Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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.

Friday, May 9, 2014

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.