Mama uniform



I wanted to call this series "Momiform" -- as in "mom uniform" smooshed into one word. But when I ran the idea by Ty, he said he would never, ever, in a million years, have put together that "momiform" was the words mom and uniform. So. Crash and burn. I settled on mama uniform instead.

Ever since Everett came along, I am much more selective about the clothes I put on my bod in the morning. Function takes the cake these days. Goodbye heels. See you later non-nursing-friendly tops. And so long anything that isn't drool and spit-up friendly. Dry-clean only? Don't be ridiculous. So I wanted to post mama-friendly outfits that consist of more than jammies, as I am sure there are a lot of mamas out there in my same shoes.

Everett is like a spit-up fountain lately, and eats every few hours, so I need to dress accordingly. My top in nice and flowy for easy nursing; plus, I got it for a quarter, so completely spit-up friendly. The jeans are already white, so no issue there. I got synthetic-upper Birks so they are wipe-wipe-wipeable. Thank goodness. And in an effort to catch as much spit-up as possible (and avoid as many wardrobe changes as possible), I stick a bibdana on Everett every chance I get.

Top: Thrifted - Liz Lange Maternity (similar)
Jeans: Old Target - Mossimo (similar)
Shoes: Birkenstocks
Baby bibdana: Milk Barn





No more rocking


And just like that, my baby boy no longer wants me to rock him to sleep.

We used to have this system; swaddle the baby, pick up the baby, put the pacifier in, and rock the baby to sleep. Boom. Worked like a charm. But a few days ago, mid sequence, Everett started arching his back like crazy. "Put me down!" he seemed to say. And so I did. Into the crib he went. And after a few minutes he was sound asleep. What the?! Babies do this? On their own? Babies just decide when they don't need you to rock them to sleep anymore? This is bananas.

All the books I read said things like "don't rock your baby to sleep / let your baby nurse to sleep / hold your baby until he is sound asleep because he will want to do it forever!" So I of course thought it was up to me. But no friends. No. I'm sure every baby is different. But this baby? This baby just weaned himself from rocking. And I'm not gonna lie, it makes my heart sink a little.

I remember I used to dream of this day. "One day he won't need me to go to sleep!" I thought. And it was such a liberating thought. But now that it's here, it's like "Wait...wait...you sure you don't want me to rock you to sleep? It's really nice...?" But he's sure. I've been trying it intermittently just to be sure sure he knows what he's doing, with no success.

So there we go. "Snuggle that baby while you can!" all the mamas told me. And I did. But it still feels too short. And I know he's only 5 months old. And I know I still have months of nursing and having him keen to hang out on my lap and want to be carried around by me. But it just made me realize. One at a time all of those things are going to disappear. Poof. So, lesson learned. I will snuggle that baby all I can while I can.

Next adventure? Getting rid of that swaddle. Wish me luck.

A wedding invite for Monday


I just finished designing a wedding invite for a sweet couple in California, and can I tell you it was SUCH a treat to design up something all lovely and wedding-y. It felt good to just put all the pretty out on some paper as I put together a bunch of options for the couple to choose from. Sadly, the one above didn't make the cut. But, it was definitely my favorite of the bunch. If Ty and I ever get married again, you can expect this invite in the mail.

For the record, this is the one the couple actually chose. I really liked this one too.