Giveaway: Nursing Pillow Cover

This is the 2nd week in our newbie series of special Saturday giveaways! We decided to start doing this as a sort of "thank you" for all of our friends and readers. I'd bake you all a batch of homemade cookies, if I could (probably snicker doodles, or maybe peanut butter chocolate chip- those are my favorite), but since I can't- this is the next best thing...

This weeks giveaway is brought to you by The Pink Polka Dot Store. A rad shop stocked full of completely affordable and absolutely adorable nursing pillow covers, burp cloths, and the like.

Whats up for grabs this time around, you ask?
A really cute nursing pillow cover!

How cute is it? Here, let Evelyn show you...



Yep, that could be yours.
The brown flannel animal print pillow cover, not the baby.

Well, not that exact one, because thats the one thats currently on my nursing pillow (captain obvious, over here), but a duplicate of that one. Spit it out Tia.

First, lets talk nursing pillows, for a second, shall we?

As most of you know, Evelyn is my 3rd baby. I had seen ads inside of the many of thousands of free baby magazines that came my way, during my previous pregnancies, but I didn't think a nursing pillow (A Boppy), is anything that I needed.

With my first baby, Eleanore, I wasn't able to breastfeed (I gave up too easily). I pumped my milk for her for 6 months. I was hooked up to my Medela for about 3 hours a day in order to do so. A nursing pillow wasn't needed.

And then when I had my 2nd, Charlie, I thought that maybe just like with his sister, I wouldn't be able to nurse him either. It turned out I could (yayy, I did it!), but after the baby actually got here, going out and buying myself a $40 pillow seemed a little bit ridiculous, when I could just constantly carry around a stack of regular pillows, and bend and fold them into shapes that worked for us and our football hold.



This time around, baby number 3 (sometimes when she falls asleep in her bassinet or swing, I completely forget about her. Really. So I like to remind myself as often as possible, even if its in small print in the middle of a Saturday morning blog post), I knew I'd be breastfeeding again, and because I've kind of got a lot on my plate already- I thought why not give the nursing pillow a try.

Um... but no way was I going to pay $40 for the dang thing.

I went to our local consignment kids store here in town, and picked up a used one for $15. The print on the pillow cover was horrendous, but... thats an easy fix. Thats where The Pink Polka Dot Store came to the rescue.

And, what I really like about having this pillow, is its not only the support system that I use to hold my baby comfortably during feedings, but its also a mommy-needs-to-set-you-down-now prop!

On her back, on her belly, whatever.
When shes swaddled up. When I have to set her down quickly to run and pull God knows what out of her brothers mouth. When theres a giant wolf spider running straight at me, and I need two free hands for combat and fast...

This thing is amazing.
I feel like such a schmuck for not getting one sooner.

Y'all. If you don't have one already, its totally worth it to find a used one (craigslist, ebay, consignment stores), and outfit it with a touch of your own style.



The reason why I like this cover especially, is because its totally gender neutral (since we never know what the gender of number 4 will be, when that day comes), not that I have a problem wrapping up little girls in blue, or putting a pink hat on a little boy- but... oh! And its flannel!!

I know that fall is still "officially" a few weeks ago (pffft, whatever, we had homemade pumpkin spice lattes this morning), but what says autumn/winter more than flannel? I can't wait to bust the flannel sheets out of the closet, by the way. Sadly, its still upwards of 800 degrees everyday, so... I might have to wait awhile.

Alright, enough chit chat. Lets get to the giveaway already!

Wait.
Can I just show you a couple more pictures of Evelyn??
Real quick?



Ok, I'm done.

...

.........

.............

Yeah no I'm not.



Ok. Now really. Hee hee.
Lets do the giveaway.


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Win a handmade nursing pillow gover from The Pink Polka Dot Store!
Just the cover, folks, just the cover.

-Go visit The Pink Polka Dot Store, and window shop. Pick out your favorite item from her shop, nursing cover or not.

-Come back here to this blog post, and leave a comment telling us what you liked. Keep in mind you'll be winning the nursing pillow cover pictured above, not the one that you "like" from her shop.

-Leave your email. Seriously. Leave, your, email. I don't care if we're blogging bff's, if we grew up together, or if you live next door- if you don't leave your actual email, by physically typing it out, then you just won't win.

-This giveaway is open to both US and Canadian residents.
-You can only enter once.
-Giveaway ends on September 10th, and the winner (chosen by Christopher's random number generating) will be notified by email (which is why you have to leave one!!).


*Additional entries*
You must leave one comment for each of the following entries, saying "I tweeted", or "I facebooked", or whatever. If you don't leave a separate comment for each additional entry, the entry will not count.

-Twitter: Copy and paste "Win a handmade nursing pillow cover from @TiaColleen- http://christopherandtia.blogspot.com/2010/09/giveaway-nursing-pillow-cover.html" into your status update.
-Facebook: Copy and paste the link to this giveaway on your wall, along with some kind of "Holla! Nursing pillow cover giveaway! Woot woot!" type status update to go along with it.

If you would like to sponsor a giveaway, you can get more details by clicking on our sponsor page here, and then sending us either an etsy convo or email.

Flashback Friday: Under The Streetlight

I don't talk very much, about the days before my title as Wife and Mother. Theres no real reason for that, I guess its just that when I think back to it all, my memories are so good, and so sacred- that I'm not sure I'd ever be able to find the right words to do my adventures justice.

Tonight on my way home from the commissary, a last minute trip, just me and baby, for nothing other than 6 half gallons of soy milk- something triggered a series of still shots in my head (I think it was maybe the song on the radio combined with the pending sunset over the desert), that brought me back to this place...




So thats where I am, right now, while I type this. I'm not sitting uncomfortably on the couch, overheating as a result of my netbook's lack of cooling pad, as it balances on the one knee not occupied by my snoring newborn. I'm not waiting for my husband to come back downstairs, from tucking in an exhausted and screaming toddler who passed out in his high chair with a piece of un chewed chicken in his mouth, and then woke up half an hour later- angrily in his crib, wondering where the heck his dinner went. I'm not waiting anxiously to finish up our kinda-pathetic attempt at having a date night, by watching the movie "Date Night" on demand (which has been paused 3 times since it started, and we're not even 20 minutes into it), which will probably be followed up with doing the dishes, picking up stuffed animal friends, and then passing out with spitup on my shoulder.

Nope, not tonight.

I'm back at that place, surrounded by that music, and those friends, under that sunset, still standing on that stage.
I'm the one in the bright red lipstick, with the sky high 1960's bouffant, sneaking shots from the flask hidden in the secret compartment in my purse . Say hello, if you run into me?

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Flashback with us! Go through your polaroids, scrapbooks, old crappy cell phone pictures- whatever you've got. Scan them, upload them, get them onto the computer somehow, and then share them with the world! Or... with us at least. Post them onto your blogs, write a little bit to go with them- tell us your story. When you're all finished, grab one of our buttons from down below (wayyyy down there at the bottom of our page) and put it somewhere inside your post (or link back to us the old fashioned text way). Come back here to this post, and add your link to the photo list below!