How Nursing is Cramping My Style

Advice to preggos everywhere:

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CLOTHES THAT YOU CAN NURSE IN WHILE YOU CAN STILL GO SHOPPING SANS BABY.

It turns out my wardrobe is really really not nursing friendly.  So, even though I can fit into all of my old clothes, I really can't wear much of it because I CAN'T NURSE IN ANYTHING I OWN.

I have exactly one dress that has a neckline that can be pulled down enough to nurse in.  

ONE DRESS.

Are you freaking kidding me?!?

My wardrobe consists of like 85% dresses.

SHIT.

This conundrum has forced me to dig through all my clothes in search of low necklines and stretchy materials.  I've found 4 or 5 tops that work, but do you know what the problem with tops are?  It means  I have to wear pants!

Ugh, I hate pants.

Seriously, I would rather wear a dress any day of the week over pants.

But until I find some cute dresses with low necklines...I'm stuck in pants.

Boo.

Also, I CAN'T GO SHOPPING WITH BABY.

I mean, theoretically I could...but not really, not here, not in SF.

This is one of those things that I just haven't figured out how to do yet.  I mean, of course it's possible, women don't just NOT go shopping after they have babies right?

But...it's just not as simple as it used to be and I'm having trouble adjusting.

It would require me to either wear baby downtown and take public transport, which...how do you try on clothes while wearing baby?

OR

Drive downtown and take the stroller.

I shudder at the thought.  

You see...I don't drive downtown.  I'm anti downtown driving.  ANTI DOWNTOWN DRIVING.  

My other option?

Go to the local boutiques with baby in a stroller.  

This is obviously the best option, but...I haven't done it yet.

I know I just need to suck it up and GO rather than whine about my lack of wardrobe, but to be honest baby is still a bit too new for me to set out on such grand adventures with him.

Maybe next week.

So for now I'm stuck walking around in my stupid pants, or...wearing my one dress several days in a row until it gets so covered in spitup that I am required to wash it.

To all you other ladies nearing the end of your pregnancies who are finishing up buying all your baby essentials, DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOURSELVES!  And make sure you buy some nursing friendly clothing before baby arrives!

Also, are there any other style of dress besides wrap dresses that work to nurse in?

Goodbye Depression, Hello Boots

I'm sure it comes as no surprise for me to say that I've been walking around in a daze these last few weeks.

I've been going through the motions but have been putting little more than that into each day.

Perhaps my acupuncture session did what it was supposed to.

Perhaps I'm just tired of being tired.

But today...today I feel like shopping.

Specifically boot shopping.

And do you know what shopping means?

It means that the veil of depression is finally lifting.

I still cry...every day...at least once.

But it's getting better.

Every day. Just a little bit better.

And of course not hating everything in your wardrobe also helps to not feel like shit.

I may or may not already have 7 pairs of boots in my closet, but I find improving my mood vastly outweighs the absurdity of too many pairs of boots.

So, fall boots here I come!

All boots from Zappos

Outblush Lust

Are you all reading Outblush?

I love Outblush.

But since moving back here to San Francisco and having to pay a mortgage that is more expensive than any amount of rent we've had to pay since we've been together, I've put shopping on hiatus.

Now thanks to Outblush I am coveting the following:

Tommy Bahama Dress

bloomingdales.com

Marc by Marc Jacobs purse

shopbop.com

Fossil shoes

fossil.com

And of all things...this beautiful Heartland oven

heartlandapp.com

With my birthday exactly 3 weeks away I'm struggling, struggling to not shop.

Anyone else coveting gorgeous things that they can't afford ($7500 stoves, ahem!)?

Once a Day or Once a Week

I'm talking about grocery shopping people.

I have a little problem with grocery shopping. My problem is that I go to the grocery store EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I'm very very interested in meal planning and absolutely LOVE the idea...in concept.

When in comes to actually DOING it, I fail miserably.

For example, I've been here for 4 weeks now...to the day, and I have done a BIG grocery shop, ie. spent $200 and stocked my pantry with essentials, exactly once.

I have things like tomato sauce and corn that I stocked up on, but no matter how hard I try I end up at the grocery store once a day to pick up the little odds and ends...ok the majority of the ingredients because stocking up to me is 2 cans of tomato sauce and thus I'm always out of that too!

I want to break this terrible habit of mine.

But my NYC/Sydney mentality of having no car and thus no way to carry more groceries than I can carry has not left me.

Enter what I hope to be the solution - MEAL PLANNING.

If you know what you're cooking for the week you can theoretically buy everything all at once, right?

Who out there does meal planning? Does it work? Do you stick to your plan? Any tips?

Please Help Me Convince Myself...

...that I can get away with wearing this dress to an afternoon outside wedding in the summer...in Oregon =)

Because seriously, I NEED this dress. What if I wore it with flat shoes? does that make it less fancy? I mean yeah, it's a sparkly FEATHER dress, but that's not inappropriate for an outside afternoon summer garden wedding...in Oregon, is it? Did I not mention the garden part the last time?

Alright, I can already foresee people telling me I can't wear it, so I have some other options. How about this?

Better view of the dress without the model's hands in the way.

Or, I have this dress already in my closet that I bought for another wedding, but ended up wearing something else, so I haven't worn it yet.

Or I also have this dress, which is obvs more appropriate for the outside afternoon garden wedding...in Oregon. This dress by the way is much shorter in person than on this model and thus much cuter.

But, if I'm going to wear a dress I already own then I NEED new shoes. How about these bad boys?

So, which option should I go with? New dress (with feathers!) or new shoes. Cause you know something is gonna have feathers on it. Please help!

Seriously, it's my birthday on Friday (yay for Friday the 13th) and I haven't given Dom any ideas for a present for me, so I'm thinking I need a new dress or new shoes.

If you read this blog, please comment and help me out!

Ok, I may have also already bought this dress too...one more option for y'all!

But I think it may look too much like a dress I already have, which I wore to a wedding last year...it looks like this.

Yeah, the new one is flowers instead of bows...and not a single person at this wedding will have been at that wedding, thus they'll have no idea that I'm wearing a "similar" dress, but that pic above is my facebook profile pic, so I feel like people have seen me in it a lot and will think that I'm wearing the same dress...even though they are CLEARLY different.

Am I overanalyzing the whole thing?

Should I wear none of these and continue hunting?

Do I need the feather dress ANYWAY and can find something else to wear it to?

Everyone give me your thoughts please!

Um...wow

Prancing around the Bondi Junction shopping mall yesterday looking for some RUNNING SHOES (I'm convinced buying proper shoes will encourage me to, you know, go running) I stumbled upon some other shoes, BETTER SHOES, shoes I want much more than the stupid running shoes. I had one of those "Hello Lover" moments from Sex and the City when I passed these beauties in the store window. BUT, they were $1200 AUD...and as much as I wanted to, I just couldn't slap down my credit card for THAT MUCH money. Sigh.

So I bought these:

source

instead of these:

source

and now I will stalk these until they go on sale =)

The GoGet Experience

Here in Sydney there is this great service that I really really think New York and other big public transportation heavy cities should adopt called GoGet. It's a car sharing service that has cars all over the city that you can rent for the hour/day/week to run errands or do whatever, think Ikea trip in NYC. We tried it out this weekend to do a bit of shopping and I must say, it was a fantastic experience!

The best part, for us anyway, is that there are several spots very very close to us to pick up the cars, one being literally a 2 minute walk away, it doesn't get easier than that does it?

The cars all have names, this is Melissa =)

We took a little drive through the city to visit the Westfield Mall in Bondi and more specifically Target, yes they have Target in Australia, Score!

We picked up a few bits and bobs to make our fully furnished apartment feel more like "us" because as tough as it is to believe the teal/green leather sofas just don't scream Jes & Dom.

Pretty, isn't it?

But not to worry the view makes up for the crap furniture, would you like to see it again? Oh, ok, here you go!

We also dragged home these lovelies. And what are these bad boys you ask? These are speakers my husband decided we needed...what? like you all don't have husbands who have a compulsive urge to buy all the electronics he can get his hands on. They look like trumpets don't they? But I must admit they're kind of cool, aside from being ugly, they have wifi, bluetooth and of course an ipod dock. How we will get them home in January? I HAVE NO IDEA.