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Jack’s slowly but surely shaking this URI, though still hacking and sneezing more often than not. He lost a few pounds, but is definitely working back to that hearty appetite of his.
I finally got around to organizing my photos and thoughts about Jack’s first birthday, so I thought I’d share.
The boy’s birthday itself was definitely a momentous occasion for our little family. It not only marked a year into this funny adventure called parenthood, but it was a time to reflect on Jack’s colorful first year.
As we do for big holidays and occasions, we did the 350 mile trek down to VA to celebrate with family and friends. Because our life here in NJ has been so hectic with work and the pending transition, I quite honestly didn’t do too much to prepare for this shindig. While I love entertaining and partying in general, Jeff and I agreed that we are in that school of thought where over-the-top orchestrated parties should be reserved for bigger kids aka the non-shoe-eating crowd. To each his own, but for us, the drive down, alone, was a financial and time investment, not to mention a physical and mental sacrifice for the three of us.
The party was much like family parties that we’ve had in the past, except this one was all about our boy! There wasn’t really a theme per se—well unless you count exuberant chaos as a theme. I invited family members from both sides and a handful of friends in the area. Overall, it was an overwhelming turnout. From high school buddies and their kids to various giggling aunts, so many people came out to celebrate. The food, like most of our family parties, was abundant. We all ate, drank, watched Jack play with cake and cheered for cool little boy toys.
The birthday boy, much like his mom, was not the greatest at being the center of attention. Ok, so he hated all the attention. He whined and cried more times than I care to admit, but he absolutely adored being around all those kids. I know it’s so cliche to say, but Jack really wasn’t himself on his birthday. As I tried to grasp his crankiness, I told friends that he “realized” how much he missed my mom, which could’ve been the reason he lost his mind every time she left the room. Or, it could’ve been the big crowd or it could’ve been he was exhausted from the drive down. Who knows? There were times when I couldn’t even console him! He didn’t cry the whole day, he was just obviously having an “off” day.
Cranky pants aside, it was a fun day, thanks to our many friends and family. (Thanks again to all of you that came out! As I’ve learned over this past year: always expect the unexpected, even if it includes a sometimes uncooperative birthday boy. I’ll say it again, but I definitely look forward to celebrating holidays and birthdays in the state that we reside—wherever we end up! Wouldn’t that be something to celebrate?
A year ago today, I started out the day looking a LOT like this and ended looking more like that. Despite my obtuse exterior, I truly had no idea how much my heart–OUR hearts–would grow that very next day.
As summer fades to fall and we start putting away the shorts and pulling out the long sleeves, our family is inevitably going through a transition of our own. As much as I possibly can, I’m savoring the last few days as the baby phase officially winds down.
But alas, with a kid whose nose is like a running faucet and the overwhelming temperament to match, the past few days have been hard to enjoy. Like most families with kids in daycare/childcare outside the home know, if your kid appears contagious, he or she is banned! Since Jeff’s been working crazy hours and I’m faced with monthly deadlines (my last for this publication!) the daycare logistics have been less than desirable. Jack has been with me at work 1.5 days this week, home with me another and home with Jeff for half a day. In those movies where they glamorize magazine editors, they don’t show the part where their baby completely MELTS DOWN on Park Avenue during lunch hour for every Suit on the east side to see. To get even more graphic, since I wear black almost every day, I’ve started to look like a walking chalkboard– you know, with the runny nosed, clingy kid and all.
And to think, I once considered black a forgiving color!
But, it is what it is, right?
In a few hours, we’ll be on our way to Va. to celebrate Jack’s first birthday with family! Yippeee and ughhhh! And quite honestly, it’ll be, what we hope, the last major celebratory event outside of the state in which we live—aside from major holidays, of course. Interpret it how you will, but times are a changin’.
We’re throwing a smallish family party on Saturday at Lola and Lolo’s house. And from the looks of it, we may have the tailend of a storm for even more excitement! Cross your fingers that it won’t rain! Of all the things that haven’t been working out in my favor, I hope my kid’s party will be spared! We are not driving 700 miles just to have waterlogged Lumpia and soggy cake!!
Either way, it’ll be a happy day!! I can’t believe our boy is going to be 1!
Originally uploaded by jen_rab
Wheee! It’s Friday! Even though I’m working from home and pretty delirious from taking care of a stuffy baby all morning while trying to work, I am excited about this week (finally) being over. After all the emotions from the beginning of the week, I can finally focus on Jack’s first birthday next week! We’re all excited to go home for the weekend. I can’t even remember the last time we were there? July?
Better late than never, but I’m definitely in party planning mode. While my other friends started planning their kids’ parties before they were even born, I’ve surprisingly been pretty slack with this. Normally, I’m all about DIY party events. I guess with oh, quitting my job, I’ve been way too distracted to focus on what sort of icing Jack should devour.
Anyway, more about the party stuff later. Even bigger news: Jack has a new trick! It’s the baby Frankenstein kind of trick! He still doesn’t want to be bothered with walking, but he’s trying. I tried to catch him in motion the other night, so please excuse the mess and dark video. Oh, and the ball? Yeah. The baseball is a permanent fixture for him right now. We’re hoping this foreshadows a future hall of famer and retirement plan.
My summers as a kid back home in Virginia Beach consisted of swimming in our pool all day or going to the beach as often as our parents would allow. The same went for Jeff. Beach, pool, play– that was the life.
But once in a blue moon, we’d go to the waterpark which, back then, was called Wild Water Rapids. There’s nothing like swimming and splashing around in a public chlorinated germfest.
Even at 32, I still love it–which is exactly why I wanted to bring the boy to the waterpark, which is now know as OceanBreeze.
So, the night before, I spent the evening stocking up on snacks, Swimmies and locating beach towels. On Saturday, we made our way to the waterpark early enough to snag a front row spot.
We marched up to the entrance, snack-filled bags in tow, to be greeted by a short line. After we bought our tickets we had to get our bags checked by one of two bag checkers. Like we would on the NJ Turnpike, we foolishly and unknowingly chose the asshole line.
We had 2 bags: the diaper bag with all of Jack’s paraphernalia and a reusable tote with our towels and snacks. Having not visited this park in 15 years or so, it never even occurred to me that outside food wouldn’t be allowed. And just as we got up to the bag checker guy, even before he could open my snack bag, like the crappy poker player I am, I revealed all of my cards: “So, I’m assuming outside food isn’t allowed in the park.”
“Sorry, no, it’s not.”
After the sad realization of having to part with my brand new tube of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles, I quickly went into mom mode. I deflected the bag checker’s Gestapo-like attitude as he peeled all of my unopened delicious chips out of my bag and asked defensively, “UM So, how is my baby going to eat?”
As he dangled Jack’s ripened banana all he could say was, “Well, what we do is put your items in a baggie with your name on it and hold at guest relations.”
I rolled my eyes and mumbled under my breath, just like one of those pain in the ass moms I swore I’d never become.
What I once considered such a joy became a huge pain in the ass.
As usual, Jeff volunteered to bring our delicious snacks back to the car. Jack and I wandered into the park and made our way to the kiddie area. And within a few seconds, as we sat admiring the Buccaneer Cove, I was excited again.
I inspected our goods in the disheveled bag after Mr. bag checker had his way with our stuff. I realized that he missed Jack’s lunch– frozen green beans. Score!
Once Jeff re-joined us, I broke out the swim diaper and sunblock. We stripped down the kid and did what we could to minimize the screaming as we pulled the diaper up over his bubble butt. After we applied the first layer of sunscreen, we were off to splash and play in the ankle deep water.
The three of us had a wonderful time being together again. It was a great way to reunite and share our childhood summertime fun with our own kid. The sprays, waterfalls, lazy river were such a blast.
Later in the afternoon, on our 57th lap around the Lazy River, Jeff pushed Jack in his inner tube as I paddle behind on my own too-small inner tube. Just as I yelled to Jack, “I’m gonna getchyou,” I heard someone say, “Jeff and Jen??” on the other side of the gate, just next to the entrance of the park.
It turns out, it was our friend Lisa, who was there with her mom, sister and her kids. I always forget what a big, but small town Va. Beach really is.
As we rounded out lap 64 on the Lazy River, with Jack on my lap, my legs started to fall asleep. As I pulled jack off and gave him to Jeff, I noticed a strange sight on my swim skirt.
Oh please no.
We walked over to the little pirate ship in the middle of the kiddie area. As Jeff held Jack, I peeked into his swim diaper AKA a septic tea bag and saw exactly what I feared.
Crap. Literally.
I have this single friend at work who loves telling me stories about his joys of going swimming at his local pool on Friday nights. “Friday nights are the best because there are no families there,” he’ll say. “Well, you know, because every weekend if one kid isn’t barfing in the pool, another is pooping in it. And of course, my time is always cut short thanks to them!”
Those are always the kind of conversations that I’d smile, nod and chuckle and go about my day. And then, I’d think to myself, “my kid won’t ever be one of those.”
If you know where I’m going with this, here’s your warning: do not pass go if you don’t want to read about well…you know.
Per usual, I’m sure I went about this whole thing the wrong way. But once I realized that Jack went #2, I immediately whisked him off to the bathroom to change and disinfect ourselves. I plopped him on his travel changing mat, atop one of those bathroom changing stations and foolishly tried to pull off the diaper exposing a scattered mess in my haste.
Experienced moms should warn you about these things. But then again, this is probably common sense– something I definitely did not tout at that particular moment.
As luck would have it, my kid wants to run and flail, just as a busload of people decide to come in and change next to us, while a curious little boy wants to make conversation with Jack.
Surely, they were all mocking the novice spectacle that just exploded in front of us.
As I mouthed obscenities to myself, I scraped and wiped and shook my head, as I tried to disclose the grossness that occurred in our corner of the shower area. After using almost every single wipe in our travel container, I put on a fresh new swim diaper and rinsed off Jack’s swim shorts. After wiping down the disgusting mess on the changing table, I sprinted back to Jeff to drop off the kid with the swiftness of a baton transfer in a relay race.
It was time to clean me and our travel mat! Thankfully, I carry around prepackaged alcohol towelettes in the diaper bag. I was able to scrub the soiled travel mat, as well as myself, as a long line of stall-waiting females could gawk and question what I was doing.
Swim diapers are designed to catch poo, and that’s about it. Apparently, they’re not designed to come off of your movable child too easily, nor contain the poo if the diaper is recklessly peeled off your child.
After the whole diaper debacle, the rest of the day was breezy. As Jeff “hid” from the sun, Jack napped for almost 2 hours and I was able to run off and escape into the various slides and tubes.
Needless to say, the waterpark with a kid is much more work but definitely a different kind of fun!
After a week away, Jeff and I drove down to Va. on Thursday to reunite with our little buddy. At first, when we started to plan our vacations for the summer, we thought our houseboating trip would be a perfect time to send Jack down with our families in Va. Jeff warned me that any time away from Jack would be hard, but a week would be nothing short of difficult.
When he’s right, he’s right.
For starters, our weekend trip with friends was awesome. We’re so thankful that we got to go; however, the days after the trip left much to be desired. The day after we got back, I had to pack a different bag and get into a whole different mindset—one that I definitely wasn’t prepared for. And like most of my business traveling experiences, I somehow always luck out with the most headache-inducing scenarios. This time, I experienced the joys of arriving late to a formal dinner, thanks to delayed trains. Sadly, the way home was no better. As if the train gods weren’t already mad at me, the PATH services home to Hoboken last Wednesday were suspended due to God-Only-Knows-What.
Those few days left me with little time to sulk about Jack being gone, but they did leave me with lots of time to ponder what’s next up in life. And thankfully, Thursday was when we left to drive down to VA to go see our little guy!
It was a long time away from him—way too long. I knew it going to be hard, but I didn’t think it was going to be that bad. 
Above all, I’m so glad Jack got to spend some much needed time with the family in VA. Like most children, Jack seemed to have brought a different kind of joy into their lives, especially since many of them only see him when we drive home for major holidays. As much happiness as he brings us daily, I’m so glad we were able to extend it their way. Jack experienced a lot of new joys with his cousins, aunt, uncles, lolo and grandparents—not to mention, a whole new level of being spoiled rotten!
But with the good always comes the not-so-good. Thanks to our parents heeding our pleads, for the most part, Jack kept a very similar routine with a few exceptions. Before Jack left to go to Va, he was becoming a champion crib sleeper—something that I’d worked months to do. Lots of sleepless nights were involved. I’m assuming he was being rocked to bed by my mom, instead of being laid to bed in his crib. And so when bedtime took almost 2 hours and lots of tears on Friday night, I felt so defeated. Our routine sort of went out the window—not only was I suffering, but so was poor Jack. It’s like I’d lost a battle of baby sleeplessness and gained much more baggage. It was then that I realized that poor Jack was also suffering from separation anxiety. Any time I got up to leave, he would let out a whimper and start wailing. And the same would go for the daytime. If I left him to go to another room, he’d cry and wail. He didn’t want anyone else to console him for the first few minutes, only me.
I feel guilty for making him feel like that. I feel guilty for being the cause of those big crocodile tears. I feel guilty for needing balance in life.
Yeah, sure, he’ll be fine in a few days, but it’s these first initial days of working on the normalcy that makes it so damn hard. I sort of expected the departure for work to be difficult this morning, but actually, it wasn’t so bad. It’s almost like, he knew we were back in NJ, thus, he knew we’d be going back to our old routine.
While he was in Va., I envisioned him eating steak and ice cream all week. Thankfully, he didn’t have either (at least not that we know of,) but we did roll up to my parents’ house to find a small collection of organic snacks galore. Without a doubt, the kid was spoiled rotten and unfortunately, we all learned that an allergy-sensitive kid shouldn’t be spoiled with too much snacks. We discovered that Jack has an allergy after eating certain baby cookies which contained safflower/sunflower oil—ingredients that can often be found in snack sort of foods and ones he’s never really had. So that was a lesson learned for all of us that we just can’t give him anything. We have to stay diligent with monitoring his foods. But man, did he love those cookies!
Appearance-wise, Jack looked the same, but I almost felt like his hair looked suspiciously shorter. Maybe it’s that his hair grew longer and I was visualizing it shorter? His top teeth have come in almost halfway, making him look like a baby hippo with his teeth all spread out and still missing one in the front.
He’s clapping more frequently, “playing” the piano and saying Amen (according to my mom.) But the most striking new thing is his pointing. It’s so funny—he points at everything he wants and makes one of his baby coos. He points at Jeff, he points at me, he points at his doggie, he points at food, he points at birds—you name it!
Even before Jack came home, Jeff and I agreed that there will be no more weeks in Va without us—it’s just too much when he’s this little. He enhances not only our lives, but our marriage that we felt so lost without him! We had 11 years of Jen and Jeff time, a week without Jack isn’t our idea of fun.
I’m thankful for the ability to share our boy with family, even though we choose to live far away; and yes, even if it does involve reverting back to a painful sleepless cycle. Sleep is overrated anyway.
Having close ties with family regardless of distance is positively priceless.
After a week of back to back meetings and deadlines, it’s finally here! Today’s the day I’ve been dreading and anxiously awaiting for weeks now.
Tonight, sometime after we get out of work and finish packing, we’re heading off– but into different directions. As I send Jack off with my parents–for what could be the first of many week-long summer trips to Va.– Jeff and I are packing our citified selves, along with our dusty outdoor gear to go play Jack Sparrow with our friends.
Booze, books and boats–sounds like a day in the life of Jen x 10. Oh, what an interesting weekend it’ll be.
And of course, as if I needed anything else to make me feel guilty about leaving the kid for a week at this age, Jack came down with a fever for the first time yesterday. Jack, who is extra clingy when teething, greeted me yesterday with a half smile, followed by a big barf. He seemed fine all night, but moaned and whined in his sleep, which, as you can imagine, made my heart crumble with guilt.
For months I’ve been telling myself, Jeff and anyone who asked, that WE need this week. As in, Jack needs to “know” Va. just as much as Jeff and I need this time together to unwind. Fortunately for all of us, there are many relatives in Va. just waiting for Jack’s arrival. Fourth of July is synonymous with freedom, and this sort of “freedom,” like the one we’re celebrating, comes with a price.
When it comes down to it, I love our daily routine and cringe at the thought of racing home, only to be greeted by an empty apartment. I’ll miss my baby immensely; I’ll miss our family of 3. I’ll live with this guilt of leaving him for the first time. Being in the position to be able to provide him with the opportunity to get to know our roots, but more importantly, the time to actually enjoy his extended family, will certainly pay its dividends in the end. (my sanity notwithstanding)
As for Jack’s freedom, let’s all cross our fingers that his crying is minimal, sleeps in his crib, stays healthy and doesn’t eat steak and ice cream all week.
Have safe and happy 4th, everyone.
I’m so behind in so many facets in life, it’s not even funny! One thing’s for sure, those back to back vacations were just what the dr. ordered!
Even though it’s Thursday, we just got back from our trip to Va. on Tuesday night. Spending a long weekend in Va. Beach was a great way to kick off the summer. And like always, after a nice visit back home, I always feel nostalgic and sentimental.
Jeff and I both have such fond memories of our childhood in VB. From swimming all day and night to playing out in our yards until the knees in our jeans dissolved. Home is where our hearts are…
As we made our way south down the turnpike, we were greeted with next to no traffic. Perhaps the mounting gas prices were to blame. And to think, NJ, of all places, not too long ago reportedly had the cheapest gas prices. Now we’re hovering right around $3.89/gal. I don’t blame a lot of people for staying local. For once, it was nice to have the road to ourselves!
Our time back home, as always, was fun. We spent time with Jeff’s family BBQing and watching the kids play together. It makes me feel old to see Britney- who was a baby when I moved up north- lugging my kid around. It’s so sweet to see how the bigger kids dote on Jack. I can already envision him running after his big cousins this time next year.
Per usual, we timeshare our visits with our two families and friends. On Sunday, we had a family friend’s baptism to attend and then another BBQ at home. Jack was able to give his uncle Jeff and uncle John drooly open mouth kisses, in between their crazy schedules. However, my favorite part of the weekend was, undoubtedly, sitting in my parents backyard– picnicking with the family, Jack swimming in his kiddie pool, laying on the grass with my boys and watching my parents enjoy being grandparents.
As my dad loves to remind me, “you can’t buy a backyard like this anymore.” To me, his statement translates to: the fruit of his labor, in a sense, is symbolized by their home and yard. Many memories were made there. Without a doubt, many more memories are upon the horizon.
I’m incredibly blessed to be able to share such an important part of my youth with my kid, even if it means driving 600+ miles in a weekend to do so!
For all those who wonder how we do that drive so often, that is why.
Since we literally and figuratively grew up at the Beach, it’s so inherent that we immerse our kid there, too. Honestly, it’s no surprise Va. Beach was tapped as one of the best areas to raise kids, according to Best Life.
Dreams and careers are what landed us in the NYC area. At a time when joblessness is at a high, a flourishing career is what will keep us here. It’s hard being away from family and friends, especially after fun weekends. But, as they say, there are trade-offs for everything in life.
Much to my dismay, Jeff once said to me on the eve of my departure to chase the unknown, “NYC is a great place to visit, but not a place I want to live.”
At this point in our lives, I’m going to put it out there: VB is a place we’ll always visit, but NJ/NYC is our home.
Congrats on your promotion, Jeff!
(I’m so glad you changed your mind.)
I’m not sure who has off like me today, so I don’t know if too many people are around. I thought I’d do a quick post while the boy naps and before I pack and all that other fun stuff.
Both of my parents were visiting us this week, which was a nice change of pace since dad is usually on my “team.” It felt like I had someone backing me every time I was headbutting my mom about something. As always, I love watching them interact with Jack, whom they deem royalty. They took off for Va. last night and brought a bunch of stuff Jack has outgrown to take into storage, i.e., their garage. I very reluctantly packed up the bassinet attachment to Jack’s stroller. But before my dad took it out to the car, I plopped Jack in to see how he “fit.” Not so surprisingly, he barely fit. He thought it was a fun place to hang but was very disturbed when he realized that he couldn’t roll out/over/into the bassinet. Nevertheless, just like me, he was sad to see it go. Bye baby 
bassinet, we’ll see you again in a few years.
Speaking of rolling, Jack continues to hone his mobility. He knows he wants to move, but hasn
‘t figured out that he needs to move his legs AND arms, so he still sort of “flies,” but has somewhat gotten the rolling thing down. He even rolls off of the changing pad, now. (Quick sidenote: we don’t have an official changing table bc of space constraints, so we just use the changing pad on the floor.)
When I blink my eyes or turn my head for 2 seconds to grab the wipes, it’s not uncommon to find him all sprawled out a few feet OFF of the changing pad. I’m pretty sure they make the belts on those pads for babies like him.
And finally, since I’m talking about mischief, like his mom and dad, Jack has a fondness for snacks. Well, obviously, not the actual food yet, but the bag. Yeah. The other night 
when we had that delicious salsa, we discovered that Jack was completely mesmerized by the sound the bag of tortilla chips made. Every time I dug into the bag, he would stop what he was doing and stare. Clearly, he had no clue what deliciousness was encased in the bag, but it was the bag itself that was his new obsession. So, we gave him the bag and let him go to town for a few minutes. Good times!!
And finally, I have another giveaway BUT I have an unhappy fella in the other room that is calling for me! So, I’ll do my best to post later, but if not, I’ll definitely do it on Monday.
I’m busy playing catch up at work since we were recuperating and preparing to get on the road yesterday.
Jack’s baptism over the weekend was a beautiful celebration surrounded by friends and family; we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day for the boy. Amidst all the preparation, commotion and loving attention, Jack seemed to enjoy the time spent with all of our family and friends (minus a minor meltdown at the church right before the ceremony began.) Everyone, as always, was so wonderful and gracious for Jack’s special day. The baptism, itself, was beautiful.
Jack and Jeff had a very significant father-son moment as Jack was officially baptized. Instead of wailing out of fear, Jack knew he was in good hands while his dad held him tight.
The lunch we hosted afterwards was just as awesome. It’s family/cultural tradition to have a gigantic celebration for baptisms. But because of our distance and small timeframe to plan, we had an intimate lunch with our closest family and friends instead. We hosted it at our friends’ restaurant, which unbeknownst to us, was opened early just for us. It was perfect.
I may moan and groan about our geographical separation from our family and friends in Va. and having to drive such far distances for every holiday or major event, but it’s times like this that remind me exactly why we will always return home to Va. Thank you to all of our family and friends who took the time to share in our celebration.
Can I brag about my awesome family a bit more? I wanted to say a special thank you to Jack’s Godmother, my cousin Kristine, who flew in from California to be a part of the day. Also, another very special thank you to another beautiful cousin, Melissa, who graciously took on the role as photographer during all the festivities.
Here’s a slideshow of the many pix that were taken on Sunday. Also, I’m opening up access to the flickr photos for the day. (I’ll set them for family and friends access only tonight.)
We have yet another road trip to Va this weekend. And since we’re leaving right after work tomorrow, I’m visualizing what I need to pack for myself…which reminded me of my latest post-partum debacle over the weekend.
I spent almost the entire weekend at the mall. I wasn’t on a boot shopping spree, unfortunately. Instead, this weekend, I had the misfortune of having to go dress shopping– because you know, my closest full of ‘old’ dresses just won’t do.
The baby’s baptism is on Sunday in Va. and of course, I had no problem helping to outfit both boys. The problem, as always, was me.
We went to one of the big outlet malls near us on Saturday and I swear, I must have circled this place 3 times. As I weaved in and out of Marshall’s, Filene’s Basement, Banana Republic and Kenneth Cole outlets, Jeff and the baby were so patient in my fruitless search.
Since I’ve had the baby, we’ve been to several weddings and other events that called for nice dresses. I wore dresses I already owned and showed off my post partum figure unapologetically. I mean, who cares? I just had a baby that was too big to come out on his own.
Yeah, I felt great while I was pregnant. But now that it’s been several months, I feel as though I need to at least look like I made an effort to ‘clean up.’
See, part of the problem I found was that everything I looked at either had a neckline that plunged to your navel and looked all hoochie mama-like or had frumpy silhouettes and floral prints that were ugly enough to make the Golden Girls nauseous.
I’ve lived in jeans and Chucks all day for the past few months, it’s hard to shed the comfort level. I know I’m not alone in feeling like this, so I did a little search online for some inspiration. Basically, most of the sites suggested the same thing: to embrace motherhood while being yourself, go for solids, avoid being overly trendy and accessorize when you can. Then why is it so difficult to find something that’s more me and not somebody’s grandmother or pre-pubescent hoochie-mama cousin? I’m old(er) now; while some of my friends can get away with shopping in the Jr’s department, I can’t.
Frustrated at my lack of options, I told Jeff that maybe I’d wear a suit next Sunday. Two pieces, tailored, nice, plenty of fabric to cover all the unforgiving areas.
“But don’t you want to look more ‘motherly?'” Jeff asked?
If it were only that easy.
If motherly means looking like Betty White, then no thanks.
I might as well buy some mom-jeans and be done.
But alas, my search ended at the Gap with a simple A-line and empire jersey dress. The higher waist and jersey material are both forgiving and flattering. Three bonuses– it’s got pockets to hold backup pacis, has nursing accessibility and costs well under $100.
It’s classic, modern and without being TOO motherly.
Thankfully, at least I hope, I won’t be looking like a Golden Girl this weekend.
Babyrific 
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