Our Pre-Baby Staycation

Our pre-baby staycation ... aka, the time I took way too many selfies. 

(It's true)

The story starts with a gift under the Christmas tree that I was SO excited to give my husband. Two nights, early February, complete bliss awaiting us at The Sanctuary in Kiawah. We even talked about adding on a third night in Charleston at a little B&B just to catch some favorite restaurants down that way.

THEN we realized that our getaway was booked for Super Bowl weekend. THEN the Panthers made it all the way to the Super Bowl (who knew?!). And after lots of discussion we both decided that we didn't want to be at a quiet and serene resort for such an exciting evening ... we wanted to be here in Charlotte with some of our best friends celebrating!

So, that trip got cancelled, and it was looking like we were just out of our opportunity to enjoy a second little "babymoon."

But then, we had the idea for a little staycation! (If you hate the words "babymoon" and "staycation" then I can't blame you ... but hang with me here).

I've enjoyed several spa days at The Ballantyne Hotel before but had never been an overnight guest with them. Ian's mom came in to stay with Camille, which they both loved, and he and I drove down 20 minutes to this awesome resort. We took a chance and booked the least expensive room, and upon seeing the watermelon under my shirt they took a little pity on us (ha!) and upgraded us to an absolutely beautiful executive suite. We had two full bathrooms, a living area separate from the bedroom, and two balconies. 

When the concierge brought our luggage up to our room, she'd also taken the time to write us this note and include a pink rose. Not a single detail here was missed!

After hearing such great reviews about Gallery Restaurant right there at the resort, we decided to book 8:30 dinner reservations there that night, giving us a few hours to just relax in the room and kick our feet up. I posted the above photo on Snapchat (@alizadventures) ... I took the most glorious, long bubble bath before dinner and then took my time redoing my makeup, curling my hair, and getting dressed.

This is one of my favorite maternity ensembles and it's all so inexpensive ... denim jacket from Steinmart, bodycon maternity dress from Old Navy, gold wedges from Walmart -- yes, they were a find!

I did have on a new necklace that I kept from one of my Rocksbox shipments -- the Perry Street Kylie necklace. I love the antiqued gold chain and tassel with the rhinestones. I think having a baby bump is the perfect excuse to rock a long necklace with a tassel! 

Don't forget that you can try your first month of Rocksbox for free 

using my referral code at checkout: alizadventuresXOXO. 

This will save you $19 and allow you to see 

if you love the boxes as much as I do!

Dinner that night was just awesome. The bartender hooked me up with a beautiful little mocktail that featured fresh strawberries and rhubarb syrup. Ian and I shared two appetizers, and I had a gigantic ribeye for my entree that was delicious. We even split a chocolate dessert. We had such wonderful conversation and kicked ourselves later for not getting a photo taken at dinner!

After breakfast together the next morning, Ian had two buddies to join him at the golf course for a round of golf and I headed to the spa. I spent a little bit of time at the indoor pool (I was a woman on a mission ... I was doing headstands and flips in the water, trying to see if the baby would spin around from the breech position) and then got ready for my 11am prenatal massage. 

The massage was just heavenly. This has been my third prenatal massage in the past month or so ... YES, that's quite a bit, but I'm not hating it! 

After my massage, I drove Ian's car back home so I could catch Camille before her afternoon nap. Ian returned home later after catching a ride with his guy friends. We talked SO much about how wonderful this little escape was. We had awesome conversation, we laughed together so much, we truly relaxed, we even slept in until 8:30 on Sunday morning! When the new baby comes, we won't be doing many overnights away, but once things settle down after a while we'd love to plan another night away just like this one. 

A Big Yay

Just popping in with a quick update ... some GREAT news from the 36-week doctor's appointment I've just returned from ... the baby's head is now down! I have total confidence that everything would have been 100% okay either way, but this certainly goes along a little better with the plan I had in my head :)

Thank you to each of you for sending good thoughts and your own positive experiences my way. Now -- four(ish) more weeks to go until we meet our sweet babe!

Spring Décor And Easter Planning

The first day of Spring is around the corner, March 20th, with Easter right on its tails -- Sunday, March 27!

I laid in bed yesterday morning in bliss ... I woke up before anyone else (big yay for not waking up to a toddler scream-cry which is my normal alarm clock), sunlight was beginning to stream in through the plantation shutters, and birds were chirping. This is my happy place. Waking up to a bright room instead of a dark room makes all of the difference in the world to me. I'm so looking forward to more early morning sunshine that comes along with the changing seasons.

I love saving pretty spring and Easter images on Pinterest, and several of my favorites below come from the same source -- Martha Stewart. I just love the clean, feminine, vintage look of a lot of her designs and tablescapes.

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What are your plans this Easter? I'll be a few days away from Baby 2's due date, so we will be relaxing here at home. Ian and I really want to hide eggs for Camille in the backyard this year since we think she'll grasp the idea of hunting for them.

But I'm so mean that I won't be filling them all up with chocolate and sugary candy ... when she is older, heck yeah! But for now, can you blame me for leaving them empty and just convincing her for one more year that the fun is just in finding the hollow pastel eggs?!

I know, I know ... mean mommy. ;)

Monday This And That

This weekend I went to a consignment sale on Saturday morning and picked up a few goodies. There is one more big sale happening next weekend, and I'll be going with my sister for the half-priced afternoon portion. The pickings will be a little bit more slim by that point, but there will definitely be deals to be found!

For Camille I picked up this adorable giraffe outfit and a reversible Christmas/Valentines Day jumper with appliques. 

Just a few more items for the new baby - a unisex swaddle sack and two blue newborn outfits, just in case we are having a boy! I need to officially cut myself off from buying boy items. I've got enough to cover us for the first week or so ... enough to give me time to make a dent in the Amazon Prime little boy apparel :) 

Also, just wanted to share how happy I was to get this email this morning from ePantry:

One of my least favorite aspects of monthly delivery services is that they don't necessarily alert you when your next shipment is coming until it's too late (side-eyeing you, Blue Apron), and you may end up spending more money on things you don't need. I was super pleased today when I could just suspend my ePantry order with a simple click. As much as I love the Method hand soaps that were scheduled to ship to me today, we are not quite ready for more and I don't want the clutter.

Surprisingly, one of our favorite items so far is this highly-scented candle. It is right up there with Anthropologie candles as far as the strength of the scent. We went with Vanilla Sandalwood and I'm having another one delivered to us next month. It's a soy candle so it burns cleanly and lasts long. Definitely a new favorite around our home!

Remember that you can earn $10 off of your first order, PLUS free shipping when you use my referral code HERE. Any of you that have tried it, have you received your first shipment? What did you think?

Lastly, today was our final Music Together class of the winter session. We LOVED joining this class again and having Miss Melissa as our teacher. You can check out the recap of the holiday session that I did here. We won't be able to sign up for the spring session since it falls over my due date, but it has been such a pleasure seeing Camille have so much fun every Monday in class. I truly believe that music classes are extremely beneficial to little minds, no matter how young, because they pick up so much on the rhythm and cadence of the songs even if they have no clue what the words mean.

Camille with Miss Melissa

I know a lot of you have shared with me that you have been interested in trying out a Music Together class, so I will do a post soon sharing a little more about some of the lessons we learned, the benefits of the classes, and how you can continue the teachings at home between sessions or if there isn't a class in your area. 

Now, time for me to take full advantage of this naptime and ... do some work on 2015 tax prep, YAY.

Five On Friday: TGIF!

It's time for another edition of Five on Friday and I do hope you'll join along!

Remember, all you have to do is post about five things on your mind, add our logo (found at the bottom of this post), and join the party using the linky tools below. Easy, and a great way to find new blogs and be found. :)

O N E
Ian was out of town last night, but Camille and I had a wonderful day and evening. A late afternoon rainstorm threw us a little for a loop, but we got creative with a dance party, some silly photos, and I even got brave enough to let her ditch the crayons for some REAL paint.

T W O
I am still receiving my Rocksbox sets and loving them! This past shipment was a great one ... all three pieces my stylist Justine sent me were home runs. She selected a Kendra Scott necklace (the Frances style in Iridescent Peach), a Margaret Elizabeth druzy bangle, and some Gorjana rhinestone stud earrings.

Don't forget that you may use my code ALIZADVENTURESXOXO to try out your first Rocksbox box completely free. You can log on, fill out a quick style questionnaire, and take a look at what sort of pieces they carry with no commitment. As a member, you can constantly update your wishlist (screenshot of mine below) to show your stylist the items you'd love to see show up on your doorstep. Wear the three designer pieces as long as you'd like (a day, a month, a season!) and ship them back in a prepaid envelope right from your own mailbox to get your next three pieces.

Occasionally I'll love a piece so much that I decide to keep it. In this situation, you're offered a discounted price, and you just leave it out of the box when you mail it back. So easy. Have you tried Rocksbox yet? I'd love to hear if you are liking it as much as I am. 

T H R E E
Recently I had an opportunity to try out Boon's new SNUG lid. This silicone spout is a universal accompaniment to just about any cup with a normal 2.5"-3.75" diameter. So, you go out to a restaurant, grab your SNUG from your diaper bag, and BOOM, instant sippy cup. The silicone lid is BPA-free, PVC-free, Phthalate-free, and my other favorite two-word combo, dishwasher safe!

Here's why we are favoring it more than ever these days: I'd been using the take and toss sippy cups almost exclusively with Camille (man, they are easy and cheap), BUT she has recently learned how to snap the lid off by herself. We've had some spills and dump-outs, and we've never been happier to have a slipcovered sofa during snacktime. So when these arrived, the heavens sang because the silicone lids are so snug (hence the name) that they are impossible for Camille to remove. 

I love knowing that I can keep one stored in my bag, taking up virtually zero room, and she always has access to a sippy cup. 

We are BIG FANS!

Boon SNUG is available at Target and on Target.com. 

F O U R
It's consignment sale season and this excites me so much! Last Friday evening after an early family dinner at Chuy's, I went over to the Harris YMCA presale and scooped up some goodies. I got five outfits for Camille, an adorable beach coverup in case the new baby is a girl, a little sailor outfit and blue Boppy cover in case the new baby is a boy, a gender neutral towel, some vintage wooden blocks, and ... an Ergo carrier (yay!) all for a grand total of $60. This weekend there's a sale I'd like to hit, and there's one more next weekend. Between the three of these, I'm hoping to get all of Camille's spring and summer wardrobe taken care of since we will be a litttttle busy this year with a newborn :)

F I V E

Lastly, big thanks to everyone who offered uplifting and encouraging thoughts yesterday about the new baby being breech. I was feeling some MAY-JAH activity in the wee hours of the morning today that don't have me 100% convinced that we had some turning action, but maybe just maybe?

I have talked to so many women whose babies turned around 37/38 weeks, and I'm 35 right now, so I'm staying positive. And ... hanging off of the couch three times a day.

TGIF y'all, and hope you will join in on Five on Friday this week! Cheers to the weekend!

*affiliate links used

Four Confessions

I'm happy to be linking up again with Jess from The Newly! Here we goooooo.....

1 // Gestational diabetes. It's going well. But I do have a confession. Sometimes I eat more sweets than I know I should. Nighttime is a prime example. I'll eat dinner, wait an hour, and then test my blood sugar. My next time to test is not until the next morning. But sometimes if my last reading was totally normal, I will eat something really sugary after testing -- like a bowl of ice cream. I hate not following the meal plan to a tee, but it's also been really difficult to not give in to my pregnancy cravings. SEE ALSO: EASTER JELLYBEANS

2 // I absolutely detest getting medical bills in the mail. Of course it's painful to pay them, but so many times they are just plain wrong. Yesterday I spent two hours on the phone back and forth between the medical provider and last year's insurance carrier trying to get some outstanding bills clarified. When I see bills come in the mail, I just want to curl up in a ball. (For example, I'm currently being billed $217 by one doctor's office for a preventive check-up for Camille. My insurance company verified today that I should be billed $0 for that visit. Huge discrepancy. What is happening, people?!)

3 // I'm the queen of starting projects and then ditching them if something gets hard. The bow holder I blogged about Monday is currently in that state. I can't get the vinyl monogram to stick on my painted canvas. And I'm just feeling so over it.

4 // Last one and a biggie. Well, to me at least. I found out last week that the baby is currently breech (head up, bottom down). I've been pretty sad about that because I am a type-A planner and that's just not the way I wanted it to go. There is still time for the baby to turn, and I'm doing everything that I can to help that -- exercises, inversions, chiropractor visits. But it weighs heavily on my mind the majority of the day and I won't find out until next Wednesday if anything has changed. If not, then I may need to go to the hospital to have the midwives try to turn the baby, and that carries its own risks... including an emergency c-section right then and there. That really concerns me, and I'm scared.

Okay, these are sort of wahhhhh-wahhhhhhh Debbie Downer -- but they're my confessions of what's going on right now! Hit me up with your confessions or at least some encouragement that I'm not alone in mine. :)

Blue Or Pink, What Do You Think?

I can't believe we are so close to having our second baby and finding out whether we will have another daughter or a son!

Today I thought it would be fun to take a look at what the old wives' tales say just for a little speculation. I know they should just be pooh-poohed, but maybe just maybe there's something to be said about them?

The Ring Test
Two people have done this test to me (my ring suspended over my wrist) and both times, it said I would have a girl first and then a boy.
VERDICT = BOY

Chinese Gender Chart
Let's see what the Chinese gender chart says about this one...
VERDICT = GIRL

Mayan Calendar
And the Mayans are in agreement...
VERDICT = GIRL

How Am I Carrying?
People have told me this pregnancy that since I'm carrying all of the weight in front, that they are predicting blue. But then again, I carried the same way with Camille!
VERDICT = BOY

Heartbeat
My baby's heartbeat has typically been over 140 throughout the pregnancy, which should indicate more bows and princess heels.
VERDICT = GIRL

Beauty Clues
Little girls steal your beauty, apparently, and make you break out. Boys can give you dry hands. I've had clear skin this pregnancy and extremely dry hands (which happened to coincide with snowy days).
VERDICT = BOY

Cravings
Sweet or salty? I've been craving more sweets than salty foods (not so compatible with my gestational diabetes) so that seems to flag us for pink. Then again, I've always been a sweets lover.
VERDICT = GIRL

Sympathy Weight
Apparently, if the husband packs on a few pounds during the pregnancy, it's a girl (and this was somewhat true with Camille). My hunky husband has actually been super health-conscious this time around which is probably just coincidental, but all signs point to blue.
VERDICT = BOY

Morning Sickness
So, morning sickness signals a girl, huh? Well, I didn't have it at all with Camille, and I got lucky this time around, too.
VERDICT = BOY

Your Votes
I added a "pink or blue" vote in my blog sidebar, and so far, you guys are split 55% blue and 44% pink. So you are definitely feeling a brother for Miss Camille!
VERDICT = BOY

If you have been pregnant, do these old wives tales work with your child/childrens' genders? 

Movie Recommendation

Ian and I don't always agree on movies, so when one comes along that we both want to see, it's pretty darn exciting. Ian happened to see the preview of this one before I did, and he immediately knew that I would be all over it.

Saturday night we sat on the couch with Chinese take-out and watched Room. 

Wow, wow, wow.

The main actress, Brie Larson, took home the Oscar on Sunday night for Best Actress. No shocker there for me.

You can click here for a synopsis of what it's all about. The topic wasn't the easiest, but it was handled incredibly well.

Have you seen Room? Did you love it as much as we did? We even woke up the next morning talking about it and agreeing that it was one of the better movies we have seen in a long time.