Why I love Influenster!

About 2 years ago, I found Influenster. I'm not sure where I originally heard about Influenster or what blog I had been reading at the time that pointed me in that direction, but I'm so glad I did! Based off your interests, lifestyle, and location, Influenster targets influential bloggers with a large social reach and sends them free things from brands looking to launch a new product or get their name out there. These "free things" are generally full size products and often have a super cute theme. They come in packages that I've come to love and know as a "VoxBox."

I started getting all kinds of VoxBoxes over the last two years. One of my favorites to date was the VSSportsBra Vox Box.  I was so excited to find out I was receiving this VoxBox. When it arrived it looked like I had just placed an order directly with Victoria's Secret. Once opened, I saw I had received a new sports bra and leggings! I was so so excited -- this VoxBox was worth around $100 and it is all stuff I, as a runner and a mother, love unconditionally and use/wear frequently! I also received some coupons that I shared with friends so I felt like the cool kid!

I just received an email today about being qualified for another VoxBox! I'm so excited to see if I am accepted and what the products will be! If you're interested in trying out free products from awesome brands, I strongly suggest signing up over at Influenster.com! Great products, community, and people -- oh! And don't forget the Twitter parties for chances to win more products from the brands!! THE BEST!! 

Have you ever received a VoxBox? Which is your favorite?!

Mommy Must Haves: Citrus Lane

I'm a huge fan of subscription boxes. I don't know why they draw me in except for the fact that I love getting mail and I love the element of surprise. With subscription boxes you aren't guaranteed certain products - just some samples. Pre-pregnancy I was constantly going back and forth between Birchbox and ipsy, two amazing make up subscription boxes (if you're interested!) but after I got pregnant, I didn't really see my financial focus being on makeup. Cue Citrus Lane - a baby box! 

Citrus Lane popped up on my Facebook feed as a sponsored post and generally I ignore them but mid-cluster feeding I decided to click it and see what it was about. When it comes to my baby, like most mommies, I want the best stuff for my kid. So I figured I'd go with the one month subscription as a trial to see what to expect. Plus I had a nice little 50% off coupon that I received via email.

First, you put in your child's name, age and gender. That helps Citrus Lane determine what kind of goodies to put in. My box came about a week after purchasing it and when I opened it, I was pretty surprised! Unlike my makeup boxes, these are actual products. It makes sense since the cost per month is a bit more than a make up box! 

 A Look Inside:

Whoa, baby! What are these things!?!

20% Off Coupon to use in the Citrus Lane Box, Vine Market offer (25% Off), & a card from Citrus Lane about what all the products are.

A snack for mama! Back to Nature Crispy Cheddar Crackers are the healthy version of Cheeze-Its (which I love). Back to Nature products don't have any artificial preservatives, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, flavors or colors. Um! Where do I buy these? I gobbled these down the second I took a picture and they taste exactly like the "bad version" - so good. Apparently they have honey graham crackers, too. Nom!

Fresh feet wipes from Jasmine Seven. I'm not 100% sure if these are supposed to be for mama or baby but they are for sweaty summer tootsies. If you ask this non-sock wearing mommy, I'm pretty sure my feet will be enjoying these, too. And they smell like peppermint?! Maddy's daddy will be grateful for me using these!

Klick Klack by Haba is a wooden alternative to a rattle. It moves really easily so whenever Maddy grabs at it's well, click and clacking. It's definitely a stimulant for her and with her starting to explore more, I can't complain!

A starfish puppet with a baby -- okay, that's not what it's really called. It's a Ocean Pals Puppet by Skip Hop. This is ridiculously cute & I love getting her attention with it. 

I'm still trying to get the hang of juggling um EVERYTHING when I go out in public. I swear I must have "first time mom" plastered across my forehead. I haven't tried this yet but I'm pretty sure just having it will make me look less clumsy. 

All that said if you're a mommy looking for some new products or you want to surprise a mommy friend, check out Citrus Lane! Feel free to share your thoughts on these products or on other subscription boxes for mommies and babies :)

My Labor Story

Five weeks ago I had a baby. I'm sure, if you're my friend on Instagram or Facebook you've seen the floodgates of photos I've posted. I literally have zero shame. My daughter is adorable and the cutest child I've ever seen in my life (obligatory parent-made comment. Again, no shame)

Madilynn Rose made her appearance on April 10th, 2014. She was 2 weeks and 1 day early. Here's the story. Monday, March 31st, my coworkers tricked me and made think we were having a work happy hour - well, it kind of was... except it was my baby shower! I was so shocked and happy! Seriously, nicest thing ever. I got home a few hours later than normal and the whole train ride I was completely itchy. Like rolling down a hill of fresh-cut grass naked itchy. I showered, still itchy. Everything I did I was itchy. I googled "Can I take Benadryl while pregnant." You can. I took one. I covered myself in baby powder and lotion before finally being able to sleep. My weekly appointment was scheduled for Thursday but then I googled some more. Cholestasis. It's where your liver doesn't break down bile causing you to itch. It's rare. So rare that when I rescheduled my appointment for that next morning and told my OB that I thought I had it, she kind of laughed and basically insinuated I was a hypochondriac. Most times I would agree with her, but this wasn't one.

She wrote me a script for what they treat cholestasis with and sent me on my way. The itching stopped 4 days later. 3 days after that I was back in the office with my test results. Positive. My other doctor (I had 7 OBs at my office) left and came back in. Based off how far along I was + the positive test results for cholestasis and everything else he told me they were going to induce me, call labor & delivery the following afternoon and get ready to have my baby. And guess what I did? Just that.

We went in around 3pm. By 6pm I had started pitocin and by 11pm I was getting my epidural. My epidural finally allowed me to sleep but when I woke up at 6:30am and could feel everything again, I started freaking. By 9:30am, I was getting another epidural as mine had come out of place after my water broke. This one went much smoother. Two hours and some odd minutes later I was feeling like it was time to take a dump. Push time. I pushed for 33 minutes. At 12:32 pm, we welcomed Madilynn Rose into the world. Cue the tears and instant exhaustion. 

As scared as I was for the whole thing, the prize, seeing and holding my daughter for the first time, completely gets forgotten. As frustrating as parenthood has been - the adjustment phase, the baby blues, the sleepless nights, the blow out diapers, the constant feedings - it is the most rewarding thing in the world. Single mommy or not, this is my biggest accomplishment to date and I cannot wait to have you follow the journey of motherhood and Maddy with me.

Burnt Chicken Anyone?

I can't cook for shit. I just can't. I'm that girl that's eating Lean Cuisine's and trying to justify in my mind that it's healthy even though I know that it's loaded with sodium and actually just yeah, not good for me. I try. I've tried. And I will continue to try my best to learn how to cook.

A lot of my inability to cook stems from the fact that I just don't want to. What I mean by that is that, I don't want to cook for myself. It's obnoxious. There's always left overs that I put in tupperware containers and let sit in my fridge for 3 days too long until I'm too skeeved out by the idea.

But I keep getting nagged by my mom to start cooking and making meals for the freezer because come baby-time I'm not going to want to do any of that. Got it. Still being stubborn.

The other day, I thought, you know what? I'm not going to go to Iron Hill and get a $14 salad that I can make at home for about $6. So I got all the lovely ingredients and headed home. Chicken and red quinoa salad with granny smith apples and oranges. Easy, easy. Or so I thought. Everything was going really smoothly and I was on the final stages of plating the salad. Hey!  Cut me a break, I work in the food industry and good presentation, even if for yourself, is a must!

That's when I heard it. "There is a fire. There is a fire. Beeeeeeep beeeeeeep beeeeeeep. There is a fire. There is a fire." I looked to my left to see that my chicken decided to combust. I blame that on some hormones pumped into my chicken (or something). The next thing I realized was that my whole apartment was a smokey haze. My house smelled so gross for the next day. I used so much Febreeze that I'm pretty sure my cat & I were gagging constantly on the smell.

Needless to say: I need cooking help. Send me your recipes - preferably ones I can make in my crockpot or in my oven - stovetop need not apply!

Oh. And yeah, my fire alarm talks. It's a guy and it can detect fires but can't shut the hell up. Typical.

Always Freaking Out.

I'm kind of terrified about breast feeding. Yes, I took a class. I got the free pump from my insurance company, got all the gizmo gadgets that attach to it - the bags and everything.

But I'm freaking it out. It's obviously going to feel different and what if she hates my boobs?

So the other morning when my cat decided to jump on me and wake me up after only 4 successful hours of sleep because he needed his Meow Mix wet food mixed in with the remainder of his dry food, I pushed him off. But seeing as how I raised this cat, he's relentless.

He jumped on me but this time on my already tender boobies and then dug his claws in. Yeah, take a moment to cringe because it hurt. Annoyed, I gave him his stupid wet food and crawled back into bed. Annnnd noticed blood coming through my [white] tank top.

So cue me running to the bathroom cleaning it and putting Neosporin all over my whole right boob, grabbing it and crying. Then I started googling "My cat scratched my nipple and I have to breast feed in four weeks." Guess how many results came back? Zero.

Silly story aside, there's a lot of pressure women have to breast feed. I met a woman in my class who was expecting her second but never took a class, was just told "it happens naturally." So if you don't know to basically stick your whole nip basically behind the roof of your kid's mouth you're going to run into like chaffed tots. Pass.

Sure I'm glad I took the class and I really did learn a lot but if I try and like try again even when I want to give up, I'm told it gets easier. That and not stressing about it. I've got 3 weeks to nurse my cat-scratched nipple back to health and hope to goodness gracious it can still deliver the product. Then I'm sure I won't stress about it. Ughhhhh!!

The First Time I Thought I Was Having Maddy.

I'm going to be completely frank here when I say that I tend to overreact. I know, it's completely shocking, but I do.

And apparently other moms at this stage in the game do as well, so for me to sit here and panic the other night I'm told is normal. Finally.

Facebook knows what happened. Twitter doesn't. Somehow fitting my saga into 140 characters would just not suffice and I'm not one to do that (1/3) or twitlonger bologna.

So you want to know what happened? Gotchya. Obviously I've really hyped this up so hopefully you're entertained.

It's close to my bed time and I'm feeling grimey. I had a subway ride and sat in the seat since my feet were so swollen. Seat smelled like piss which is always my fear whenever I'm on the Market Frankford Line. Anyway. I came home, got in the shower, nuked myself until I decided I should save a whale or two and just go to bed. I'm always greeted by my cat the minute I pull my shower curtain back. Zombs is obsessive with licking the shower curtain lately. Somewhere between him jumping up on the ledge of the bathtub to lick the curtain and me drying off, he decided to scratch my foot because why not!?

I'm so immune to Zombie scratching me in a playful way that I'm almost completely unphased when his daggers get me. This was one of those moments. But Zombie is like a dog so once I shut the light off in the bathroom and headed into my bedroom, he followed, ran ahead of me and jumped up on the bed looking all cute - to which I could not resist petting him and loving him.

There I was, sitting on my leg, wrapped in my robe petting my cat. Two minutes later Zombie decided biting was a more fun option to which I said "Forget you!" and decided to get dressed. That's when I noticed a brown "spot" on my bed. Holy shit. It's blood. It's f*cking blood! I touched it. Jesus Christ. It's wet, fresh blood. I start panicking when I notice another spot. Oh my God. All I can think of is who's bleeding?! Is it me? Is it my vagina? Is it my baby coming out? Is this labor? Was that my mucus plug? Is my cat bleeding? All no. Where the hell did this blood come from? I'm running to the bathroom - nothing. I'm checking Zombie for cuts - nothing. I'm calling her baby daddy crying, Googling the shit out of things (all of which are only showing spotting in the first trimester and not last) and just ultimately freaking out because at this point I don't even know what number to call and it's 10:30pm and I'm certain I don't want to spend the night in the ER.

Finally, I stand in front of my full length mirror and start inspecting and that's when I flex my heel (which I cannot see without said mirror because of my Maddy belly growth) and see a speck of blood start to appear. Are you kidding me? It was all from that cat scratch in the bathroom maybe 20 minutes ago. So I know I have to call Maddy's dad back.

I know I have to tell him I'm a crazy person and that it's nothing to do with labor.

That it's a cat scratch.

On the plus side, he handled my franticness very well - completely calm and reserved and said "If we have to go to the hospital tonight so be it" and didn't make too much fun of me when I finally came clean about where the mystery blood came from.

So there you have it. My first time thinking I was having a kid and it turns out to be a cat scratch. Now you have a glimpse of what my other half has to deal with on a daily basis. Poor guy! These stories are only going to get better; I'm calling it now... Stay tuned!

A Long Overdue Update

Ok ok ok. I give in. I have gone an entire month without blogging and to no one's fault but my own. Unless you count Netflix and that addicting House of Cards show.  Oh. And Maddy. Maddy has caused this Mama to start "nesting" - scrubbing carpets, the bathroom, my bedroom, her bedroom, the kitchen, rearranging her clothes in the drawers and in the closet (to the point of changing which hangers her stuff was on because my mind was that off the deep end). And now, I'm ironically calm. Or at least attempting to be as my hands feel like I have arthritis and my feet look like we took her dad's bike pump and pumped a quart of air into them. 

So pregnancy has been testing my sanity. Nine times out of ten I stop myself and ask why the hell I am cleaning the stove top again. Or cleaning all her bottles. Again. Or rearranging her diaper bag(s) again. And everyone I speak to tells me I need to rest, I need to relax. This would be great if my mind weren't running a million miles per hour. Maybe it's anxiety that stems from the approaching "single mom" world I'm about to venture into. Despite having an amazing group that supports me being a mom (including Maddy's daddy) I can't help but panic or think of things I have to get done. Typing this, I've just realized I still haven't put together her stroller successfully - that shit is definitely a two people job. And don't get me started on the fact that my car's interior looks dirtier than my Ford Escort that I had in high school. I'm going to put a kid in that?  But I don't even know where the closest car wash is. 

But the last month hasn't all been stressful to the point of me going from brunette to gray. That'll happen post-baby and once my daughter hits her teen years. The past month I've been so grateful in many aspects including my baby shower thrown by my sisters and mom. They went above and beyond - as did all my friends & family members. I was grateful that some of Maddy's paternal relatives made an appearance, too. 

Baby showers go by so fast. I seriously felt like I walked in, opened presents, ate (kind of) and walked out only to go home and unpack everything and then divy up the loot between what stays at mom's house and what goes to dad's. It was a beautiful day though and I'm again, beyond grateful. Our daughter -- beyond spoiled! I literally came home and cried my eyes out, completely overwhelmed.

We are approaching week 36. Aka, I've officially begun to get nervous every single time I go to the bathroom. I'm paranoid! Completely paranoid! Every time I wake up in the middle of the night I think "Is this it? Is this my water breaking" and then of course, I finally have Braxton Hicks contractions. I'll tell you more about that later (look for the story about me thinking I was in labor tomorrow morning!)

Mommy & Daddy are getting along great (knock on wood!) and work is going well, too. I am overall in a really good mood and just really anxious to meet my little girl!