Stroller..Car Seat.. Check!

Today was a very productive day I would have to say! We had planned on going out yesterday and buy a car seat but that plan didn't happen. We were in a lazy mood and decided to take advantage of this great 3 day weekend, so today we had decided that we had procrastinated enough. Time to buy a car seat!

We have lived in this area for almost a year, and not until recently have to discovered all of the shops north of us. Its kind of funny, but I think we were just so used to being more south that we never considered exploring north of our neighborhood. Our train of thought was that it was all too far, even though in reality all of our favorite stores were much closer, less busy, and were much more upgraded! Too bad we are moving in less than a month. 

Well our outing today started at a Babies R Us/Toys R Us to look for the perfect car seat. Plus I had printed up a 20% coupon off any single baby travel system product. Score! That sure did come in handy, saving us a whopping $48. Now a days, any money saved is a huge success for us. Fernando was very pleased with my coupon skills!

We already had a specific car seat picked out, which we based on the comfort and style. Well earlier this week I was killing time at work and decided to look at the reviews for that product. Glad that I did, the reviews were horrible, so we knew that we needed to do a lot more research and find a new one fast.

 When I think about the type of car seat that would fit my everyday needs, I think: lightweight, easy to handle, safe, and comfortable. Not only did we need a car seat, but also a stroller. When it comes to strollers I believe myself to be very picky. I don't like bulky items or 4 wheel strollers, and I want to be able to go jogging with Aleena as well as be able to take the stroller anywhere we might be. 

Hurray!!! We found our perfect match! It's a 3 wheel jogger stroller and car seat package, i'm so excited to put it to use!

This one is purple and black, but we decided to go with a green and grey stroller. I do like it a lot better than this purple one, so does Fernando. I can totally picture myself going for a jog with this bad boy!

This makes two items checked off of our check list. A very successful and productive day! 

Overwhelmed? I Think Yes.

Im thinking it has a lot to do with it being my 3rd trimester. Out of nowhere came this hurricane of obstacles that make me feel defeated. Not knowing where to start, when ill be able to complete what needs to be done, moving in less than a month, baby arriving right after, or before, school starting next week, baby shower in 3 weeks..the list goes on and on! First of all, next time we are pregnant, the baby shower will be during the 2nd trimester, not the 3rd, and moving and due date will be nowhere near each other! I know that I need to take a deep breath, take a step back, and set weekly, or daily goals instead of freaking out like I know how to. However, its hard for me to do that when I know that the clock is ticking and time is running out!

Am I the only one that has, or is feeling like this during the 3rd trimester? I hope I'm not because I need support...now! Fernando is helping with everything as much as he possibly can but I still feel like thats not good enough, I know, rude right? One of my main concerns is if we will have everything we need when the baby comes. I don't want to be unprepared, but I know that we are going to be. Do we have enough diapers, wipes, bottles, clothes, burping cloths, the baby essentials? All this is on my shoulders right now when I wish it was already taken care of.

Here is a question for all you working mothers out there...when did you stop working? Was is when you went into labor? Or did you stop a while before your due date? Do you wish you would have made a different decision with work or not? I feel caught in this money trap, when I know that I should be thinking about our baby instead. Reality is that I'm not sure we can afford me taking off a few weeks earlier than expected. Please give me some feedback, I need to guidance.

P.S. Dont forget to vote, it only takes 2 clicks!

A For Aleena!!!

I thought I would share really quick my late night project that I threw together last night! I got this wooden A from Hobby Lobby yesterday for a little over $1 and I knew right away that it was going to be something  gorgeous for our little Aleena's room-to-be! Sorry I'm making this quick but I'm headed out to my dentist appointment...blah. Well I hope you like it! 

Oh, ill be back on here tonight to give you all an update with my baby belly and my overall pregnancy at 7 1/2 months! 

Car Seat Canopy!

I absolutely love getting emails from all the baby and mommy websites. Giving me tons of information on baby products and baby info in general. One of my regular emails came the other day and I jumped at the opportunity it was presenting me with immediately! Fernando, like myself, thought that it was a scam at first because of how awesome the deal was, a little too good to be true. That was not the case at all! It offered a promo code while supplies last for a free, yes, free car seat canopy! Regularly $50, we were able to drop the price to $0! They were also offering the Whole Caboodle set for $30, regularly $135! Obviously we would be covering the shipping expense but we were all for it! 

I have been seeing these canopies ever since I became pregnant, but I never knew anyone with one, or much about them for me to purchase one. Well, when this deal came to me I jumped on it and am excited to see for myself how wonderful this product is! We should be receiving the canopy in the next couple of days, but until then, I was just wondering if any of you had heard anything, or have one yourself? What do you think about it?

We chose this adorable black and white exterior with a hot pink interior! I didn't want to over power the whole pink baby girl idea so I figured this is a very cute and even balance between my taste as well as sharing with everyone that we have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl!!

 

This cute little baby girl really makes me excited for our little Aleena to be inside of her canopy! 

The Bola Musical Pregnancy Pendant

A package was delivered to me today from my brother Matthew and his girlfriend, who at the moment are living in Sweden. I have been getting messages from them for the past couple of days asking if I had received it yet. I figured it was a cute pair of shoes or a piece of clothing that they had picked up for our little baby girl Aleena. However, I was emotionally surprised by how thoughtful and meaningful the gift inside the package was, and I was unable to keep my tear ducts from going into overdrive. 

Inside was a letter, this letter made me cry, and I hadn't even opened the bubble wrapped gift yet. The letter said:

Jessica, 

The Bola Musical Pregnancy Pendant is worn just like a necklace, except that the pendant rests low on a pregnant mama's belly and creates a soft chime when she walks or moves, or when the baby is active. From about 20 weeks, your baby will be able to hear and enjoy the soothing sound of the chime too!

Nadja heard about this and really thought that this would be a great thing to have. After your baby is born it will be able to recognize  the sound of the chime, like your voice or music, and it can help relax your child. We both love you and hope you will enjoy it.

Love,

Matthew & Nadja

Inside the package was this beautiful pendant connected to a long string. I immediately put it on and moved it so Aleena could start to recognize the beautiful, soothing chime that came from it.

I am truly blessed to have my brother and Nadja in my life, Aleena is so loved already and she wont grace us for another 2 months.

Thank you Matthew and Nadja, we all love you so much!

A Little Help Please!!

I guess since I don't have experience with preparing for a little one I have tons of questions. Questions that I should know but forget to ask. Questions I look up on Google, but don't trust the answers given to me.

So here is where you all fall into play, load me up with your advice!!! Please tell me your hidden secrets and the ways you prepared for your child(den)!! Don't be shy!!! I want to see what cool tricks you all have up your sleeves!!

1. When did you start shopping?
2. How did you decide what to shop for first? Diapers vs. Adorable outfit?!
3. How soon did you have your baby shower? It did you wait till the last minute?
4. What items are okay for hand-me-downs, and which ones need to be bought new?
5. When is too early to set up the nursery?
6. Parenting classes..are they worth it?
7. Is a birth plan a must?
8. What types of meals did you make to be frozen when it was time to welcome your little one into this world?
9. Is it worth it to overthink EVERYTHING??
10. What did you pack in your hospital bag? Food included!

Now I know there are a lot of questions but I really would appreciate your your thoughts! I look forward to reading your responses!

Patience is a Virtue

When first deciding that our next step was to have a baby, the thought was that it would happen right away. That is not how it works at all. This is one of the times when the saying, "patience is a virtue" comes into play and makes impatient people like me want to throw up. However, it seems to go along with Fernando's attitude perfectly which, I don't understand how he can be some calm ( i might need to tell me his secret in doing so). I don't want to make the experience an unpleasant one for him and be so serious all the time. I need to remember that we are together and we still need to have fun as a couple. With all the excitement that I have been feeling lately it has made me very impatient and a little stressed at the same time. Every article I read tells me that baby making needs to be kept fun and spontaneous, I believe to be doing the exact opposite in my situation. I need to find a way to relax and get a hold of myself once more. I know that being informed before having a baby is very important but reading up on too much information has made me a bit of a nut job. So I believe I will steer clear of any baby health issue articles for a while and stick to the decorating side of it all for a bit.

I'm moving along quite good with my chair project and am very impressed with my skills. After I complete my chair (which I have made it top priority to do so) I want to find a cute little dresser that I can redo and keep for our nursery. I want to be able to look at the dresser and know that I was able to make it exactly how I want it to be for our baby! Maybe I can ask Fernando to do the same for a rocker...or maybe I'll just have him buy me one!

To Breathe or Not to Breathe?

Many, like me, might have thought that planning to get pregnant would be a piece of cake. It turns out however, a mother instinct comes over you (even though you might not be a mom yet) and every little thing you do, eat, think about doing and did a week ago is scrutinized to the highest extent. So when I turned to google to learn more about the affects that my grocery cart size of medications would have on my soon to be baby, I was scared stiff. Who knew all the things that could cause your baby to have 11 toes, 3 ears and come out full grown? Its funny how before, you always pushed aside warnings that came from the evil search engines every other time but, when it comes to your future offspring you believe every single phrase you read no matter what crappy website its from. So that's what happened when I looked up my asthma preventative and found that its been found to cause early term pregnancies, neural tube defect along side with defects that I cant even pronounce. So freaked out by what I found I immediately stopped taking my daily dose. Within two days I was hooked on my inhaler and I felt like an addict. Desperate for an alternative I quickly turned to my doctor and found out I almost has an asthma attack for nothing! The one website that I found the information on turned out to be an overdose that scientists tested on mice. The dose was given through the blood, (not inhaled like mine which, doesn't reach the blood) and was ten times the human dosage. NOTHING TO DO WITH HUMANS WHAT SO EVER! Relieved by my new found glory, I was quick to decide that I better start breathing again!

One Step at a Time

Convincing my boyfriend that having a baby was the next step to take in our relationship wasn't as easy as I pictured in my head. Me being the type that doesn't think things through fully and him being the responsible one, I knew that we would butt heads on the subject at first. After days and days of trying to make him realize that it would be exciting and the idea of a baby in my belly would fill us up with so much joy we could explode, he still was 50-50 with my idea. But finally he came around and we are both excited to soon be having a new addition to our family. As a surprise I took Fernando (my boyfriend) to the store and had him pick out one item that he would want to get for our soon to be baby. I have to admit I was shocked when he handed me this gorgeous green and blue plush baby blanket. I could tell that we were on the same path towards parenthood!