Thursday, January 28, 2016

Have you ever heard of Stitch Fix?

So this is something fun to write about this week.  Many of my friends have done this and I wanted to try it out and I have been waiting not-so-patiently since Friday to finally get my fix in the mail. 

What is stitch fix?  You fill out a comprehensive questionnaire that describes your style, your wants, your needs, what you don't want then you schedule a fix.  A fix is 5 items that come in a gorgeously wrapped box that you get to try on and decide if you want one, a few or all of the pieces.  You pay a $20 style fee for the box to come to you and if you purchase an item, that $20 goes towards the purchase of an item.  They send shoes, clothes (tops, bottoms, jackets, sweaters, dresses, skirts, all of it!), accessories including bags and jewelry and its chosen just for you! If you choose to keep all 5 items, you get a 25% discount on all of it...

SO with that, I thought I would treat myself to my first postpartum fix since I have lost 35 lbs since birth!  SO I did just that!

So in my request, I asked for simple pieces with natural fibers that were soft.  Anyone who knows me knows that this is really important. I need items that will feel good on my skin and I am a fanatic about soft clothing.  I also asked for pieces that I could wear to disney next month and that I could dress up or dress down!  You also link a pinterest board in your profile so that they can get a feel for what you really would love to see in your fix.

Check out these photos -- I'll give my honest feedback on the items!

The fix comes beautifully packaged!

Your fix is wrapped in tissue paper with a gorgeous sticker!

A sneak peek at what is inside!

It even comes with a personalized letter specially from your stylist telling you how to pair items and also why s/he chose these items specifically for you.  This might be the BEST part about the fix -- the personal touch.
 Here is my problem -- Prior to doing this surrogacy, I was a surrogate for another couple and did 3 cycles back to back. That meant 3 cycles of hormones and also a blighted ovum in there.  From April 2014 to August 2014, I packed on some pounds.  This is after I had lost 55 lbs from my own pregnancy and felt really wonderful in my skin.  Fast forward to 2015 when I did another cycle with E&L and amazingly got pregnant!  That pregnancy, I gained a normal amount of weight but had started already a bit higher than I should have been from the past cycles.  Also, baby A was quite the large baby and even though I may not have gained a ton, she stretched me out bad so that is leaving me with an unsavory midsection.  In my request, I asked my stylist to find things that looked good on me at this weight and 20 lbs less because that is where my sights are set -- weighing less!  I will tell you, my stylist really hit this one out of the park -- even though everything didn't work out for me, she listened and she delivered! 


In your fix, you get style cards to see how you can dress up your items or make them casual.  This is important for me because i have absolutely NO sense of style.  I need to see how I can pair these with existing things in my closet. 

This Shirt was pinned on my pinterest board but in a different color -- I am so glad she sent this color because I LOVE IT!

I currently only have ONE pair of jeans that fit -- I think I would wear this with skinny jeans and tall boots or boyfriend jeans and flats.

With leggings and boots.

I really wanted a Dolman -- but I wanted one with a banded bottom.  I think with lactating, my chest is so large that this does not look like a dolman top on me  -- the boobs seem to take up that extra fabric that makes it a dolman.  While it loos okay from the front, it looks terrible with the horizontal stripes on the side. 


I was unsure if this top was too edgy for me.  But I think I like it.  Can be zipped up for a polished look or unzipped for a more casual look!

This shirt feels a bit weird on me... but it gives me a great shape.  I am not used to trendy items... and the asymmetrical lines feel weird, but I think it looks nice.   the piece at the bottom of the zipper looks off but this top is going to grow on me, I just know it.  It is a very thick and soft almost sweatshirt material.

Or wear it unzipped!

The dolman shirt is not so flattering from the side!


I was very excited to get this one in the fix. It was the only one that I could see on the sneak peek before it arrived.  It is a beautiful jewel tone article and it is so soft and the embroidery is absolutely stunning. 
This one was tough. I wanted to love this.  I truly did.  but it just didn't hang in the right places and was not flattering on my belly.  I tried it with leggings ..

and with jeans...

So instead of mailing it back, I posted in a Stitch Fix B/S/T group and it was snatched up quickly! I also posted the dolman which was purchased from the group too!

I Love this little clutch.  It comes with two straps, a short arm strap and a cross body strap. I was unsure how I would feel about this bag before it arriving, but it matches my boots perfectly and the size will be amazing for Disney, just like the stylist said! 

 This is the inside of the clutch.

 The size of it against me.

The size of it against me when it is cross body. 

Finally, you are probably wondering what the price of this is!  Of course I will add that too!  Just know you can always sell items you don't like or that don't have a flattering fit on the B/S/T group so that you can get that 25% discount.  For the 5 pieces, the total was $190. I sold two of the items so for the cardigan, lace top and clutch, the total is $110.  I am happy with that price point as I really do love these pieces and the fact that I would have never chosen them for myself is a bonus. Stitch fix is making me step outside of my comfort zone to try things i usually wouldn't and that makes me excited! 

Also, I purchased my "Unicorn" from the b/s/t group and it came in today.  So here that is!!





I also got my Oka-Bs in.  These are rubber type ballet flats that are durable, easy to clean and OMG so comfortable.  This has nothing to do with stitch fix but I did wear them for some photos.  Cleaning out my closet tomorrow to clear out some room for the new shoes and getting organized.  These shoes come in fun colors with neat appliques to them. Again, look at the amazing packaging!!  And they are made in the USA.  I had a coupon code and got 3 pairs for $75 including shipping.  One pair was for Melissa, my doula. 




So now that this is done and you have enjoyed my little fashion show, if you want to try this out for yourself, please sign up under my referral code so I can support my Fix habit (that sounds bad! LOL).  And my 8 year old took these photos for me while she was home for yet another snow day!  And the mickey heads behind me on the mantle is our countdown for our Disney trip! 


And to tie this to surrogacy, I got a beautiful photo of Baby Aggy today!  She had the sun shining on her chubby little angelic face while taking a stroll in Hyde Park.  I am so lucky to have parents that continue contact with me and send me photos so that I may see how their life changed just 6 weeks ago today!  



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Hola!!!

Today -- Aggy is 5 weeks old!  Happy 5th week birthday sweet girl! I hope you wore a party dress today!!

I have totally been MIA.  Lots going on in our neck of the woods. 

I started back at school and have just 7 classes left until I graduate.  Right now I am taking an intelligence collections class and it bores my eyes out!  Intelligence (or at least the classes), I find not so interesting but it is my minor for my degree so march on.

I also have been working towards creating a spouse volunteer network with my husband's unit.  I was very active with volunteering when I was in NC and I met some of my best friends through that so it was something I felt strongly about continuing here.  We are such a small unit here that there are only a hand full of spouses, but that won't stop me from trying to create some unit cohesion among the spouses.

I joined a weight loss challenge group and have lost 5%+ of my body weight in just 3 weeks but I need to get out there and try a bit harder so I can lose more.  It ends on March 1.  Which also coincides with our Disney trip.  My kids are so excited for going to Disney -- we have been getting stuff together and the kids have enjoyed watching youtube videos of what they will see at Disney.  Piper has small princess dolls and plays with them every day and asks me to do her hair like Cinderella, Belle, or Aurora.

I am still pumping and I am nearly certified for the Preemies milk bank. I have been working on being certified since before I delivered.  You must get a letter of certification stating that you are in fact a surrogate.  Once I delivered, I had to answer questions about medications that I took during delivery and postpartum.  After that they asked another thousand questions about where I have traveled and other life habits.  Next they send a thermometer for each freezer so that you can have your freezers certified.  (They have to be below a certain temperature).  Next a swab of the cheek for DNA to match the DNA of you to the DNA in your milk so that you do not send someone elses milk into the bank.  Finally you have a phlebotomist come to your house to take blood to test for STDs and other illnesses that can be transmitted in milk.  This might have been more rigorous testing that I had for my surrogacy! Now, the milk bank has all of the tests back and they are getting certified by the medical director so I can start ordering coolers.  At this time, I have 1,500 ounces in my freezer from about 4 weeks (The first week I was pumping for Aggy).  I am still pumping around 55-60 ounces a day.  It is exhausting but rewarding at the same time. 



Some of the milk in my freezer.
Also, I want to give a shout out to two very special people.  This week and last week I received the kindest, most wonderful gifts in the mail.  I received a card each from IF's parents and his sister.  I cannot tell you how special it was to have these cards written out to me.  They were so kind, thanking me for bringing A to their family.  Wishing me well.  Surrogacy is such a mutual gift.  Most people see the gift given to the parents of the baby, but in reality, the gift I received was just as big!  Thank you for making me feel so special. 

Finally, after the last blog post, we did some soul searching and we have all decided to take a break from a sibling journey at this time.  It doesn't mean it won't ever happen but right now, and for the unforeseeable future, they would like to enjoy their daughter that they have wished and dreamed about for years.  They want to spoil her and let her be the only child for now!  Its a pretty special thing!  So until then... I will pump and unless the most amazing couple falls in my lap, we will revisit this at another time!!

And one more thing -- I swear the birth story and photos ARE coming!!!  again, I know they will be worth the wait!!


Now off to pump and head for bed.  The kids have been home every day this week except yesterday.  We got 1/2 an inch last night and it shut down DC.  Tomorrow, we are getting between 18-36 inches of snow in 24 hours.  Kids are excited but me?  Not at all!!  Kids are home again tomorrow and I don't do cold or snow.  They are both 4 letter words (figuratively and literally!!!)

Thursday, January 7, 2016

A quick little update!

I have some wonderful things in store for the blog in the upcoming weeks-- First my IF & IM wrote a birth story piece from their perspective, my doula is writing a story from her perspective and of course I am writing mine -- I have actually written most of mine but have not completed it as I am waiting on the photos from my photographer to put into the story as she told the story through her lens.  I hope to have those next week as she has had some weddings and other great things that she has had going on and I totally understand!  I promise, her photos will be worth waiting for.

But I also just wanted to update that today, Baby Aggy is 3 weeks old!  Last week on Thursday, E&L and baby A were able to fly home for her to meet all of her family that has been aching to meet her since before she was born!  It came on all of a sudden and we didn't even get a chance to say 'So Long' before they left but the attorney rocked all of the paperwork so that they could get home on New Years Day and the opportunity presented itself and they hopped on it!  They were able to get the paperwork done just 2 weeks after birth -- I have to share a hilarious part of an email from my IF about the passport process that I received this week:

"All good then - just - till we got to the Post Office, where, despite our appointment we had to queue, and, just as the Officer's lunch was delivered, A got camera shy, closed her eyes and started to shout. And shout. And shout. Her first meltdown. Very funny, unless you happened to be us. Eventually - after nearly an hour - and with lunch gone cold, we got a single photo of a very angry young lady with her eyes just about open. Good enough apparently. As the forms were then sealed and off we went again to Fedex.

Then all we could do was wait. Would Fedex deliver to the Agent on time? Were the forms in order? Would they reject the photo? Would Fedex get everything back to us in time? Just in case we tried to arrange back up appointments. Turned out that the Post Ofice had no more availability till the 4th Jan, and that would have meant an earliest travel date of the following Sunday. Which would have been fine, except that we had told the grandparents that we might be home for New Year and at least one of them was already plotting to travel halfway across the UK to "surprise" us off the plane.

Anyway, to cut what is clearly a very long, rambling and sleep deprived story short, everyone did what they said they would do, and we got on the plane. Only issue so far is that at the security check I realised I still had the rental car keys in my pocket.
That and that they don't seem to sell Huggies or Burt's Bee Balm in the UK. Two of our three essentials along with WaterWipes, which thankfully we can get."

I kind of love the style of the story and how hilarious it all is and how many of us face many of these same issues as first time parents -- maybe in a slightly different context -- maybe its the baby screaming the first time you go out for dinner or when you are trying to get baby's first photos taken, but we all jump these hurdles.  Seems like they are settling into parenthood just like the rest of us!  :)

Here is a photo of them heading home on New Year's Eve:



As for me, I am still pumping for a milk bank that processes and fortifies milk for premature babies.  I am pumping more than 50 ounces a day.  This is definitely taking some true dedication and peptalks to myself, especially when I set my alarm to sleep for just 2.5 hours or less at night before waking up again at night... I get 3 two hour periods of sleep at night and ... well that is it.  But I am hanging in there.  My body is feeling back to normal and I am ready to get out there and make myself healthy again. On delivery day, I had gotten up to 204 lbs -- of course some of that was water weight, but now I am down to 171.  I am watching what I eat, drinking a ton of water, and of course burning 1100 calories a day just making milk!  I plan to start training for a half marathon very soon.  I started classes again this week and was planning on graduating this June, but I have decided now to not rush the graduation as when I graduate, I will feel pressure for the 'What's next?' period and I should just take this time to enjoy my family before I decide to pursue more schooling or a career.  We head for Disney in February and my kids were very excited for this Christmas Present this year!  I think that is about it.... Talks of a sibling project is in the works, but first we have to pinpoint a timeline before that information can be revealed! 

Be looking out for our birth story... I promise, it is coming soon!