these undergarments sooner!

I tried both the brief as well as the Belly Band. Both were great and so supportive. I loved that the brief was comfortable, didn’t ride up (or fall down, a problem I have been having with my regular underwear!), and fit perfectly around my belly and waist. The Belly Band is perfect to wear for layered looks. All of the  Belevation products are made with a unique, seamless, four-way stretch microfiber construction with moisture wicking, breathable mesh that is extremely comfortable. And the nude Belevation products are made with CelliantLife(TM) a unique smart-fiber clinically proven to improve overall comfort.

Belevation also offers a cute boy short and is coming out with a great-looking Yoga pant soon, too!

Now that I have discovered and tried the Belevation undergarments, I will not go to the gym or play tennis without wearing one. It’s almost a necessity to keep me comfortable. Every mother-to-be should have a pair or two of these great products to keep them feeling as comfortable as possible! Event better? Take $4.00 off your purchase using code MWS. Enjoy!