I gave birth to my son 6 months 2 weeks and one day ago, and I have no real  recollection of how big my baby bump actually was. If someone gave me a piece of string and asked me to cut it to the length that would have stretched around my enormous middle, I would have no idea how to gage how big I truly was. For me the size of my enormous baby bump was something that I wanted to flee from my memory that minute I gave birth, because I am sure if I would be able to see ex-actually how big I was, I would surly never have another baby!!

Unlike me, many women decide to cast their pregnant abdomens. They use deco paje or a paper mache type substance and make a mold of their pregnant bellies days before they pop, for them it is something they want to forever be a symbol in their home. I think that making a belly cast is symbolic at best, my first question would be how do you store it and where do you store it. Does it become one of those pieces in your home ear marked with the name of conversation starter….. imagine the conversation….. company asks, What is that mold of and you reply my pregnant belly, what do you really expect them to say? WOW it is beautiful?

For me the size of my baby belly is a memory that I want to kill, but if you feel like keeping it around, you could always cast your belly and hey…. maybe 3 or 4 kids down the road you can take stats of which child caused you the bigger bump!

Everywhere a new mom goes, everyone is dying to tell her what she is doing wrong, and what she is doing right. Mostly I just think everyone should keep their opinions to themselves. Alot of times these so graciously given advice back up their comment with the statement “I should know, becuase I have had 3..4.. kids” My thought is well then if you have three or four children then you got the chance to do everything YOUR way and now I am going to do it my way. But instead I just nodd my head and look away. I believe though that SOME of these women commenting on your child have no children, therefore my comment to them is “If you want to raise a child the “right” way maybe you should try having some of your own” but instead I just nodd my head and look the other way. But it is true that we as mommies all look at other mommies and judge them, though I hope no one reading this blog would choose to judge outloud, comments are better left contained most of the time to our own brains. Here are some things that I would like to say to other mommies, but do not:

1. If you child is old enough to ask for a cookie to drink with his milk, he or she should no longer be getting the milk from you boob.

2. When it is seventy degrees outside it does no warrent for you child to wear a coat, the poor baby is sweating because you think that they might catch a chill.

3. When it is forty degrees outside your child DOES need socks!

4. Is it that hard to change a shirt?, or do you enjoy your child looking like a mess and everyone around them being able to tell, and smell what they had for dinner.

5. IT IS NOT OK, to change your childs diaper on a table in the food court of a mall, easy it may be disgusting it is!! YUCK

You spend hundreds of dollars redoing your babies wardrobe every 3-4 months when they decide they are now much to large for the full closet of clothes you have for them. So don’t you want to get the most for you money, but still give your little guy or gal the best and most adorable selection that is out there!! I do! So I have been doing some research about which stores have the best deals, most durable, stain resistant and most functional clothing for babies. I rated them on a scale one star leasts fav. four stars most fav. This is what I have come up with:

Target: I like Target because to me it is an up scale Walmart, they have baby clothes on clearance for up to 70% off. I did find that most of the things avaliable at Target are your run of the mill, everyday normal baby outfits, nothing unique about them. They carry store brand and some “generic” name brand lines, overall I like the selection, even the clearance has a bunch of sizes to choose from. ***stars

Childrens Place: This store is its own brand and a specialty store in amongst itself. The clothing is adorable and they have a vast selection of affordable unique clothing. What I like about Childrens Place is that once your child reaches 6 months to a year old you can shop in two diffrent sections of the store expanding your selection even more. The quality is good, after a few washes you may notice a small amount of fading but that is normal. The prices are good, but they become even better when you combine coupons with sales and many times can get in season clothing for 40-60% off!! ****stars

 Old Navy: Old Navy is also a brand in itself. Though I enjoy shopping here for myself I find that the childrens clothing is ugly!! I found some cute things for little girls, for little boys, I found maybe one outfit that fit my style. The clothing was also a bit more pricey initually, but once the clothing made it to the clearance racks it was comparable to the other stores. **stars

 Gymboree: This was my least favorite store. Like most of the others I visited this store is a brand in itself. The store was quite compacted and made it *hard to move my stroller in and out of the isles, I thought that the selection was pretty good but that the prices where far to large for my budget. The clearance rack was also dissapointing, the prices were not clearance according to me, and the clothes clearanced were not even close to being in season. Swim suits on clearance in Oct. when it is 40 degrees!!! *star

TJ-Maxx- This was by far the best store I found overall, the selection was so great in this store, it took me 30 minutes to just browse through everything they had to offer in the appropriate size. TJ Maxx had Ralph Lauren, Timberland, Gap, and Carters for pennies on the dollar of what you pay in a retail department store. I compared an exact Ralph Lauren sweater from Boscovs to a one purchased at TJ Maxx it was EXACT and 75% less than the one from Boscovs. They have a wide variety of sizes in each outfit, and your child can have a vast majority of brands, and not risk looking like a specialty store model. ****stars

Baby Gap: This store has a unique selection of clothing they have alot of brand shirts (meaning they have the brand name on them). They had a good selection of practical things, but also had those specialty items, like argyle sweaters, and peacots. The prices were the highest of any store, but the quality and classic look of the clothing will be able to be passed down. ***stars

I have fond memories of the day I found out I was pregnant. I woke up at 5am that September day and just felt very off. I did not want to get dressed and I felt over emotional. I thought I was just getting the flu or a cold. As I lay huddled on the couch  wrapped in a blanket as if it were 5 below my dear husband was leaving for work, he asked if there was anything he could get me on the way home and I said a pregnancy test. The look on his face was priceless. You could tell the thought never even crossed his mind. Well obviously if you read my info that pregnancy test was positive. I never felt so great in all my life after seeing those two pink lines. I felt the excitement of Christmas morning over and over again. But I was thinking today, as many women do, wonder if I could be pregnant again. We were not trying the first time, who knows I may be right now and not know it. Then I began to think about pregnancy tests in general. I wonder when were they invented??? Before the pregnancy test did women just walk around possibly noticing the absence of a menstrual cycle but not be 100% sure they were pregnant? Did they just wait until they had missed 4 maybe 5 cycles to truly believe they were pregnant. Hum… or maybe they had no idea until one day their ankle length skirts no longer fit and their hidden breasts became more apparent. I just wonder how I would survive if I had been pregnant in say 1920. You could not find out the sex of the baby I am sure calculating a due date would be highly unlikely and you could never be 100% sure that your growing abdomen was due to a pregnancy until delivery day. I am glad I am child bearing in the year 2008 what about you?!?

I am so glad you stopped to see what my blog is all about!

I decided to start a blog where mommies of all kind could come to enjoy a few good stories, some tips and probably more than a few laughs along the way! My goal is to explore everything about being a mommy from the baby belly to the bouncing bundle of joy they become. I am a mom of a 6 month old son and I can tell you that I wish I had a blog to read that shared some good information and some true sentament, during my pregnancy and early months of parenting! My hope is to touch on some important topics about pregnancy, parenting, breastfeeding, current child related issues and bring up some controversial ones too, because I think everyone has something to say that is worth hearing! Leave me a comment or two if you can and let me know if there is anything you would like me to talk about, and come back to read about the many ups and downs of mommy hood soon! *for now*

~Aleise