Mommy in Heels Q + A

Hope you all are having a great week! School is (hopefully) starting in a couple of week so we are trying to enjoy the last few days. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with an empty house once the girls go back to school!

Anyway…let’s just jump right into the questions, shall we??

How do you deal with pant alterations? Do you only buy petite length?

I am only 5’4”, which puts me kind of petite kind of not. Sometimes petite length is too short, sometimes it’s just right. To answer your question though, I hem them myself, meaning I just cut them. I am so thankful that raw hems are generally pretty popular, because it prevents me from having to get my pants professionally hemmed!

More often than not, I will just buy regular length and cut off what I’m comfortable with!

shop the look

These jeans were pretty long on my when I tried them on, so I decided to give them a little trim-I could probably make them a little shorter, too but for now I love them!

How are you doing? How is the PPD?

There were several of you that asked me specifically how I was doing and how my Post Party Depression is-I am so thankful for that. For those that are semi new here, I shared a lot about my journey with PPD here.

I feel like I’m doing sort of ok, sort of not. The last several months have just been so bizarre for everyone, and adding onto that navigating PPD it’s been tough here and there. I am now working from home full time-running my (now) online boutique and my blog. That has proven to be kind of difficult. It’s been hard to find a good balance between working and not. Having everyone home all the time is tough too! I know a lot of you are going through the same! I’m basically running two full time businesses and some days its overwhelming to say the least!

For now, I am taking my medication daily and currently on the hunt for a therapist. I think therapy, coupled with my medication will be really beneficial for me!

Are the dark spots on your face due to being pregnant?

Yes and no! I think a lot of them are from being pregnant with Cecelia-they definitely got worse with my last pregnancy. On top of that, I think they are just from age and allllll of the years of laying in tanning beds and thinking SPF 4 was enough in my teens and twenties. If I could go back in time and punch myself I would!

If I can give any teens/young 20-somethings advice it is WEAR SUNSCREEN. Like all the time. No matter what.

Link to the shirt with the ladies on the front?

I discovered Spoonful of Faith a few months ago and fell in love with everything she has! I grabbed this shirt I’m wearing (in a large) and also added a couple of prints to hang in my home office!

How do you manage it all? Working from home and being a mom? /// How do you balance mom time, relationship time and me time?

I lumped these two questions together because I feel like they can go hand in hand, but to answer the first question….

If I’m being honest, I don’t manage it all hahaha. Like I said earlier when chatting about my PPD it’s been a challenge. Working from home has always been something that has appealed to me, and I am so thankful to be able to, but man its hard. As much as I go in my office to work and stay focused, there is always someone who needs a snack, sibling arguments that need to be mediated, diapers that need to be changed, etc. I think once the girls start school (Cece at daycare, too. It’s what works for us.) it will be so much easier to try and have an actual ‘work day’ but for now I squeeze it in when I can (I say this as I am working on this post at 8:30 at night).

Some days I get so much done and I go to bed feeling so accomplished, but other days I am lucky if I respond to enough emails!

As far as relationship time, that is something that I feel like ebbs and flows. There are some times where I think we are doing a great job with making time for others, and then there are other times where I’m like ‘when did we have a date night last?” “did we even give each other a kiss today?” We have worked really hard at our marriage and have had our fair share of problems over the years. Through those problems though we realized that we need to put our marriage first. Well technically we put God first, then our marriage then our girls. Luckily, both of our parents are really involved and are always willing and able to watch the girls for us. We are though on the hunt for a local babysitter just to have on hand when need be (my parents live over 2 hours away and Ryans about an hour). I will say though that Ryan is really great at scheduling date nights for us!

As far as me time, that’s the most difficult. It seems like theres always something, and with COVID closing or limiting a lot of businesses it puts a damper on things I can do with my girlfriends. So for now, ‘me time’ is a lot of-taking a quick nap during the day or sitting out on the porch reading a book. LOL! Ryan has always been great at noticing when I need a break and forcing me to do something, but sometimes you just need to say “I’m taking some me time!” and just DO IT.

Top three favorite perfumes?

Thats a good question! I definitely have a favorite-it’s Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom and Honey. A few months ago I had shared on instagram how I had been searching for the perfect perfume. I wanted to have a signature scent that my girls would always remember. You know, the kind where when they are older and I am long gone, they will smell something and say “this smells like mom!”

I finally found this scent when Ryan and I were on a trip to NYC in February and fell in love! It's definitely pricier but I feel like it lasts. I spray it just about every day (Charlotte wears it sometimes too) and I feel like I haven’t even put a dent in the bottle!

I also love Estee Lauder Pleasures-that was the first real, adult perfume I ever wore! Every time I smell it, so many memories flood me!

What’s it like having a big age gap in your kids? Is it super challenging to manage?

This is a really good question, one that I get asked pretty frequently in my DM’s. We actually really enjoy it. Would we have liked our girls closer in age? Yes, but that’s just now how things happened!

Pros-Ella and Charlotte are a HUGE help. Like huge. They watch her while I go to the bathroom, or if I’m getting her bottle or meal ready. They entertain her, play with her and are just amazing big sisters. It’s so nice to have the extra sets of hands when I just want to go to the bathroom in peace and Ryan isn’t home.

Cons-Cecelia will only be 7 when Ella is off to college. They also won’t be in the same school at the same time ever. That kind of bums me out sometimes. I do worry that at some point they all won’t be close (I realize that happens with a lot of siblings as they grow up), but with their age gap it makes me extra worried I guess?!

Overall though, it has truly been amazing to see both Ella and Charlotte take on the roles of big sisters to Cecelia and we couldn’t be happier! Ella of course has been a big sister, but I was really anxious to see how Charlotte would be. She loves Cece SO.MUCH. Like so much. There are times where she just wants to hug her and squeeze her so hard that we have to remind her to be gentle hahaha.

How do you feel about taking toddlers out to run errands while dealing with the coronavirus?

I don’t know…I’ve never really thought about it? We’ve definitely taken our girls out to do things safely so I don’t really judge others-I think people do what’s best for their family and their situation.

We personally haven’t really take the girls out to run errands too much, only when its something specific for them (like new shoes or something for school). Typically the grocery shopping type errands are done by either Ryan or myself! Do what’s best for your fam!

Daily schedule with Cecelia?

I have never really been one of those parents that has a super strict schedule, but we also aren’t the kids of parents that are just ‘whatever!’ when it comes to a schedule. We’re flexible and make changes when we need to. Like if Cece’s nap schedule is messed up one day for something then we just deal and move onto the next day!

Typically though, she is up anywhere between 6:00-7:00. I usually give her a bottle and we play in the basement while Ella and Charlotte are still sleeping. We play down there so we don’t wake them up!

After about an hour or so she has breakfast-it’s usually yogurt! We typically will watch some Sesame Street while she eats and plays. She looooves that show!

A couple of days a week she has been going to daycare-it works really well for us and allows both Ryan and myself to get a lot of work done. Those days we usually head out the door around 8:30, and she’s picked up around 4:15!

Non daycare days, she generally naps in the morning about 3 hours after she woke up. Morning naps are a crapshoot-some days its an hour, others 45 mins, and sometimes 2! I can’t bank on starting anything big during her morning nap because of that!

Lunch is usually between 12-1, depending on how many bottles she’s had and how hungry she is! We usually put her down for her afternoon nap between 1-2 and I would say on average is about 2 hours!

Dinner is honestly a different time every day! Again, it depends on how long her afternoon nap is!

Bedtime is between 7:30-8:00. We judge it based on how long her naps were that day and just her general mood!

I will say-she is into everything. You literally can’t take your eyes off of her for a second. I mean, I know thats the case with kids in general but man she’s BUSY.

What lipstick/color do you wear?

I honestly don’t really wear a lot at all. 90% of the time when someone asks me what my lip color is, I’m not wearing any. If I am it’s Carmex or or Glossier’s Balm Dotcom.

Those two, especially Carmex, have been my go-to for a really long time!

Did Ryan ever sell the house he was building?

Yes! Thanks for asking! He closes at the end of the month and has been doing last minute touch ups and walk throughs with the buyers! We are so thankful that he was able to finish building and sell it during the pandemic!

He also just purchased another lot to build on and will hopefully close on that piece of land in the next month or so! He’s already working on creating the perfect home to build there!