Cravings

One of the questions I get most from friends and family since being pregnant is if I'm craving anything. If it's a friend, especially one who hasn't been pregnant before they always ask if I'm craving pickles. Thanks to the movies and TV going into my first pregnancy I even thought I would be craving pickles! I don't think once between either pregnancies have I truly craved a pickle! 

Last pregnancy I actually craved things I normally craved like lemonade and artichokes. This pregnancy though, I'm craving foods I normally don't even like. These are: avocados, bacon, and brats. When I'm nauseous I crave banana peppers and lastly I crave hot sauce (but this is again a normal craving for me).

I started off with terrible morning sickness though and the only thing I think I ate for a week was hash browns and salt and vinegar potato chips. I ate an entire bag in a day. I would definitely say potatoes were a craving for me then and I still do crave them every once in a while but not as hard core as I did then. According to netmums.com  a potato craving is rather popular during pregnancy and might be due to the drop in blood sugar causing a craving in carbs. I would say the only other thing this craving possibly pointed to was that its a boy (which I don't think it is but check out my last post about gender predictors).

I think avocados fit in with Mexican food and in general I have craved it as well. This makes me think girl because my mom craved Mexican food with me (:

Otherwise I have no idea if my cravings can mean anything other than lack of a nutrient... although I don't know what nutrient I would need from a pig (I hate the taste of pork!!) Baby sure loves it though because it sure kicks a lot after I eat brats.

Cravings are such a weird thing and they are weird when you're pregnant. There have been so many nights I just lay there and am just like ahhhhh I'm never gonna sleep unless I eat _____. I didn't have that feeling much last pregnancy so this time it really took me by surprise.

<3

Tips for attending school while pregnant

Going to school while pregnant can be a lot harder than people think it is. Between the tiredness, baby/pregnant brain and morning sickness going to school can be a challenge. I have never felt exhausted like I do while pregnant, especially during that first trimester. Not only does the exhaustion make it hard to do get school done but then you have a whole house to take care of as well. Im extremely lucky and not required to work right now either, but oh man add having a job into the equation and you have (work + school + house)(pregnancy) = sleeping every second you can. Not only does that all come into play but then morning sickness hits. Now you are tired and want to vomit at the site or smell of food. Here are things I figured out that help:

1. Invest in paper plates and cups. Dishes are the last thing you want to do during early pregnancy. Now that I'm further along I don't mind doing them but when I am tired I still get them out and have my boyfriend and I eat on them.

2. When you have the energy work ahead!!! This sucks cause when you have the energy you wanna do funner things but it is a serious lifesaver to have things done ahead of time especially when you are going to be tired and nauseous. Plus the further along you get, the more you'll want to start googling baby stuff and making wish lists/registeries.

3. Tell your teachers. I'm in a bunch of science classes which means dead animals and chemicals. It's very important to tell these teachers because some of this can be harmful!

4. People are stupid. That's kinda mean but I found being 21 and now 22 and pregnant, people still look at me and treat me as if I was in high school and got pregnant. The people that give you looks or decided to make your pregnancy the topic of their conversation are dumb and its a waste of your energy to care. They'll understand one day and feel dumb for acting how they did.

5. Make sure to bring food and water with you everyday. I always get hungry during class (probably from being bored haha) and if you're anything like me, barely hungry turns to starving in about three minutes.

6. Always carry your nausea aids with you as well. I'll be listing mine in a post soon about morning sickness but this was very vital for me. This girl in my class would eat soup and oh gosh it made me nauseous from the smell.

7. Lastly choose a seat by the door. Your need to pee is going to go up a lot and it's less weird feeling getting up to go if you're already by the door. 

Oh lied there's an 8. Invest in a good backpack!! My sister gave me hers (which I think was expensive) and I love it!! Your back is already going to start hurting naturally from baby growing so get a good backpack so you aren't adding to the pain. Along with this, its a good idea to get a good pair of tennis shoes as well. They REALLY help with back pain as well. 

These are all the tips I can think of at the moment. If you have any good tips leave them in the comments (:

<3 

Am I having a boy or girl?!

I have no idea yet. 

On Feb 3 I have the official ultrasound to tell me! I can't wait and can't stop thinking about it so I thought it'd be fun to see what the various gender predictors and wives' tales say.

First of all I figure I should state my gut feeling: GIRL! My gut screams girl. I'm not really sure what makes me think that or feel that but I really think its a girl. 

Here are the results of the various other ones I've looked at. You can click the title of each one to see where I found the predictor. They are kind of long but there were some silly ones. 

Chinese Gender Prediction: boy!
         This test basically just uses your due date with your birthday and applies them to the Chinese lunar calendar. I didn't use it last time so I'm not sure if it was right or wrong, but I feel like it might have some truth to it just because people tell me that Chinese women are really good at predicting gender!

Parents.com Quiz: boy!
         This test asks 10 various questions, which mostly seemed based on old wives' tales. It did require you to have a login for this quiz which was kind of lame but its a very easy site to sign up for. 

10 Old Wives' Tales: (its actually more than 10): This one tied 50/50. 
       1. Are you carrying high or low? High - girl!
       2. Are you carrying in front or expanding horizontally? Front - boy!
       3. Are you developing skin problems? Yes. holy moly my poor face :( - girl!
       4. Are your hands dry and feet cold? Yes but they always are - boy!
       5. Does your wedding ring swing in circle or back and forth? I didn't answer this one because I'm not married but if you're curious circle means boy.
       6. Does your pee change the color of drano? - Again not doing this one. Sounds dangerous... and I wanna know who the heck thought peeing in drano was a good idea and why it would predict gender...
       7. Is the heart rate above or below 140 bpm? Above which means but with my boy it was above.... - girl!
       8. Are you craving salt/sour or sweets? I would say both really but I think sour/salt is stronger - boy!
       9. The Mayans claim that if your age at conception and year the baby was conceived are both even or odd it means girl, if one is odd and the other even its a boy - for me this claims girl! I think, the conception time was rather close to my birthday so this one could really go either way (sorry for TMI).
       10. Has your significant other gained weight? No - boy!
       11. Did you have morning sickness? Oh gosh yes and it was miserable - girl!

More Wives' tales: girl! - This was just of the random ones I chose. 
         This website has 51 of them! Holy moly! I'm going to just pick a few of them that are for sure applicable. 
            Old Wives Tale #3:  Cravings Curse - hahaha this one is not a gender predictor but states that if someone denies a pregnant lady her cravings they will get a sty in their eye. Beware dads when you say no at 2 am!!
            Old Wives Tale #14:  Shape of Mom’s Face - This one seems a little silly as everyone gains weight differently but if you have a more round face during pregnancy it means girl and long means boy. I suppose due to my inability to gain weight we'll say mine is long so boy!
           Old Wives Tale #15:  Key Test: Depending on how you pick up a key, round = girl, if you do the long part = boy. The middle means twins. I think I typically do the round part so girl!.
          Old Wives Tale #22:  Skin under Left Eye - this one is weird and I'm only guessing on the results because it made no sense but if you pull down the bottom lid of your left eye and you see a "v" in the white part you are having a girl. No "v" means boy. I think this means girl! for me. 
          Old Wives Tale #27:  Legs - Again a weight related one. I'm not sure about this as I've barely gained any weight at almost 19 weeks but I feel like my legs seem bigger...? I'm sure my boyfriend would politely disagree (; Bigger means boy!
         Old Wives Tale #28:  Moodiness and a Little Pecker - I think my boyfriend would strongly agree (especially at the beginning) that I was moody and this is suppose to be linked to girl! . 
       Old Wives Tale #29:  Bread - Who the heck eats the end of the breads over the middle?! If you do you are supposedly having a boy. I definitely eat the middle which means girl!.
       Old Wives Tale #32:  Dream of Sex of Baby - I haven't had a dream that specifically pointed to the sex of the baby but my boyfriend has and it was a girl!.
      Old Wives Tale #33:  Clumsy vs. Graceful - I would say my clumsiness has increased which is dumb because I don't want to be clumsy while pregnant!!! But this means boy!
      Old Wives Tale #35:  Side You Most Rest On - I pretty much sleep on my right side until I get baby worried then I switch to my left so right = girl!
     Old Wives Tale #38:  Breast Test - Which one is bigger? Left means girl and right means boy. I think mine are pretty much the same but I guess left is a little bigger...? girl!
     Old Wives Tale #39:  Necklace Over Hand - This one is so silly to me... how the heck does a necklace know what gender I have growing inside me...? It was back and forth though over circle so boy!
      Old Wives Tale #42:  Areolae - Apparently my boobs really know what gender it is... This one I really have no idea, I didn't pay attention to color before but I think they've stayed the same color which means girl!.
     Old Wives Tale #43:  Protein - Craving meat and cheese means boy. I definitely have been craving meat and cheese but I don't believe this wives' tale at all because with my boy I didn't crave them at all. boy!
     Old Wives Tale #48:  Nose - This one is so weird! If your nose is growing you are having a boy. Does this actually happen because I would cry! Now I'm gonna have to ask my boyfriend and family if my nose grew last time. Ahhh I hope not. 
     Old Wives Tale #51:  Baby Names - If you are stuck on a certain gender name or can only think of that one. If this is true then it was true for my son Jayden.  This time it would mean girl!. I don't know if we'll ever be able to come up with another boy name :/

Holy cow this got long! I hope you made it to the end (: I would say overall it didn't help me clearly think one is more predicted over the other. Even more it made me think that old wives' tales are pretty wacko and make no sense. It was pretty fun though seeing all the ways people predict though! 11 days and we'll see if my gut was correct! 

<3

Why I buy 99% of my beauty products at Ulta

It was about 3 years ago I was introduced to Ulta. I was living in Boise, Idaho at the time and they had just opened one so I went to check it out. My obsession with makeup had just started and my collection was small enough to fit in a shoebox. I had been to Sephora before but the prices were out of my reach and the high-end feel of it was overwhelming especially because most of these brand names were foreign to me. 

The difference between Ulta and Sephora then for me was the fact that Ulta had a drugstore section. Not only did they have a drugstore section but these items had sales and they had coupons I could use on them. At that time I only used drugstore - Walmart accessible makeup. 

The next thing that made me instantly love Ulta was the free stuff. I went during the grand opening and if I remember right I was given a bag of free stuff for signing up for their reward program. I'll get into that more later, but they have the best reward program I know of. So between the fact that I could get drugstore makeup with coupons and on sale AND have the chance to get free things made me instantly fall in love with this store. 

As time progressed my obsession with makeup began to grow (thanks to YouTube Gurus) and I began learning about these high-end brands. I then started venturing more into Ulta and looking at these high-end brands. It was then I started seeing why people love these items but being 19 I could not easily afford to put my money towards these items. The best part was the employees never pressured me into getting these and if anything, they showed me similar items I could get in my price range. 

Now 3 years later I will pretty much only buy my makeup at Ulta. Now where I live there isn't an Ulta and the closest one is 2 hours away so I utilize online shopping with them a lot but if there is a last minute thing I need I do have to go to a local store (hence the 1% missing from being able to say all my beauty items). In these 3 years I have learned a lot of tip and tricks to really get the most out of Ulta.

My tips:

Coupons: Ulta pretty much always has a coupon out. The usually one is $3.50 off a purchase of $10. This is great to use when you need one or two drugstore items. On occasion I have seen a $5 off a purchase of $10 coupon but its very rare that I can remember that. Both of these coupons are usually located on the back of their catalog which you can have mailed to you or you can view online. They also on occasion have a 20% of your entire purchase coupon. There are times these exclude fragrance or some of the high-end brands but there are times where they include EVERYTHING. This coupon is great when you have high-end items you want to purchase or have several things you need. They also offer a variety of coupons for their in-store salon. 

Free items: There are several way to get free items with Ulta. I honestly revolve my shopping around these items. Online shopping usually has the best free items compared to in-store. For both they usually offer items free with purchase for example free Urban Decay primer with $40 Urban Decay purchase. They usually have these with the more high-end items but sometimes they have them with drugstore brand as well. Ulta also offers free item packages. I honestly won't put in an online order unless this promotion is running (which they usually do about once a month or so). This promotion usually requires a higher minimum purchase of $50+ but you usually get a bag full of free items that are sample size and on occasion full size. They also about once a week have a promotion where during a four hour period you can get free items with a minimum purchase of various amounts. 

If I can I usually put my order in during that four hour period while they have the other free bag promotion going AND there is the chance what you are buying might have a free item with it's purchase as well. Then add in the other three free samples you get with every online purchase and you racked in the free items. Plus if you add in a coupon then you saved money while getting these free things. See my logic?

Rewards: Ulta has the best rewards system which really helps encourage me to shop there. The program is free and basically you earn points and points add up to be money to use there. This is how I prefer to get my "dream wish list" items. After spending $400 dollars there within a year you become a platinum member. Platinum members receive 1.25 points per purchase vs the 1 point normal members receive. Now being a member you get awesome perks like a free birthday item. They also have promotions where if you activate a coupon you get 2 - 3 (sometimes even 5) times the points! Now if you have $100 to spend there and you do it during one of these times, then you quickly earn points which means you can get those expensive items you want. 

Between the reward points, coupons, and free items you can really get your money's worth at Ulta. This is the only store I know that has these types of deals and this is why I buy almost all of my makeup and hair products there!

Make sure to e-mail subscribe to know when I post more (: 

Thanks for reading!

18 Weeks Pregnant After Stillbirth

Holy moly! The last 5 weeks went by so fast... I hope the next 22 go just as fast! It feels really good to get farther away from that 13 week mark, it makes me feel like I'm more in the "safe" zone. I know that's not true though and so at the same time as I get in the 20 weeks I feel more scared as well. Its really a scared either way situation I suppose. I had another ultrasound since 13 weeks, it was yesterday actually. That made me feel SO much better. Just seeing baby and seeing its heartbeat is so comforting. The doppler is nice and makes me feel good until ultrasounds, but I know the doppler isn't a guarantee that everything is okay. I also found out that I get two anatomy scans (I hope insurance covers both). My high risk specialist and my normal ob both want to do one. More time to see my baby sounds good to me (: Plus I know then that everything is getting super checked.

Its crazy how much more important and how much an ultrasound impacts you this time around. With Jayden the ultrasounds seemed like a gift or a special treat; this time they are something I feel I need to just not go crazy with worry. 

I ALSO FELT BABY KICK!!! I can't even explain how much I love this feeling. I'm sure my boyfriend is sick of me notifying him of it, but oh gosh... its the best feeling in the world at this point. He even got to feel it a few times which I think made him super happy! The only thing I dislike about kicking right now is the fact that it's not regular, I get freaked out if its been a few hours and I haven't felt it but I know at this point my little 5 or so inch baby isn't big enough to make it so I feel every kick or movement. I'm ready to get to the kick count stage. I think this will be the most comforting and reassuring part for me. 

On the me and my body note of it all I'm finally gaining weight!! It makes me happy and feels like such a silly achievement but I feel like I eat an entire cows worth in a day and then barely gain... it makes it hard work. The morning sickness and tiredness is also letting up which will make school a lot easier! 

I'm also getting into baby shopping mode. I bought two Valentine's Day books to read to baby next month! I'm so excited to know what we are having though so I can start really making a wishlist/registry for baby that is gender specific. If its a girl then I found this adorable Alice in Wonderland pack 'n play (this secretly makes me hope its a girl.... shhhhh don't tell my boyfriend). I can't wait to be further along though so I can make these lists comfortably. Right now I have so much apprehension about it, I almost feel bad or guilty making list. Then I feel silly for feeling that way because there is really no reason why I should worry too much. Oh man mind is a crazy circling trap when it comes to this. 

Time to go eat more food (: 

Benefit Beauty Score

For Christmas I got the Benefit Beauty Score set and I very much understand why there is such a hype about these products! I've never tried any of them before today and I think I love them all (almost) or at least my first impression of them all. The set includes 10 different different items and while getting ready today, I managed to try them all. 

In no particular order:

the POREfessional: Holy moly! This is the product by benefit that I've heard the most people claim to absolutely love and I can see why. Its, as my boyfriend said, like photoshop. If I didn't have broken out pregnancy skin, I could probably get by using just this as a foundation but using it under foundation really made my foundation nice! This will be the first full size benefit product I buy I'm sure of it. 

"that gal": This is an allover the face brightening face primer. Face primers are one of those things that you don't really notice until the end of the day and your makeup is there or it isn't... and today mine was. This is actually quite impressive because I have the terrible habit of always putting my hands on my cheeks or rubbing my face. I do think this product also helps minimize pores a little, but not the way that last products does. I'm not too sure of the brightening aspect of this, I think it would take better day vs day comparison for me to determine this. 

It's Potent!: I really liked the feel of this eye cream. Its suppose to help with dark circles, which I suffer pretty bad from. I'm guessing its a product that has to be more of a routine item to notice extreme benefits, but I really liked how it felt and I did see a slight improvement under my eyes from one use. I also believe it helped my concealer stay on a little better. 

Stay Don't Stray: I loved the texture and color of this eye primer. I really think its one of the best eye primers I've used and honestly I don't really like many eye primers. 12 hours later and my eyeshadow is still exactly how I put it on. 

High Beam: This is a highlighter, liquid one.. and I think it works good for what it does, but I really prefer powder highlighters more. 

Benetint: This stuff is weird! I've never really used anything like it! Its like a water lipstick tint. It took a few dips to make it semi dark but its pretty cool. It has a strange taste/smell. I like it for a fast lip color while doing my makeup, but I honestly wouldn't buy it and reapply it throughout the day...

Ohh! La Lift: This is an instant eye brightening cream. I like how it looked but I don't think its worth paying a lot for. I think you could get a similar effect by using the right concealer. 

They're real: Mascara... Mascara is hard because I really think its person specific and honestly this product was the only one that I would exchange if I could. I just really don't like the brush on it; the bristles are too far apart making eyelashes clump. I had to use my normal mascara over it after trying it. 

Hoola: This is the most pigmented bronzer I have ever used. This product would be worth paying a lot for because it would last forever. It takes one swipe and you have enough for at least half your face. I think the color could work for anyone as well. Its very easy to build and definitely worth the money. 

Bellabamba: This was a pretty colored blush. I think its also quite the universal color and easily buildable. I really love how pigmented it is as again, it'll last for a really long time. I wouldn't say this blush "wowed" me or anything, but I don't think I've ever had one that did. 

Overall this set is great if you want to test out these products. Most of them are things I would have never tested without the set just due to their price. While the set is slightly pricey, the products in this are worth it. These were all first impressions though, I suppose as I use them longer things might change and if they do, I will let you know (: