Winter Walk in Bowring Park

The weather here has been a little chilly lately (still mild compared to other provinces - but cold for Newfoundland), however, we've had some nice sunny days. This past Saturday was a beautiful sunny day so we decided that we needed to get out and take advantage of it. We hadn't left the house in a week as all 3 of us were smothered with the flu and poor Blake was sick for the second time in a month. Needless to say, we all had cabin fever and are just so used to being on the go that we really needed to go for a walk and enjoy some fresh air.

Bowring Park was packed full of people that afternoon, but that's no surprise because thats where everyone flocks to on any nice, sunny day of the year. I wanted to start making outfit posts again as it's been over a year since I've made one, so I had Andrew take a few snaps. I would have loved to take Blake out and show off our matching toques (I'm actually obsessed with matching our outfits - its one of the many exciting things about having a little girl) but it was a little too cold.

I can't wait for the spring so I can do more posts/photos with Blake. She'll be one on May 1 (which is actually so crazy to think about) which means she will probably be walking and it will be so fun to go on walks in the park with her. But in the mean time, we will enjoy the winter and hopefully do more winter-y activities before the snow is gone. I'd like to try snowshoeing and pull Blake along in the little sled we bought her, and maybe bundle her up in her snowsuit and play in the snow. She's growing up so fast, so I always try to remind myself to enjoy every little moment and make the most of each day (even if its freezing out and we are limited on what we can do).

Also, if anyone is in the market for a good stroller, I highly recommend investing in a Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle. I'm sure I've talked about it in a blog post before, but we've been using it for almost 9 months now and its endured literally every type of terrain (it did very well on a sandy beach in the Bahamas). Most recently, on our walk we went down a super steep, slippery path that was basically ice on top of hard packed snow with lots of ruts and the Mountain Buggy held up perfectly. People probably thought we were insane for bringing a stroller down an icy path but it worked great.

Hat: CC
Coat: Michael Kors
Sweater: Ardene (I absolutely love this sweater and it was super cheap!)
Jeans: Guess (new fave jeans, super stretchy!!)
Sunglasses: Ray-Ban

Stroller: Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle

Wedding Item/Vendor Review (Cruise Wedding - Norwegian Epic)

This post is part 2 of my previous blog post called "How to Plan a Cruise Wedding + Cruise Ship Vendor Reviews". In this post I'm just going to discuss the vendors I used that were not actually part of the cruise.

1. Flowers: Norwegian Cruise Line (and I'm pretty sure most other cruise lines) do not allow guests to bring your own real flowers onboard. I'm not exactly sure why, but it probably has to do with possible pests/bugs/diseases being brought onboard. However, I was provided with a bouquet of fresh white roses and a matching boutonniere for Andrew with the option to purchase additional bouquets for my bridesmaids through the ship's florist. This option was very costly, so instead I opted to purchase artificial bouquets. Mine were made by Leslie Healey who owns/operates Polished Bouquet Design in Clarke's Beach, NL. She uses real touch flowers and can pretty much make any type of design you can dream of. The quality of the flowers is amazing and such a great alternative to the real deal. They are also lightweight and easy to travel with and of course you don't have to worry about keeping them alive.

Bridal Bouquet and Matching Boutonniere's made by Polished Bouquet Design

Bridesmaids/Flower Girl holding bouquets made by Polished Bouquet Design

2. Cake Topper and Wedding Favours: These were made by Powerhouse Designs. The owner, Deanne Power, really goes above and beyond to ensure that her customers are happy. I sent her a picture of what I wanted and she made it exactly right. After a good experience with the cake topper, I asked Deanne if she could make custom lanyards for the wedding favours. I ordered a bulk pack of lanyards from eBay and then she applied the lettering. The lanyards were a hit and my guests loved having a lanyard to put their cruise ship cards in. I will mention that due to unforeseen circumstances, Deanne had to cancel order pick ups on the day I was scheduled to pick up. To make up for it she offered to make us customized shirts or bubba kegs or we could have a full refund. I was shocked that she made such a generous offer because it wasn't that big of a deal that it was going to be a bit later until we received our lanyards; as long as I had them before the wedding I was good! This just shows how much she really cares about her customers and keeping them happy. I would highly recommend Powerhouse Designs for any custom products for any occasion.

One of my bridesmaids' lanyards made by Power House Designs

Custom Cake Topper made by PowerHouse Designs

3. Groom and Groomsmen Outfits: They purchased their entire outfits from LeChateau at the Avalon Mall in St. John's. We had considered renting them, but since we were going to be gone away for 2 weeks, I didn't want to pay extra for having them for an extended amount of time. The prices were fairly reasonable and we chose pieces that the guys would be able to wear again for other special occasions. The quality was great. Customer service was mediocre, but the guys were pretty low maintenance.

Outfits from LeChateau

4. Bridesmaid Dresses: The girls ordered their dresses from Azazie. They are the colour spa. The dresses seemed to be pretty good quality and the girls only needed minor alterations. I would say the only downfall to ordering from Azazie is that you have to pay a ridiculous amount of customs. I've heard from other brides that if you order all of the dresses at once and get them shipped to the same address you will pay a lot less customs. However, my bridesmaids didn't have that option as everyone lived in different provinces. I would still recommend ordering dresses from Azazie as my girls were pretty happy with their dresses and the colour and style selection is huge.

Bridesmaid Dresses from Azazie

5. Guestbook: I designed a custom guest book on Mixbook.com. It cost about $45 but it was exactly what I wanted and shipped very quickly. I tried to find one that I liked locally and on Etsy with no luck so when I saw a few people suggest using Mixbook online, I jumped on the opportunity to design my own. My sister purchased a Polaroid Instax Mini Camera from Amazon and we used that to take pictures of our guests and taped them inside the guestbook instead of having everyone write in it. I loved this idea and it was so cool to look at the photos of everyone when we got home from the trip.

Custom Wedding Guest Book I made on Mixbook.com

6. Wedding Programs and Favour Tags: I ordered them online from Etsy. They were a matching set from a vendor called BlissPaperBoutique. They were very easy to use, we just had to customize them with our names and wedding date then print them off. I printed them all of at Staples on Stavanger Drive and the girl at the print desk was fabulous to deal with. They were done quickly and they even laser cut them all to save me the hassle of cutting them myself. I use Staples for all of my printing needs (invitations, Christmas cards, wedding stationery, etc.) and I would highly recommend going there for anything you need printed.

7. Travel Agent: We used Melissa Gavin at Go With Hippo. She did such an amazing job planning the cruise for everyone. We had 43 people go on the cruise with about 15 needing flights booked as well and she made sure that everything went off without a hitch. She was always texting, calling, email and Facebook messaging all of our guests and making sure that everyone was taken care of. I know we probably weren't the easiest bunch to deal with all the time, but she was very patient and quick to respond to any issues anyone had.

8. Wedding Dress: I ordered my dress from JJshouse.com. I love the style of my wedding dress and it was super affordable. It actually cost only a little more than my bridesmaids dresses. The quality was amazing for the price. I was a bit wary of ordering my wedding dress online without ever seeing it in person, however, I'm so glad I ordered it. I was not interested in going and trying on a ton of dresses and I also did not want to spend a lot of money on my dress. My sister ended up paying for the dress as my wedding gift (thanks Jill!). It fit me very well and I received a lot of compliments from people on the ship. It was a very non-traditional style, but it was exactly what I wanted and was perfect for the warm weather in the Caribbean. I would definitely recommend using JJshouse.com for brides on a budget or even just brides who don't want to spend a fortune on a dress they will wear for a few hours. One downfall is that they do not accept exchanges or returns unless there is a manufacturers defect so be careful and make sure that your sizing is right and it's the style you want.

9. Shoes: My shoes are from the Betsey Johnson "Blue Collection" which is her range of wedding shoes. I actually saw another girl post them on the Newfoundland Brides Buy and Sell Page on Facebook. They were new and never worn and I got them for $50. They are such a unique style and fit perfectly with my dress. The only negative is that the strap broke off of the shoe, which was kind of annoying, but it didn't happen until the ceremony was over (thank god!!). However, I still got tons of compliments on them.

10. Airline: About 15 of us flew using WestJet. I wanted to do a little shoutout to WestJet because they went above and beyond to make sure our trip was enjoyable. We always fly WestJet whenever we can because they've always been great in the past plus their WestJet MasterCard program is amazing (look it up/apply for one if you don't already have one; and no I'm not being paid to say this but I wish I was hahah). Anyways, when we got to the St. John's airport on Christmas morning to fly to Orlando, the lady at the check-in counter was so friendly and she upgraded our seats to Plus for free. This was so amazing and we really appreciated the extra room (especially since we were travelling with our 8 month old baby) and all of the free coffee and Bailey's and food. It really made the flight so much more enjoyable and we couldn't thank them enough. On the flight from Toronto to Orlando, we didn't get Plus seats again, probably because the plane was full, but the flight attendant noticed we were carrying wedding garment bags and she gave us and all of our other guests on the same flight free champagne and sandwiches! That was super nice and totally unexpected as well. On the way home flying from Orlando, our bags were like 15lbs over and of course I was worrying about having too much luggage and having to pay extra fees, but she let both of our bags go for free and even let us check one of our carry-ons for free. WestJet just made traveling on this trip so enjoyable and I would highly recommend flying with them because they are just consistently better than any other airlines we've flown with. 

11. Completely forgot to add this in here!! So I've edited to add Colleen Butler. She was our wedding commissioner. Since its very complicated to get married in another country, we decided to just do a symbolic wedding on the ship; which meant we would have to do a legal ceremony either before or after the wedding on the cruise, to make it official. We had a short, small ceremony in our living room  on Christmas Eve. We met with Colleen at her house in CBS several months before the wedding to go over details and she was super nice and clearly knew what she was talking about. It was a very streamlined process and Colleen made it very simple and stress free. I would highly recommend Colleen for anyone looking for a wedding commissioner!

Thanks for reading this super long post, but I hope it was helpful for anyone looking for more information on vendors to use when planning their wedding. Please feel free to email me at caitlin_fitzgerald@live.com if you have any questions about planning a cruise wedding or a wedding in general! 

Stay tuned for wedding photos when I finally get them edited!!

Blake's 3 Month Update

People weren't lying when they said "enjoy your baby while they're young because they grow up so fast". I can't believe we've already been Blake's parents for 3 months, it's gone by so fast. She's grown so much since she was born, it's crazy.

When Blake was born, she weighed 6lbs 5oz and even dipped below 6lbs for a few days. She was so tiny. She now weighs about 12-13lbs (I'm guessing) and her facial features have changed so much. She has big bluish-grey eyes (which will probably change to brown at some point) and a little bit of brown fuzzy hair on her head. She has much chubbier cheeks and thicker thighs which make her look so much cuter. She's now wearing size 6 month sleepers which is crazy and made me so sad to pack up all of her newborn and 0-3 month clothing.

She's going through her 3rd leap (according to the Wonder Weeks app) and I'm pretty sure she's started teething. Blake is such a good, happy baby, but over the past few days she's seemed a bit crankier and is always chewing her hands (sometimes 2 hands at the same time). I've tried breast milk popsicles, teething rings, and a munch mitt. So far, she hasn't really figured out how to use them, but chewing on her hands and pacifier have seemed to help a bit. I wish there was more I could do to help her, but I guess it's just a phase she has to go through.

Blake drinks breast milk exclusively and I'm really proud to have been able to provide her with that liquid gold. I'm hoping to be able to feed her only breastmilk (plus solids when she's 6 months old) until she's a year old. I exclusively pump milk (I don't directly nurse her) and it's been pretty challenging but it's been much easier for both of us than direct nursing; I just hope that I can commit to the demanding schedule for a while longer. It's my goal to have enough of a freezer stash to get her to 1 year, even if that means I stop pumping well before she hits 1 year.

We've joined a local group called "Mommy Connections" which has allowed me to get a good workout in each week, try out new programs around the city, and also bring Blake with me so we can socialize with other moms and babies. So far, Blake has pretty much slept through all of the classes, but she's still young and will probably become more interested and involved as she gets older.

She's learned to do so many new things like:

• cooing
• crying longer and louder
• grasp toys 
• smile
• giggle
• play in her jolly jumper

Blake loves:

• her pacifier
• milk
• bath time
• walks
• swimming at the pool

I love watching her grow and learn new things, but I really wish time would slow down so I could enjoy my little baby for a little longer <3

Welcome Baby Blake: Labour and Delivery Story

My beautiful little girl, Blake Lea Noseworthy, entered this world (pretty quickly) on May 1, 2017 at 5:00pm. She weighed 6lbs 5oz and measured 51cm long. She's much smaller than I imagined she would be, but after going through labour and delivery, I'm glad she wasn't any bigger...lol. Everyone thought she would be at least 8lbs, and maybe she would have been if she was born at 40 weeks, but she came 1 week and 5 days early.

At 37 weeks, I was beginning to get tired of being pregnant and the anticipation of meeting my little baby was killing me. I couldn't wait to hold her in my arms. I was getting so huge and everything was starting to hurt, especially after she dropped in my stomach. I was still working, but by the end of week 37 I had to call it quits. I was in so much pain and could barely walk without limping due to a really sore pelvis. It was getting so uncomfortable to lay down or even sit at this point and I was really wishing I wasn't pregnant anymore. Andrew was still working in Labrador when I experienced my first sign of labour (losing the mucus plug), and a few people advised me that he should probably come home ASAP because I could give birth any day, really. Andrew was supposed to come home on May 9, but came home on April 26 instead and thank god he did!!!

A week and 2 days later (38 weeks + 2 days) I went into labour. We had just gotten home from Andrew's parents house and I had some cramps on the drive home. When I got home I was bouncing around on my exercise ball and talking on the phone with my best friend, Jessica (who now shares a birthday with Blake!) and I experienced what I now know were contractions around 12am. At the time, I had no idea that they were contractions as a lot of people said my entire stomach would clench and contract and I would 100% know that I was in labour when it happened, but mine didn't do that. They just felt like pretty intense period cramps that would come and go every so often. When they started getting more regular and more intense, I asked Andrew to write down the times I was feeling them and how long they would last. After about 3 hours, they were about 5 minutes apart and lasted 1 minute each. This went on for an hour. I called the case room and told them and they said to come in right now. So we threw all of our bags in the car and drove to the hospital.

At around 4am, I was 3-4cm dilated when I got there and they gave me morphine and gravol to help with the contraction pain. I don't think that helped much, but I was able to use my breathing techniques I learnt in prenatal yoga to help get through each contraction (I would HIGHLY recommend prenatal yoga to anyone who's pregnant because that's what got me through labour, for sure). After about 5-ish hours of contractions, I fell asleep and when I woke up after a 2 hour nap, I was out of labour. My contractions had stopped altogether for several hours and because I was no longer in active labour, they were going to send me home. I was so disappointed because I really thought I was having a baby soon. Andrew and I were going to get ready and pack up, but then the nurse said that they wanted to see if my cervix had changed before they sent me home. Fortunately, I had dilated to 5cm so they decided to keep me for 24hrs to monitor me and see if labour would start up again before sending me home.

The nurse unhooked my IV and told me to get up and get some toast and walk around for a bit. 5 minutes after I had gotten up and put some bread in the toaster, my water broke and contractions started again stronger than ever. I was now dilating quickly...too quickly to get an epidural, much to my dismay. I had asked for an epidural at around 6cm and they said I should have lots of time before they needed to bring in the anesthesiologist. But about an hour later I was 8cm, then 9.5cm and before I knew it they were telling me it was time to push... and that it was obviously too late now for an epidural. I pushed 6 times in 10 minutes and she was out. It was the most painful thing I've ever been through especially since I could feel it all, but because it was such a short amount of time it was bearable.

Andrew, his sister Jennifer, and I all bawled like babies. It was such an emotional moment holding her for the first time, especially after 9 months of carrying her around in my stomach. She was the most precious thing I had ever seen and I couldn't believe she was finally here. We had an hour of skin to skin before they took her and cleaned her up.

Normally, I think babies just like wrinkly old men when they're born, but when it's your own, you can't help but think they're the most precious thing you've ever seen. I can't wait to journey through motherhood and go through all of the new experiences having a baby brings. I know it's not going to be easy as I've already seen in these first 3 weeks of her life, but I know all of the sleepless nights spent changing dirty diapers, soothing and feeding, and countless hours pumping breast milk are all worth it for this beautiful little girl.

I'm going to try and post weekly updates, but it might be hard with a newborn... I'll do my best, lol.

The day she was born <3

Our first picture together (excuse how haggard I look...)

Andrew's first time holding Blake (also his first time ever holding a baby)

Little cutie <3

Proud Daddy with his baby girl

Just before leaving the hospital to go home

Ready to go home!

All snug in her car seat, ready to go home from the hospital

Pregnancy Update: 25 Weeks

Today I had my 25 week check-up and so far everything looks great. The baby's heartbeat is perfect, she moves a lot, and had the hiccups during the ultrasound today (so cute!). I also found out I don't have gestational diabetes (thank god!! chocolate is my weakness), iron levels are perfect and blood pressure, blood counts and whatever else the doctor checks are all on point.

Since this is my first time ever being pregnant, I never know what to expect during the process, and I'm always scared to death that something might go wrong with me or, especially, the baby. Each time I have a check up, she reassures me that everything is going really well which is awesome. Hopefully, this pregnancy continues to go smoothly...and quickly.

I'll be 26 weeks on Saturday, then it's only 2 more weeks and I'll be entering the third and final trimester!! Looking back, time does seem like it's gone by pretty fast, but 14.5 weeks still seems like a long ways away.

Andrew went away to work in Labrador this past Sunday for the next 3 weeks :( which means he wasn't able to attend today's doctor appointment (it's the first one he's ever missed) so my doctor was nice enough to do an ultrasound and let me take a video so I could send it to him. I was so excited to see her on the screen moving around and hiccuping. She's grown so much since the last ultrasound <3

I can't wait to meet her and see what she looks like, because at this point we have no idea what she will look like. I have a feeling she might be Andrew's twin, because so many girls I know are born looking more like their fathers, but we'll see when the time comes. 102 days and counting...

New Years Resolutions 2017

2016 was such an amazing year. We travelled a lot, my best friend got married, and we found out that we are expecting a baby girl! If 2017 is as good a year as 2016, then it's going to be a really good one :) And of course, the baby is due this year so that automatically makes it an amazing year!!

I'm basically only making a full blog post about my New Years Resolutions so that I can hold myself accountable throughout the year. I want to achieve at least 80% of my list by the end of the year. I have a little list on my phone that has all of my resolutions for 2016 that I wrote last year and I didn't achieve very many of them :/

I also think it's interesting to see what other people's resolutions are for the year and see how they want to change and become a better person, so maybe someone wants to know what mine are :)

1. Be the Best Mother I Can Possibly Be: This is a very broad one because I'm not exactly sure what that entails yet... I know becoming a mom is a huge change and things will probably get really hard and frustrating but I want to go into this with a positive attitude and embrace every hardship parenting throws at me. I'm so lucky to have a supportive partner who I'm sure will keep me sane through all of it and I honestly can't wait to experience it all.

2. Get Rid of Things I Don't Need: This is a huge one for me. I've been trying to declutter for what seems like forever but I think 2017 needs to be the year I actually get serious about it. Especially with a baby on the way because she's going to have a lot of stuff so I need to make room for all of that.

3. Travel More: Over the past few years Andrew and I have gone on about 2 vacations a year and that's something I want to keep doing even after having a baby. We were supposed to do a cruise on December 28 but obviously with Zika virus going around in the caribbean we had to change our plans. Hopefully we'll be able to do a small trip with the baby soon after she's born and then possibly go on a bigger trip towards the end of the year. There are so many places we want to see...

4. Spend Less Money: I've always been the type that just goes and buys what I want whenever I feel like it and I end up wasting money buying things I don't need and sometimes never even use. I want to start putting more thought into what I buy and giving myself at least 24 hours to think about whether or not I really need it in my life before I purchase it.

5. Waste Less Food: This is a huge one. We waste so much food in our house, fruits and vegetables usually. I used to buy a ton of fresh produce at Costco because it's a lot cheaper but there would be so much of it that half of it would go in the garbage so I wasn't really saving money. I'm going to put in a bigger effort to only buy smaller quantities of food and not buy anymore till it's all used up. Even if that means more frequent trips to the grocery store.

6. Read More Books: Reading used to be something I really used to enjoy but now I find I don't have much time to do it. I end up choosing to watch TV or go on my iPad instead but I want to set a good example for my daughter and stress the importance of reading. I'm going to try and read one book a month. That seems like a lot to me since I haven't picked up a book probably since my University days but I think it's definitely achievable and necessary.

7. Stretch for 15 Minutes per Day: Since becoming pregnant, I've experienced significant back pain and discomfort in my neck and shoulders. Stretching is so important for your health, pregnant or not and I need to make a conscious effort to integrate it into my daily routine.

8. Weigh 140lbs by the End of the Year: This was a resolution from last year and I was so close to reaching it, but then I got pregnant and losing weight obviously wasn't my main focus anymore. I think its definitely an achieveable goal for 2017 because I haven't put on too much weight during this pregnancy. I'm hoping a lot of it will come off immediately after birth, and I plan on going back to having a personal trainer since I've already paid for the sessions. Im also going to keep going to the gym for as long as I can before the baby is born.

9. Save $5000 by the End of the Year: Last year I didn't put away anywhere near that amount. And that's mostly due to frivolous spending. I'd really love to have $5000 in my TFSA by the end of 2017, it would make me feel more accomplished for sure. And there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do that.

10. Write at Least One Blog Post per Week: Blogging is something I enjoy doing because I love to share aspects of my life with friends and family as well as strangers who enjoy the same interests as me. Blogging provides an outlet for me to talk about things I love and also acts like a journal for me to go back and read through and see what events and changes have taken place in my life.

11. Drink 3L of Water per Day: I started doing this last summer when I was at the peak of losing weight. I found it hard at first but it became a part of my routine. After I got pregnant I found I wasn't drinking as much water because I wasn't as focused on losing weight. Water consumption is so much more important when pregnant because your body as well as the baby need to stay hydrated. So far, I've been pretty good with drinking 3L of water everyday, I just need my fancy Starbucks tumbler on hand at all times so I don't forget to drink it lol. Writing down how many mL of water I've had on a white board on my fridge also helps me achieve my daily water intake goal.

I hope everyone creates their own resolutions and puts their best effort in to ensure they meet their goals by the end of the year. Cheers to you and cheers to a very happy and prosperous 2017!!

Outfit of the Day: 06.12.2016 Fort Amherst

Today marks 17 weeks of pregnancy! We just had our third pre-natal appointment this week  and were happy to see that the baby is doing well and things are looking normal so far. He or she was moving around a little bit, not as much as last time but the doctor said the baby looked like a little swimmer :) Time feels like it's moving quickly (it's almost Christmas!!), but this pregnancy feels like it's taking forever. I'm sure I'll look back on it later and think that it flew, but it's so hard waiting because we're so excited to have a little baby to play with and watch grow up.

Today we decided to take a little drive to Fort Amherst and take a few pictures because the sun was starting to go down which made for a really cool effect in the pictures.

I've linked everything I'm wearing below:

1. Hat (Urban Planet it's only $7.99!)

2. Coat (Michael Kors)

3. Jeggings (American Eagle, 25% off!!)

4. Turtleneck (Urban Planet)

5. Booties (Urban Planet these are 40% off right now!!)

6. Handbag (Michael Kors)

7. Lip Color (Nyx Lingerie Liquid Lipstick in Honeymoon)

**Urban Planet has buy one, get one 50% off on pretty much everything right now!!