Free shipping, $10 off, and Giveaway Winners!

Through Monday, get free shipping on orders over $25! No code needed. Order this weekend for holiday delivery. Also, we're hoping you'll help us spread the word about Milan Maternity, so watch our facebook page today for details and simply "share" a post about MM to your profile for $10 off your order. Combine free shipping this weekend and your $10 off for some sweet savings!

Here are the winners of our giveaways this week!

The winner of the Briarmark giveaway is:

The winner of the Milan Maternity Giveaway is:

Congrats! Please e-mail service@milanmaternity.com by Monday, December 19th to claim your prize or another winner will be chosen.

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Winter skin?

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a Milan Maternity top of choice! Click here to enter!

For most places, winter is starting to set in. For our family, that means the fight against dry skin

begins. Luckily, our fight is a little easier, thanks to a pediatrician who told me about Vanicream. Both of my kids have eczema, and Vanicream is the only non-prescription thing I've found that works. And according to the website it's "Beneficial in skin problems such as atopic dermatitis (eczema), psoriasis, ichthyosis, and winter itch which may be aggravated by lack of moisture". And Vanicream is made without "dyes, fragrance/masking fragrance, parabens, lanolin, & formaldehyde."

I realize that I sound like one of those ridiculous infomercials or something, but seriously, it's some good stuff for you and your little ones. Definitely a must have for pregnant bellies. You can find it at pretty much any drug store, and of course tons of places online.

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A trick of the trade---Holiday Edition

It's that time of year where gift giving is at an all time high. If you are doing some gift giving yourself, and will be giving to the mini-humans in your life, I have a life saving tip for you!

Let me paint you a picture:

You know how fun it is to see the little ones open presents. Their face is full of anticipation. You are full of anticipation yourself, waiting to see how excited they will be about said present.

They open it. They are sooo excited!! It was just what they never knew they wanted. And then...

the box it's packaged in has to be opened, and it's taped shut with about 24 pieces of heavy duty tape. You see their excitement dwindle just a little by the time the box is finally removed. Then, after removing said present from the box, you find that it is fastened to cardboard with approximately 92 builders grade plastic fasteners. After finally finding some scissors and removing said 92 plastic fasteners, excitement levels are at an all time low. Then you realize said present needs batteries. And...do you have the right kind of batteries? And who replaced your excited, happy child with this frustrated, impatient one?

This happened a few too many times before we finally got a tip. One that made me think..."Uhhh....Duuuh." And now present opening is much less stressful and way more exciting.

Tip: Do all that stuff before you wrap it.

(Told you it would be a "duh" moment, but not all of us think of these simple things.)

Remove the tape from the box, cut the plastic holders, insert batteries, (do whatever else needs to be done to make it easily accessible and ready to use) replace present in box, THEN wrap the presents!

I promise you, your life will be much, much improved this holiday season!

And don't forget about our two giveaway! Enter to win a Milan Maternity top of choice here, and enter the Briarmark giveaway here.

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Marianna review and Milan Maternity Giveaway

I love a good maternity/transitional/nursing top. Really...what could be better than something that can last you through all the stages of pregnancy and after?

I recently got the Marianna top (in both white and teal blue, because I was taught that when you find a great top to buy it in all the colors that are available) and I'm glad I got both. It's one of my favorites. I am always in need of a good white top, and I love the color of the teal blue one, too. I love that it's a cute nursing top for now, and that it'll still work later when I'm pregnant again. I also love how soft this top is, and that I felt so comfy in it, while not looking frumpy.

We are giving away one of the new Milan Maternity tops of your choice to one lucky winner.

There are multiple ways to enter, and here's how:

1) Go to the Milan Maternity website and tell us which top you would like if you win.

2) Enter our Briarmark giveaway here (Briarmark giveaway is open until Thursday Dec 15, 11:59 pm PST) One entry for each time you enter the Briarmark giveaway. (Leave a separate comment for each entry you made)

3) Share this giveaway with one of the "share buttons" at the bottom of this post. It's super easy to share on Facebook, twitter, your blog, or e-mail! (One entry for each way shared, and for each day shared, leave a separate comment for each)

4)Follow Milan Maternity on Facebook , follow this blog, follow Milan Maternity on Twitter , post one of our buttons on your blog and leave the link (leave a separate comment for each)

Giveaway ends Wednesday, December 14, 11:59 PST.

Good luck!!

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A little funny to start off your week

Don't forget about the Briarmark giveaway. Click here to enter!

If you are planning to get more use out of your maternity clothes by sharing with others, please consider the following:

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Briarmark Baking Supply Review and Giveaway

If you don't already know, we're huge sports fans around here. Watching or playing, we're always up for a good game. And for you soccer moms, here's something that your kids will love you for! Not to mention your husband... We recently had the opportunity to review some fun baking supplies from Briarmark.com. Briarmark offers a variety of sports themed baking supplies such as cake pans, sucker molds, and cookie cutters: all to go along with your favorite sport or team, and at incredibly affordable prices. We had the chance to review the football cake pan and football sucker mold, as well as Briarmark's exclusive soccer ball cookie cutter. My favorite thing about all of these products was how crazy easy they were to use! Having done quite a bit of baking and even candy making with molds, I'm always hesitant to use something new, but everything turned out beautifully, and with very minimal effort. And being a busy mom, minimal effort is definitely what we're going for!

For the football sucker molds, you can use chocolate candy melts or just regular chocolate chips. I used semi sweet chocolate chips and little bit of vanilla almond bark (you can find this at most grocery stores) to make it smooth. I also added coconut flakes and walnuts to some of them and they came out just as great! I piped some melted vanilla almond bark into the mold where the football threads went and it turned out perfect. They were so easy! They probably only took me about 15 minutes to prepare.


I was so happy with how my football cake turned out!! It was so easy too- just pour a prepared cake mix into the football cake mold and bake! I made some homemade chocolate frosting and did the thread detail with melted white chocolate. Again, so easy!

A friend of ours tried out the Briarmark's soccer ball cookie cutter for their child's soccer team party and the cookies turned out so cute! Briarmark has the perfect royal icing recipe (along with other tips and ideas) posted on their website. The thinner royal icing is AWESOME for allowing you to frost the whole cookie, and then, using their food coloring markers, decorate and color your cookie as desired. The cookie cutter used along with the food coloring markers makes it easy for soccer moms to bake cute cookies for after the game without having to spend countless hours making different colored frostings and decorating. The markers also make it easier for kids to help! LOVE them.

Perfect for sport-themed birthday parties, game day or tailgate parties, or to show your team spirit, Briarmark.com has you covered!

Briarmark is giving one lucky reader their choice of either their exclusive soccer ball cookie cutter, or the football cake pan!

Here's how to enter: (leave a comment for each entry completed)

1. Visit Briarmark and comment on what product you'd love to try.

Extra Entries:

2. Multiple Entries-Share this giveaway with one of the "share buttons" at the bottom of this post. It's super easy to share to Facebook, twitter, your blog, or e-mail! (One entry for each way shared, and for each day shared)

3. Follow Briarmark on Facebook

4. Follow this blog

5. Follow Milan Maternity on Facebook

6. Post one of our buttons on your blog and leave the link (one entry for each)

7. Follow Briarmark or Milan Maternity on twitter (one entry for each)

8. Join Briarmark's mailing list (enter your email address on their home page to sign up)

Giveaway open until Thursday, December 15th, 11:59pm PST. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Good luck!

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What I Wish I Had Known #2

I posted a few weeks ago about the number 1 thing I wish I'd known about pregnancy/birth. From here on out, there isn't much of a particular order, just things I wish I'd known in general.

The second thing I think of is wishing I'd known (sooner) that going to midwives was a viable option. The ob/gyn office I was going to was...less than stellar. They didn't explain much to me, and they didn't spend a whole lot of time with me. I even found out later that there was a pretty important issue with my pregnancies that they never even talked to me about.

I felt like pregnancy and childbirth was a HUGE important thing, and I should feel happy and comfortable with the person/people that would be helping me in the process, and I just didn't feel that way at the place I was going.

Luckily I talked to someone who talked to me about midwives. Turns out midwives can and do deliver at hospitals, they do all the same tests that are done with an ob/gyn, you can get an epidural, and midwives generally have an ob/gyn that they work with so if complications do arise they are there to help.

I know that midwives aren't for everyone. But I have to say, I was very happy with the change. I made the switch several months into my pregnancy. They took the time to talk to me, were all very friendly, and I didn't feel like I was being rushed through my appointments. The births were also a lot different than I've heard from other people in that the midwife was at the hospital the whole time I was in labor, checking on me regularly, and she was even there the whole time I was pushing.

So if you aren't happy where you are, know that you can switch, that you deserve to be happy with where you are going, and that midwives could be a possible option.

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