Look out LA, here I come!

Dear Mom, I can't wait to get to LA! I hear the weather is hot but not sticky hot. And I don't really like the sticky part. I'm so excited I could just pee myself. 27 days!!

xoxo Story

P.S. Like my hat?

Ideeli Now Carries Baby Brands

Ever wonder how those people over at Ebay are able to carry top designer brand merchandise at such cheap prices?

They shop at discount stores like TJ Max, Loehmanns, Feilenes Basement and at outlet stores like The Rack and Baby Gap Outlet. They show great patience for the hunt, sifting through barrels of discount clothing to get the best deals to mark up for profit. As a new mother, I sadly don't have time for the bargain barrels anymore. But I still want a good deal and find Ebay a tangled maze that involves a very good idea of exactly what I want. That's why I am such a fan on-line flash sales given by reputable companies like Ideeli, Gilt Group and Billion Dollar Babes. I already know that these sites carry the brands I like and I know they will give me the sort of deal that I don't have to dig for.

I've used these services for years to buy my rare print dresses or European heels. But after I had a baby, I stopped buying clothes for myself that don't zip down the front or hold up to half-a-gallon of spit up. And I started noticing baby items in my favorite flash sales line-up.

Which brings me to my exciting news of the day. Ideeli has started carrying baby brands and is having a flash sale today on three baby dud designers that have been previously out of my budget.

Mini-Muffin is a New York brand that makes super soft infant clothes. They are right on the latest infant trend, as they offer a meaty selection of luxe cotton top and bloomer sets. Originally $38, but $19 at ideeli.

Creative and inspired infant boys clothes are hard to find, but check out these pieces.

Mini-Muffin Blue Coverall, normally $42 but only $18 at ideeli.

These adorable "short"alls are $42 at Neiman Marcus, but only $22 at ideeli.

And my favorite little outfit of all is this cute jean skirt and soft polka dot top. Originally $42, this number is now $21.

I'm a sucker for little details, fun prints and mixed patterns and textures. Think they make this in my size?

Ideeli also carries great labels for women, combining LA and NY designers to give you a good selection of hip mom gear. Sadly, not enough zippers and button down tops for this fashionista, but the baby gear is always on my radar. I'll keep you posted next time they get something good up on their site. In the meanwhile, check out their latest collection from Mini Muffin, LG and Baby Steps.

Like My New Shoes?

Oobi Baby! at Billion Dollar Babes

Lately, I have been spending way too much time on the internet, filling carts with items I will never buy. One place I frequent often is Billion Dollar Babes. They mostly sell trendy adult lines, but from time-to-time they sell something for babies or children. The savings are usually so fantastic, that I feel compelled to pass along the information. And today they are featuring the most adorable line of baby bloomers and Parisian inspired party dresses.

(Normally $60, but only $30 at BDB.)

It's been hot in Philly and my little Story sleeps in her diaper to stay comfortable in the 85 degree heat. Of course, she would be just as cool and much sweeter in a pair of these bloomers. Normally $30, they are only $15 and I want to buy them in the dozen.

These items currently grace my shopping cart at Billion Dollar Babes. But like most these sales, I look, I coo, I share, I fill my cart and imagine my little Story crawling across the floor in them. And then I look at my bank account and realize that no matter what a great deal or how lovely - I simply can't afford it.

So I'd like to live vicariously through you! Check out the awesomeness of Oobi Baby! at Billion Dollar Babes today and then tell me what you bought!

Small Paul at Billion Dollar Babes

I like cute monkeys. Who doesn't? And perhaps that is why I love Small Paul, the kid line of Paul Frank. It's normally out of my budget, but that is why I stalk Billion Dollar Babes for certain designers. And just my luck, today is Small Paul Sale day at Billion Dollar Babes!!

Here are some of my picks for today:

This adorable onesie normally sells for $27.00, but is only $8.10 at BDB.



I priced this romper at $43.00 just a month ago in a children's boutique, and now it is only $12.90 at BDB. That's kinda awesome.

For the boys...



Sleeper is normally $36.00, but $10.80 at BDB.



And this super adorable PJ set would run you $43.00 at Bloomingdales,but is $12.90 for the next 24 hours at Billion Dollar Babes.

My friend Rachel loves Paul Frank. So you better get over there now and buy it before someone like Rachel snatches it all up!

Petit Bateau

When I woke up this morning, I saw there was a flash sale over at Billion Dollar Babes for one of my very favorite baby brands Petit Bateau. I first fell in love with their little french floral prints when I was shopping in an overpriced baby shop on Rittenhouse Square. They wanted to charge $35.00 for the below romper. Well Billion Dollar Babes has it on sale today for $12.25!! Isn't the little floral pattern exquisite?



My favorite steal is the animal print kimono onesie, normally $19.00but only $6.65 today!!



Get over there and shop!!

Billion Dollar Babes Gives Free Shipping

I recently discovered the super soft and modern fashions of rabbit moon. The California based baby and toddler line is currently on sale over at Billion Dollar Babes, and I don't think it will last long.

I mean, who makes clothes for boys this cool?
And can we talk about the below sweet little floral and polka dot blocked onesie that retails at $21, but is selling out fast at BDB for only $9.50? It's super awesome.

I highly suggest you get on over to Billion Dollar Babes now before the collection is gone!

When should I start wondering what to expect after the expecting part is all over and there is a baby on my lap? (10 Days Left)

Since the day I discovered I was pregnant, I started reading What to Expect When You're Expecting. Hungry for more information about my rapidly changing body, I hit up the blogs and signed up for newsletters from both the American Pregnancy Association and Penn Medicine. I hungered for my weekly fix of pregnancy tips, advice and knowledge. I read about delivery and hospital protocol, I attended childbirth classes. I participated in on-line forums that debated the best way to bring your child into the world. I pumped my family members for their delivery stories. Rolling into 39 weeks, I think I’m as prepared as one can possibly be prepared for childbirth. But when should I start wondering what to expect after the expecting part is all over and there is a baby on my lap?

Up until now, every story has ended in birth. The last nine months have been about crossing that finish line when you hear your baby cry, Daddy cuts the cord, you deliver the placenta and then you lay back on the hospital bed sweaty and exhausted. Mission accomplished, right?

But then what?

With only ten days remaining in my baby countdown, I am anxious to switch gears and find out. I’m on a quest to learn what I can about the upcoming year and below is a list of the books, blogs and sources I have been using to investigate. I've never done this before and I have no idea where to start. So please leave your suggestions in my comment box.

For Daddy
The Guy's Guide to Surviving Pregnancy, Childbirth and the First Year of Fatherhood
by Michael Crider
Smonk You Blog

To Establish a Routine in the First Six Weeks
The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior--Beyond the Basics from Infancy Through Toddlerhood
by Tracy Hogg

For Crying
The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer
by Harvey Karp

For Sleep Training
The Baby Sleep Solution: A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours a Night
by Suzy Giordano and Lisa Abidin

For Toddler Training
Supernanny: How to Get the Best From Your Children
by Jo Frost

For Warm Fuzzies
Dear Baby Blog

For Decor
Spearmint Baby Blog
ohdeedoh Blog
Design Dazzle Blog

More Gear and Registry Essentials, Part II (12 Days to Baby)

According to my mother, it’s time for me to finish up listing my registry essentials. Apparently these gear posts are a bit boring to the mom’s no longer in the consumer trenches.

“Back when you were a baby, we didn’t have all these fancy options. We made our own baby carriers out of twine and backpack frames. And you have seen the photos of you coming home from the hospital – there was no car seat.”

I’ve seen the photos. In the first one, my mother is sitting in the passenger seat, smiling a toothy grin at the man on the other side of the camera, protecting a little white bundle on her lap. Her skin looks soft and dewy and fresh and she oozes joy. Her pretty blue dress matches a ribbon woven through her perfectly coiffed hair. This is a happy mother. In the next photo, there is my father. His youthful, tall and lanky frame is emphasized by his proud pose, hands on his hips like a superhero. He smiles as if someone just told a funny joke and while his eyes are disguised by a pair of thick rimmed Buddy Holly glasses, you can see the ambition and the confidence in his gaze. This young couple is so clearly overflowing with joy at the promise of a future filled with bottle feeding and diaper changes.

“When you were little, I had the toughest time getting you to sleep. I would put you in the crib for a nap or down for the night and you were perfectly happy to just sit in your crib and play with your books and toys. I would stand outside the door and listen to you talk to your toys. I needed you to sleep. So, I finally cleared every single toy out of the crib and left you nothing but a blanket. Oh, I felt so guilty. I thought for sure you would erupt in tears. But I stood outside the door, and could still hear you in their talking away. Well, I went into the room and found you playing with the tassles on your blanket. You had a Mommy tassle and a Daddy tassle, an Erik tassle, a Katryn tassle, a Kirsten tassle and a little tassle that was meant to be the family dog. You found some way to make that blanket into a dollhouse and I just gave up! So no matter what you think you need to have for your little girl, just remember that kids don’t need all the little things we think they do.”

Thanks Mom. And since yesterday was your birthday, I will hurry through these last five registry essentials.

The Diaper Genie

The only thing my father insisted we purchase was a diaper genie. I had no idea what this was until he explained, “It’s for dirty diapers, so your entire house doesn’t smell like baby crap.” This handy little device opens when you step on the little foot pedal and makes an airtight seal when you take your foot off the pedal. It contains a deodorizer and can be sealed off at the top whenever you are ready to take out the trash. My mom told me that if we didn’t get one, we were not likely to get a visit from my father. We registered for the Diaper Genie II Elite Pail System and a 3 pack of bag refills.

(We thank Kevin and Mary for keeping our house smelling fresh for Papas next visit)

The Baby Bath

Did you know that you are supposed to bathe an infant nightly? Nightly! That’s a lot of bathing. And for two people that live in an old Brownstone with a bathroom that basically sits on the fire escape and runs about 25 degrees in the winter months, we knew right away we were going to have to bathe our baby in the kitchen sink. Sink bathing requires a small tub and eliminates most of the available options. We were rethinking our strategy when I stumbled upon this Infant To Toddler Tub with Sling. Despite being an awful bright shade of pink plastic, it fits perfectly in our kitchen sink, has a little sling for a newborn and includes a caddy for our little washcloths and soaps. It got great reviews on Amazon and at $17.99, it was way cheaper then all the other models.

The Swing’n’Bounce

My sister-in-law insisted that we need something to put our baby in that would shut her up immediately when nothing else would.

“It will be your favorite baby gadget,” She assured me.

We surveyed the options, read the safety ratings and took our BuyBuyBaby Gearologist’s recommendation and went for the Graco LIttle Jungle Swing N Bounce. After an afternoon putting it together, we found the perfect spot for all its adorableness. This little toy makes me want to be curl up in fetal position and let it rock me to sleep. We love the little giraffes and can’t wait to place our little bundle into its super soft vibrating, swinging, singing seat.

(Susan and John gave us the worlds largest box at my baby shower and inside of it was a much smaller and more manageable box that contained this fabulous swing’n’bounce for which we are incredibly thankful)

The Breast Pump

I promise, no photos. Gabe and I decided that we want to breast feed and pump in between so that we can both feed the baby. To do this, you actually need a breast pump. I had no idea what this was or how it worked or what it cost. Well breast pumps allow you to extract and store your milk. You stick these funnel like devices over your nipples and flick a switch that starts pumping out your breast milk into a tube that runs to a bottle. Have you ever seen someone milk a cow? Well it’s kinda like that. Except that breast pumps have really evolved and depending on how much you want to spend, you can get one that you have to manually pump or you can get one that pumps for you. Hands-free pumps are expensive, with some over $400. We pooled our BuyBuyBaby gift certificates and coupons and for $245 bought this Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump with Backpack. I have absolutely no idea how it will work or if I will ever use it. I pulled it out of the bag and tried to hook it up the other day and the whole thing just freaked me out. I’ll keep you posted on this.

Storage Bins

Now that we have all these lovely gadgets, toys, blankets, washcloths, burp cloths, and diaper products where do we stick them? I saw the perfect little cubby bench at Pottery Barn and then I found it for about $300 less on Amazon. Behold, the Monterey Cubbie Bench.This beauty will keep us organized and Daddy can use his new label maker to be sure we don’t mix up the bins. For me, this cubbie was a registry essential and it really helped turn our bedroom into more of a nursery.

So Mom, I think that about does it for our registry essentials. However, I reserve the right to keep you informed as baby tries out all her new gear. What we have should hold us through the first six months of babies life. And should we find ourselves in need, I know where to go for the twine.

More Gear and Registry Essentials, Part I - (14 Days to Baby)

When you are expecting a baby, beware the consumer trap! The sharks swimming on the outskirts of your baby bliss vacation will eventually attack. In one mighty bite they will convince you that you NEED a $1200 Stokke crib and fur lined wipey warmer and then they will swallow you and your paycheck whole. These sharks - the parenting magazines, the baby blogs, the women at the park - they will all try to seduce you with their fancy $1000 strollers, $900 cribs, $400 bedding sets, $100 onesies, $80 baby carriers, and $30 paci sterilizers. And then, after you have spent every last penny on the most stylish car seat, invested your time in painting the nursery, and given your soul to the devil in exchange for a custom mobile, she is born and the Bermuda triangle of expensive ‘must-haves’ just opens wider.

One day, I found myself musing aloud what kind of job I would have to get to dress my child’s ever-adjusting size in designer duds, buy her the ‘must have’ Christmas gift every year, and keep her nursery updated in the coolest decor. That is when Gabe staged an intervention and reminded me that we like to 'keep it simple'. With reluctance, I pledged to try and avoid the temptations and stick to the basics.

Dedicated to avoiding the hype, we compared prices, read Amazon reviews and consulted Consumer Reports before we selected all the essentials for our registry. My mother warned, “Don’t register for Lanolin cream, breast pads or pampers. And whatever you do, don’t register for clothes! Keep it simple, register for your big items and fill in the little stuff later.”

Armed with Mom's advice and full knowledge of the low balance in our checking account, we narrowed down our registry to the bare bone basics. Over the next few days, I will roll out our choices in order of necessity and significance. Now of course, we don’t know how these items will actually fare when we have a real live baby in our home. But I promise to keep you updated.

Here is what we deemed to be the essentials.

The Crib: This is where most people begin. I mean, the baby has to sleep somewhere, right? It's a good place to start, but not for us. A crib is a luxury that Gabe and I will indulge in when we arrive in our new LA home where hopefully our baby will have her very own nursery. When we are ready – I want the Argington Organic Bam Crib/Bassinet Set. It looks round (like the very expensive Stokke) but actually fits a rectangle mattress. The mattress size is very important because all the super cute baby bedding is ‘standard size’ and if you don’t have a ‘standard size’ mattress then you better be ready for exhaustive internet searches for odd sized sheets that usually come in boring colors like white and cream. The Bam is pretty simple and lets you lean into the crib from all sides. I liked the design – but may eventually cave for a knock off from IKEA.

In the meanwhile, our baby will be sleeping in the below Chicco Lullaby LX Playard outfitted with a custom fit Colgate mattress that is too small for ‘standard size’ sheets.

When I first popped up the playard in the bedroom, I nearly cried at its tent-like appearance. But after I found some pretty yellow sheets on Amazon and an adorable blanket that tied it all together, I was much happier with our baby's new bed.

My mother tells me that while I had a perfectly good crib when I was born, I preferred to sleep in a drawer or basket of laundry for my first few months. Other perks of the playard, it has wheels and can move easily from room to room while we figure out exactly where the baby will be sleeping. This version packs into a zip-up bag and wheels out to the car so you can take it to Grandma’s house, and at $145 it costs less than a crib. Her growing collection of little friends seem to like it just fine.

(Special thanks to Auntie Sue for the jungle themed playard where our baby girl will spend her nights for the next few months, and sweet Ms. Laura for the perfect bird mobile)

The Stroller: See previous post on the Baby Jogger City Mini Single Stroller in Orange/Grey.

The Car Seat: In the beginning, we were sure we could skip this item as we don’t even own a car. But then we learned that some hospitals require you to have one of these before they will let you leave the building with your baby. It still seemed an unnecessary expense, as a baby will grow out of an infant car seat quickly. We changed our minds when we realized we would need an infant carrier if we travel by air, if we rent a Zipcar, or even if we ride in a taxi. In addition, we figure we can attach the infant seat to a Snap'n'Go frame and use it as an infant pram for the first few months of the baby's life.

According to Amazon, the car seat with the highest safety rating is the Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant Car Seat. While other car seats were more attractive, the top safety rating made the Chicco seem like the best choice. But after reading more Amazon reviews, we discovered that the Chicco does not play nice with other gear. The Chicco car seat is flat on the bottom and doesn’t have a divet that lets you rest the seat on a stroller frame, or a shopping cart, or in a swing. That’s when we decided to go with the number 2 for safety and picked out the Graco SnugRide in the platinum color combination.

Besides being safe, it fits perfectly on our snap’n’go and is super light-weight. It’s not bulky and I can balance it in over one arm.

(Special Thanks to Ligia, Maiken, Elizabeth and Lillian for baby's first car seat and base)

The Changing Table: Rather than purchase a full changing table, we decided to simply register for a changing pad and affix it to the top of our beautiful map table. It broke my heart to apply the industrial velcro to our gorgeous table, but I was thrilled to not have to add another piece of furniture to our already cramped apartment. The velcro will come off eventually and a quick paint job will fix the eyesore. I had to look extra hard for a pad that was narrow enough for the table top – but I finally found this one. It's covered with a super soft Boppy Changing Pad in sage.

West Elm had a big sale on their trays after Christmas. For $9.99 I bought a white plexi-glass tray and stocked it full of diapers, little jars and ointments. I don’t know how well the Butt Paste works or if we will even need it, but I was a sucker for the label.

(Special Thanks to Aunt Joy for Hedvigs comfy changing pad)

That's it for today's gear review. But tomorrow I promise to tell you all about our fancy diaper disposal system, bright pink bath tub choice and must have chew toy.

To Be Continued...