1. I obviously had to make a decision on the swimsuit whether I wanted to or not. I appreciated all of your suggestions so much and visited lots and lots of links to find the right one for me. I didn’t end up choosing any of the three suits that I posted. I knew I needed a suit with lots of ruching in the mid section to camouflage any problem areas, so I chose this suit from J.Crew in black. It’s really flattering and has a nice little detachable halter strap. I do wish the leg was cut a little higher, but I wear a cover up most of the time anyway.

2. So sad about John Hughes. I think more than half of my list of all time favorite movies were his movies. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Home Alone are both family favorites around here. My dad saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the theater and we gave it to him for Father’s Day that year because he talked about it so much. We have home movies of my brother and me at ages 5 and 2 singing “Twist and Shout” at the dinner table. I knew that “Twist and Shout” was Ferris Bueller’s song before I ever knew it was a Beatles song. Our family quote is, “Never had one lesson!” 

Todd and I quote Home Alone on a daily basis and joked about naming our first child Kevin McCallister– K-Mac for short.

Everyone has sentimental stories about the John Hughes films and that’s what makes him and his movies so special. If any of his movies are on TV you’re going to stop and watch no matter how many times you’ve seen it. They’re movies that you can sit and watch with your parents or your child and not feel embarrassed or ashamed. What a genius. Thank you, John Hughes.

3. Hudson is 2 months old. He was born 9 weeks ago today! I can’t believe how big he is– but honestly, it seems like he’s been with us for a whole lot longer than 2 months! He changes every day and we’re about to get a big belly laugh out of him. He has his 2 month check up when we get back and I’m dying to know how much he weighs.

4. I’m feeling okay this week. Thank goodness! I am finally starting to feel like myself again and I honestly believe that it is all due to prayer. All of the issues I was noticing last week have just disappeared this week. I got started back on the pill on Sunday and started having some terrible side effects on Monday afternoon that lasted until Wednesday night. I wasn’t sure that they were due to the pill until I started analyzing the differences in my habits and it dawned on me, “Oh! It’s the pill!” I started Googling around and then I asked everyone on Twitter about some common side effects of Yaz and immediately stopped taking it. 24 hours later I was fine. Not sure what birth control method we’ll use now, but pregnancy is not an option right now, so we’ll be finding something that works soon.

5. I am just pages away from finishing The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Love. This. Book. It’s a great summer read and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.

Next up: Wedding Girl by Madeleine Wickham. Has anyone read this book? Thoughts?

I got a bit scorched yesterday. I was trying to stay in the shade, but my legs got too much sun, so I’ll be sitting inside today finishing my book and helping my mom snap beans while watching HGTV. I can’t even tell you how beautiful the water is. It’s so still and clear blue. I love to watch it from the air conditioned condo!

We had a great weekend– and it seemed to last longer this time! We actually got out of the house every day to do something fun for the first time since Hudson was born. It wore me out and wore Hudson out, but it was nice to get out of the house just for a little bit.

1. Shopping. Friday night, the three of us went to the mall to try to find some things for me to wear while my body is in transition. I’ve been wearing yoga pants for 6 weeks and it has got to stop! I needed some things that I can wear at the beach and an outfit a rehearsal dinner and a dress for a wedding. I was happy to see that I can fit back into Small tops and got a few really cute tops at BR. I was upset, however, to see that despite losing 30 of the 42 pounds I gained, I am still wearing pants 3 sizes bigger than my normal size. I only bought two pair of pants (one white and one black) and a pair of jeans to get me through this phase. The shopping trip was successful when it wasn’t depressing me.

2. Weight gain stress. I’ve just got to lose the weight. I wasn’t obsessed with it during the pregnancy. I accepted that I was going to gain weight and didn’t focus on it. But now that Hudson is here and I’m trying to feel like myself again, it’s hard to feel like yourself when you can’t wear any of your clothes. I’ve been to the dark side and you’ve all heard that story– I don’t want to go back. Now that we had to stop breastfeeding (due to lots of medical issues that I’ve chosen not to get too detailed with on the blog– for your benefit, trust me) I am not as concerned with getting enough calories. I’m still on my very specific diet that my doctor gave me to help the healing process, but it’s nice not to have to get those 300 extra calories in every day when you’re trying to lose weight.

… alright, enough pity party

3. Birth annoncements. The birth announcements will be mailed out tomorrow. Being away from work for so many weeks, my hands aren’t as strong as they used to be. I’m not on the computer as often and I’m not writing with a pen and paper as often. When I addressed those 200 birth announcements, I thought my hand was going to fall off!

4. Date night. Todd and I had our first date since Hudson was born. We went to see The Hangover. I know it’s not the best date movie, but we both really wanted to laugh and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t take him to see something that would cause him to roll his eyes through the entire movie. We both did laugh a lot. Funny movie. A little yuck at times, but really funny.

5. Sleepy baby. Hudson slept five hours on Saturday night. Not sure what happened to that last night, but Saturday was a good night! The good news is… he always goes right back to sleep after he wakes up and eats. I saved a lot of your earlier suggestions on getting through the night and have been reading them over to figure out what might work best for us. I don’t remember who asked this question, but we do swear by The Happiest Baby on the Block. At least for soothing and calming techniques. It’s magic!

6. A blogging rant. I appreciate the friendships that I’ve made through blogging so much. I know that there are readers that don’t comment so I haven’t directly communicated with you via email, but I do appreciate that you read. Those of you that do comment have become great friends to me. I love the community that has formed through all of these newlywed, young professional, engaged, in college, working mom, and stay at home mom blogs. The support and encouragement that has developed is so much fun and I love to see what everyone is up to. I addressed 15 birth announcements to friends that I’ve made through blogging. Beautiful!

I have to ask one question… because I know other bloggers have dealt with this, too… tell me if you think that just because we have blogs and write about our lives, we want advice on how to live our lives and how to make decisions about our lives including, but not limited to, medical decisions, job decisions, life decisions, and child-raising decisions. Is that why any of you started your blogs? Or did you start your blog to have a place to voice your thoughts and opinions or just track your daily happenings? I thought so.

7. Church. We had our first Sunday back to church yesterday. We took Hudson to the nursery and Todd and I went to Sunday school. It was so great to see our friends! I have loved being at home with Hudson, but when I got out yesterday I felt like an animal coming out of hibernation. He did great in the nursery and was sound asleep when we came to pick him up, so we seized the opportunity and went to Zoe’s Kitchen for lunch. Here’s a picture of Hudson and me right before we left for church. I love his little Bailey Brothers bubble. It has sailboats on it. And this was his first time to wear shoes. He’s such a little southern gentleman!

8. Books. I finished My Sister’s Keeper yesterday. I really enjoyed the book. I haven’t seen the movie yet– wanted to finish the book first. I did hear that the ending is completely different, so I have a good idea how the movie ends. I can never understand why they change the story so drastically from the book to the movie.

9. Giveaways. I’ve got a couple of giveaways coming up in the next two weeks from two fun companies. I just need to get my act together so I can get the details straight and get it posted. Stick with me.