My Favorite Black Friday Sales

Obviously my style is changing a bit with the arrival of a new baby. My body is not the same as it used to be nor are my fashion needs. In my mission to always bring you what is relevant (and my excitement to share it with you in hopes that you will find something new to love), I've compiled this list of sales for Black Friday!

I hope you are as excited as Athena is in the picture above.

Copper Pearl bibs: They make cute, functional bibs that make my little girl look stylish when she's spitting up. (Now that is a tough job to do.) Check out their discount codes in this Instagram post!

Audrey and Olive: Everything on this site is marked down and you can sign up for their newsletter and get a code for an EXTRA 20% off! Details here! I love all of these pieces for their edgy, non-boring maternity and post-baby style. They even show you how to style everything on the site in ways you wouldn't have thought of. Easy to wear for all women of all sizes and walks of life. I just ordered faux-leather leggings and a striped dress for under $50 with free shipping too!

Aritzia: Probably my favorite shop for the last 8 years! The quality never disappoints and even though prices are on the higher side, their pieces are just so classic that you will never need to get rid of them. Discounts marked on each item in the sale section. Pieces will sell out fast!

Gap: 50% off EVERYTHING with code TGIF50! I haven't really shopped at Gap in the last few years but in the last month, I've become a reborn fan. They carry some of the only pieces that are small + long enough for my long and lean baby, as well as some of the coziest pieces I've been lounging around the house in! This sleep tee and this fuzzy robe are topping the list!

Albion Fit: Locally based here in Utah. I was pretty pumped to finally wear these leggings for the first time post-baby yesterday. You know I've loved them since before I went to their retreat this past summer because their company does so much good in this world and has the cutest workout clothes! 20% off EVERYTHING with code STUFFED. Just get on their mailing list.

ASOS: They are my favorite online shop and my most favorite time suck! You can seriously spend hours looking through their endless inventory! 30% off sitewide today with code THANKFUL. I've had my eye on this cape and think I'll be scooping it up today!

H&M: 30% off your entire purchase for 24 hrs. I'm obsessed with these little footie pants for Athena because she is too tiny for any socks to fit her little feet. Also I'm loving their super soft nursing bras and need to stock up!

You Are Here! Welcome Baby Athena!

Push Play!

My final pregnant outfit post also comes with the best announcement. Here she is everyone! After many weeks of sickness and discomfort, Athena Marie Welhouse came into our lives on November 4th at 11:51AM weighing in at 6lbs 12oz! I still can't believe such a petite little girl came from me!

She is just the cutest sweetest baby around although I may be a little biased.

She is just over two weeks old now and we are having so much fun getting to know her. I hear from so many people that I need to try to enjoy her and that she will grow up so fast so that's why I've been kind of MIA over here. The blog can wait but Athena is growing every day which is why I chose to make her my priority. It's taken me until just now to figure out when to have time away from her to blog. Turns out that time is 2 am while she's asleep and I'm pumping! Multitasking y'all!

Since I am a little late to welcoming her over here on the blog, I want to remind you that you can always see lots of our daily life on my Instagram story and also on snapchat (username HOTPINKSTYLE). If you like baby snuggles, I suggest you start following, because we do a lot of that over there!

I am just about done writing her birth story; that will be my next post so stay tuned for that. Til then, here is an outfit from a few days before she was born and some sweet pictures of her I took from her first week.

Dress: Topshop nursing dress // Shoes: Adidas

Our First Halloween as Homeowners

Flats: Yosi Samra // Leggings: Aritzia // Sweater: H&M // Bag: Zara (old but great similar option here) // Hat: Forever 21

Usually I love Halloween. In the past I always had fun dressing up for school and confusing my students (especially when I dress up like Paul Bunyan) but this year is different. This is the first time I'll live somewhere where we get actual trick-or-treaters and I'll not be at school. In fact I'll be very near my due date! Living in the city in an apartment, we always dodged that bullet, but this year we have a door and a porch and everything. Super weird for us city dwellers. In fact, in all my life, I've never lived in a single family home until we bought this one! My whole life in Chicago has been shared walls up until this point in my life. 

So with being home and the prospect of the door bell going off every few minutes, I'm contemplating leaving a bowl of candy of the step. I'm in no position to be hopping up every 2 minutes to answer the door. What 39 week pregnant woman would be? Is it terrible that I've considered hiding downstairs in the basement? Tell me I'm not the only one!

So these pictures are from the cutest little pumpkin patch called Kuwahara Farms in Draper, UT that my friend Sandy took me to. She went a little pumpkin crazy and bought a bunch for her front stoop. However, again, the city girl in me gets the best of me and I refuse to put pumpkins on my step because 1. It's an invitation for rodents to come nibble on them. I mean, look how crazy everyone goes for pumpkin flavored anything. Why would wild creatures feel any less desire to eat the free unattended snacks? 2. Although I live in a nice safe neighborhood, I still have that city fear in me of jerk-face kids vandalizing and smashing the pumpkins. I'm not sure how long it will take to shake the city mindset out of me but after 34 years of living in Chicago, but it seems I always assume the worst and prepare accordingly.

Boy, I sure sound like a Halloween bummer. At least there will be a big bowl of "the good stuff" on our front porch and hopefully Andrew can get home from work early enough that I don't have to answer the door every 2 minutes. Wish me luck on our first Halloween as homeowners!

Pictures thanks to Sandy

38 Weeks

Dress (c/o Le tote) // Sweater: Topshop via Nordstrom // Hightops: Old Navy (from last year but similar here and here)

If you haven't noticed my maternity uniform trend, let me lay it out for ya. Soft cozy stretchy dress, big cardigan sweater and sneakers! It works so why mess with a good thing. This particular dress is my absolute favorite! I wore it in pink on Monday's post. The fabric is just perfect and provides coverage and length for my tall frame so that I don't have to worry about it riding up. Also this oversized cardigan sweater has gotten alot of wear around the house but this was the first time I actually wore it out of the house. I got it a few months back at the Nordstrom Sale. It runs insanely big, so if you click over and are bummed it's only left in a 2 or 4, have no fear! Mine is a 4 and it's still pretty huge!

On to the pregnancy details! Mondays seem to be when all our weekly doctors appointments are so this was from this past Monday's appointment. I was 38 weeks so now I'm 38 weeks and 4 days...but who's counting. Umm...US! For the last few visits baby girl was measuring perfectly on schedule, not too big not too small. I was even losing weight every week when I went in! Then, all of a sudden this week I gained 4lbs and she was measuring two weeks bigger! Wow.

I'm probably not the only pregnant woman at this point who would welcome labor and wants to be done with pregnancy. I'm just so excited to remember what it feels like to not be nauseous and sick all the time. To not be disgusted by most food and unable to cook or eat anything with more than 2 ingredients! It's been a really hard 9 months and I'm just SO ready for some of the good stuff. I mean, I know a baby is hard work but so is having the stomach flu for 9 months along with all the various other pregnancy problems I've had. I'm just ready for something to change because this has really worn me down. I've tried to stay as positive as I could and keep myself occupied and get projects done, but I'd be lying if I said it was easy not feeling like myself pretty much since moving here. Whenever Andrew asks if he can get me something, I say "take the baby out" or if he can do something for me, " TAKE THE BABY OUT!"

So here's hoping she will decide to come a little early and finally cut her mama a break. I think she owes me one!

Wishing you all a great weekend full of Fall and Halloween fun!

Fall Layers and the Beginning of the End

Dress: Aritzia // Sweater: H&M // Hat: Urban Outfitters // Sunglasses: Toms // Boots

First of all this dress, and really anything from Aritzia are my classic pieces that never go out of style. I don't think there is a single thing I've ever bought there that I still don't own and love! I've turned countless friends onto the store too. The quality is excellent and somehow manages to fit me at 8 months pregnant as well as not pregnant at all!

These pictures were take on the way home from our baby moon in Park City which was pretty much the beginning of the end of my ability to function independently. As soon as I got home I started feeling shooting pains down my back side. I had felt these a little bit before but these were getting intense. So I took it easy and stayed on the couch for most of the night then hoped a night's sleep would make it better.

The next morning I walked from our bedroom to the kitchen and had to sit down. After trying to call the doctor for about an hour, I finally called Andrew and told him I was in a lot pain. I couldn't take a step without uncontrollably bawling and shrieking out in pain. He came home and tried to help me figure out someone we could talk to since the doctors office still wasn't answering. All I could think that made sense as to why there was no answer was that it was Columbus Day and maybe they were closed but that just didn't seem right. After finally deciding that we would just go to the emergency room, we tried my doctor one more time and they finally answered. We found out their power went out which was why it kept going to the answering service. Thank goodness I wasn't in labor.

Getting to the car seemed next to impossible since every step was so incredibly painful but Andrew managed to scoop me into the back seat and get me to the doctor. After crying and squeaking my way into the room, my doctor told me it was my sciatic nerve and that something was pinching it, maybe the baby's head, maybe the pressure from my bones on it. They put me on pain killers and sent me to a Physical Therapist the quickest they could. Never have I felt pain so terrible in my life! A few of the nurses and people I have talked to said that they have had some of that nerve pain as well and it was worse than labor so that made me feel like labor won't be so terrible.

As of now, it's so so much better. PT taught me better ways to stand and sit and gave me exercises to do to make the pain better which have helped immensely. Since then I have pretty much given up on driving though. It's not worth the chance of it coming back suddenly and getting into an accident, not to mention it's really hard to look back and back a car up with a big belly in your way. I'm a slave to Andrew coming home and taking me to the grocery store just for a chance to get out. Now we are just playing the waiting game. I'm due the 7th of November but I'm hoping for earlier. Let's hope she gets here soon and stops being a literal pain in her mothers butt!