Five Minute Makeup

Before I had a baby, I would always hear the line "you won't even have time to shower!" whenever someone talked about being at home with a newborn.  That definitely hasn't rang true for me--- I still shower in the morning or at the very least before bed a night, everyday, but what has changed is my makeup routine.

Now that I'm home on maternity leave, I don't wear makeup everyday because Harper doesn't care if I have mascara on or not (and quite frankly, neither do I). But there are some days where I'll be in the mood to apply some makeup and I definitely still wear makeup when I run errands or have company. It just feels nice to do something small for myself.

Harper is a good sleeper/napper so I do have time to do my normal makeup routine most days if I wanted to...but I don't want to spend the time/make the effort, so I cut it down to a simple five-minute routine that evens out the skin, brightens and defines the eyes and overall just makes you look fresh. I know it looks like a lot of products, but I promise it takes just five minutes of time to apply them.

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MAC StudioFinish Concealer

I use this concealer wherever needed (corners of nose and mouth and any blemishes), applied with a foundation brush.

MAC StudioFix Powder Foundation

I use a large fluffy powder brush to quickly dust this all over. Don't forget to bring it down to your neck too so it's even.

Bare Minerals Stroke of Light

I use a dab of this pink-toned brightener under each eye and blend with my finger to illuminate my under eye area (no concealer needed!)

Benefit Eye Bright Pencil (optional)

For extra brightness in the eye area, apply to the inner corners of both eyes and under each lash line and use your finger to blend.

MAC Eyeshadow in "Copperplate"

Apply to bottom lash line only, using an angled brush. This will define your eyes subtly. If you don't like to line your bottom lash line, you can use this to create a soft definition on your top lash line.

Anastasia of Beverly Hills Brow Pencil

Eyebrows frame the face so it's important to fill in sparse areas and define them---it really completes your look. Use gentle strokes when applying for the most natural look.

Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in "Zero" (optional)

Apply to the waterline for additional definition.

NARS "Laguna" Bronzer

Swipe along cheekbones, hairline and sides of nose for a sun-kissed glow.

Bobbi Brown Blush in "Peony"

Apply to the apples of the cheeks for a rosy glow that looks like you got sleep, even though you were up 3 times during the night to feed your baby.

DiorShow Mascara- Waterproof

My favorite mascara---makes lashes look so long and lush. I like the waterproof version because it lasts and doesn't smudge on hot summer days.

Dermstore Lip Quench
A friend recently purchased this lip treatment for me and I love it! It has a very light pink color and is a fantastic lip conditioner.

Has your makeup routine changed since becoming a momma? How did you make it simpler/quicker?

Hope everyone has a great week!

1 Month Favorites!

The first month of baby's life is full of learning--- your baby's cues, a new routine and so much more. I thought about the products we've most loved during the first month of Harper's life and below are some of my favorites. You can also check out my first weeks baby essentials post for more baby must-haves!

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Marc by Marc Jacobs Pretty Eliza Nylon Diaper Bag

I love this diaper bag because it's roomy, doesn't look like a traditional diaper bag and is made of easy-to-clean material. I also love all of the pockets because it makes it easy to organize. The best part is that it can be used for travel or as a gym bag when you no longer need to use it for your baby.

BabyLegs

I purchased BabyLegs to keep Harper warm in our house during the summer when our AC is blasting because it's 100 degrees outside. BabyLegs allow me to dress her in a onesie and keep her warm while simultaneously making diaper changes easy.

Puj Flyte Tub

One of the best newborn inventions ever, this foam tub fits right into your sink and folds up for easy storage. A must-have for new parents, especially if you are short on space or just want a lightweight, easy-to-use product. Harper loves baths in her Puj tub!

J.Crew Vintage V-Neck Tees

I got these during the store's 30% off promo and I pretty much live in them while I'm at home on leave. They are soft, comfortable and easy to nurse in.

Woombie

Otherwise known as the "magical baby sleeping device" in our house, the Woombie is unlike any other swaddler. Your baby's arms (and legs) cannot escape from this. We prefer it to the Miracle Blanket and the Halo Sleep Sack because she can get her arms out of both of those.  I love that it comes in cute patterns and it's so easy to use and makes nighttime diaper changes easier than ever. You just unzip ONLY the bottom portion of the Woombie and baby stays swaddled while you change her.  Mommas-to-be, add this to your registry!

Burts Bees Baby Wash

I purchased this a week ago and have really enjoyed using it when we bathe Harper. It smells like Honey and it's a really natural product.

MAM pacifiers

At first, Harper didn't seem to show a preference for any one pacifier, but in the past couple of weeks, she has made her wishes very clear- it's the MAM or nothing!  She used to take Avent pacifiers and the Soothies, but she now prefers the MAM pacifiers and makes a "what the heck is this" face when we try to give her another brand.  

Mustela Newborn Starter Kit

I got this kit at one of my baby showers and absolutely love it!  I love the foaming hair wash, body wash and diaper rash cream.  Mustela products are wonderful and I even used their stretch mark cream during pregnancy.

Triple Paste

At about 3 weeks old, Harper started to get a bit of a diaper rash because she has a lot of dirty diapers. I change them right away, but she goes constantly so it's important to use diaper cream to create a barrier for her sensitive skin.

What were your must-have baby items during the first month? Share your faves in the comments below!  

I also have to give a shout-out to Jessica from the blog Little Baby Garvin (she has an adorable daughter also named Harper!)  Her registry must-haves lists helped me select a lot of the baby items we use. I encourage you to check out the archives of some of your favorite mommy bloggers to help build your registry if you are expecting!

Harper's First Fourth of July

Since we missed our July 4th celebrations because I was still in the hospital, we decided to take some photos of Harper in her 4th of July dress that my mother-in-law bought for her the next day. Her dress is from Cassie's Closet. Her headband is from FHJ Baby.

Wishing y'all a great weekend!

Trusting Your Instincts

I started to write this post from my hospital bed as I was recovering from a D&C surgery.  This post is about trusting your instincts.

Let me start from the beginning (and this post is very TMI, so if that's not your thing, I recommend skipping past this one).  Postpartum, I had three tears and very heavy bleeding, which is to be expected for the first week or two. By 1.5 weeks postpartum the bleeding had tapered off and for two blissful weeks I wore a thin liner and that's it (it was the most amazing downgrade ever from diaper-sized hospital pads).

Then, just as I was beginning to think I had the most OMGawesome recovery ever, I started to bleed a little bit again. No biggie, I just went back to normal pads and dealt with it. I wasn't in pain anymore and a little bleeding wasn't too much to handle.

During my mom's visit at four weeks postpartum, my bleeding became a little heavier, but nothing too intense. I did pass a small clot when she was here as well, but again, I didn't think too much of it.

The night my mom left to return to Toronto, I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly I felt gushes coming out of me. I was so shocked that I got up and ran to the bathroom, waking my husband with my "oh shit!" reaction (didn't wake the baby though, thank God).  Blood was streaming down my legs and got all over our sheets and carpet. 

On Monday, at exactly five weeks postpartum, I called my OB's office and spoke to the nurse, who assured me it was "normal" to bleed gushes and clots at five weeks postpartum. She said it likely happens when I breastfeed or pump because the contractions were pushing it all out.  Though the gushes were awfully uncomfortable and, not gonna lie, horrific, I convinced myself that it was okay and that it would soon pass.

Tuesday night I once again started to have gushes of blood as I was breastfeeding Harper in the middle of the night.  I passed her to my husband and ran to the bathroom again, this time I was smart enough to sleep on towels so I didn't do any damage.

On Wednesday, I had some minor gushing in the early evening and before bed at night. I wore an extremely heavy pad to bed "just in case" and went to sleep.  I woke up at about 3:30 a.m. to pump some breast milk for Harper's next feeding. As I was pumping, I felt a massive clot come out of me and tons of gushing blood---more than ever before. I once again ran to the bathroom, once again ruined my carpet and passed another large clot.  My poor husband came into the bathroom and saw the blood running down my legs and how much was still coming out of me and he just told me I needed to call my OB's emergency line and that this was not normal. I felt in my heart the entire time that it wasn't and I knew he was right and that I had to make that call.  I called the emergency line and the OB on call agreed that is was peculiar to be bleeding so much at five weeks postpartum and told me to go to the women's assessment center to have an ultrasound to check my uterine lining.

We called Kevin's parents and bless their sweet hearts, they drove down to our house in the early morning to take me to the hospital so Kevin could be at home with Harper.  We got to the hospital, I was admitted, and was seen by the hospitalist who performed an u/s. She said my uterus did appear to be thicker than normal and that there was probably some placental retention.  She ordered radiology to come and perform a more in-depth, higher quality ultrasound.

I began to wonder what would happen if they found something in my uterus and when I asked the question, I was met with a word I'd heard before: D&C.  I immediately texted my mom who let me know that the procedure would require general anesthesia.

Once again, just like when Harper was taken to the NICU after she was born, I was just in complete and utter shock that this was happening. We were finally settled in at home and had our little routine and I was starting to feel back to normal in many ways (until the gushing began, of course) and suddenly I was at the hospital about to possibly undergo a procedure to remove something inside of me.

that was the expression on my face too when I learned I would need surgery!

The radiologist looked at my updated u/s scans and sure enough, he agreed that there was something in my uterus and that it needed to be removed. The D&C was scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon and I waited (and waited) until that time came.

Fortunately, I had brought my pump to the hospital and I was able to pump breast milk for Harper three times before I went into surgery. That made me feel good since I felt absolutely awful being away from her. I wondered if she would be upset that I was gone all day, but everyone reassured me that she is too young to notice. She is mostly eating and sleeping (and pooping) these days so it made me feel better that she was napping a lot because she could just have sweet little baby dreams. My father-in-law brought my EBM to the house for Harper before I headed into surgery.

I was in good spirits before my surgery, joking around with the doctors and nurses and overall trying to keep myself feeling okay about everything that was happening. I knew I was going to get great care and my wonderful OB would be doing my surgery which I was grateful for (I also joked how nice it was of me to not ruin a second holiday for her since our baby was born on Memorial Day and the following day after my procedure was Independence Day).

I remember waking up and seeing my mother-in-law and some of the nurses in my room. I remember feeling really cold and they used this amazing hose that blasted heat under my blanket for me. It was the best thing ever and so warm and cozy since I was shaking a bit and my lips were blue from the cold. The day after my surgery my nurse told me I looked pretty bad after surgery and was as white as a sheet.

The nurses told me everything had gone well. My OB called my husband while I was still asleep and filled him in on everything that happened. Later, when my OB visited me in my room at the hospital, I learned that they had found a small piece of what they think is placenta in my uterus and they removed it and sent it to pathology for analysis. My OB said it was kind of an unusual circumstance and we would know more once the results came in on Friday as to why it didn't come out with the rest of my placenta, which, when delivered, looked healthy and intact.

Because of some clotting issues that are part of my family's medical history, my OB decided to keep me overnight so I could be monitored and so that my CBC levels could be taken every several hours.   

I also continued to pump during my stay at the hospital, every three hours. I was worried about my supply tanking due to the general anesthesia but I called lactation support at and they told me I was doing everything right. The saddest thing was having to "pump and dump" after my surgery, for 24 hours. I ended up pouring over 500ml of breast milk down the drain. The nurse actually did it because she saw that I had the bottles all set out by the sink as I couldn't bring myself to do it. 

I was also able to FaceTime with Kevin and Harper at the hospital which was wonderful and helped me with the sadness of being away from her.

I'm still trying to cope with what happened and with the horrific images I still have in my head of seeing myself bleed that heavily. After my surgery, I kept thinking I would eventually just start gushing blood again and I was afraid to get out of bed and scared every time I had to pee or pump that it would just start all over again. In my head, I knew that they had fixed everything during the surgery, but my non-rational side was still having "flashbacks" about all of the blood loss I experienced.

Candice picked me up from the hospital when I was finally discharged the next afternoon and when I got home on the fourth of July, I snuggled my sweet little girl and was just so thankful that I was home and that everything was okay again. I missed her so much when I was in the hospital but her daddy took amazing care of her, of course.

Harper sleeping after our cuddles when I finally came home...

During my stay at the hospital I received so many incredible and supportive comments from so many of you who follow me on Instagram and I appreciate each and every person who took the time to send thoughts and prayers. I'm so lucky that everything turned out the way that it did and that I get to be home with my family now.

I guess the point of this post is to trust your instincts and if something feels wrong or abnormal---call...and call again.  It's better to get checked out than to let things get more serious.

I hope everyone had a great fourth of July and thank you again for the well-wishes and support, it really brightened my spirits during such a difficult time.

Harper's Birth Announcements

When I was pregnant, I got a coupon for TinyPrints.com in the mail and set it aside to eventually use to print birth announcements. I received our newborn photos last week and went to work using the website's pre-designed templates to create our announcement.

I chose the one called "Today's Special: Soft Pink" because I liked the overall look and I loved the little chalkboard detail (it actually inspired the left sidebar design of my new blog template!)

Here's how our announcements turned out:

I absolutely love them!  Did you send out birth announcements?  Now comes the hard part...addressing all of those envelopes...!

Harper's Newborn Photos

Before Harper was born, I was already thinking about newborn photos. I had tentatively booked a session with a local newborn photographer and awaited the arrival of our little one.

After Harper was born, her NICU stay and frequent pediatrician appointments made me pretty stressed out and I cancelled my session because I wanted to be home with her and focus on feeding her frequently since she was having trouble gaining weight.

I struggled with the decision to cancel the photo shoot because I really love newborn photos but most photographers won't shoot newborns past 10 days old and I was nervous about leaving the house with her (other than to see her pediatrician). 

When Harper was 10 days old, suddenly, I started to panic. I realized after talking to some friends both offline and online that I would probably regret not having professional newborn photos taken.  She's our first baby and would only be that little for such a short time.

On a whim, I contacted a newborn photographer who's work I liked to see if she had any cancellations or last-minute availability.  I got lucky and the photographer agreed to come and do the session in our home when Harper was 12 days old. It was so great not to have to leave our house for the session and I like that we were able to get some pretty shots in her nursery.

I'm SO thrilled with how the photos turned out and glad we were able to do them on such short notice.  I can't wait to make a gallery wall with these shots in the hallway between our master bedroom and Harper's nursery.

Here are the shots from our shoot:

Do you notice something familiar below? We had the photographer use my feather fascinator that I wore in my hair on my wedding day in some of the photos :)

I hope you liked Harper's newborn photos.  If you are in the Houston area, I highly recommend Maca  of Studio Ainsley.  Please check out her website to view more of her work!

Just Spray---and GO! A Review of Vaseline's New Moisturizer

Lately, my look hasn't been so glamorous, unless you consider lounging in PJ's and yoga clothes with your hair in a topknot and no makeup glamorous.

Let's face it, life with a newborn changes your priorities and your daily routine. Don't get me wrong, I still shower every day and wear makeup some days, but overall, my routine is lower maintenance now because I don't leave my house since the baby is still so young.  

Though my beauty routine is minimized now that I'm on my leave, I still want to feel good about myself by doing the basics like showering, brushing my teeth and keeping my skin moisturized.

The timing was kind of perfect because I recently had the chance to test out new Vaseline^� Spray & Go Moisturizer. Anything that makes my morning routine faster/easier right now is something I'm all over. I was interested to see how the brand's original product would translate into what is described as a grease-free, continuous spray lotion that absorbs in seconds.  

The first time I tried this product I was nearly a week post-partum and adjusting to life at home with a newborn.  I took a quick shower while Harper rested in her bouncy chair and then dried off and sprayed my legs with the Vaseline Spray & Go Moisturizer Total Moisture^{� moisturizer} and quickly rubbed in the spray, just like the directions said.  It took 10 seconds and my skin felt really nice afterward---not at all sticky or heavy. The best part is that it really does absorb in seconds so you don't have to wait to get dressed or worry that your clothes will get lotion on them.  The spray feature also means no pumping like you'd do with a typical lotion and ensures that the product applies evenly and in a thin layer to your skin.

I've mentioned before that I am not a huge lotion person because I hate waiting for lotion to absorb, so Vaseline Spray & Go Moisturizer is an easy way for me to pamper my skin without investing a lot of time or energy. So whether you are a mom like me or just don't have time in the morning for any extras, I think you'll appreciate how easy this product is to use and apply. 

So, now that you've read my review, tell me, how Vaseline Spray & Go Moisturizer would max your morning?   Each comment (left in the comments section of this blog post) will automatically be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 SpaFinder gift card. Entries from participating blogs will be pooled and one winner will be chosen.

You can visit their Facebook page to learn more about this product and the other Vaseline Spray & Go moisturizers.

Sweepstakes Rules:
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This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner  will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

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