Thrifty Wife Happy Life

Life with Baby

February 29, 2016 by Katie Haller

I promise that one of these days I will get back to my normal outfit posts and thrifty tips, but as of right now my life is revolving around my new baby. It has been kind of a crazy couple of weeks at home with our little guy. Time feels like it’s flying by, but I also feel like things are standing still.

It’s such a weird feeling when you bring a new baby home. I know that people have told me that the first few weeks with a newborn are hard, but I think I just chose to ignore them. I think the most challenging thing for me has been trying to recover from my c-section while caring for Jack. Luckily, I’ve had a lot of help. I feel better than I did a week ago and I’m starting to feel more and more like myself each day, but I’m not perfect yet.

It definitely feels weird not being pregnant anymore. As much as I hated being pregnant, I miss it, if that makes any sense at all. I hated how uncomfortable I felt and how huge I was, but I miss having my baby with me all the time and feeling him move around. It’s a weird feeling actually holding him in my arms, knowing that he used to be inside me.

Even though having a newborn has some challenges with the lack of sleep, the poopy diapers, breastfeeding and all the other things that come with having a new baby, it’s still one of the most wonderful feelings that I’ve ever had. I’m overwhelmed with happiness when I look at Jack. I can’t believe that I’m his mom and I grew him for 9 months. It’s pretty amazing. I love this newborn stage, but I look forward to watching him grow and getting to know him more every day.

Here are a few pictures of my little angle.

Third Trimester Outfit Reviews

February 24, 2016 by Katie Haller

Today, I would have been posting my weekend wardrobe maternity outfits for my 40th week of pregnancy. Thank goodness I’m not doing that today. Instead, I’m snuggled up with my little baby boy. I’m still recovering from my surgery, but I’m slowly getting better. I highly doubt I will be putting any cute outfits together anytime soon or going shopping for a while. I still need time for my body to heal and I need to get used to having a newborn in my life now. What I can do is to use this time to look back on my maternity style during my last three months of pregnancy and share some of my favorite looks that I wore.

The third trimester was pretty rough, especially as it dragged on into the last 2 months. Finding cute outfits to dress my enormous bump was hard, but I didn’t give up. It’s not easy to have an extra 30 lbs of weight on you and still feel good about yourself, but the more I tried to put myself together, the better I felt. I really didn’t buy too many maternity clothes, so finding clothes that fit me was a pretty big challenge. I mostly stuck to anything that would stretch over my belly, long tank tops worked out great and I still used my belly band a lot for wearing my normal jeans.

Here are some of my favorite outfits that I wore during the last 3 months of pregnancy.

29 weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

35 weeks

37 weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks

My bump went from big to huge in the last 3 months. Everyone wanted me to know that too. That was one thing that I didn’t like during my last couple months. Everyone had to comment on how big I was. When I was in public by myself, people would often look at me as if I was going to go into labor right in front of them. It got to the point where I only wanted to travel outside of the house with Kevin.

My third trimester baby bump growing.

Over all my third trimester was filled with lots of ups and downs. Like most women, I was extremely uncomfortable throughout my entire last trimester. In the last couple months I could barely sleep at night and work was getting really hard. It’s not easy trying to keep up with my energetic Pre K children all day. However, I do feel like I kept nice and busy during the third trimester, just trying to pass the time. We took a trip home to Michigan for Christmas and Kevin and I spent a lot of quality time together; going out together and organizing the house on our Saturday’s off. The best part of my third trimester was that I got to meet my baby boy 10 days earlier than expected. I was so relieved that I didn’t have to worry about an over due baby. The doctor had wanted to induce me today if the baby hadn’t been born yet. I’m so glad that didn’t happen and he came naturally on his own. Now I have a very healthy little baby boy at home with me. My heart feels full.

My family

Have a wonderful week!

My Birth Story

February 20, 2016 by Katie Haller

When it came to childbirth, I was always pretty relaxed about it. I am not the kind of person to come up with a detailed birth plan with all my wants and wishes. My birth plan was always to get my baby out as safely as possible and if I could make it less painful, then that was good too. I’m so glad I didn’t have a birth plan that I felt I had to stick to because my birth experience was nothing that I could have planned for. I talked with friends who have had kids, I read blogs of birth stories, watched birth stories on YouTube, but nothing could have ever prepared myself for what I experienced. Everything that I thought would happen, didn’t happen. I wasn’t going to share my birth story at first, but after going through with it, I realized every woman has a different story, and maybe mine might help some first-time mom like myself.

The morning of the day that my water broke. I thought I looked huge, little did I know my little guy was wanting out.

Labor

Wednesday, I went through my normal day. I went to work, Kevin and I took my car in to the dealership for a check, we came home and had a normal evening together. I had no signs of pain throughout the day. Then at about 10:00 pm, I woke up to go to the bathroom. I noticed some extra water coming out of me. I thought I was just losing control of my bladder, but it didn’t stop there. I kept feeling leakage. I spent an hour googling “water breaking”. Since I had no contractions, I thought I had plenty of time to get to the hospital. I didn’t want to wake up Kevin yet, so I went back to bed. About 1:30 am I woke up with a pretty strong, but bearable contraction. I decided to time them. Before I knew it, they were less than 5 minutes apart. I got Kevin up and he got ready as I tried to pack a bag for the hospital and clean my kitchen. (It was 10 days before my due date, so I was a little unprepared.) When we got to the hospital, I was in so much pain, it was horrible. I was checked around 4:30 am and I was dilated to 4 cm. There were so many babies being born on that day, that I got the last delivery room on the floor, which was doubling as a hospital storage room. They were able to get me an epidural right away. The epidural was amazing. It helped make the pain go away and I felt relaxed. The nurse checked me right after the epidural kicked in and I was already at 8 cm. She told me I pretty much had dilated all the way to an 8 on my own without the epidural. She also said I would probably be having my baby by lunchtime. I was happy that things were moving along so quickly. I thought that maybe my labor wouldn’t be so bad after all. I was wrong though.

Pushing

Between 8 and 9 am, I was dilated to 10 cm. Instead of pushing right away, they had me in a couple different positions to help bring the baby down. The nurse would leave me in a position for 15 minutes then she would have me push a little, then switch positions. We did this for an hour in a half or so. Then she started having me really push. This was the hardest part by far. The nurse had turned off the epidural, so I could feel the contractions and know when to push. It was so exhausting, frustrating and painful. No matter how hard I pushed, the baby would not come down. The nurse said I was doing a good job pushing, but the baby just wasn’t having it. He was always cradled on my left side and he kept turning his head, making it harder for me to push him out. After a little more than 2 hours of pushing like that with no results, the doctor said we would have to do a c-section. Of course, I didn’t want that. I was determined that I’d just get him out myself, but of course, that didn’t happen. Before I knew it the epidural was turned back on and I was being wheeled into the operating room.

Delivering

I really never thought that I would need a c-section. I had such a healthy pregnancy, I was not prepared for this at all. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to hold my baby or see him when he came out. Kevin was so calm and it comforted me just to watch him. I could tell from his eyes what was happening. Before I knew it I heard the sweetest little cry in the world. Kevin took a bunch of pictures and kept showing them to me. He was so cute. My favorite part was when the nurse brought the baby to my face so I could give him a kiss. He was perfect. The most beautiful baby I had ever seen.

Kevin cutting the cord

The first time I got to meet Jack. It was love at first sight.

Recovery

Unfortunately, I got the worst of both worlds. Pushing followed by a c–section means double the recovery. It’s not fun. This was another thing I didn’t expect. After the surgery, I was taken back into the delivery room while I waited for a recovery room to open up. I got to spend some time skin to skin with Jack and feed him for the first time. Later I went to the recovery room. I was so thirsty, all I wanted was a huge glass of water. The nurses told me that water would make me nauseous, because of the medicine I was given during the surgery. Finally, they let me have some water. I was just so dehydrated after all the pushing, but eventually, I did through up some of it. The nurses at the hospital were all so nice. I have a new respect for everything nurses do in their jobs. Caring for people can’t be easy and they were all so nice, patient and helpful. I had packed a cute going home outfit with my yoga pants and a cute cardigan, thinking I’d be walking out of the hospital with makeup on and my hair done. Yeah right! I quickly learned that wouldn’t be happening. I barely fit in my baggy pajama pants, because I was pumped up with so many fluids, my legs were so swollen. I got to go home 48 hours after birth, but it was scary to leave the hospital. Luckily I had help on the way.

Skin to skin time

Precious baby

Daddy and Jack

I can’t resist baby feet

Over all, my birth story was no walk in the park, but when I’m holding my little baby Jack in my arms, I know it was so worth it. He is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen. He’s beyond perfect. Kevin has been an amazing husband and father. He never left my side at the hospital and since Jack came 10 days early, he had to work this week. Thankfully, we had family that was willing to come into town early from Michigan and California, to help us out with the first few weeks. Each day has brought new challenges for us, but we are definitely making our way. Besides, recovering from surgery is much better when you have such a cute little guy to snuggle up with. I’m so grateful for everything.

New Baby!!

February 17, 2016 by Katie Haller

I’m so excited to introduce you to my sweet baby boy! Jack William was born on February 11, 2016, at 2:13 pm. Jack surprised us by arriving 10 days early and weighing in at 7lb 15oz. I’m so glad he decided to show up when he did!

He is absolutely perfect and Kevin and I couldn’t be more in love with our little boy. We’ve been adjusting to having a baby in the house and I’m trying to heal my body up after having an unexpected c-section, but mostly, we are all just enjoying our little bundle of joy.

How to Save Money During Pregnancy

February 10, 2016 by Katie Haller

We all know that having a baby isn’t cheap. That’s why my husband and I waited as long as we did to add a third person to our family. We wanted to make sure that we could provide our child with everything that we wanted to. It takes a lot of planning and preparing financially before you can take on the responsibilities of parenthood. Once that little baby arrives your budget is definitely going to go up with all the added expense. In the nine months before your little one arrives, you should be spending your time finding ways to save yourself money, instead of spending it. I’ve decided to share a few things that I have been able to save on money during my pregnancy.

Here they are…

Pregnancy Test- I might as well start at the beginning of trying to have a baby. If you have ever tried to conceive a baby, you know how important those 2 little lines are on a pregnancy test. If you’re anything like me, you won’t believe the first one, so you will want to take another one just to be sure. Spending $20 on a pregnancy test is the last thing you want to do. This is why I love Dollar Tree pregnancy tests. They’re only $1 per test, so you can stock up as much as you like and you still won’t spend as much as you would on an off-brand test from the drug store. One time I spent $10 on one Walgreen’s brand pregnancy test. After that, I told myself I would never make that mistake again. Just remember, when you’re pregnant, you’re pregnant. You don’t need the most expensive test to tell you that.

Insurance Plan- Pregnancy is filled with doctor’s appointments. All of a sudden you go from a healthy person who goes to the doctors once a year for an annual physical, to going every month, to every week towards the end. One of the first things you should do after finding out you’re pregnant is to look into your insurance health plan. Find out what is covered during pregnancy and what is not. In my first trimester, it was open enrollment for insurance at my job. My husband and I were able to compare our insurance plans and I was able to switch to a better insurance plan through my company that offered a lower deductible. Since we knew I’d have more expensive medical bills this year, it was worth it to pay a little extra each month to help in the long run with all the expenses.

Breast Pumps- Whatever you do, do not buy or register for a breast pump. With the new Affordable Care Act, most insurance companies will cover 100% of a breast pump. I didn’t realize this at first. I had heard that you could get a breast pump covered, but I didn’t realize how easy it was. I thought that the insurance company would make you jump through hoops. That was not the case at all. I simply called the insurance company and asked if it was covered. They then told me it was and what company I could go through. My insurance used a company called Yummy Mummy. I went to the website, picked the breast pump that I wanted, filled out the information, the company contacted my doctor for the prescription and then they mailed it to me. I now have a $200 breast pump for free.

Prenatal Vitamins- Prenatal vitamins are important for your baby’s development during pregnancy. I found out pretty quickly that these vitamins are not always cheep. The first doctor I went to in Las Vegas told me that I needed to take the best and most expensive brand of prenatal vitamin. She made it sound like I’d miscarry if I didn’t take them. I went to fill the prescription and the pharmacy called me just to confirm with me that I wanted to spend the $200 on the month supply of vitamins that my insurance didn’t cover. Of course, I ended up canceling that. I ended up switching to a different doctor, who told me that whatever the over the counter brand I was taking should have everything that I need. I just decided to stick with the Target brand that I was taking before I got pregnant. When I was living in Michigan, my doctor was able to write me a prescription for some prenatal vitamins that were completely free. I suggest talking with your doctor and checking to see if they can help you out at all with the price of vitamins. Don’t always listen to them if they are trying to push an expensive brand on you that you can’t afford.

Baby Freebies- There is nothing better than free, that’s why recently, I’ve been researching and signing up for any site I can that will mail me free samples. I’ve signed up for a few baby product websites like Everyday Family, Pampers, Similac Strong Moms and Enfamil Formula. So far I’ve received 2 formula samples in the mail, which were pretty decent size samples. Even though I plan to breastfeed, I’m not against using a formula to supplement feedings when needed. I’m still a little worried about breastfeeding and pumping when I go back to work, so that’s why I’m happy to have some formula on hand if needed. I have also received tons of coupons from sites like Shutterfly and Tinyprints. When I made my registry for my baby shower, both Target and Babies R Us gave me a bag of samples and coupons (here). Motherhood Maternity gave me coupons for free nursing covers, car seat covers, and baby slings. These are great if you’re willing to pay the shipping price, but as of right now I’m looking for completely free with no shipping fees. You would be surprised by how many companies are willing to ship you free samples to test out. I’m still looking for more freebies so if you know of any other good places for freebies please leave suggestions below.

Maternity Clothes- I feel like I’ve been talking about maternity clothes for most of my pregnancy on this blog. I’ve tried to stay away from buying actual maternity clothes altogether. Maternity clothes are more expensive than normal clothes and for the amount of time you actually get to wear them, it just doesn’t seem worth it. I was able to get away with wearing all my normal clothes for all 9 months. Luckily, I only gained weight in my belly. Everyone is different though and every pregnancy is different. So my best advice if you’re going to invest in maternity clothes is to hold off until you actually need them. When it comes time to invest in a few key maternity pieces, look into some inexpensive ways of buying them. Check to see if any thrift stores have some cute things, Target has a great maternity selection and you can find some good clearance deals, also Old Navy has some cute stuff. In my experience, I found it easier to buy maternity clothes online. There is a better selection and it’s easy to price compare. If you do outgrow all your clothes and need to buy a lot of maternity clothes, I wouldn’t go crazy with buying too much. Try to stick with simple everyday pieces like tank tops, t-shirts, a pair of jeans, leggings and maybe a dress. Then you can just accessorize them with sweaters and long open cardigans that you may already have in your closet.

Create a Baby Registry- It is so tempting to want to buy things for your baby when you’re pregnant, but don’t. Create a registry first with all your baby needs and wants. Whether you have a baby shower or not, people are going to want to buy your new baby things, so having a registry will help them know what you want for your little one. I went ahead and put everything on my registry including the big items because you never know what people will be willing to buy you. Once you get closer to your due date you can go back to the stores that you registered at and purchase the things that you still need. Plus most stores give you a discount on all your registry purchases. Once you have everything, be prepared to reuse it all with the second or third baby. This is why I stuck to pretty natural colors. There’s no need to purchase everything new for the next child. Also, be practical with your registry. Only register for the items that you know you will use. Don’t waste your money on the gimmicky baby gear. No wipe warmers and diaper genies for me.

Those are just a few ways that I have saved money to prepare for my baby’s arrival. I’m a first-time mom, so I’m still learning the tricks. I’m excited to find some other ways to save money after the baby is born. Please, if you have any suggestions on where or how to save money, leave a comment below. I’d love to get some more ideas!

Weekend Wardrobe- Maternity Style

February 7, 2016 by Katie Haller

It’s hard to believe I’m 38 weeks pregnant. Baby could be here at any time. I never know when will be my last maternity post. I know I say this each week, but dressing a 9-month baby bump is hard. I swear it gets harder each week, but at least I don’t have much longer to go.

This weekend Kevin and I spent the entire weekend together. We are enjoying our last couple of weeks as just a married couple with no kids. I know that our lives will never be the same once we become parents, that’s why it’s nice that we have had some time to just appreciate our life as just the 2 of us. Don’t get me wrong, we can’t wait to be a family of three, but our little weekend outings together have helped pass the time while we wait for our little boy. On Saturday we got free tickets to a magic show on the strip and Sunday we had a 2 person super bowl party.

Here are my outfits from the weekend.

Saturday

Blazer- Kohl’s

Shirt- Kohl’s

Jeans- Old Navy

Shoes- DSW

Sunday

Dress- Target

Denim Jacket- Meijer

Shoes- Target

Necklace- Charming Charlie

Here’s my baby bump picture for 38 weeks. I’m trying to stay patient and wait for this little guy’s birthday to get here, but sometimes it’s hard. My belly is bigger than ever. Work is definitely getting to be draining, but I’m proud of myself for powering through. Staying busy has really helped me get through these last couple of weeks.

38-week baby bump

Have a great week!!

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