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merestylefinds · 6 years

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5 Tips for Hospital Stay after Labor/Delivery

As some of you know, we just had our second child at the beginning of Summer and our lives have been non-stop ever since! Our first child was born in Oklahoma and the second child, where we currently reside in Southern California. It was interesting to me to see the differences in my healthcare treatment between the two states, (neither outperformed the other, rather both were wonderful experiences). So I wanted to share with you five things I learned from my experiences with child labor. Let's jump right into it, shall we?

1- Never Be Afraid to Call Labor & Delivery

I know many worrisome moms that felt they were a burden to call Labor and Delivery with a question regarding their pregnancy or labor symptoms. My second pregnancy was much different from my first, but having “been there, done that” once before, I thought I should know everything when it came to pregnancy. WRONG. The nurses are there to help and are always willing to go above and beyond to answer your questions for the sake of you and your unborn child. If I had just called with my question right away, I could have saved myself a lot of worry and stress.

2- Try to Pack Light

While packing for my second delivery, I reminded myself to take on the “minimalist” approach as I stuffed things into my hospital bag. I took so much unnecessary, unneeded crap to the hospital during my first delivery, it became a pain in the butt digging through all the stuff I didn’t need in my bag while looking for that one thing I did want.

However, a few unconventional items I'm glad I packed with me were:

- a bath towel

- shower shoes

- extra empty zip lock baggies for small items

- a file folder for important papers

- extra pillows

So unless you are having newborn photography done at the hospital or are the type of person that absolutely cannot be seen without your hair fixed and your makeup on, I would leave the full size hair dryer, styling tools and contouring brushes at home. Which brings me to my next point...

3- You Will Leave with More Stuff than Which You Came

No, I’m not just talking about your new baby. Each time I was admitted to the hospital for child labor, I was given a ton of extra medical supplies, diapers, wipes, paperwork, snacks, flowers, gifts, etc. So to back up my previous tip listed above, if you can live 48 hours without it, leave it at home. Do you really want to have your significant other make three trips out to the car or have to worry about unpacking all of those bags once your home with your new baby? I didn’t think so.

4- Be Prepared to be Bothered A Lot

It was 3AM the morning after I delivered my first child when I was awoken by a lab technician at my bedside preparing to take a blood sample. Really? You need my sample right now? Yes! And vital checks are only one type of many interruptions to expect. The interruptions after delivery of my second child were much worse! Nurses, my doctor, my midwife, the pediatrician, house keeping, a breastfeeding consultant, a PPD counselor, food delivery and even a person replacing faulty hospital trays all came to my room multiple times within a 30 hour period. If you're lucky, you'll just learn to sleep through the company if at all possible.

5- Enjoy the Experience for What It Is...A Miracle!

Whether it went off without a hitch or your plan didn't quite pan out, just try to relax and be proud of the work you just put forth. Having a baby is a big deal and it should be celebrated!

Until next time,

Meredith

07-23-2018

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merestylefinds · 6 years

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A New Way to Grocery Shop

Now that our family lives in a larger city, we are just now discovering a lot of new business concepts and delivery services that have been readily available for many others.

For instance, our local grocery store in Oklahoma had just started a scan-and-go type check out service where customers would scan and bag their own groceries as they shopped to avoid the long lines at checkout. Oddly enough, the store's attempt to stay relevant and provide convenience to its customers was not well received by all. Many patrons feared significant job loss within their small town. Although that fear may be understandable for some, after using the service myself, I immediately knew that some would still prefer the traditional way of shopping for groceries, therefore the reality of that fear was rather minor.

On one of my final trips to the grocery store prior our move, I noticed they were breaking ground on new parking spots for a popular online grocery pick-up service. This fairly new service is being made available by more and more large chain grocers that allows customers to place an order for groceries at home, arrange a date and time for pickup, drive to the store and be met by an associate that will load your order directly into your car. This service actually wasn't available at our new store here in California until approximately two weeks ago, but I had the opportunity to try it out today! Being 36 weeks pregnant, I found that walking the aisles of the store, lifting, bending, and loading groceries each week was starting to be too much. Last week, I actually had to ask two separate people to help me reach items on the bottom self, otherwise I would have had to get on all fours or take a seat in the middle of the aisle to do it myself. Who would want to do that?

Yesterday afternoon while my toddler napped, I created an account and had the option to browse grocery items by category and either add them directly to my cart or save them to my "favorites" list. I spent a decent amount of time organizing my account and saving the brands, sizes and flavors of items that our family likes. This made adding items off my grocery list even that more easy and I was able to watch my grocery total as I shopped. There was no surprise at checkout when it came to our weekly total because I was able to stick to a list and not "browse buy" food I don't need while walking through the aisles. Our family has a monthly grocery budget that usually gets blown and it has been one area of our finances that I've tried to reinvent and fix going forward. I found this service will also help us stay on budget!

When it is time to head to the grocery store, you can simply check-in using their grocery app to notify the store that you are in route to pick up your order. The app used GPS to provide us each an ETA at the store and I was also given the option to describe the color of my car in order to help the associate know who to look for. If you choose not to use the app, once you park within a designated pick-up parking spot, you can call their department telephone number to notify them you are waiting outside. Within a minute of parking, an associate was on her way out to my car with my order and the entire grocery transaction was completed in less than 6 minutes. The baby didn't even have time to get upset the car had stopped moving! Hallelujah! My order was accurate and my meat, diary and produce were all fresh. I couldn't have been happier with the process!

If you're interested in trying this service and to find out if it's available near you, I've linked my refer-a-friend promo code below for your use!

http://r.wmt.co/iKIIk

*Please note, there is a $30 minimum for all orders placed using this service.

In a nutshell, I found the specific benefits of this service to be as follows:

-save time and effort

-convenience

-pick-up windows that are flexible for all types of schedules

-no browse buying and no surprise at checkout that allows you to stay on budget

-refer a friend benefits and discounts

For thinking at one time this type of service was silly and a bit overkill (because everyone has an hour to go grocery shopping), my mind and my life has completely changed. I don't think I'll ever go back to traditional grocery shopping.

Until next time,

Meredith 05-04-2018

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merestylefinds · 6 years

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Don't Settle for Late Charges!

I am usually on top of my game making sure to meet all my deadlines and due dates. But this last month while my family was moving from Oklahoma to California, a few missed actions could have cost us dearly. I dropped the ball on paying our bills or avoiding extra charges THREE times in a single month! Yep, that's right- I made three inattentive boo-boos that could have added up to unnecessary expenses for our family! No, I didn't forget to pay the mortgage or anything like that, but I will tell you what I did do:

-missed making a "minimum payment" due date on a store credit card*

-allowed Baby Girl to play with the TV remote that resulted in unwanted movie purchases

-put off paying a Zipcash bill that resulted in administrative fees that were almost 100% the amount of the original bill!

I'm not beating myself up (now) too much because moving across the country with an infant and late in pregnancy is a pretty big deal and everything was a justifiable charge and completing my fault!

Instead, I decided to call each company's customer service department as soon as I learned about my mistake in order to ask for a one-time reprieve. And IT WORKED each time!

As I said earlier, we are normally sure to pay our bills on time and asking for charge reversals is not a habit we have made when it comes to our bill providers. I can't promise that if you are calling for late payment forgiveness multiple times a year that you'll get the same results, but simply picking up the phone and otherwise making a good faith effort to pay our bills on time has come in handy when life does get a little hectic!

Until next time,

Meredith 04-02-2018

(*Stay tuned in the future for a post about why my use of credit cards is becoming more and more nonexistent!)

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merestylefinds · 8 years

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Delicious Dinners: Vegetable Lasagna Rolls - A Must Try! About two weeks ago, The Today Show featured this recipe as a part of its daily food segment. I didn’t give it much thought until I saw the chef add zucchini and squash to her dish. (I am a huge zucchini fan!) I instantly hit pause and ran to get my pen and paper to write down the recipe as I watched her make it. I laughed inside because I always made fun of my mom when she did this exact thing. Pause, rewind, jot it down, play, pause, rewind. You get it! Lol!

Anyway, this version is meatless, so if you have a man in your life like mine who has to have meat for dinner, just add your ground beef, turkey or Italian sausage. (I personally would recommend the sausage!) I was very happy with the outcome and it was delicious. It made enough to feed the two of us for days!

Here’s the link from The Today Show: http://www.today.com/recipes/vegetable-lasagna-rolls-t84626?cid=sm_fbn

Enjoy! Meredith 04-27-2016

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