Secret Outlast 48hr protection review

<img src="https://img.bzzagent.com/image/secret.jpg?Type=activity&Activity=5254132653&Campaign=2877364477&Uid=1192574&token=45fb984d6bb647715ed74ff50df49751" alt=""/>

I was given this product to review through bzzagent. However, all opinions are my own.

I tried this product previously before being asked to review it for free. I wasn't incredibly impressed then and still wasn't this time.

As a teen, I always used Secret. It seemed to be the most talked about brand and everyone used it on my sports teams. I was always still a sweaty mess, and after a rough practice, smelled like a locker room. As I got older, I never seemed to grow out of that problem, but did try a few more brands to hopefully find something, anything that worked. No luck. When I was asked to try this product again, and for free, I jumped on it.

I still sweat, I still smell, and it certainly doesnt provide 48 hours worth of protection. I'd say one 8 hour work day is about all it can handle.

No white marks to worry about since it goes on clear, but a good invisible solid can do the same. It does have a fantastic smwll, but it doesn't last, or I'd be sold. I could sniff that scent all day. (Not that I recommend sniffing a deoderant stick all day.)

While this may work for the normal woman, it just wasn't for me and my sweaty man-like armpits.

Baby bro on the move...almost

Baby x is almost on the move, which means i need to lace up my running shoes, because this kid is going to be a maniac once he can get around on his own. The sappy mom part of me is crying inside that my baby is growing up, but I'm also excited that we're getting closer to having 2 brothers that can finally play and interact. The bub just wants someone to race cars, host puppet shows and play hide and go seek with. I'll be singing a different tune when i have to find a child trapped in the dryer or locked outside I'm sure, but for now, this momma will dream.

Baby X...a love story, take 2

Edit: Here's mom brain for you. I already wrote his birth story, but I'm too scared that there may be different information, so I'll leave this one up as a take 2. :)

Mom brain: it's real.

It's completely old news, but I don't want too much time to go by without writing about the day our family turned into a foursome. Unless you count furbabies, in which case...oy. Lots of babies, but I digress.

Towards the end of the pregnancy, I kept having just "off" days. I would feel woozy or dizzy or just completely on fire. I was told to take my blood pressure a few times a week to keep an eye on things so I wouldn't end up in a similar situation with pre-eclampsia like I did with the bub. When I would take it at home, it'd be through the roof, so much so that I called the on-call number one night. They told me so long as I could see straight and felt alright in other parts of my body, we could wait until the morning to get things checked out. Sure enough, I'd get to the doctor and it wasn't so bad.

Somewhere around 37 weeks, the blood pressure at the doc was starting to read high, and near 38 weeks, they started to find protein in my urine, another factor of pre-e starting. I was also up about 60 pounds at this point, and growing fast. Granted, I knew that the box of munchkins I was sometime eating in one day weren't helping that cause. Let's not focus there. mk? I love food, and donuts? Forget it.

I had an off day, I was reading really high blood pressure at home, went to a checkup and was reading high, they sent me to the WETU (I don't remember what it stands for at the moment, but essentially the ER you visit before getting admitted to a room when you're in labor or getting ready to have the baby.) Sure enough, my blood pressure was elevated. They had me rest on my side, drink plenty of fluids, etc. The blood pressure came down, but alas...I started having contractions. They were coming on fast, nearly 3 minutes apart. Go figure. Very glad I was not back at work when that happened. I would've been completely stranded. At this point, I had told some friends what was going on and that I for sure wouldn't be back at work, and more than likely little man would be making his appearance soon. I told the hubs to hang tight until I knew more and just stand by. Once the contractions started really getting intense to where I had to stop talking to the nurses, I called him and just told him to head over. I was done for.

The doctor on call gave me 2 options. I could go home and wait to see if I progressed more in a while or I could go ahead with a repeat c-section. As much as I really wanted to try for a VBAC with this baby, I couldn't imagine going home at that point. How would I know when to come back before I ended up having the baby in my bathtub? The contractions were already worse than when they tell you to go to the hospital and they wanted to send me home? I was in pain...get that baby out! Plus, I knew what recovery was like from a c-section. While not great, it was at least something I knew and could prepare for.

By 6:58pm, baby boy #2 was in this world. He weighed in at 7lbs. 2oz and 19" long. The usual nonsense like getting a spinal put in correctly and dealing with the miserable sickness from anesthesia was all part of the story, but the one thing I will never forget is hearing my baby cry. I was put to sleep when the bub was born, and managed to stay knocked out for a few days. I don't remember anything. That moment when your baby starts crying for the first time is something I could never explain. I was in tears, but very happy tears. He was healthy and finally here.

They sat him right next to me while they stitched me up and he rode with me back to my room where I'd be for the next 4-5 days. I unfortunately couldn't nurse him well while laying down and groggy. Plus, I continued to throw up everything in my system until about 3 in the morning. The nurses couldn't believe how nauseous I was. They really needed me to get up and walk around as soon as I could, but I could barely open my eyes without needing to reach for a bucket. Throwing up with a giant incision in your stomach...swell...let me tell ya.

The hubs was a trooper and I managed to get up and move a little more each day until we finally got to go home. I do have to say our experience at the hospital was awful in comparison to when the bub was born. The nurses weren't very attentive, we just sort of got left to fend for ourselves or constantly ask for things or ask questions about information I feel should've been given to us...things like when my child was fed in the nursery while I was throwing up and couldn't feed him that first night. They would run tests and not tell us results, etc.

All was going well until about 2 days after we got home. I totally thought...yes...I can do this. Not so bad. Thankfully no crazy surprises, and then disaster....dun dun dun.

I went to the bathroom and noticed that there was a big spot of blood on the pad they had me put on my incision so my clothes wouldn't rub. It was dried, so they chalked it up to maybe twisting while I slept and just irritating the incision. The next time I went to the bathroom about an hour later...it was full of blood, and it continued to run down my leg and all over the floor. I frantically yelled to the hubs and called the doctor.

Turns out, my incision had split and the bruising under the incision had started to find a way out. They had to completely split the incision to avoid any infection. Cue the next 8 weeks of daily visiting nurses who had to stuff the incision with various gauze and packing material until it finally healed from the inside out. 8 weeks! goodbye any hope of maternity leave dreams of strolling with my baby on a nice warm day in May. I was pretty much under house arrest, because too much movement would slow down the healing process. That first time I could drive and get out of the house...oh man. It was glorious!

So long story short...he's here and we are happily settled in 5 months later, not sleeping great, but not shocking considering big bro took about 7 months before sleeping through the night. My kids love them some momma milk, so they wake constantly to make sure they get it.

Welcome to the world Baby X. We couldn't be happier to have you in our lives.

COPPERTONE® CLEARLYSheer™ (product review)

A few of my friends had started getting to test out awesome new products by signing up for bzzagent. I thought...okay...free products and voicing my opinion to people. Perfect! The following post is a review of a product sent to me free of charge through bzzagent.com. All opinions are 100% my own.



It was finally warm enough around these parts to get outside and catch some rays. My younger self craves the sun to finally get a nice tan for the year, but my older (wiser sometimes) self knows that if I want to protect my skin for the even older self I have left, I need to use sun protection and forego the tan skin I crave each year. Plus, now that I have kids that like to go outside and play for hours, they need sun protection to prevent the awful sunburns their fair skin is bound to receive.

I also have very acne prone skin, as well as super sensitive skin. Anything that I have to put on my skin basically makes me break out even more than I already do. Most of the summer, my face looks like a 13 year old's, and it's a constant battle of makeup and sever skin washing to keep it maintained. I was so excited to try this new product. So far, so good. The pimples seem to be at bay. I can't be sure that it's not hormones leftover from pregnancy or the hormones from nursing (bless you hormones) that are also contributing to the great skin this year. However, the bubs doesn't have the same hormone help as far as I know, and his skin wasn't affected at all, either. This kid can barely stand a baby wipe, so anything that touches his skin has to be very gentle. We've been outside numerous times a week and used this sun screen every day, with no problems.

Happy customer indeed. Please notice you can't see the sun shining off any grease on his skin. I'm always so nervous of spray sunscreens as well, since most of them work like oil and cause burns instead of any protection. I was nervous trying a new brand, but holy moly!!! no burns, and I didn't even make him wait 15 minutes after spraying before he could play outside. It was easy to spray, wipe on a bit and then reapply all day long. Any way I can avoid a screaming toddler is fine by me. I definitely would recommend this product to everyone this summer.

Baby X...of course I won

This is going to be wordy and picture heavy. Sorry, but he's finally here! Xander Davis was born April 10, 2014 at 6:58pm, coming in at 7 lbs. 2 oz and 19.5" long.

I was having some blood pressure issues at home so went in for a quick check to get monitored at the doc's office in the morning. While I was getting monitored, I started going into labor. Go figure. All along I was looking to have a VBAC in high hopes that I wouldn't have to deal with the recovery of a c-section, but unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.  They gave me the option of waiting out the contractions to see if I was making any progress or just going ahead with the c-section that night. I opted to wait and see what happened....nothing. They said I could go home, but the contractions were already about 2 minutes apart, so I wasn't sure what to do if I went home. How would I know if I was actually in labor or making progress? I have no idea how the logistics of checking my own cervix would work out, considering using the bathroom was already a bit difficult at my large size. :) There's a visual for ya. I threw in the towel and went with the c-section. At this time, I had already called in the hubs to help me through contractions, so when they told me I could be in the operating room within the hour, I freaked out. We didn't have a hospital bag, and there were a million people to call and inform them what was going on. I still had the bubs at daycare that needed to be picked up and dogs that would need to be fed and taken care of. Even with being relatively prepared, we realized there was no amount of preparation that we could've done to actually have all things in order for this delivery.

So phone calls were made and I was wheeled upstairs and prepped to get baby X into this world. I will never forget the complete anxiety I felt while getting prepped for my spinal and ready to meet this little man. I just wanted to keep him inside forever. I wasn't ready, no matter how ready I was to not be pregnant anymore. Once the STUDENT!!! got the spinal taken care of....that's right, another student doctor putting needles in my back (about as swell as that sounds)...we were ready to wait to hear the little man screaming away. This was all new to me since I was knocked out for the bub's arrival. Hubby sat next to my head and held my hand, probably just as scared as I was.

I will never forget the first time I heard him cry. Tears. There is nothing more amazing in the world than hearing your baby cry for the first time.

Hubs got up to see him and take pictures and bring him to me so I could smooch on him. It was wonderful. He stayed by my side all the way to the recovery room. Unfortunately, the rest of the night was miserable, as this momma does not handle the effects of anesthesia well. There were many buckets needed and lots of crackers and ice chips. Thankfully the baby was able to go to the nursery for the night, because I could barely sit up, let alone nurse and take care of a baby, as much as I was determined to keep trying.

Now little man is here and healthy and melting my heart. Big brother is smooching on him and trying to get mom's attention as much as possible. It's been interesting to say the least, but wonderful. More kids aren't out of the question, but it's going to be a while. I need to forget the effects of pregnancy and c-sections and giving birth before I dive into this madness again. And now the fun stuff....pictures!

He's seriously Jackson's twin. It's unreal. I can't wait to see how he looks as he grows to see if the similarity is still there. He's an alert baby and seems to wake up right at 3 hour increments to make sure he doesn't miss a feeding. He tends to bite, even without any teeth, so nursing has been a bit challenging, but I"m a determined brat, so we keep at it. People have recommended the lanolin cream, so it's on my list to find soon. I've been making a great freezer stash already, so hopefully my supply keeps up, because it was certainly not like this with the bub.

Off to get in some more relaxation while I'm enjoying a nice quiet house for a change. All the madness of dinner time will be starting soon.

Milestone

It might seem totally silly, but today is a milestone for us here. At this point in my pregnancy with the bub, I went to the doctor, and then went to the hospital. I had sever pre-eclampsia and was sent in to get some medicine to help bring my blood pressure down and try to get little man to keep baking as long as we could. In just a few more days, he was here.

This morning I had my 34-week checkup, and all looks good. Baby X is sitting very low and ready, but there's no action going on that anyone can tell. I get contractions all day every day, but even after weeks of that, I am still closed up nice and tight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my body can do this, as another C-section doesn't really strike me as the best experience to have again. We've scheduled eviction day for April 21. I have to say that choosing when baby would come was not an easy task. I decided his due date was as good as any. Plus, it's with a doctor that I really like in the practice, even though it's not the same one I had with the bub. I'm hoping he does just as great at making the scar nice and tiny. But enough of that talk....fingers crossed baby pushes his own way out before then and I don't have to think about it at all.

Getting so close!

One thing that struck me as really odd was that I was really upset this weekend that I don't have much time left just as a family of 3. The bub was really sick over the weekend, and I had to do lots of late night snuggling. A part of me was just sad that I wouldn't have the time to give him soon, overwhelmed in what a newborn will bring. I'm hoping that he understands and this next step will be a great experience for us all. Brothers will be good, a permanent play mate, shoulder to lean on, and all sorts of other good things. Right?

41 days and counting...

Dreaded? Valentine's Day

I get it. For many people, today is the day they drown their misery of being alone in booze and maybe eating an entire box of chocolates by themselves. Fear not...even those of us happily married or with someone also dread this holiday. For me, today is the day my husband never ceases to amaze me with some thoughtful gift he found or romantic dinner for two he's created, thereby making me realize just how amazing life is that I've found this man to be my lifelong partner, father of my children, and also to realize how awful I am at those things. You would think the estrogen in my body would give me more of a knack for this day, but it really doesn't. My first thought is to get a card, and some years I do it weeks in advance, because I know as the day gets closer, I won't remember or have time to get to the store. Then I think up some awesome project I could do that wouldn't cost a ton of money (thereby causing the hubs to freak out even more), but then I run out of time or patience and never getting to making the awesome project I thought of a/k/a found on Pinterest at Christmas time and pinned for future reference.


Today is just not my thing. I prefer to love the crap out of my husband and kid(s) year round. Some days more than others, but 99% of the time, I wake up and realize just how freakin lucky I am to have them. At night, I'd love to say that I go to sleep feeling the love as well, but let's face it...most nights I'm just loving the crap out of my pillows for being cold and fluffy.


To all of you out there who love this holiday - embrace the crap out of it. Don't feel bad for wanting to take part in the Hallmark holiday. Screw the people who make fun of you. Even if you love someone so much only one day out of the year, it's better than not at all.


Now I'm off to finish out my day so I can get home and find out what awesome thing the hubs planned this year. Might I point out that 2 years ago, I came home to dinner in my living room with candles and my favorite meal. The bub was a tiny little thing and slept in the bouncer seat next to us the whole time. Probably one of my favorite years. Tonight I'd be grateful if all he did was cook dinner so I didn't have to think about it. I'm hoping to get the man some awesome beer on my way home so I don't look like a total failure. Can I blame it on pregnancy brain ya think?


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

moments (picture heavy)

I've always heard that time flies, and as I went through life, I never really thought it was all that different...and then I had kids, and animals, and a big girl job. Time just doesn't seem to ever want to stand still. The moments keep coming, and I just want to soak them all in. I'm finding it so hard to make room in my brain for the moments I just want to cherish forever and never forget. Moments like slumber parties in my living room, with all my furbabies and the bub curled up on a pillow next to the hubs, because he has to be "just like daddy." Or that moment when the bub actually still wants to cuddle on top of me. Not so easy with a giant belly in the way nowadays with baby bub on the way, but damn it...I was going to make it work. I always want to find the balance of getting a picture to last for years to come and just living in the moment and enjoying it while it happens. Just a few of these "moments" for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

As much as I want to run and grab the camera when I see his face light up, I have to remember that sometimes it's just as good to watch and add it to my stash of moments in my head, in hopes that I'll remember it one day.

With baby bub on the way in only 75 days and counting (or less), I'm trying to soak up our last moments as a family of three and look forward to what moments will come as a family of four. So far, the bub is excited and can't wait to meet his little brother. We'll see how things pan out once it's an all day crying fest and mom is locking herself in the bathroom with the shower running, just trying to get one moment alone.