Baking Follies

I have a massive pregnancy sweet tooth. I try to keep it in check and only indulge in sweets a few times a week. But wouldn't you know, we just so happened to have three overly ripe bananas sitting on our counter, and banana bread just happens to be one of my favorites!

Clearly, the only just and fair thing to do was make some banana bread to serve those ripe bananas justice. Justice straight to my belly.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and it had over 1,000 repins, so I figured it had to be pretty decent. Also, it had just a few ingredients, which I like. Double also, it's a pretty sweet blog that I now follow called Domestic Superhero. #winning

Anyway, I mentioned here about how I'm an absolutely terrible baker! I hate following recipes exactly, and since baking is a chemistry, one must follow it just so. But dangit if I didn't want some banana bread, and I had everything I needed to make it already (kinda) and the justice for the bananas, y'all!

I thus embarked on my baking adventure. First, I lined up everything I would need to put it together.

That shot forgot the eggs, and eggs are definitely involved in all baking adventures. So I grabbed the eggs, and started to mash up the bananas. When your bananas are super ripe, it's easy enough to smush them with a fork - no need to bust out the food processor! Yessssss, fewer dishes to deal with.

I got my smushy banana on, then proceeded to stir together the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla into the mixture. An optional ingredient was nuts, and my husband and I just happen to be nuts for nuts, especially walnuts, so I chopped up some of those, getting them ready for their grande debut. (Walnuts are a great, healthy fat source! And really complement the flavor of banana well. Go ahead, add some to your next batch of banana bread and see how delicious it is!)

After mixing in the salt, I realized the recipe called for baking SODA and I had baking POWDER. Oops. Oh well, it was close enough! So then I realized I couldn't find my teaspoon - only my tablespoon. Meh! So I added a not-quite-full-tablespoon of baking powder, which was not part of the deal. Then the flour and walnuts. I didn't even measure both of those... After my soda/powder debacle, I was quickly growing tired of this baking nonsense. Baking fail.

It was looking and smelling good at this point, and looked like most banana bread batters I've seen before despite my lack of measuring. However, my next folly was that I didn't have a friggin bread pan! Since I don't bake, I've never bought one and didn't put one on my wedding registry. I DID put a sweet set of Pyrex baking dishes though said registry though, so I I figured that would do. Low and behold, the not so perfect, slightly altered, non measured and non bread pan banana bread!

I put that bad boy in the oven and stared down the batter encrusted bowl... Now, I *know* pregnant women shouldn't eat raw dough because of the eggs in it. But this is per the FDA, the same federal bureaucracy who tells pregnant women diet soda is "safe" to drink throughout their pregnancies (UMMMM, it's not safe to drink, ever) and I had just got the eggs and heck they're pasteurized anyway, and my belly was screaming JUSTICE PAIGE JUSTICE!!! So to hell with the FDA. I licked that bowl CLEAN. And it was amazing.

The bread itself was equally amazing. Voila! Le pain est fini!

In all seriousness though, this bread was fantastic, it was easy to put together and forgiving of my inability to properly bake, and Domestic Superhero is a pretty fun read too.

Mommy Monday: Prenatal Yoga Review

When you have (or, errrr, had...) a body that is in continuous motion, it gets "shocked" when it becomes consistently still. After a week of bed rest, my hips and back ached, my restless leg syndrome was off the charts, I was agitated and  to be perfectly honest, I was just plain old mean!

Since my contractions had completely stopped for over a week, my midwives said I could go to prenatal yoga classes. Yes, movement! I knew it wouldn't be the same as a regular yoga class, or a good run, or a circuit training class, but I was so excited for the opportunity to move and get on a mat again, I didn't care.

So I went. And I was right.

It was very gentle. Mostly stretching. No cardio or "flow" of a typical yoga class. No long holds of poses, no extreme strength moves. Not even any sweat was produced. But it was the best hour and a half I've had in a long, long time.

Clearly, the class is full of other pregnant moms, which built an instant sense of community in the room. We started the class going around an introducing ourselves, saying how pregnant we were, and listing any particular body part that was especially nagging us. The bulk of the women were between 25-35 weeks pregnant (one woman came on her actual due date! Get it, girl!), with a very small handful of women in the 13-18 week range. Hips and low back was a common body part cited that needed relief.

Now, if I had taken this class prior to my preterm labor situation, I would have been annoyed and frustrated with how slow it was, how I wasn't working up a sweat, and how I wasn't engaging enough muscle groups. Now that my perspective has been entirely changed, prenatal yoga classes are the highlight of my week!

The instructor was kind and assisted any woman who needed help with a pose. Nothing about any of the poses was challenging or would remotely put any woman in any sort of risk in her pregnancy. All the poses felt wonderful, and stretched what pregnant women need stretched, focused on the breath and relaxed us.

We focused on stretching and strengthening our hips and low back - no shocker there. But last night (my fourth prenatal/gentle yoga class) we spent a lot of time opening and stretching our ribs, chest and heart. I had been feeling like my lungs were cramped and breathing hard for most of the weekend, and after this class, I felt about ten pounds lighter and found it much easier to breathe. I'm not kidding! I cannot wait for my early afternoon class today. Who knows what will get worked on that I didn't even know needed some attention?

Sadly, prenatal yoga is NOT cheap. At my studio in Dallas, it's $135 for 10 classes, and individual classes are $15 each if you don't purchase a "package." Expect to pay roughly this, with national pricing ranging from $12-$25 per class.

What you'll need:

•  Fitted but stretchy clothes
• Water bottle - even though the room is cool, you'll want to drink lots!
• Yoga mat, if your studio doesn't have them available to you or you don't prefer communal mats

The yoga studio will likely give you some props to use while in class. These typically include cork/foam blocks, sturdy wool blankets and straps (used to assist flexibility around your baby bump). The instructor will tell you what prop is appropriate for which pose, and inform you how to properly use each one in that pose for your (and baby's!) safety.

Here's my advice for all the mama's reading this that are considering forking over the money for a prenatal class(es):

- If you didn't have some sort of a workout practice pre-pregnancy, or weren't consistent with anything, it is 100% worth your time and money to begin prenatal yoga classes! Do yourself and your baby a favor and begin going to a few classes a week. You'll notice a reduction in aches and pains, and begin to focus your breath for pain management during labor. There are also numerous benefits to your baby when you exercise while pregnant. Read this article if you need further motivation to have an exercise plan throughout your pregnancy!

- If you're struggling to keep up with your pre-pregnancy workouts, have some undesirable symptoms (round ligament pain anyone?), or have been told to scale back your workout efforts, start going to prenatal classes in conjunction with a few of your "old" workout habits. The prenatal class will seem like a nice break and breath of fresh air, and work to stretch any sore muscles you developed in your normal workout. As you get more and more pregnant, consider dropping more and more of your former workouts to include more and more prenatal yoga. It will help to maintain the shape you were in pre-pregnancy without exposing you to any risky situations. And it just feels so dang good.

Bottom line: just go! You will not regret it.

P.S. - If you're in the Dallas metro area and curious to where I go, I'm at Uptown Yoga Dallas and Lifetime Athletic Dallas

High Five for Friday!

This week has been MUCH calmer than last week, thankfully. I'm back to feeling great, contractions are gone, and I can even attend a few prenatal yoga classes a week! (A review of prenatal yoga is coming up next week... heh heh!)

Just a little bit of a contrast from last week, y'all.

Given my new/re-found good attitude, here were the Top 5 moments of the week:

1) We made some serious progress in the nursery! There is now actually some furniture in there, there are things up on the walls, crafts have been completed, clothes are hanging in the closet, and the delivery date for the crib and changing table has been moved up by a week so that it just actually might be here in time for his arrival. Who knows, I won't hold my breath on that, but time shall tell!

2) I shared in this post some pregnancy symptoms I was struggling with. Well, I managed to find a decent fix for one of them! Behold my new treasure: Booby Pads

Find Bamboobies here

I had another brand of cotton pads that were ok... They were much, much thicker, and frankly there just isn't room to put that level of padding in ye ol' bra! These are fantastic. The heart shaped pads are thin and perfect for small leaks that are often experienced in the third trimester. The round pads are thicker and described as "overnight pads" which will come in handy after I start nursing. They're made from bamboo, so they're extremely soft. They're washable so you can use them over and over, and the heart shape is not only cute - it's functional by wrapping around the shape of your chest. They were quite a bit more expensive than the cotton pads I initially tried, but SO WORTH IT. I learned they make nursing bras and I just ordered one. I'll let ya know how it is! My order was processed and shipped within a few hours, so I'm impressed thus far.

3) Kirk had an especially long week of travel, so I've been flying solo since Monday morning. Two of my favorite ladies in Dallas came over on Tuesday evening to keep me company (and bring me dinner)! It was a fun evening spent on the patio, enjoying the beautiful weather, drinking wine (or salivating at it, anyway), and talking about security systems. Yeah, we did that.

4) Have you ever moved, and packed something in a strange place last minute, then been completely unable to find it afterwards? I had misplaced the book I was reading since we moved in late February. I looked IN A SUITCASE, of all places, and found it! So I was able to spend some of my alone time this week enjoying the insanely gorgeous north Texas springtime, catching up with my book and enjoying a glass of raspberry lemonade. Cheers!

Yes, it's a pregnancy book. Yes, the baby likes to hang towards my right side.

5) I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had started our "natural birth" birthing classes. Now that we're a few weeks into them, we've been surprised at how much we're enjoying them, and really enjoy the company of a few of the other couples - we even look forward to the three hour class smack dab in the middle of our Saturdays!

We're asked to bring a snack to share given the length of the class, and last week Kirk wanted to make a special "healthy" dessert bar. He looked up a recipe for these bars, picked up ingredients at the store, and was fixing to make them when I meandered over to the kitchen (am I alone here, or can you just SENSE when bad things are going down in your own kitchen?!) I find my husband pouring corn oil into a pan. A lot of corn oil. "Honey... What are you doing?" I ask. "It says to melt the sugar in the corn syrup, so that's what I'm doing" he replied. "Ummm, then why are you pouring oil into a pan?" I ask. "No, I'm melting sugar into the corn syrup!" he defended, clearly annoyed that I was checking up on him. "Honey. That's corn OIL. Corn syrup is completely different." "What?! No. This is what it says to do!" he said, wide-eyed and realizing things were going quickly awry. "Babe, you CANNOT substitute corn oil for corn syrup..." To which my sweet hubby lowered his head in defeat.

We did not bring a snack last Saturday, but after a trip to the store, I ensured he has everything he needs to make these "healthy" dessert bars for our group. Don't worry, I'll be keeping my ears open and half an eye on how round two of preparations proceed!

I'm also pretty impressed I was able to completely avoid the bag of butterscotch chips he purchased to go into these "healthy dessert bars" since butterscotch IS MY JAM! It's my thang. Mmmmm, butterscotch! But he was so distressed about his blunder, I couldn't disappoint him by eating the dang butterscotch chips, ya know?

HAPPY WEEKEND TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD WEEKEND! 

Share Worthy Ideas: "Cleaning House!" (aka, Finding Affordable Baby Buys)

I am NOT a bargain shopper. I am NOT a good-deal hunter. I am not, even, a "shopper" at all. When picking out things for myself or gifts for others, which historically has been my only experience with shopping, I know what I want, I don't want to dig through piles of junk to get it (I enjoy a nice experience and will pay to have a nice experience) and I want out of the store as soon as I pick it up.

My snobby shopping philosophy does not hold true with baby items.

Gasp! Am I turning a new leaf? Here's the deal: this little guy is going to grow like crazy. He's going to poop on things, including his clothes. He's going to spit up and vomit on them. So in my eight-months-pregnant-nesting phase, I just COULD NOT EVEN with paying full price for baby clothes. And the name brand/designers I love? No way!

This does not change the fact that I myself enjoy nice things. But I'm done growing and believe in buying quality over quantity because I won't wear the knees out on a pair of Hudson jeans... I will wear them for years and years. Baby will wear them once, vomit on them, and the next time I go to put them on him, they'll be too small. Hmmpppffff!

So what's a quality snob to do when she can't seem to justify the enormous expense for baby? (And y'all. It is ENORMOUS. $40 for a 0-3months-sized polo shirt?! Is that some kind of joke?) Church consignment sales! This past weekend, my friend Kate introduced me to this glorious find. We met up at The Church of Christ in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas early Saturday morning to hit up this sale. She discovered it last year (she has a beautiful one year old daughter) and has been talking about it for months now. I was so desperate to get an hour out of the house with my bed rest nonsense that I jumped in the car and headed right over.

And here is a SMALL handful of the things I found:

Ralph Lauren (not Polo Ralph Lauren - actual Ralph Lauren label... I don't even own any of that!) romper and shorts

Petit Bateau (French designer) cardigan and Ollie & Bess seersucker and crab diaper cover

MudPie long sleeved shirt and Ralph Lauren label khaki pants

Kit & Lilli onesie and Baby Gap bear sweatpants

Here is how the sales work: folks can either donate the clothes to the church, and the church collects the proceeds as a fundraiser. Or, they can decide to sell it on consignment, and a fraction of the proceeds go towards the church while the seller gets a premium for the garments. Either way, the church gets a fantastic fundraiser and the donor either gets cash from sales or a tax deduction for the donation. Win-win!

But the BEST part?! Is that the shopper gets access to all these high end label clothes for DIRT CHEAP. I didn't pay more than $3 for any one of these items. The shorts and the diaper cover even had their original tags, so they had never been worn! The other items looked as though they had been worn once - maybe twice. I ended picking up roughly 20 items, ranging in size from newborn to six months, and spent a whopping $63.87. Everything was name brand or designer label. WHATTTTTTTTT!!!!

I highly suggest for all my mama, daddy, soon-to-be mama and soon-to-be daddy readers to look into this idea in your area. Target church sales that are in the most affluent parts of town, as they'll be likely to have some of the best name brands donated from wealthy residents, if that's what you're after. If you're not a quality snob like myself, just look for sales around town to save serious money on new or gently used baby items. These sales are an excellent way to save serious money on baby gear while maintaining a "quality snob" status. I can't wait to go to my next sale!

Interior Design: Master Bedroom

I waited all weekend long for a day of sunshine to snap a good pic of our master bedroom. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Monday. It would not stop raining in Dallas, y'all! The lighting is tricky because our master bedroom is an addition to the house, and the only natural light is from the French doors that lead out to our patio in the backyard.

Which means, on a good day (read: sunny) it's hard to get the lighting right. I tried numerous lighting situations and this pic was the best out of all the rainy day shots I took:

Adding to the challenge is the fact that the room is an L shape, with the bed having an alcove - an alcove away from the French doors and away from all natural light at that! (Which makes for an excellent sleeping situation, BTW). Anyway, enough with the photo excuses, lets talk design elements.

First, the walls are a light grey and the floors have a cherry wood stain. Neutrals, whites and greys seem to be incredibly popular color schemes for bedrooms lately. In fact, our former duvet cover was a deep grey color from West Elm. But in a grey room that has minimal lighting, it just seemed so... I don't know, grey.

So we decided to spruce up the room with some new details. We went with a duvet cover and shams from The Hotel Collection at Macy's. It's a silvery-blue-purple-grey and the pattern running through it is a metallic silver. I liked how the color complimented the walls without blending into them and  popped against the floors. The metallic pattern brought out the silver lamps we already had (one from West Elm, the other from Pier One). I love how the lamps are similar in size and the same color, but the shapes are different to provide an interesting focal point in the room.

I mentioned in this post that I enjoy doing some crafty things, and the K and P you see above the bed was made by me. I picked up all the supplies at Michael's Craft Store. To DIY, you'll need to pick out your letters, the paint colors you wish to paint them, foam board, frames (glassless, backless, "in-the-raw" frames will allow you to construct this project freely), and then the paper you want as the background for the letter. Paint several coats of your desired color over the letter (I used acrylic paint), letting each coat dry fully before the next one. Cut your foam board with a razor to fit your frame, then rubber cement your paper background to the foam board (make sure the paper you select will fit the size of the frame). Hot glue the frame to the pre-cut, paper covered background foam board. After that has dried and your letters are painted, dried and ready, hot glue them to the paper covered foam board. It's much easier to center the letter within the frame if your frame is glued down and ready to go first!

TIP: I used a white foam board, but you can see the frames are dark. I used a Sharpee market to darken the quarter inch of foam board around the edges so that the white didn't stick out on the wall. Also, I used 3M wall adhesive (you know, the kind that come in strips and that you pull one side and it releases? Yeah, those) to get the finished frames on the wall.

We love how the master bedroom is calming without being boring (you know, like shades of grey tend to be!) There's just enough purple and blue in the duvet cover for it to be interesting yet still "gender neutral" enough for both of us. The personalized wall decor is perfect for such a personal space, and is pretty easy (and fun!) to make. The best part is that you can craft it to look good with any color scheme you have in your room.

$#*! That Happens In Yoga

If you've ever been on a yoga mat, even once, even five or more years ago, you likely know that you've heard and seen some pretty crazy things. The guy next to you breathing SO LOUD. (Does he have a cold or something?! Dang, I don't want to get sick...) The instructor pacing the room, telling you to breathe joy into your back. (My back?! My back doesn't have lungs, chick!) The crazy looking hippie in the back, who smiles the WHOLE time and grips mala beads. (Wait, are beads necessary for this?! Is there an arts and crafts portion of this class later?!)

I've been taking yoga classes for years and years now, and these yogic stereotypes still manage to crack me up. Allow me to address them:

"That Guy" who is breathing so loud it's distracting? He's actually doing it right! It's called ujjayi breathing, or "the ocean breath." One performs this by constricting the back of the throat so that you control (basically, slow down and deepen) how much oxygen you take in and release in each breath. Coincidentally, this makes a sound. Ujjayi breathing helps you move from pose to pose while focusing more on your breath, and less on if your Warrior 2 is perfect. It also helps you to breathe entirely through your nose, regardless of how fast your flow is moving (the goal in yoga is to "train" yourself/your lungs to function via the nose so that you're more mindful about your breath). Yes, not only did I just give you permission to make strange sounds in your next yoga class, I'm encouraging you! It's a bit strange at first, but I now LOVE being next to loud people as it reminds me to do the same, and almost "gives me permission" to be louder in class.

"Inhale joy into your lower spine; exhale out negativity." In teacher training to become a yoga instructor, we actually get tested on our verbal cues on breath and body placement. Some poses work better on an  inhale, others are best for an exhale. That's why the instructor is telling you when to breathe. For example, you wouldn't want to take a big breath in for a forward fold - by nature of anatomy, your inflated lungs would inhibit your ability to fully bend over, limiting the stretch you would/should get.

When the instructor adds something like, "inhale into your lower spine", s/he is bringing your attention to that part of your body. Are you holding tension there? Probably. "Breathing into it" is a way to remind you that 1) it's there and 2) let that tension go. Give it a little shot of oxygen and release those muscles! If you have an extra-verbal instructor who tells you to "inhale joy into your lower spine" s/he is attempting to remind you to do exactly what I said above, but that it should also feel good. If you're like me, I get caught up in how dumb that sounds and completely forget about the joy, the inhale, and the tension release. So overly verbal-happy instructors aren't my vibe, to say the least. A "let it feel good!" is kosher; a "let the light radiate from your toes!" is enough to elicit an audible snort of laughter from me. Let's get serious here, nobody's toes are radiating anything. Or, radiating anything good...

Crazy-smiling-mala-bead-wearing-hippie. The mala beads have 108 beads on them, which is a sacred number in traditional yogic practices. The beads are used as a "counter" of sorts, so that s/he can repeat their own personal mantra in their head that very specific number of times. I can't personally multitask to the level of listening and practicing a flow AND repeating my own mantra 108 times in a class. The five or so minutes you get in savasana at the end isn't remotely enough time to make it through 108 repetitions, so I don't personally wear them in a class. But I certainly don't judge those who do! They have more yogi skills than I do, that's for sure.

Why are they so dang happy looking and smiling?! Remember that personal mantra I was talking about? I can PROMISE you it's something positive, whether it's reflecting internally (about themselves - "I am loved. I love") or it's external ("The world is good. The world is beautiful.") When you start to repeat positive messages over and over again, and you focus on your breath in a class and release tension and stress, there simply is no way that you wouldn't smile. That crazy hippie in the back practices this everyday. Frankly, they've got it figured out, readers! I used to think, "Damn she looks insane!" and now I think, "Man, she's got it together! I'm going to work to be more like her. She looks 15 years younger than she really is and is clearly happy... Wait, where are my mala beads?!"

The thing that's so great about yoga is that you can take the parts that work for you, and leave the parts that don't. However, I'd encourage you to look into and experiment with the part of yoga that you judge or make you uncomfortable. You never know what you could be missing! At worst, you conclude that it's indeed not for you; at best, your whole life is changed for the better.

*You'll notice in the photos that my hands aren't flat on the mat - they appear as though they're cupping something. That's intentional! Your wrists host TONS of nerves that go to your hands and fingers. Cupping your hands like I do in these photos is a way to take the weight off the center part of your wrist where those nerves travel, and prevent pain that can come with long-term yoga practices/poses that carry a lot of weight in your upper body (such as arm balances and inversions). This effect is magnified in pregnant women. I was about 28-29 weeks in this shoot, so my hands are "extra cuppy" to protect my wrists. Hey, the more you know, right?!

Mommy Monday: Weekend / Yoga / Bed Rest "Style"

Most of you know by now that I was put on bed rest last week in attempts to curb my preterm labor. Going from someone who didn't sit down for longer than 30 minutes at a time to being confined to the house and laying around for most of the day has been, ummmm... Interesting. And by interesting, I really mean the opposite of interesting because actually it's quite dull compared to my former life.


Since I am fortunate enough to get some move about time to shower and such, I immediately realized creating a daily schedule (like I did when I started working from home) would be KEY in still feeling like a normal, productive human. Showering, putting on some makeup and doing my hair is crucial to not feeling like a hermit-slob-preggo! I think my husband appreciates it, too.

However, since so much of my time is confined to a horizontal position, it really doesn't make too much sense for me to get FULLY dressed (you know, jeans would dig into my hips as I lay on my side; a "real" bra would do the same and the wires would shift about, etc). So upon the second day of my "bed rest sentence" I realized I'd have to utilize some of my yogi style skills so that I felt normal, but could still stay comfortable.

Presenting my yogi solution to bed rest style:

Charcoal grey yoga pants from Destination Maternity; "washed melon" top from Target; gold monogram necklace from Mark and Graham

Essentially, I determined that I needed to get "ready" enough so that I felt pretty and normal, but not enough to be uncomfortable all day long. Normal for me happens to be yoga clothes, which just so happen to ALSO be comfortable! WIN! So, my yogi wardrobe will remain in high rotation despite the fact that I'm banned from my mat for the next six weeks. I don't normally wear any jewelry to the yoga studio, so I decided to include a necklace/earrings/watch/etc with my daily look to be a little more "fancy."

As you can see, this "look" is completely appropriate for those of you lovelies who are not on bed rest but want something comfortable yet functional on the weekends. Maybe you're not pregnant but want some new ideas to wear on your yoga mat, or just out running errands. Any way you slice it, I'm a huge fan of dressing up my yoga clothes to become an actual outfit!

Beyond the "what to wear" question, it also struck me as ridic to put a full face of makeup on when not only am I not leaving the house, but I'm lying down (hello bronzer stains on throw pillows!) So, I decided to do a super-toned-down makeup routine. It consists of under eye concealer, blush, brow highlighter and mascara. Juuuust enough to make me look good and alive! Not enough to waste too much of my treasured "up" time by doing extensive makeup that nobody besides my husband and doggies will see. Bueno! My hair has become INSANELY STRAIGHT during pregnancy. So the hair you see pictured above has zero product in it, and is a byproduct of simply blow drying it. No round brush, no hairspray. This is just how my hair rolls. Loooooooooove my low-maintenance hair!

One final note about THIS top:

I've mentioned on social media before about how disappointed I am in Target Maternity, and was NEVER a Target clothes shopper prior to pregnancy. There always seems to be threads hanging from every seam and the sizing doesn't work for tall, lanky people such as myself. That's my disclaimer for this review!

The irony here is that I had initially typed up a review of this top that was SCATHING. I put it on, looked in the mirror, and stared straight at my nipples peeping through the cheap, sheer fabric of the "double lined sports bra" top. I was so disgusted, I ripped it off and put it back in the bag to return it (after I took a shot of it to share with you all that you SHOULD NOT buy it - muhahaha!)

Now. I'm 31 weeks preggers. I'm huge. I have an extensive collection of expensive yoga wear from high-end brands that I abso-freakin-lutely ADORE. Which is why I went and attempted to get some "cheap stuff" - I don't want to stretch out my pre-pregnancy yoga clothes so that I can't wear them post baby. But since I only have a few weeks left, I didn't want to go and spend my husband's entire paycheck (you're welcome, babe) on some new outfits. So I gave Tar-get one more go. I managed to find this top, AND it was 50% off.

Anyway, I will say this about the shirt: It's not maternity, so any of you lady-readers can get it and fit into it. You WILL need to wear a sports bra under the built in sports bra (yes, even you lucky A cup ladies), not only for bounce-protection but for basic decency and coverage. However, it is super lightweight (a bonus for all my Southern ladies) and it IS comfortable. It's also pretty cute on. So for me, at the price point and now considering my bed rest situation, it's a keeper. If you like quality, I'd just go right ahead and skip clicking the link, 'cause this ain't it! If you're like me and price is your primary concern, I'd check it out and pair it with other brightly colored sports bras (you can barely see it, but mine was neon yellow in the first pic.)