What's in our hospital bags...

For the updated version of what we actually USED from these bags, click here. ;)

A few weeks ago, I asked moms on Facebook what they would recommend for our hospital stay. I was thinking people would mention one or two items that they wish they had brought or were thankful they had with them.

Boy was I wrong!

I learned that experienced mommas are passionate about sharing what did and didn't work for them... even down to packing a hospital bag!

Needless to say, between those incredibly helpful responses and various lists I've found on Pinterest, thebump.com, and through other bloggers, I feel (shall I say it?!) like we're pretty darn prepared for this adventure.

SO... here's what we're taking. It's a bit excessive, but I'd rather prepare for a long stay and hope for short one!

Carry-on suitcase with wheels:

This contains everything for me and the babe

For Me (some of these items are written on the green list for adding right before we leave):

• 3 Nursing tanks (purchased from Target)
• 1 night nursing bra that’s comfy (all nursing bras purchased from Motherhood Maternity)
• 1 regular nursing bra with shape (for visitors and going home)
• 1 sports nursing bra
• Nursing cover
• Regular sports bra to wear during delivery (I don’t see myself wearing the gown- I’m a minimalist with clothing (TMI?)... especially when I’m hot and sweaty (TTMI?)
• 5 pairs of granny panties that I don’t mind donating to the cause
• 3 pairs of socks for walking around during labor and otherwise
• Disposable slippers I took from our Babymoon resort
• 1 black sweater/cardigan wrap I can throw over a nursing tank when visitors come
• Lightweight hoodie from Target for the same purpose 
• Comfy boyfriend tee from Target
• Gap maternity stretchy leggings that hit at my ankles (and won’t drag on the floor)
• Black stretchy comfy silky (can you tell I’m a texture person?!) shorts from Target that will probably get a lot more wear than the pants
• Comfy flowy spaghetti strap dress for going home or wearing when visitors come
• Black maxi skirt from Target for going home or wearing when visitors come
• Blanket to bring back to Tally with baby’s scent
• Camera and charger
• Phone chargers
• iPod and speakers
• iPad
• Eyeglasses for both of us
• Hairdryer & diffuser (for quick & easy drying)
• Hair brush
• Eucalyptus Spearmint room spray
• Roll-up bag with toiletries & medicine (skincare items, toothbrush/paste, deoderant, razors, contacts supplies, extra contacts, Downy wrinkle spray (love this stuff!), prenatal vitamins, hair gel, travel bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, lotion, chapstick, Motrin, heartburn medicine)
• Extra empty bag for stocking up on hospital supplies
• Birth plan

For Baby (most of these items aren’t necessary, but I want to have them there!):

• 2 sleepers
• 3 pairs of mittens
• 3 hats
• 3 onesies (newborn and 0-3 months)
• 1 newborn shirt/bloomers outfit
• going home outfit
• Aiden & Anais receiving blanket

Snack & Miscellaneous Bag:

• Ritz crackers (mini cheese crackers and my favorite Sour Cream & Onion crackers)
• Granola Bars
• Protein Bars
• Bananas
• Sour Patch Kids
• Lifesaver wint-o-green mints
• Sound Machine
• Thank you notes
• Notepad and pen
• Overnight Maxi pads
• KY Jelly (for delivery)
• Disposable nursing pads
• Lanolin Cream

Cooler Bag (to pack right before we leave):

• frozen grapes
• popsicles for hospital freezer (recommended by a friend for during labor in case I want a little something other than water or gatorade- plus they're refreshing!)
• string cheese
• uncrustables PB&J sandwiches
• favorite spreadable cheese (to go with my favorite crackers) ;) 

Other Items:

• Boppy
• Pillows & blankets for each of us
• Sturdy box in the car for flower arrangement
• Carseat with blanket for the ride home (Eeek!!!)

And Matt will have his own bag for his clothes, shoes, etc.

Did I miss anything?!

We are SO close! Cannot wait to meet this sweet baby!

For those who have asked, I am waiting on one last little thing for the nursery and then will post pictures of the finished room. :)

Want to win $119 worth of skincare products that I've been using throughout most of this pregnancy?! If so, you can enter here.

And if you missed yesterday's post on an experiment in what our future kids will look like (or NOT hopefully, haha), you can find it here.

An experiment in what our future kids will look like...

Someone once told Matt and me that we look alike. Huh?! While I agree that we are pretty much the exact same person (with the exception of him being the nicer version of the two of us), I am not seeing the similarities in our physical appearance (although ironically, the picture above does kind of make me see where people could possibly think that?!):

Light skin -- dark skin

Auburn hair -- dark brown hair

"Auburn" eyes (his eyes seriously match his hair- I don't know what else to call that color) -- Hazel eyes

Freckles --  no freckles

You get the gist.

So a few years ago, my friend Meagan and I were hanging out at her house (this was before she had any kids and, obviously, before I was pregnant), when we randomly saw an ad pop up for some baby morphing generator.

"See what your future babies will like?! Sure! Why not!"

Let me pause for a minute and say that Meagan and her husband Chris DO look exactly alike. Like, could be siblings kind of look alike. 

See:

So when she put in her pictures of the two of them, their future kids came out as cute as they could be with completely normal blended features. 

And then I took a turn. 

First with a girl. 

And this is what happened:

I think the baby morpher thought I was black.

So I used a less-tan picture and tried again. This time, with a boy. And this is what popped up:

We literally fell off the couch laughing.

And, because I was going with the whole "third time's a charm" thinking, I attempted one more time, and out popped the most interesting one of them all:

Hmmm... yeah not sure.

So there you have it. Our experiment in what our future kids will look like.

Guess we'll find out soon enough what our baby will REALLY look like! One month and counting!

If you missed yesterday's post, I'm hosting a giveaway valued at $119! You can check it out here.

8 Ways to Treat Melasma During Pregnancy + a GIVEAWAY!!!

Even Matt know what "the pregnancy mask" is now because I've mentioned it a time or two (understatement) over the past 9 months.

I hate to come across as being overly concerned about appearance, but having brown splotches spread across your face for no good reason other than "hormones" and then not being able to do anything about it besides avoiding the sun (and computer screens, and heat- i.e. exercising-, and any type of light in general) out of risk of potentially harming the growing baby inside my belly is, I'm convinced, worse than teenage acne.

At least with that dreaded teenage acne you could visit the dermatologist and get a prescription for all sorts of medicines and creams that would burn (literally) those babies right off your face.

Melasma during pregnancy, however? No chemicals or burning allowed. Drats.

I've never wanted a chemical peel so badly in my life. Call me superficial, I'm just ready to have my face back.

SO, during these past 9 months, I've made it a personal goal to figure out a way to minimize the damage, if you will, and treat this brown splotchiness as carefully and diligently as possible.

So take notes preggo and nursing friends. Unless of course you're one of the lucky ones who have that beautiful pregnancy glow... in which case just count your blessings and move on to other, less superficial matters in your day.

1. Pretty Mommies Skin Care Line

Pretty Mommies is an all-natural skincare line that makes safe and effective products for pregnant and nursing moms. You can read all about the research and ingredients in their products here and see before & after pictures here.

The three-part system feels light and clean on my face and is definitely affordable compared to other all-natural lines.

And for one lucky reader, it's going to be REALLY affordable because this week Pretty Mommies is giving away one complete set for FREE! You'll receive the Let's Be Clear facial cleanser, Truth Be Told skin brightener, and Protect & Reflect SPF 30 moisturizer.

I've used this set for the past 4-5 months and just ordered a new set to use for the remainder of pregnancy and nursing. I love the way it feels and love knowing that it is completely safe to use.

2. Sunscreen

I always wore sunscreen on my face, but now I make sure to reapply it throughout the day if I know I"m going to be in the sun for extended periods of time. Pretty much everything I put on my face from moisturizing to foundation to mineral peptide powder (see below) contains sunscreen, but I also love this Coppertone Sport Stick with SPF 55 for reapplication throughout the day.

3. CC Cream

I love Mary Kay's CC (or complexion correction) cream. It is light-weight and gives my skin a nice glow while evening out skin tone. It also has an SPF 15 which is a nice bonus. Plus it's only $20 and lasts for a long time. If you'd like to try it, email me- I can get you 10% off and free shipping!

4. Mineral Peptides Powder

After applying the CC cream, I go over my face with Rodan + Field's Mineral Peptides Powder. Again, it is light-weight, contains an SPF 20, and gives my face a bright and even look. If you would like to try this powder or any of R+F's products, contact my friend Mel- she is super sweet and helpful and will get you just what you need!

5. Concealer

Typically in the summer I love to use a bronzer, but adding brown to brown just makes more brown. So once I've applied my CC cream and Mineral Peptides Powder, I go over stubborn spots with Mary Kay's beige 2 concealer. I also love using this under my eyes, above my lip (one of the most common places for melasma to appear), and on either side of my nose as a highlighter. I love, love, love this concealer. And it's only $10!

6. Cream Blush

I like using a cream blush over a powder because it gives a natural glow and seems to blend better while still hiding brown spots (the powder seems to accent the brown). I use this cream blush in shade Sheet Bliss by Mary Kay. It's a perfect summer color!

And again, email me if you want to try any of the MK products so I can get you the 10% off discount and free shipping!

7. Hats

Hats have been my go-to accessory this summer. Thank goodness or Target and Gap for selling cute and affordable hats! The one I wear the most is this one from Target. Especially on the beach or at the pool, a good hat helps a ton with blocked the sun and preventing more brown spots from forming. And they're just fun to wear to spice up a plain tee and shorts... which I have been living in lately. ;)

8. Self Tanning Face Pads

I know, based on what I just said about adding brown to brown, this probably sounds contradictory, but all I can say is that it has worked for me. Since I wear so much sunscreen and try to minimize sun exposure to my face, it ends up being a whole lot lighter than the rest of my body. I've found that using a tanner on my face gives the appearance of even skin tone and helps match my face with the rest of my body. The one I like the most for my face right now is Kate Somerville's 360 Face Pads. You can find them at Sephora, Nordstrom, or on Amazon. I like the way it goes on and the subtle color it adds to give my face an even, tanned look.

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!!

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a complete set of Pretty Mommies Three Step Skin Care line valued at $119! The giveaway will run through June 30th, and the winner will be announced on July 1st. And by the way, you don't have to be pregnant or nursing to use these products- they are great for anyone looking for natural products to help even out skin tone and clear complexion. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Q&A Part 2: All about blogging

You guys asked some really great blog-related questions! I am going to answer them the best that I can, BUT being that I haven't been at this all that long myself (you can see my first post here), I figured I would point you all to a post that I recently read that compiled blogging advice from lots of great bloggers who are way more experienced and run way bigger blogs than this little space right here. You can check out that post here.

What advice can you give on starting a blog?

Make sure you are doing it for YOU! Write about things you love in your own voice. Let people see your personality through your writing and get to know you through your posts. Don't feel pressure to post all the time or about certain topics. Our blog was really just an online journal in the beginning and kind of just evolved into more.  If you make blogging a job or chore, it won't be fun anymore, and your readers will definitely feel that come through in your posts.

How did you grow your followers/readers?

Find other blogs like yours that you can communicate/collaborate with, and your blog will naturally start to grow. When I first started blogging, I participated in a lot of different blog hops (Google search "blog hops" and a long list should pop up). This allowed me to meet other bloggers, find other blogs that were similar to my style of writing, and make friends in the blogging community. It also grew my readers too! Also, most bloggers are more than happy to give advice or answer questions if you see something you really like about their blog that you would like to incorporate into your own, so don't be shy about emailing or commenting to ask questions.

Another way to grow your blog is to host giveaways. Find a product or company and that you would like to write about, reach out to that company to ask if they would be interested in sponsoring a giveaway in exchange for you featuring their products on your site, and then ask a more experienced blogger (or two or three or four!) if they would like to participate in the giveaway with you. Giveaways give exposure to your blog and are just fun to host! Who doesn't love winning prizes?! Once your blog grows, you'll eventually have companies and/or other bloggers contacting YOU about hosting giveaways and writing about their products.

One last thing I did early on was participate in "blog awards" where I answered questions about myself or Matt answered questions about himself and tagged other bloggers in the post (i.e. "passed on the award"). This was fun for me early on and gave me topics to write about while letting readers learn more about us. 

You can search our blog in the sidebar for award posts I wrote and start the chain yourselves if you'd like. Here are a few posts that will show up:

How did you get other bloggers to feature you on their blogs as a guest writer or place your blog on their blog roll?

I don't remember ever asking other bloggers to feature our blog on theirs. Once you make friends in the blogging community (again, blog hops are a great start!) this just naturally happens. You could definitely reach out to other bloggers you find and like though and ask if they would like to swap buttons to display on the sidebar and/or write feature posts about each other's blog to help expand each of your audiences. I would just make sure you do this with a blogger who has a similar size blog- and get to know them through commenting and/or emailing before you go all businessy with a request! Also, keep an eye out because sometimes people are looking for guest writers for when they taking a blogging break for various reasons. If you want to expand your blog, jump on those opportunities to write for other blogs!

Do you follow your readers on Instagram or other social media sites?

I don't. Except for a few bloggers who have become more friends than just blogs that I read. Instagram is really the only social media site that I check regularly, and I don't like to spend a ton of time on it, so I don't follow that many people.

Do you respond to all of your comments?

I don't. I respond to all emails and any comments that ask questions, but other than that, I don't really have a system for responding to comments. Sometimes I do, most times I don't. But it's not because I don't read them! I love hearing input from readers and always appreciate the comments people leave. I guess I've just never cared too much whether people respond to comments I leave on their blogs, so I've never made a point of responding to ones people leave me.

But while we're on the topic, Alison, a sweet blogger friend of mine, pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago that my email in my profile had changed to show up as nonreply-comment@blogger.com. When your profile is set to this, bloggers can't reply to your comments through email. So if you have left me or other bloggers comments with questions and haven't heard back, it's most likely because your profile isn't allowing people to respond to you. I'm fairly certain the new Google+ profiles are to blame, but regardless, here is how you fix it:

Alison sent me this great link that was easy to follow and took no time at all, and it shows you what to do for Blogger profiles and Google+ profiles:  http://www.flusterbuster.com/search?q=no+reply+comment. So check your profiles and make sure you have an email addresss attached!

How do you manage mean or nasty comments?

Thankfully I haven't gotten any of these, but if I did, I would probably just ignore them (and delete them!). It goes back to the whole "blog for you" or "blog because you enjoy it"mantra. Not everyone will always agree with you and that's fine. Most people are really nice, so if you get a not-so-nice comment here or there, oh well.

Do you worry that your students or fellow teachers will read your content?

I know there are former students and teachers who read my blog and/or follow me on social media, but I don't worry about it because I don't ever post anything inappropriate (or at least I don't think I do! ... I guess appropriateness is a matter of opinion). ;)

Do you worry about others stealing your content?

I haven't ever thought of this actually, so no, I guess I don't! I feel like the blogging community is pretty good about giving credit to other bloggers if they share ideas or content that they've read elsewhere, so I'm not too worried about it.

How do you manage to not get discouraged or give up on blogging completely?

As I mentioned earlier, I started blogging as a sort of online journal. And then I started sharing recipes mainly because I wanted an online recipe book of things I had made and liked. And then my blog started to evolve into other areas naturally. But every "new" part of blogging (giveaways, blog features, awards, etc.) was something I would say "yes" to because it was something I would enjoy writing about or participating in. I feel like I've said it a million times, but if you blog for other people, you won't like blogging, so blog for you!

Hopefully that helped some! In Part 3 of the Q&A posts, I'll be answering questions about my routines: what my typical day looked like when I was working, where I shop, my skincare and makeup routines, and when I'm planning to go back to work.

And last but not least...

#nelsendays2014 Week 24

We're less than 5 weeks away from our due date, and I can hardly believe it! We are counting down the days until we get to meet our little man. Eeek! In the meantime, we're making the most of the time that we have as "just us"... here's what we've been up to this week!

Day 162: Brunch date with these two cuties!

Day 163: Andrea and I are due 7 weeks apart. Can't wait for our boys to grow up together and for sweet T to be their big sis and "cousin" ;)

Day 164: Date night! Dinner at Bistro Niko and a movie at Cinebistro. The Fault in our Stars was SO good! You absolutely need to read the book and then go see the movie!

Day 165: Saturday afternoon hiking adventure!

Day 166: Celebrating Noah's NINTH birthday! I can hardly believe he's grown up so fast. If Baby Nelsen is half as sweet as him I'll be one proud mama. 

Day 167: You know you eat a lot of Mexican when the server calls you "sister" and has a baby gift waiting for you. Seriously so sweet!

Day 168: Walking to the spa in downtown Monroe with my sweet mama. I got my first prenatal massage and loved it! Such a treat! :)

If you missed yesterday's recipe, you can find it here.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing the next part of the Q&A- all about blogging! See you then!