Top Five Pregnancy Needs

*Something I am learning about being a mom and a writer is I find lots of unfinished material hidden away in my computer. This for example is one of them. I wrote this post about one week before Lampley was born. I think I had plans to finally talk about her pregnancy and all that came with it. This post was supposed to be a follow up to that one. But guess what. Neither got published. Here is the beauty about this particular topic. There are women everywhere getting pregnant (praise God) and might want to know some things they need for their journey to the next stage of motherhood. So these are my top 5 things I used while being pregnant with Lampley.

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Pregnancy your second time around is very interesting. A part of you expects it to be exactly the same. You’ve done this once, so this time should be no different. But let me tell you that has not been the case. First, this pregnancy was much scarier in the beginning. But also, my body is different! My day to day is different. And being pregnant with a toddler, well, you can forget all about just needing to take a moment to sit and rest your feet. So I’ve rounded up 5 things that have gotten me through my second pregnancy.

1. Zella Leggings

For me, a pair of leggings might as well be considered another body part to my everyday makeup. I am in leggings as often as I possibly can be. When it is time for me to put on “regular clothes” I almost always wish I could just be underdressed and wear my leggings instead. This pair has been awesome. They are easy to clean and have grown with me throughout the whole pregnancy. I also think investing in a pair of decent maternity leggings is important because you will still want to wear them for several weeks after baby. **Note: I did wear these a lot while I was recovering.

2. Piko Shirts

Bless this sweet brand for the creation of these flowly shirts. Not only have I lived in them pregnant, but ALL THE TIME. They are the perfect shirt to throw on with jeans, leggings, anything. I had several before I got pregnant and had no problem buying some more because I knew they would still get lots of wear time regardless of the size of my belly. You can now buy them on amazon so I’ve linked up a couple of my favorite styles below.

3. Body Butter

For whatever reason I have had much drier skin this time around. To the point where I was applying lotion over and over again all throughout the day and night. So it was time to get some of the good stuff and I went with this particular body butter. One reason is because I am clearly a huge fan of this brand. The other main reason is because I knew it was safe for me and for my growing baby. I didn’t have to worry or research the chemicals I might be putting on my body and how it would affect the baby. I was just able to buy it, use it, and finally feel relief from my seriously dry skin. *This worked great after delivery too. My skin took a while to get back to normal.

4. Pregnancy Pillow

This guy became apart of my sleep routine a whole lot quicker this time around. I can’t say enough about needing a pregnancy pillow to help with sleeping. I also love the way this particular brand curves around my back and I still have a space to roll out (literally) when a trip to relieve this extra small bladder is needed. A lot of people recommend this style also but I have not personally tried it.

5. My Bible

Probably not the first thing you would think of when being pregnant as something you need, but for me, pregnant or not, its a must. This pregnancy came on the heels of two miscarriages and, it wasn’t the easiest start. So turning in the word every night was important and needed in order to keep me grounded in the truth. I am a huge fan of She Reads Truth so of course I love this bible. But I also love the way it is set up, the reading plans it provides, and the fact that there are studies on the app to go with it. My husband also has the He Reads Truth version.

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Life at the Farm

Photography by Brigette Bilups

A couple months ago we had a team of guys working underneath our house to fix some structural damage we had discovered. It was actually a pretty intense process because our house was “sinking” at an alarming rate. To the point where they conducted an investigation to make sure we were not sitting on a….sink hole. Which is story for another day in itself. Spoiler alert: no sinkhole. But still a lot of damage that needed to be fixed.

So one of the workers comes up to ask if we had a potted plant somewhere because there was water POURING down in the crawlspace. Well I can assure you there are no potted plants in our house causing that type of leak…but we do have a frig - and that frig was leaking.

Within a couple of hours the floors were ripped up in my kitchen, the island was moved and fans were placed to try to dry out the subfloor. The good news was we would be getting new floors. The bad news was we would need to move out.

We were all set to go with the new floors when the “big bad sickness” hit. Suddenly the thought of people coming in our home didn’t seem like the best idea. So we pushed the construction time back and lived with a kitchen half hardwood half subfloor for several months. Until insurance called and told us to find a place to live so they could get moving on it. Because of the “big bad sickness” we needed to be out for a month. And that’s where the farm comes in.

We were able to spend the entire month of May at the farm. It didn’t take long for it to feel completely like home. Since we had to completely move out of our current house, we brought several of the girls toys and their cribs with us to the farm. While it felt like a lot, I’m glad we did it and I think it really helped the girls settle into a new place quickly.

We were greeted each morning by the sun, there are no trees around the barn so the natural light was stunning all day long. Most days I would forget to turn on the kitchen lights because the windows in the main room are amazing. We would have breakfast at the little nook to the side of the kitchen or out on the porch. The girls and I would walk down to the river in the mornings and then swing on the downstairs porch. Jane Taylor and I spent a lot of time just playing in the barn. I think all that covered space was a dream to her. And we did a lot of watching of the cows. Seeing them shift from one side of the farm to the other. It was so much fun.

The unique thing about the farm is you are still very close to town but you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. I loved the sense of rest that came with being there. It was a great place to just reconnect as a family and have a change of scenery.

Jane Taylor still talks about “our farmhouse” and says “we will go back when our house breaks again!” Now I am not hoping for our house to “break” again, but I can say the farm is a place we hope to visit again soon. We drive by and check on the cows every once in a while. And I thank God for the extended time we got to spend there.

So if you are coming to visit Tennessee, or just need a staycation with a change of scenery. I highly recommend The Farm. You know a place is special when you are sad to leave because it feels just like home.

Sun's Out

A week ago I came across a post from the instagram account Sweet Life And Fitness with a story about a mom whose daughter was suffering from Petit Mal seizures as a result of using a certain brand’s sunscreen. It absolute shook me. For a couple of reasons. One being that we use that brands products. Specifically their hand sanitizer. It was one of those brands I had given the identity as “safe”. So to hear that it might not be really through me for a loop. The other reasons is Jane Taylor has horrible dizzy spells as a result of her alternating torticollis as a baby. Her last dizzy spell was the worst one yet and has me really paying attention to the food we eat and what we are putting on our body. The post was a wake up call that I might need to take a little more time to pay attention to what we are using.

Since it is summer time I thought I would share with you the two brands we use for sunscreen in our household. This is coming from a girl who used to walk out into the Florida sun wearing SPF 8 with bronzer every single day and thought I was '“protecting my skin”. Let me just tell you as I have grown I wear nothing less than 30SPF every single day and my tan still looks just as good, and healthier too.

I get asked a lot what sunscreen I use on the girls. Y’all know a sunburn is no joke and I’m not about to let my little ones innocent skin suffer from that kind of pain. As long as I can grab them quick enough to actually put sunscreen on them before running outside. My favorite tool for quick apply is the Countersun Mineral Sunscreen Stick. It is so much easier to run this little stick over a squirmy baby or busy toddler’s face than trying to rub the sunscreen on them.

For my face I use the Countersun Daily Sheer Defense. It is lightweight, made for your face and I’m happy with the results I have seen from using it.

To protect all over we use a couple different products depending on what we have enough of in our home. We frequent the pool a lot in the summer and for four people sunscreen can run out fast. My first choice is the Countersun Mineral Sunscreen. We also use the Babo Botanicals Sunscreen Lotion and Babo Botanicals Sunscreen Spray. Babo Botanicals is great because it is on Amazon. And I am the mama who needs stuff to get here in two days with free shipping because its the eleventh hour we are about to run out.

Hope this helps when it comes to picking out your sunscreen for the summer!