awkward & awesome tuesday

Awkward

Writing a post about how well your baby sleeps the week before your baby decides to not sleep well.  I'm not sure if that was karma or just bad timing, but fortunately we seem to be getting a handle on things again thanks to this article from the Pregnant Chicken.  

Tapping your neighbor's car first thing in the morning.  I'm beyond grateful that there wasn't even a scratch (I meant "tap" in its most literal sense) but WHOA sleep deprivation.  Not cool.  

Matching your baby every day, not on purpose but because you have a serious obsession with stripes that you apparently have no control over.  I get told on the daily "aw, you match"  and then my response is inevitably "oh yeah, we do I guess."  

The never ending bra size changes that come with getting pregnant, giving birth, breastfeeding & beyond.  I have a drawer full of bras and legitimately have no idea which ones will fit me each morning.  I just start trying on and land on whichever one works.  

Awesome

This ridiculously adorable print my friend Joanna made of a song that our friend wrote for his niece.  He graciously allowed her to use it for a print for Claire and we love seeing it hanging in her nursery.  My favorite things in that room were all from friends; a sweet monogram C, a woven wall hanging in the nursery colors by my friend Jess, a small jewelry box that used to belong to her Godmother and this print are just a few things that make me smile each time I notice them.  

Runs getting longer - it is so satisfying to be able to pop out the door and run 3 miles again.  Such a quick (and mentally rejuvenating) workout.  

Probably related to the running, my closet is slowwwwwwwly becoming accessible again.  

A slightly earlier bedtime for Claire means a little more hangout time for Darrell & I in the evenings. 

Going on a long walk just in the name of getting a chocolate chip cookie from my favorite bakery (which happens to be just around the corner from my house.)  Dangerous, but always so so so very worth it.  I'd also be lying if I didn't tell you that half the fun of going in there is everyone coo-ing over Claire.  

Blue Apron - there will be a more full review of this service very soon, but I am pretty well obsessed with their recipes and can't believe what we've been eating for dinner the past few nights.  

the weekender

yes, that is a cupcake with glitter on it.  

This was such a great weekend that I just can't even stand it.  On Thursday, I got to attend a beer and cupcake dinner.  Did you hear me?  BEER AND CUPCAKE DINNER.  It was as amazing as it sounds, and a total treat to be invited.  Goose Island treated some local bloggers to some amazing beer and pairings from Jilly's,

Friday night I attended the STL Fashion Blog Awards, and although Light Sleeper, Heavy Dreamer didn't win I was so appreciative of the nomination and one of my good friends totally swept all her categories, so that was so fun to see!  I definitely plan to include more fashion & style in the upcoming year, but I've taken a little break from it to focus on being mom lately.  I'm really excited to get inspired by the upcoming fashion week events, and have an excuse to break out of my mom uniform to get glammed up for some parties.  (Spoiler: my fashion week outfits do not fit into my capsule, they will mostly be borrowed dresses!)

She is just the BEST in the mornings.  There is just this unbridled excitement for each new day when you're a baby, and getting in on a little bit of that is one of the best parts of being a mom.  

I think the best day of the whole weekend was Saturday.  I woke up on Claire time, had coffee with my family, and went to a wonderful yoga class with my sister.  I came home to hang out with Claire while Darrell went to see a co-worker's band play (metal.......so not really my bag!) and we took a blissful little walk down to our coffee shop for chocolate chip cookies & iced coffee, which was munched down in the midst of a pretty epic Real Housewives marathon.

What wasn't so fun?  The evenings.  Claire has hit the 4 month sleep regression pretty hard, and although I knew it was coming I can't say I was wholly prepared.  She used to go down easily, drowsy but awake between 8-9 but now when we attempt that we're met with.......screaming.  Saturday night I caved and allowed her to sleep in bed with me after struggling for a few hours, but Sunday we persevered until she slept in her crib, staying there until 4 am for a total of 7 hours and 3 more hours in our bed.  I'm fairly determined to not let this developmental milestone undo all the work we put into making her a baby that sleeps well.  If you have any experience/tips with this PLEASE share in the comments!  The response I've gotten so far is that about 50% of babies get over it and pick up their good habits right where they left off, and the other half.......well, they lose it and parents have to start all over again, often resulting in a few rounds of cry it out.  

friday link love

It's time to pop the cork!  We're officially kicking off Fashion Week tonight with the St. Louis Fashion Blog awards at the Public Media Commons.  If you don't have plans, tickets are still available here!  It will be so fun, and I can't wait to see who wins.  Other than that, we won't be doing much this weekend, probably staying in Saturday night after the big party because the rest of STLFW will get going next week and I need to rest up!  

Here are a few fun links from this week: 

Lena Dunham gives amazing advice about practically everything.  

Daphne Oz's view on losing the baby weight is so refreshing, especially considering she's on TV every day!  

I want to join THIS book club.  

Apparently exercise makes beer taste better.  But who didn't know that already?  

This is perhaps the funniest tumblr I've ever seen about parenting.  

The minute it turns to fall, all I want to eat is soup, and this one sounds unbelievable!  

Emma Watson continues to be a fantastic role model.  Her speech at the UN was so inspiring.  

capsule outfits/1

Okay, getting this show on the road!  

Outfit # 1: Striped dolman sleeve Forever 21 top & scarf, American Eagle cutoff denim shorts, Sam Edelman fringe booties, Ray Ban aviators.  

Claire's Sleep Secrets

Since Claire has been born, we've been extremely fortunate to have her on a pretty great sleeping routine.  She basically was sleeping at least one four hour stretch from birth, and that + naps meant that Darrell & I have mostly always been able to get enough sleep to function.  Rested parents = good parents, in my mind.  Although I COULD just say that "we're so lucky" (and of course, I do believe that is a part of it) I've had more than one person ask me what we did to get her sleeping through the night be now, so I thought I would share some of what worked for us!  Read on for the things I think have really made a difference.*  

See those little half open eyes!  

1.  Putting baby down when awake.  

This is something that we've done since Claire was born, so if your kid is already used to being rocked......this is probably a useless tip.  We started putting Claire down in her crib awake when she was a newborn, because they are SO sleepy then that they fall asleep on their own a tad easier.  They might make a little noise, fuss a bit (this is not full on crying) but let them go.  Claire almost always fell asleep on her own without fully breaking into a cry, because like I said, newborns are super sleepy.  I know it's going to be really tempting to let your teeny, precious newborn fall asleep in your arms every time, but try to resist.  It'll create a better bedtime habit for the future.  Now Claire goes down for bed every night when she gets tired (sometime between 8-9:30) on her own.  

2.  Swaddle, and when that stops working, Magic Sleepsuit.  

Claire LOVED being swaddled from birth - in fact, the first two months of her life she didn't really like to be unswaddled at all, which means I have very few pictures of the cute clothes she wore during that time.  I firmly believe that swaddling helped her to sleep for longer stretches because she wasn't startling herself awake, so she only woke up when truly hungry.  Unfortunately, around 2 months old she started breaking out of her swaddle, and then we started to have a little sleep regression.  Re-swaddling a baby at 2 am is not so easy, especially when your eyes are barely open.  I got in touch with the Magic Sleepsuit people around this time and they sent us one to try.  It was instant love.  I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it's "magic" (maybe it is for some people, I just don't want to make that claim because Claire was already sleeping well) but it definitely works wonderfully as a swaddle transition.  It got Claire sleeping through the night again, and she can't roll over in it because it's so fluffy, so I don't have to be stressed about her sleeping on her tummy.  Some naysayers think that much fabric will make baby too hot, but I can honestly say we've never had that issue, Claire's hands and feet are always quite cool when we get her in the morning.  

3.  If baby is having a bad night, don't be too proud to co-sleep.  

This is SUCH a personal preference and I realize this advice may be controversial, but some nights you just have to cave and let the baby come into your bed.  Claire is sometimes just in need of some closeness, or maybe more frequent nursing, and at that point it's just easier to let her come into bed with us.  We always start Claire off in her crib, but there are of course the random nights that she wakes up at 1, 3, 4:30, etc, and at that point the important thing is really just that everyone gets some sleep.  This advice is connected to my next point: 

4.  Follow baby's cues.  

This might sound insane, but babies are actually pretty smart.  A few anecdotes to prove it:

  Claire was sleeping through the night (8 hours) at about 2 months old.  She did this on her own - no cry it out, she just stopped needing a night feeding.  I figured out that she didn't need that feeding by popping a pacifier into her mouth at 2 am when she normally woke up instead of nursing her, and what do you know, she just started sleeping right through that time.  Then about 2 weeks later, she stopped.  She started needing that pacifier replaced at 3 am, 4:30 am, 6 am, etc.  I was about to lose it - convinced we had sabotaged ourselves by every starting her on the pacifier, we even resorted to trying to let her cry through it, which didn't work at all.  Then, she just stopped.  Started sleeping through the night again no problem.  

A few weeks after that, she started waking up at 4:30 am wanting to eat - nothing else would put her back to sleep.  I was annoyed, because she had dropped her night feeding a month before and now she wanted it again?  What?  But after only a few nights of this, she started sleeping through the night once more.  She just needed an extra feeding for a week or so, to do a little extra growing, and that's fine!  Honestly, it takes 10 minutes to feed her, and she's right back out.  No big deal.  

Currently she's sleeping through the night, but if she has a little regression again I will be choosing to just follow her cues.  She almost always gets over it, and going with her flow has proven to be MUCH easier than attempting to force her back to an uninterrupted night's sleep.  

5.  The Pause.  

When Claire wakes up at night, we wait a minute before picking her up.  This is not cry it out - I'm talking maybe 5 minutes of waiting - but it's an important technique.  We've done this with her since birth (more like 2 minutes when she was a newborn.)  If you pick baby up right when they whimper, I really believe they'll never learn to self-soothe.  Why would they - they've been trained to need you to do it for them!  I would say about 50% of the time, Claire goes back to sleep on her own.  Beyond 5 minutes though, if baby is under 6 months, you can consider any reason they're crying a "need" not a "want," and go pick them up.  

6.  Ignore the things that don't work!  

I cannot tell you how many people have given us the crazy advice of "keep the baby awake, they'll sleep better at night!"  This is just NOT TRUE.  It might be true for a toddler or older baby, but it's definitely not true for an infant.  All this will do is give you a baby that's overtired, and overtired is BAD BAD BAD.  Overtired babies are much harder to get to sleep and beyond cranky.  If an infant needs a nap at 6 pm, and bedtime is at 8:30, do not interrupt the nap.  I repeat: do not interrupt the nap.  As a testimony to this, Claire took a nap from 5-7 last night and then fell asleep at 8:30 pm and slept  until 8:30 this morning.  

*Disclaimer - ALL BABIES ARE NOT ALIKE.  Maybe some, maybe NONE of this will work for your baby.  Maybe your baby needs to cry it out.  Maybe your baby needs to sleep in bed with you full time.  Whatever you do, I place no judgement on where or how your kid sleeps - as long as your family is getting rest, that's all that's important!

Also, we were given a Magic Sleepsuit to try for free, but this post isn't "sponsored."  We actually loved it so much that we went out and bought extras on our own.  

my capsule wardrobe pieces

Okay, finally the actual capsule wardrobe!  These are the superstars, the things in my closet I reach for over and over.  Some things I've had for years, very little is new, and almost everything here mixes & matches.  I chose to leave out basics (like plain tees & tanks) and include jackets & shoes.  I didn't include bags, because I honestly am usually carrying a diaper bag!  

Okay, my picks: 

I am JUST now fitting into some of my pre-pregnancy jeans again, so that would be the Gap pair & those American Eagle shorts (they make the BEST shorts.)  I bought the black jeans at Target to fill-in, and they were a seriously solid $25 purchase.  The black leggings are Zella from Nordstrom.  

Seeing a theme with the shirts?  Stripes are a major factor in my capsule, of course.  From left to right: 

Love Tee from jane.com, stripes & striped raglan from Forever 21, peasant blouse from Nordstrom, Striped faux-layered blouse from Loft, lace raglan & striped dolman tee from Forever 21.  I actually purchased almost all of these since Claire was born, the girls are a whole lot differently sized while I'm nursing and very few of my shirts from pre-pregnancy (which were mostly size XS & S) fit now.  

Cardigans are a major factor in my fall wardrobe.  Most of my pullovers & chunkier knits also feel a little small, but hopefully will fit normally by winter!  From left to right: 

Kimono from eBay, striped cardigan with elbow patches from jane.com, olive draped cardigan from Forever 21, red cardigan & aztec hooded cardigan from jane.com.  You're going to see a theme here, jane.com is awesome.  That olive cardi in the middle is a champ, it somehow seems to match just about anything and I've owned it for I believe like FIVE years!  

I wear dresses pretty frequently, although less often than I used to because all these clothes need to be nursing friendly.  Still, there is the odd dinner out or party where we don't take a baby so a few of these made the cut regardless.  From left to right: 

Aztec printed body con mini from ASOS, black leather shoulder mini from Forever 21, striped sheath, baseball tee dress, grey maxi, navy & white sheath, and army green baseball tee dress all from Sonnet James.  I should add (not to be a broken record) but Sonnet James dresses rock.  They're nursing friendly, pregnancy friendly, flattering to basically anyone, and I think really affordable for the quality.  Also, that leather shoulder mini will get worn with tights!  

I had so much trouble narrowing down the jackets (and honestly can't promise that I won't end up reaching for one of the eliminated pieces) but here are the all-stars, from left to right: 

Khaki trench from Gap, black leather moto jacket from Express, leopard trench from Banana Republic, navy field jacket from Old Navy, cognac leather biker jacket from Forever 21, denim jacket & herringbone blazer from J. Crew.  

Gap makes a really fab trench, and Forever 21 faux leather jackets are where it's AT.  I get oodles of compliments on the ones I own and no one ever suspects that they're fake leather.  

Here's a straggler I had forgotten in the car, but I had to throw it in because it's probably my favorite! Also from, where else, Forever 21.  

I was actually kind of impressed with my paring down of the shoes!  I actually ended up selling some pairs that I realized I don't often reach for.  

Boots from left to right: 

Grey booties with a glitter heel from Vince Camuto, cognac "Jane" boots from Frye, wine buckle flat boots from Steve Madden, fringe booties from Sam Edelman, green Hunter wellies, and the black faux "harrow" booties in the front are from Forever 21.  

I've had all of these shoes for over two years.  

And the flat shoes (plus one pair of stilettos, because you have to!)

Left to right back row then front: 

Pointed flats & leopard flats from Target, white Converse, oiled black Birkenstocks, burgundy New Balance, leopard sneakers from Sam Edelman, and studded black pumps from Macy's.  

So, 43 in total!  A little more than the original inspiration of 37, but like I said, no need for jackets in Austin TX!  It's going to get scary when I also need coats - I have a serious thing for coats.  Maybe I'll do a gradual trade out of the jackets for their coat counterparts?  I'll keep you posted!  

My additions that don't factor into the overall count will be: hats, tights, sunglasses, purses, scarves, jewelry, and layering basics like v neck tees & tanks.  

Have you created a capsule yet?  Started posting any outfits?  Tag your photos on Instagram with #lshdcapsule so I can see!  

have baby, will travel

at an outdoor concert

When you're about to have a baby, you suddenly become a target for lots of well-meaning advice.  Lots of people wanted to share their favorite brand of bottles, the way they got their child to sleep, which parenting book they found the most useful.  I took all this in with a smile and a nod, mostly gathering advice I found useful (and in line with my personal philosophies) from blogs I had read for years, especially since only a couple of my close friends already have children.  

at a restaurant (with my glass of wine...)

Perhaps my least favorite things to hear were "get in all the sleep you can now" and "enjoy ___ while you can!"  I understand that it was well meaning, but it seemed wholly unnecessary.  I mean, at that point I was obviously having a baby either way!  No turning back!  Although there's no way to prepare parents for the blow their sleep tally will take, I can honestly say that it was not nearly as bad as folks made it out to be.  I think we had just been so intensely terrified by the warning-wishers that I was expecting the worst, but I sleep enough and certainly more than I expected to.  The thing I hate about those sort of statements is, there's no hope or light in them.  They imply that whenever you have a baby you're losing something, and that just isn't true.  

at brunch with some of my girlfriends

Before Claire was born, I would see my friends with kids leave a party early to go home to their baby and think "wow, they must really be sad they can't stay."  Now I know that nothing is further from the truth.  When I have to leave a party to go home to Claire, I am PSYCHED.  By that point I'm usually missing her anyways, wishing I was sitting in her nursery watching her sleep (really.)  My mom always gave the advice to "not have a baby until all I wanted to do was have a baby."  I absolutely did that, and now I never feel an ounce of regret when I "have" to stay home with my baby on a Saturday night.  

at a craft festival downtown

Here's the thing about that though - I rarely have to.  I don't like leaving Claire, at all.  I actually looked forward to this past weekend more than any weekend in a long time, because I didn't have any plans that required me to leave Claire with a babysitter, or a family member, or even just Darrell.  I got to hang out with her and take her with me to every outing we had all weekend, and it was wonderful.  We take Claire to concerts, to restaurants, out shopping, on long walks, pretty much anywhere you'd want to go on a weekend.  There are very few places that you really shouldn't take a baby, and the bottom line is that I don't really care about going to those places anymore.  If I wanted to be in a bar on a Saturday night at 1 am every weekend or see movies in the theater rather than waiting for them to come out on iTunes,  I wouldn't have had a baby.  We go to restaurants for dinner in the early evening hours and Claire naps well in the sling, and rarely cries.  If she does, we leave.  No big deal.  I nurse Claire whenever and wherever she wants to eat, and no one has ever said a thing to me - and if they did, you better believe I have a nice little speech prepared for them to hear.  

eating lunch at blueberry hill

Maybe I'm fortunate to have a sociable baby, but I can honestly say though that if anything, I enjoy every single aspect of my life now even more than I did before.  Our other friends with a baby brought their baby with them everywhere we went, and as a result, she's great at going on outings.  We wanted that to be the case with Claire as well.  Of all the crazy advice we've received, some of the best I've ever heard is "familiarity breeds fondness" with babies (except maybe, in the case of carseats).  If we keep going at the rate we are, Claire's favorite things will end up being

 

fancy food, local boutiques, and large music festivals.  

friday link love

It's been a crazy week around these parts - I kind of can't believe the weekend is already here!  It's our dear friends' daughter's 1st birthday this weekend, so we have lot of festivities happening.  First, the Beach Boys are playing for free on Friday night in our town (I have no idea why!) so we're pretty excited about that.  Then, if the weather holds out we have a baby pool party Saturday.  I mean, babies in swimsuits??? Nothing cuter.  I have a date with Miss Claire just her & I on Saturday night while her daddy goes to a concert.  Probably a little silly how much I'm looking forward to that, but a whole Saturday night to just snuggle with my girl sounds like total heaven.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  

Lasinoh just conducted a worldwide survey of opinions surrounding breastfeeding.  The results are really fascinating.  

15 career tips from some very smart women.

Potentially the funniest tumblr blog I've ever seen - hilarious captions for stock photos of motherhood.

Want to know if it will take your whole life to get through War & Peace?  Here is a list of how long it takes to read the world's most popular books.

How it feels to take control of your health once again.

This post might be eye opening.

A beautiful post on capturing moments with your children, keeping them "for all the days."

Why paying your dues is so important.

This sounds like the perfect autumn dinner.

Surprising things about being a grown up (someone should have warned us.)

capsule wardrobe: autumn edition

It's an undeniable fact: when you become a mom, your style just changes.  While I'd love to say that I still put on heels every day, lay out outfits the night before, and wear everything from strapless dresses to harem pants that would be a total lie.  I've pretty much resorted to uniform dressing, and that's been the most successful way for me to get out of the house looking decent most days.  

When I heard about this capsule wardrobe concept, it immediately appealed to me.  I'm still a size away from my pre-pregnancy size and not very motivated to spend much money on clothes, so following a guide that involves me downsizing my closet rather than adding to it sounded like a great solution.  I'm also currently sharing a closet with Claire in a one bedroom apartment, so having a wardrobe that takes up less SPACE was also a factor.  Coats take up SO MUCH ROOM.  

Here is the basic premise: you take your wardrobe down to 37 pieces.  That's it.  

You don't count accessories like scarves, tights, jewelry, or sunglasses, but shoes & handbags count!  Workout clothes also aren't part of the picture.  I'm still on the fence about coats & jackets - living in the midwest, we have some serious winters & a lot of variation in temperature.  The girl who came up with this concept lives in Austin, Texas so I think there's some wiggle room there.  

I started by thinking about what I do in my day to day life - do I get dressed up very often?  

No.  Maybe once a month for a wedding or event, so I only really need one party dress and fancy pair of shoes (still debating whether Fashion Week will play a part in this section.  I think borrowing clothes from friends for events is fair game.)    

Do my clothes need to have a certain function?  

Yes, they need to be mostly nursing friendly.  

What colors do I want to stick to?  

I'm mostly focused on grey, cream, black, and cognac for fall, with accents of burgundy, green & navy.  

Next week I'll be sharing each and every piece I selected, and from then on outfit posts will become a sort of challenge as to how far I can stretch 37 pieces!  I'm hoping this project will be a liberating exercise in minimalism.  The photos in this post are from my collection of inspiration for this fall's capsule from Pinterest, which you can see in it's entirety here.  I know, you're shocked by the inclusion of jeans, flat sneakers, leather jackets, and stripes.  We're not reinventing the wheel here, this is about creating something that works perfectly every day.  

I'd love it if you wanted to take on this challenge with me.  Let's make this the fall of organized and streamlined closets.  Let's get dressed in the morning with a minimum of fuss and STILL look awesome.  If you want to share your outfits with me on Instagram or Twitter, you can hashtag them with #lshdcapsule.  I would LOVE to see what you come up with.  

Also, here are a few other bloggers doing capsule wardrobe series' this fall, Hey Natalie Jean & Kate from The Small Things blog with a maternity version!  

#wearallthebabies

I've been meaning to do a post on babywearing for a while now, mostly because it has just been SUCH a lifesaver for us.  Truly, when people ask if Claire has potentially been colicky or fussy at all, I have no idea what to say to them.  Every time she fusses or cries (beyond just being hungry or having a need that isn't being met) we put her in a sling/soft structured carrier/stretchy wrap.  Then she instantly falls asleep!  There is a reason Sakura Bloom claims their slings have #sleepydust.  They really do - and #happydust, and #calmdust, and any other kind of magic dust you wish existed for making good babies.  Seriously, every stroller we own is collecting dust, except our jogging strollers.  (And yes, I said strollers, plural.  I've acquired quite a fleet, mostly used, but I've got a stroller post coming!)  

Surprisingly, it's something I think there is still very little knowledge of!  I've heard countless moms tell me since Claire has been born that their babies were endlessly fussy, they had to be rocked constantly, they were never sleeping, and every time I would ask if they had used babywearing as a tool I was met with a "what?"  So I'm spreading the gospel.  Wear the babies!  All the babies!  Here we go...

First up is the Sakura Bloom sling.  This is far and away my favorite way to wear Claire.  Slings have multiple positioning options, are incredibly easy to nurse in, and can be used with babies newborn to toddler.  They ABSOLUTELY take a little practice - watching YouTube videos certainly helps. The very first night Claire came home with us, she literally woke up every hour, and we had no idea what to do.  Finally we decided if we were going to get any sleep, we would do it in shifts, so Darrell took her on a 5 am walk in the sling.  After just 30 minutes she completely passed out and slept for the next 3 hours.  Sakura bloom slings come in several different fabric choices - single layer classic linen, double layer silk, and double layer linen they call "chambray."  You can also find older styles in a pure thin linen.

Claire in our Cedar Classic sling.  

Slings are my favorite because they're so comfortable and also beautiful.  They're also incredibly easy to breastfeed in, discreetly.  The tail makes an instant nursing cover if you want it, although it isn't really even necessary.  Just tugging the fabric up a bit around baby's ears keeps everything pretty unnoticeable.  You can match them to your outfits, which I love.  While Sakura Bloom is my favorite brand, there are two Etsy shops, Vienna Springs and Lily & Mama that are very reputable and also have gorgeous colors!  Here is a little chart that will show you the difference between the different types of slings available. (I know, I'm a nerd but seriously I get these questions all the time!)

Another recommendation is to avoid buying from Sakura Bloom directly - I've found they don't have the greatest customer service (they're a SMALL operation) so I would recommend purchasing from Mom's Milk Boutique, a store that is local to me but has a great online selection.  Their staff is wonderful and knowledgeable.

Next up is the stretchy woven wrap.  I've tried two of these, and Solly Baby is my favorite.  It's VERY easy to learn to use - again YouTube videos - and it's the real hero for newborn babywearing.  See that teeny newborn squish in the right photo?  You can really wear your baby incredibly comfortably in a stretchy woven wrap, from birth, and be truly hands free.  When a baby is first born, slings often require a little hand on the head because they're so floppy.  With the stretchy woven wrap, you can tuck baby's head just under the shoulder strap and it will stay in place.  It feels like the closest thing to being back in the womb for babies, so it's fantastic for colicky little ones that need the "4th trimester."  These do work for babies up to 25 lbs though, and I wear Claire in our Solly wrap with her legs out pretty often still!  Solly Baby wraps are about $60, and that's probably the high end of the price range.  A great alternative are Baby K'tan wraps, which I wrote about here.

Using our Solly wrap on a walk just a few weeks ago.  

The latest babywearing device we've acquired is a soft structured carrier called a Tula.  These are definitely the most user-friendly baby carriers, but they are perhaps a bit better suited to larger babies.  You can get infant inserts, but I've heard that they get really hot.  This is easily Darrell's favorite carrier - we have a basic black one that he's perfectly happy to wear.  It's easy to put on by yourself and comfortable to wear for a very long time.  If I were taking Claire on a hike, this would be my pick.  If I were going out with friends, it would not.  Let's face it, oftentimes what's comfortable is also unfortunately pretty ugly.  Tula is probably the best type of soft structured carrier, but Ergos and Bobas are also really popular.  Tulas come in two sizes, standard and toddler, so you can literally wear your baby up to five years old.  You can also buy Tulas at Mom's Milk Boutique.  

That's it!  Do any of you have any experience with babywearing?  Any favorite carriers I should know about?  I know I left out woven wrapping....truthfully, it intimidates me a little and woven wraps are so expensive!  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the idea.  

awkward and awesome tuesday

claire is wearing a headband from baby jules boutique, sweatshirt dress from old navy, leggings from carter's

Awkward

Oh, I have some good ones this week, but let's just kick things off with the best one.  While pumping at work last week, I accidentally dripped breastmilk alllllll over my dress.  I had to grab some armfuls of stuff (water bottle, purse) to cover it until I got back to my desk, where I didn’t move until it dried.  Ridiculous.   

Incredibly high people stopping to stare at Claire while we were at Loufest (she came with us Sunday night in the carrier.)  Literally, at one point someone asked if she was a baby (duh) and then just continued to stare from about 3 feet away.  I asked Darrell if he knew the guy but.....nope.  

Also at Loufest, I fell and twisted my ankle in a pothole in front of about 100 people, right by the port-o-potties.  Don't even want to think about what was on the ground where I fell.  And what was up with NOT ONE PERSON asking if I was okay??

Awesome

The word "autumn."  Don't you just love it?  So much better than boring old "fall."  

I am ONE SIZE away from pre-baby size.  Willpower is at an all time high.  

Want me to just run through all the cliche autumn things really quickly?  Hot chai tea lattes, boots, plaid, apples, Oktoberfest beers (yum!), jeans, soup, cardigans.  Okay, that's out of my system now.  

Autumn weather.  I cannot get enough of the temperatures around here lately.  It's the perfect cool 60 degrees for running in the morning, after dinner walks require a jacket and a hat on the baby, it's pretty fantastic.  (I mean, BABIES IN HATS COME ON.)  

A girl's night at Pinot's Palette!  It was so fun to have a few glasses of wine and get (sort of) creative with a little paint.  I'm so excited that St. Louis has one of these now.  Want to know a trick?  You get better at painting the more wine you drink.....okay maybe that was just in my head but it really seemed that way.  Still, my painting could have fallen into the category of "awkward" for sure.  Want to see it?  

Okay, yeah.  I probably could've stood to keep that to myself.  But seriously, they have a ton of locations across the US and it's a great (and unusual) spot for a girl's night or a date.  

babies don't keep

After a busy few weeks, I'm taking this one off from blogging to snuggle my babe and get some more important things done!  Hope you all have a fabulous few days.  

friday link love

Hello weekend!  Aren't four day weeks just the best?  It's finally time for Loufest, St. Louis' own music festival.  My friends basically treat this weekend like our own personal holiday, and we are so excited to go this year.  Darrell's parents will have the baby, and we've got a hotel room so that we can treat it like a little stay-cation.  Arctic Monkeys, Portugal the Man, Grouplove, and Matt & Kim are all on my list of bands to see.  

Whatever you're doing this weekend, I hope it's lovely, and I hope it celebrates the last days of summer!  

Here are my favorite links from this week: 

How delicious does this crispy rice omelet sound?

More profound goodness from coffee and crumbs.  

Clean your whole house, but you might want to leave the little fingerprints.  

Playboy's genius guide to when it's appropriate to catcall.  

In one perfect sentence, Amy Poehler summarizes perfectly what it's like to be a woman.  

Sakura Bloom's fall colors are out, and they are gorgeous!  Chambray slings?  Genius!

Last but not least, I've been nominated for a St. Louis Fashion Week Blog Award in three categories, and I would love it if you'd go vote for your favorite (including maybe me?)  HERE.  

mama + baby style/2

i'm wearing: dress - juicy couture, shoes - target, bracelet - banana republic, all last season

claire is wearing: romper - janie & jack last season, headband - little crane headbands, barefoot sandals - similar