It's the ULTIMATE Blog Party. Let's get crunk!

Alright so I popped out of bed at 1 AM to get my 5 minutes for Mom Party post up. See how dedicated I am to my craft?

So let's see where to begin....it all started long ago in Baltimore, MD my mother and father  wait you didn't want all that information did you?


I'm Alex and I am the loud, crazy, energetic, and attitude prone Mama to my 20 month old loud, crazy, energetic, and attitude prone son Phoenix.

I am a young mom (22) and I understand that most people might think that I'm leaving my baby home alone while I party and pouring Pepsi into the sippy cup and only changing a diaper when the sag is so low it hits the floor.

But in fact the opposite is true! I don't leave my baby home when I go party...I just bring him with me. And Pepsi? That's for chumps! My toddler gets straight Mikes Hard Lemonade (but the light kind because he's on a diet). And I only change a diaper when I know the social worker is on her way. We save money that way.


But in all honesty I take a very laid back (ok well I try) view on mommying and even mommy blogging. I have an ability to be able to describe to you in such vivid detail about a fight with my husband over burgers that makes you want to run for the hills!


My husband is a great guy who happens to be like a billion light years older then me, but who cares? He's still sexy and young. Right now he's in LA working in a recording studio 16 hours a day making his dreams come true and mine as well (ya know the kind filled with Chloe, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Marc Jacobs. Those dreams). He's a Grammy nominated music producer and I expect our life is getting ready to go on a fast and crazy ride!

I'm completely transparent and honest when it comes to this. I want to put out my mistakes and learn from others and offer up any little nuggets of wisdom I can.

Throw in some adorable pictures of my feisty red head tot, delicious recipes, hot pictures of my husband, and fantastic shoes and you've got yourself a blog! Oh yeah and a controversial post every now and again to keep it interesting. 

And what prizes do I want out of this? Well for starters how about the Target gift card? The Be My Guest Gift certificate. I so need a vacation! And the Amazon gift card.

Hopefully you like what you see and if you do please become a follower or leave comments. I also have a button if you want and you can follow me on Twitter (@Finzillamommy) too!

Have a great Friday....ok I'm going back to bed.

Learn the business of birth

Two months ago I was able to watch Ricki Lake's documentary "The Business of Being Born" and was riveted by everything that I learned.

I actually took notes while watching it so I could share everything with you all, but I packed the notebook up in the move. So not as many facts as I want to give you...guess that means you'll have to rent the movie.

When I  got pregnant with Phoenix I knew right away that I wanted a natural childbirth. I read a book on the Bradley Method and anything else I could get my hands on. I purchased a big exercise ball, the last few weeks leading up to D-day I practiced all my squats. I printed out my birth plan from The Bump passed it to my doctor and slipped a copy in the hospital bag and one in my husbands wallet just in case.

I had all these visions in my head of a peaceful and serene birth for Phoenix. But I didn't quite get it.

I guess if I put my story up against others it wouldn't have been so bad. But for me, it wasn't what I wanted. The only thing that went according to my plan was not having any drugs.

I didn't want to be strapped to the bed monitored the whole time, but I was. I didn't want to be induced, but I was. I didn't want an episiotomy (Fact: over 1 million unnecessary are performed in the US each year) , but I got one PLUS 100 plus stitches. I had a pretty routine delivery, by hospital standards.

I know I left the hospital with a beautiful blonde baby boy, but I still was slightly disappointed in my birthing experience.

And after watching the TBOBB I really realized how much hospitals and doctors intervene and even cause problems in the delivery room.

The pitocin they give you to speed up your labor, that does nothing but make contractions stronger, which makes you beg and plead for some drugs (or a gun, in my case), that then slow your labor down, that makes the doctors want to speed things up with pitocon, which makes you beg for more drugs, and then they get the brilliant idea to give you a C-section to save your baby. But had they not done all of the interventions your baby wouldn't need saving.

-The US has the second worst newborn death rate among developed countries

-In Europe 70-80% of births are attended by midwives.

-Over the last 10 years the C-section rate has risen by 50%? 

Hospitals are in the business of making money. Open beds = more money. Natural vaginal delivers mean full beds for hours and even days. C-sections/inductions, = money. Period.

In the documentary some studies found that the amount of c-sections performed between the hours of 3 and 5 PM is staggering....and what they found was that doctors didn't like waiting around for a women to go into labor. Start the section then and you can beat traffic and get home to have dinner with your family.  

As women we have been told for so long all the horror stories of birthing and what we can't do it, that we are unable to trust our own bodies. I'm what you would call a creationist. I believe in God and that He alone created us all and everything that surrounds. And so I believe that as women He designed us for a very specific task....to bring forth life and everything that we need to do that is within ourselves. If we allowed our natural instincts to take over I think we'd be surprised at what we would be able to do.

I'm not saying that doctors and hospitals are wrong. I also wouldn't consider myself a "hippie" by any means advocating giving birth outside by a tree or anything. But we spend so much time when we're pregnant worrying about not drinking coffee or eating fish, that we don't spend enough time thinking about our delivery and the things we shouldn't be putting in our bodies at that time. 


And if you must have a c-section for medical reasons...by all means do so! Do whatever is safest for you and your baby. But always know that a c-section should not be your first thought and that being induced isn't always best either.


I've already made the decision that whenever I do decide to have another baby that I will be doing it with a midwife and either in a birthing center or at home. And if you are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant do your research. Even if you choose to go with a doctor make sure its a doctor that's goal and objective is to give you, your best birth.

And check out the movie if you haven't seen it.


Good places for information and facts:


http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/


http://thebirthsurvey.com/


http://www.motherfriendly.org/index.php

Best of Designer Flash Sales

There is this new trend I've noticed in the shopping arena when it comes to sales and bargains. Websites that offer flash sales of designer goodies at super low prices.


I am addicted to several of them and wanted to bring you some of my favorites.


1. Baby Steals- New deal posted everyday at 9 am MST


I have bought so much stuff from here it's not even funny. Great place to get Robeez.

2. Kids Steals- Same as Baby Steals for older toddlers & older kids. Phoenix got a super cute pair of DC tennis shoes for $15 here a few months ago.

3. Haute Look- They have really great things. Haven't ordered yet, but want to. Also if you choose to sign up make sure you click the link so I can get credit aye?

4. Gilt- Fantastic designer sales. 

I purchased these beautiful bracelets from them. Originally like $90 got them for $26. 

P.S. Make sure you click my link so I can get credits. Don't you want me to be happy? :-) 






5. Ideeli- Another fantastic place for designer duds. They also have an option to upgrade to get a better "seat" to the sales.

6. The OutNet- This place probably rocks the most for their new promotion. I found out yesterday that on the 16th everything in their Flash Sales will be $1.00. Yes. You read that right. $1.00. ONE DOLLAR! And we're talking Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Paul & Joe, etc. Just go over and register and do what I'm doing. Don't sleep at all on the 15th or 16th because the sales could start at any point on the 16th!


Good Luck!

Tell your husbands they can thank me later :-)


Do you have any favorites I didn't mention?

Easter Picture Overload

I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday. I love it now that its Spring and I literally can not wait to get outside. Even if its just to grab the runaway George before nap time.

It's lovely outside. Sadly my springtime partner is still gone and I woke up this morning (A little annoyed at him. Hey! You would be too if your husband decided to Twitter before calling you after a 7.9 Earthquake in Cali!) happy that the countdown had now moved to 4 days until he got home.

But after talking to him I find out he'll be staying an extra 4 days. I should be really glad because its good news. And I am glad, but I miss him and I'm bored and I want to go to DC and hold hands and look at cherry blossoms.

And I hate sleeping alone. Phoenix is a nice substitute but the whole thing of him kicking me and hitting me in his sleep (and rolling off the bed once) is getting old. And although I love watching all my Gossip Girls and 90210's uninterrupted I have a lot of LOST and Nurse Jackie's that are waiting to be watched with my friend.

So I'm a little sad.

But I did have a nice Easter yesterday. I took Phoenix and my niece Penelope outside to take some pictures because my soul wasn't ready to go back inside yet.

I wasn't completly sure what to put into the kids baskets so I just grabbed a bunch of cute stuff.

Phoenix-

Free Willy on DVD-one of my favorites when I was little, plus I thought he would enjoy a "live action" Nemo. He didn't.

"Nemo" toy"Hanny" Manny toy phone

And frog cup and snack container

Plates (you can always use more dishes right?)

Penelope-

Ladybug bath mitt and bath pouf

Ladybug cup and plates

Pig snack container (clearly out of ladybugs)

Baby doll

And get this. Can you believe Phoenix's outfit was from dun, dun, dun....KMART?! Zionks! When it comes to clothing from "variety stores" (That's what Hanny Manny called them in a recent episode) I'm strictly a Target girl (although the Miley line at Wal-mart has helped them) but I needed to pick up some stuff (definition-I really wanted to buy stuff and Kmart was the closest store. My husband really shouldn't go out of town and leave me in charge of the cards. I think I've had a package delivered every day he's been gone. And if you asked me what I bought I couldn't really tell you.) and there was those cute shorts and button down shirt. Score.

Also have you had a chance to catch me on YouTube? I'd love if you could for a minute and let me know what you think.

BTBW Karaoke Style

I have really cool project that I want to share with you that I just started. It's my YouTube channel and I finally decided to put up a video of me singing.


I have always loved music and singing and have grown up singing on every single worship team, at every Christmas and Easter play, wedding and graduations. But short of that I've never done anything else with my voice. In my "five year" plan I have on there to start really pushing myself to do something with it and my YouTube page is just the start.


After a week of hearing one of favorite songs to sing (Killing Me Softly by The Fugees) on the radio every time I got in the car I wanted to keep singing it and singing it and singing and singing...and, well you get the point. So I got the crazy idea to do the Cody Simpson thing and put a video up.


It took 2 hours for me to do because I am probably the goofiest person you'll ever meet and kept making weird faces while doing my "intro" dancing weirdly to the music (in my head) and all around being crazy. And in my effort to become more "photogenic" I ended up with these.

It wasn't until my brother (Whom we affectionately refer to as "Scrappy" as in "Scrappy" from Scooby Doo) Timmy came up and said "Just say your name and the name of the song and just sing! Gosh!" and so I did and that's the video I uploaded. Thank you Scrap for giving me the courage to continue LOL.

Check it out if you have time and if you liked it please leave me a comment!


I'm going to attempt to put a video up twice a month so any suggestions on what I should do next?