A Few of my Favorite Thiiiiings!

I know I have a “purchases/wish list” section on my “Womb in Bloom” series, but my purchases are growing and haven’t been well documented, so I thought I’d round them up to my favorite things! I also thought I’d add my wish list on here, just for fun 🙂 I’ll try and keep up better with purchases and such weekly on the series, but for now, this will do.

To be clear, my favorite things for Bambina are not all bought new. Some are things I’ve found in tubs of Laela’s old stuff. Some are from Value Village. Some are new. But all are things that I’m so excited to break out for our littlest family member.

First, these are the things I dug out of an old 6 month tub of Laela’s that I’m MOST excited to use again!

A quick rundown of these items!! The blazer was just something I couldn’t not bring home, even though it came with white pants that she never wore. But the blazer kicked butt, and will hopefully fit her coming into fall.

The white shoes are Puma’s we got from Value Village for Laela, and they were probably the first shoes we could actually get her chubby little feet into. I loved how they made her look so grown up when she would wear jeans and a hoodie. Super duper cute. I didn’t care if they were a bit worn.

The little rainbow padraigs are a must for winter! These ones have only ever been worn by Laela, so they’re still in beautiful shape. I’m so excited to pull them out again!

This skirt!! 😍 We received it in a care package from one of my aunties, and its just gorgeous! Laela wore it to church a few times, and to a few little events, and drew sooo much attention, haha! Its so lightweight and girly and I LOVE it.

Beyond this picture, I’m excited to use our little white eyelet set of crib bumpers, and to put our little bandana bibs on her. Though I can’t help but hope she won’t be as barfy as her siblings!! 🤞 I can dream, anyway.

Onto another picture! My Value Village favorites so far!

So these are all little sizes, because summer.

The first picture is a diaper shirt with a cute little ribbon detail on the back, that is likely just there to tickle her neck and annoy her 😉

The next one appears to have 3/4 length sleeves, but I can’t be sure. It may just have them because our kids are so long. I guess we’ll know soon!

The black shirt is definitely a favorite favorite! It also has kind of 3.4 length sleeves, or maybe just longer tshirt sleeves. It’s also longer in the back and shorter in the front, to keep her trendy 😉 Seriously, I would’ve never thought this shirt came from Carters!!

And some of you have probably seen these shoes before, but I can’t not put them in there! They’re SO stinking cute! Though I can’t speak for whether or not they’ll fit. My kids have such chubby feet, all the slip on styles don’t even have a chance of fitting. Trust me, we’ve tried. So we’ll give these a try.

So for my favorite things we’ve ordered new thus far…

This little sweatshirt, for some reason, I just couldn’t shake off. It has kind of bubble sleeves, and is a nice light material, which I think will be perfect for a newborn in summer. Its possible the matching sweatpants are in the mail…

This swimsuit has been haunting me since before we found out we were having a girl. You know those items that you just cannot shake off and then its literally years later that you’re regretting not getting them? Maybe thats just me, but I know this bathing suit is one of these things. So, we got it!

We picked up this little romper on our date night away in February, because it was too darn cute to leave behind. No regrets with that little number!

This sleeper holds a strangely special place in my heart. This was the first baby item we bought during this pregnancy. We didn’t know the baby’s gender, but still then, I would’ve said I thought baby was a boy. Even more than that, I would’ve said I wasn’t sure the baby was going to come. I’m still not confident, to be honest. So this was a ballsy purchase, but I just loved it and couldn’t not bring it home. I remember apologizing to Brady about buying it, and feeling literally sick to my stomach over it. I hid it in a drawer upon bringing it home. I was in such a rough place then, unsure of how to grieve and celebrate at the same time. I am SO happy to pull it out and actually let myself imagine putting a baby into it. Purple hedgehogs are the way to go!

Can we all just take a minute and let ourselves go there? To just believe that our babies WILL come join us?? This is my mental picture for my little summer girl!

This little denim dress was another item I found on the same day as I found that bathing suit I couldn’t let go of. It comes with little matching gitch and everything! Eek!

Hopefully none of you think I have a mad shopping problem or anything. I really honestly don’t. I don’t have to justify anything, lol, so I won’t 😉 Now that I have Laela’s baby stuff, some awesome hand me downs from friends, and a few fun new (or new to us) items, I know what spots I have left to fill, and I have time to fill them! This baby is going to be WELL prepared for!

Onto my wish list! Lol! The ONLY reason I’m even putting this list out there is because its all vastly expensive and unreasonable and will not justify buying very much of it at all, and I’m TOTALLY at peace with it! Hahaha! Most of a list of “in a perfect world” items 😉 So bear with me!

Hailey’s Unrealistic Wish List

  • crazy new stroller – I would LOVE one of those beastly City Select double strollers! They are so versatile and push way more like a single stroller than a double stroller. Our double stroller is fine, and we are definitely not without in that area, but its a lot more like pushing a shopping cart. However, even if I did have the money to fork over for a new City Select stroller, I don’t think I could justify it. Those suckers are foolishly expensive! I mean no disrespect to people who have shelled that money out themselves, but I would likely only buy such a stroller if I found it second hand for an amazing price!
  • new diaper bag – This is one I might actually justify! We’ll have to see. We have a great diaper bag, with no issues, but I have been eyeing this diaper bag for literal years. Its a lug puddle jumper style bag in a light lavendar color. Every time I walk through Lawson Mall, I duck my head into Frenzy, and every time, its still there. And its still over $100 :/ So I wait. But I may finally bite the bullet on this one down the line!
  • rock n play – Have you guys heard of these things? I want to add a link, but to be fair, I’m not positive which one I for sure want! They’re like a rocking chair, sort of, for babies. It would basically replace our bouncy chair, which is still fine, but is a little too accessible to the other kids. Our older children would regularly just flop on top of the baby, aaaaalmost knocking him out of it completely. This one is a bit further out of reach, but still very visible. Also, the rock n play has a great reputation amongst the community of parents who have babies with reflux, food allergies, colic, and any kind of excessive barfing. Being that we’ve dealt with lots of that before, it seems like it would be a smart choice for us. Again, though, over $100, and our bouncy chair has been fine.
  • playpen mattress – We’ll definitely get one of these along the way. Our babies don’t fit in their little cradle that long, and the playpen is the next step. Our playpen is fine, but I’d love for it to be a bit softer. No, not dangerously soft or anything. Just a bit more stable and bed-like.
  • extras – I would LOVE to have a few doubles of things around here! Since baby will likely live in our room for quite some time, I would be so thrilled to have another Ubbi diaper pail in our room, and if I was getting reeeaaally “perfect world-ish” I would be so thrilled to have an extra Baby Brezza (basically a Keurig but for formula) in our room. It would lovely to store the many midnight diapers somewhere, and also not have to venture down into the kitchen and turn lights on when baby needs a bottle. But there are NOT things we will actually spend money on. These are things we can dream of 😉
  • UC-Baby – We’ve gotten these 3D ultrasounds a couple of times in the past but we weren’t going to try and justify the cost this time around. However, if I could, I would love to! I relate this baby very closely to Laela, because that she’s been my only little girl, yet I realize that the two little girls will likely be very very different! In the 3D scans, we’ve been able to see who our baby will resemble, and it would be so handy to know who she resembles! Follow me down this rabbit trail briefly. Laela was 8 days overdue and weighed 9lbs10oz. Solly was 8 days early and weighed 10lbs7oz. Sooooo if Laela was 8 days early like Solly was, she would’ve been so little, and we would’ve needed newborn clothing! With Solly, we took him home in short little pants and a diaper shirt sized 3-6 months that we literally packed him into. He was a full on stuffed sausage. So knowing that kind of thing would be so fun 🙂 A luxury, for sure. Not a necessity. But fun!
  • Thinx – Ok, lady talk alert! Sorry, boys, if you’re reading! But I need to talk recovery. Straight talk. I. Bleed. Forever. Like 6-7 weeks kind of “forever.” And it SUCKS wearing a pad that long. I have bled that long with every single child thus far, so I don’t anticipate pregnancy #7 will suddenly be the one where bleeding peters out at 2 weeks. I just don’t see it. Rather than wearing a pad ALL SUMMER and wrapping up our holidays with my own personal diaper rash, I would be SO happy to invest in some of those super absorbent underwear that women are starting to use instead of disposable period products. At least once the worst of it is over and the unending weeks of spotting begins, I could feel a bit more normal and have less soreness in my already-recovering body. Sorry if thats too gross of a topic, but, real talk. Recovery is a huge part of having a baby, and one people should talk more about. So while I’m REALLY hoping we can make this one happen for me, its obviously an expensive investment, and I’d need a handful of pairs at least. So we’ll see.

The things that are left on my wish list are more reasonable things that I will likely buy, or that I really want to buy! For instance, a particular book that must come from Bambina’s parents. A maternity swim top for myself. A cute carseat canopy to adorn her carseat. Easier stuff. But here is my wildly unreasonable, expensive list of wants and dreams in the world of babies and pregnancy and birth.

This turned into a SUPER long winded post, yikes!! Sorry not sorry, guys. It was fun to put together 🙂 What are the things you couldn’t live without when you had a baby? Or when you were pregnant or recovering? What are your musts?