Finally Nice Nursing Tops

Always looking for nursing top options, most are so sad - they are clearly maternity shirts and so bad on a postpartum body. And then Milkstars was born! A line of nursing tops designed by a friend of a friend, the idea is to make tops as nice as the Splendid or Michael Stars type tees, but with nursing access. This v-neck looks great -

 
It comes in several colors, and you can get 15% off using this code - Junesale15. As usual, click on the photo of the shirt to see more at Figure 8. They have free shipping and easy returns.

A cute stripe

I have been desperately looking for cute tees that fit and look flattering. Most of what I had before the baby doesn't fit, so it's the perfect excuse for some shopping! I've tried a lot of of shirts over the past few months and nothing seemed right. Then yesterday I went shopping and was so happy to find some shirts that looked great. most of them were splendid, but I didn't see this striped tee -

I love it, and think I will order it. All the stripes I've tried lately were too wide, they wobbled and accentuated parts I didn't want accentuated...this tiny stripe won't do that. Also love that color, it just shouts Spring, yay!

Maternity basics

Somehow I hadn't yet posted my favorite maternity tees that got me through my second and third trimesters, the Gap pure body line. I LOVE these, they are so soft and stretchy and have the nice ruching on the sides that looks cute as the belly grows.

 

How cute is that? I like the neutral too, but there are several other colors to choose from. Pure body also comes in cap sleeved tees -

These are great basics to get in a few colors.

A New Bottle for Mom

I get a lot of emails from PR people offering me articles, photos, even stuff. I almost always immediately delete them, but over the last few weeks I got a couple of emails I actually answered because they were offering products that sounded interesting to me, and thus I figured might be interesting to you. The first is what I'm writing about today (the second will come in a few days after I've tried it out a few more times). The Bobble water bottle - 

Why bother with a new water you might ask? I asked the same thing, but then I opened the box and found this really light bottle has it's own charcoal filter, like a portable britta. I love that because when I'm out shopping with clients I don't want to buy bottled water, it's so wasteful both in terms of the plastic and the cash. This way I could fill the bottle at a sink and it filters as you squeeze it out into your mouth. I'm a little nervous it will spill in a bag, but I threw it in my purse this morning for my early morning coffee run with the baby, and it was fine.

The big thing is that I really have found it nice for nursing. The "bottle" type thing I was using to drink from until now was the large cup with a top, handle and straw attachment that I got in the hospital. Everyone who gives birth in that hospital has it, so it's funny to go to people's homes and see it. We all use it for months, but I have no idea if its BPA free (which now might not mean so much unfortunately but still...) and I don't feel like it gets quite clean enough. If I don't use that I use a glass which has gotten dicey as Nate is stronger and flails his top arm when he nurses, he has at times knocked the glass into my teeth which isn't good. So, back to the bobble. It's not perfect. The water doesn't come out as quickly as it does a regular bottle, I generally don't choose to use the squeeze top part if there is an alternative but with this one you are stuck with that, and occasionally if I pull too hard on the cap the spout (which is attached to the filter) might come off too, but all in all it's a nice option to have.

They say the filter lasts for 2 months, and a replacement is $7. You can buy the bottle and replacement filters all over the place (which surprised me as I've never noticed them before), including Amazon -

BPA Free Isn't Actually so Free

An article in the New York Times the other day has instilled fear in every parent who reads it, about what goes into plastic when BPA comes out. Apparently the answer is other bad chemicals we don't want in there either. We've been using BPA free plastic bottles for Nathaniel. I chose them rather than glass because I was worried about glass breaking and that the bottles are too heavy but maybe that was the wrong way to go. If I'm going to switch, I guess it would be to these -

Or these 8 oz versions -

They have a sleeve that prevents breaking when dropped, and makes it easier to grip, and they are dishwasher safe.

Cute Summer Dress

I am loving this Patterson J. Kincaid linen dress for Summer -



I love the easy fit and drape of it, and the BUTTONS! I thought I wouldn't be able to wear a dress for ages, but this one has buttons which makes nursing or pumping possible. Amazing.

It looks a little sheer but it's lined. And I think you could dress it up for work with a cardigan or blazer and closed toe pumps or flats, or wear it for a more relaxed weekend look with sandals and a long necklace.

And speaking of necklaces, I had my first mother's day as a mom yesterday! It was so nice, we went out for breakfast and Greg surprised me with an actual gift - a necklace with a gold disk with Nathaniel's name on it and his birthstone. It's really lovely. He even got the chain length right - 18", anything shorter just doesn't hit at a flattering point and I feel strangled. So all in all, even with the new 4:30 am wake up time (I really hope we can figure out a way to fix that, I am going to have to refer to the sleep guru - what would Weissbluth say???), it was a great first Mother's day!

Maternity Sale

I don't want to repeat myself too much here, but there is another big sale at Isabella Oliver. This time it's their flash sale and today it's 44% off, the percentage diminishes each day for 5 days. So...if you are pregnant now is a great time to stock up on some great pieces for Summer! It really is an amazing deal for some very high quality clothes that you will wear ALOT throughout your pregnancy.

Here are just two examples -

And while we are at it, there are new markdowns at Shopbop, and while it isn't a maternity store, they often have things that work really well during pregnancy.

I like this cardigan -









It's sort of basic, but if you click through to see other views, it's got a really interesting shape. I like that one alot.







Happy shopping!