This was supposed to be funny

I tried to do something funny for Josh, but it turned out to just be creepy. I went to the thrift store the other day to get coffee mugs for the bakery, and i got sucked into baby clothes. I had better luck there than any other store I've been to so far! I got some OshKosh overalls for 50 cents, and a couple onesies. I decided to make a fake baby on the new changing pad with a note for Josh when he came home.

Turns out, fake babies are creepy.

I had planned to put up a nice long post today with more sewing projects (changing table covers, so easy!) and some other updates, but I left my camera in my car, at work, with my bag of stuff from a wedding cake I did today, so now it will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry.

The Bloob is getting BIG and moving around so much. Feeling the body parts is so fun! I still can't totally tell what stuff is, but you can definitely feel either big protrusions (head, butt, back) or smaller limbs (legs, arms, feet). As far as we can tell, he/she has been spending a lot of time sideways, and every once in awhile I'll start feeling lots of pressure down low, so I'm guessing there is still lots of flipping around going on. 

We filled out our "birth plan" questionnaire from the birthing center the other day. It's pretty simple, and honestly, we don't have much of a plan. We know we don't want anyone else in the birthing room but us and the midwives, we said we'd bring our own music (I like those midwives, but I don't trust their taste in music) (I'm imagining buddhist chanting, or indigo girls), yes we'd like them to take some pictures for us, and our biggest fears about birth and labor are: pain management, complications, feeling useless (josh), and struggling with breast feeding. 

We are taking 2 birthing classes in April, one at the birthing center, and one taught by my yoga teacher, which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully the classes will ease some of our fears a little bit.

Also, I had 2 separate dreams last night that the Bloob was a girl. Although, in one dream, she was a little asian girl, so take that for what you will. Ha!

Ugh.

Swollen ankles (and legs), I hate you.

Nursery

 I got home from work the other day and Josh had moved all of the stuff out of the nursery that I couldn't. He's had two extra days off this week, and it's been so nice. I got to spend a day arranging everything in there, and it's making me happy to see it all put together. It's so warm and cozy. We both feel some relief to have it done enough that if the Bloob came now, we wouldn't be freaking out.

My friend Kurt made these paintings for me awhile ago, after my cat George died. The little lion looks just like George, and the bottom of the painting says "stitched heart". The elephant says "and something about never forgetting". They weren't meant to be kid's paintings originally, but they fit so well and I love them so much, I hope the Bloob loves them too.

The little yellow side table in this picture I bought from my favorite antique mall with some of the money Grandma Mary sent (I'm saving the rest for a massage!), and the ottoman I made myself out of a fruit crate and some old favorite fabric. Josh says it looks like old man pants. I'm waiting for him to put legs on it for me, which he cut out of some old chair legs.

We love the crib! Ikea mattress size is the same as any other (whew) so the sheets I got recently at Tuesday Morning fit. After I got everything in place in here, I sat down in the chair and promptly fell asleep. 

We still have some work to do on this wall. The changing table still needs drawer pulls, a changing table pad, and baskets for the bottom shelf for storage. We're going to hang shelves on this wall over the table to hold supplies, as well as books and toys and stuff.

We may love the crib, but someone else loves it more. It took Richard all of 10 minutes to make himself right at home. I think he was actually grumpy that I was disturbing him for a picture. This was his one day of being allowed in there, and now it's off limits. Josh's mom made the quilt he is sleeping on, it's such a great match for the room!

Rollercoaster

I miss rollercoasters, not that I've had any crazy opportunities to ride one in the last 7 months. And beer, I miss beer. I've decided the first beer I'm having after the Bloob is going to be a Miller High Life in a glass bottle. If someone could make sure we have some at the birthing center, I'd appreciate it. Maybe it can be a baby shower gift, and I'll just stash it away until then. It's going to be so cold and it will just go down like delicious beery water, I can imagine it so clearly….

This rollercoaster of pregnancy though, I'm not so sure I'll miss it when it's over. The pure joy I feel about the Bloob, the feeling of love and protectiveness that makes me get teary, I hope that continues after the birth. The sudden tiredness, the full belly, the pressure on my stomach and lungs that makes it hard to breathe, those thing I'll be happy to see go away.

I spent yesterday feeling too tired to do much, although I did make brownies, which I can't eat because they give me THE WORST HEARTBURN KNOWN TO MAN. By the time Josh finally got home, I was on the couch and started crying when he walked in. There is so much to do and I feel so useless! I didn't even have the motivation to sew. He got me out of the house and we went to Ikea, where we got a dresser, and to my surprise, a crib. It wasn't in the plan, but it just happened, and I think Josh is feeling a big sense of relief that we got it, and now it is off his mental list. We ate dinner at Ikea, which is a secret pleasure of mine, and I kind of can't believe how much it cheered me up. It was only $9 for us both to have penne pasta with sauce, french fries, a salad, and drinks.

So today, I got up and set to work putting together the crib. I felt like it was something I could accomplish, and I was looking forward to. It went together pretty easily, and we both really like it. I'm glad we ended up choosing white, it look so summery and fresh. It has been thoroughly sniffed, and t is now Richard and Stella approved. I couldn't help thinking when I was putting it together that I felt like I was building a little cage. I was thinking that you have this long awaited sweet little baby that you bring home and promptly put behind bars, with no chance of escape. But maybe I need to think of it as a device to keep Richard and Stella OUT!

I was seriously tired after that, but I started putting the dresser together, after a break where I ate soup and watched an episode of Pushing Daisies. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to keep going, but I got to this point, and then I couldn't go any further.

At some point during this time, Stella seems to have eaten the little stuffed moose we got her from the "as-is" section at Ikea for 20 cents. She's pretty good about just chewing on them for awhile, until the stuffing starts to come out, and then we take it away. I gave it to her when I started, to keep her busy, and then when I stopped to take a break it was gone. It was only about the size of a golf ball, and I can't find it anywhere, so I'm assuming at some point she just gulped it down. 

I took a nap for a bit and then finished putting the dresser together, which felt a bit like finishing a triathlon. I seriously need to learn how to pace myself, or figure out what my limits are right now.

Hopefully I'll sleep really well tonight, even if it's just from overexertion! Tomorrow I work in the morning, and Josh has the day off to work on the basement. Hopefully it's nice out and he can fix up the window wells without them being a total mud pit.

At some point today, the Bloob was all over on the right side of my belly, and when I looked down, my belly was lopsided. It made me laugh. And someone at Josh's work told him we are having a girl, and that she is never wrong. So, now I guess we're having a girl. I have to admit, not finding out the sex has been the most fun of this whole experience, and I'm glad we decided not to know. Oh, I ordered the baby shower invitations! They are being printed and will be here in about 12 days, so then I'll mail them out to you guys. It's April 2nd at 6pm. Michelle suggested that we send them to people far away that we know won't be able to come, but so they will be able to send gifts. I didn't order a ton of invites, should we do that? I don't feel like we need a ridiculous amount of stuff, so I don't know if it's weird to do that. I don't want anyone to feel left out that they didn't get an invite though, even if they can't come. Where is Emily Post when you need her?

Almost forgot!

WE spent most of the day yesterday shopping, mostly for a dresser, but we also went to Rejuvenation and splurged on a light fixture for the Bloob's room. We got this:

I love it so much. But then when searching for the picture of it online, I saw a similar one, which I didn't see yesterday, that's has two aqua stripes, instead of red and now I'm feeling torn. Should we return it and get that one instead? Also, the red is much more orangey in real life, and looks good with the other stuff I have for the Bloob's room.

Weekly update: baby butts

I don't even know where to start with this post! It's been so busy around here, the days are just flying by. Valentine's Day was busy and fun; we baked a ton of heart shaped items at work and sold them all, and then Josh and I went out with friends that evening and stayed out past our bedtime! I didn't get him anything for Valentine's Day, because, well, I'm lame I guess. It just didn't occur to me that we were doing that. But he got me the Fuji Instax camera that I had wanted for Christmas. It's a fancy new instant camera (like a polaroid) but it's hilarious because the  camera is as big as my face. They make different sizes, and he got me the "wide" one. This isn't even a trick of depth of field, this thing is huge!

So far we've only taken 4 pictures, and they're not very exciting. We can't get the flash to turn off, so I have to spend some time today reading the instructions. We're excited to have fun instant pictures of the Bloob with it.

My to-do list today is looking like this:

1. Make brownies

2. Chew on ice. All day.

3. Go grocery shopping.

4. Drag Josh to Ikea to by a dresser.

5. Finish Mom's Xmas present.

6. Eat brownies.

What's with the pregnant ice chewing anyway? I need to look that up. I woke up at 2 am this morning, so hungry, and not one bit sleepy. So I got up and had peanut butter on saltines and watched tv. Stella was really excited about the prospect of eating peanut butter at 2 am, so she was very attentive while I was eating. Went back to sleep around 5, just as Josh was getting up. I think he's finally getting used to the weird sleep schedule, he didn't get up once to check on me!

The basement now has functioning windows, after a dramatic chainsaw exhaust filled day. I like to think that Josh and I are both pretty smart, but somehow the reason you don't use a chainsaw inside escaped us both. At least it's done, and we can move on to the next phase of the project. 

It was also pouring rain, which didn't really help this project any. You can't tell, but Josh is wearing his fly-fishing waders.

I believe this is just before Josh knocked that piece of concrete out into the giant mud puddle that formed outside the window, and it all splashed back in on him.

And, whew! Now he has to put the window well we dug last summer back together, if it ever stops raining. It's kind of killing me that I can't help.

Instead I've been working away inside. Leela and Spencer had a housewarming party, and I made them some pillows.

Then I made a pillow for the Bloob's room out of some grey flannel I got on the clearance rack for $1. Richard and Stella are entranced by something outside.

I also finally mailed Julie's Xmas present, which included a potholder, a bag, and a pin cushion (which I forgot to take a picture of). The pot holder has turquoise quilting, but you can't tell at all in this photo.

I mailed Ali's too, but I can't post it yet, because Fed-Ex screwed up and didn't deliver the package on time. She'll get it tomorrow I hope.

I got  to ask a few questions yesterday at our midwife appointment that I've been saving up. One was about having someone take pictures for us. We don't want a bunch of during labor pics, but I really want some "first moments" pictures, because I feel like in all of the craziness I won't remember it very well. We don't really want anyone else with us in the room during the birth (besides the midwives), so I've been struggling with what to do, because I want Josh involved, and not having to worry about taking pictures. The midwives said that as long as things are going fine (no complications) they will be able to take some pictures for us, and that we shouldn't worry about having someone else there. Plus, she said, if there are complications and they aren't able to take pictures, it's probably something we wouldn't want pictures of anyway. I feel good about that answer, so I think that is what we decided to do.

I also got to ask about what position the baby is in, and how to tell, and when he/she needs to be getting settled into a head down position. She helped me feel around and described how the butt feels different from the head and how sometimes you can feel the spine too. The Bloob was sideways, and still seems to be switching positions a lot. She said that around 33-36 weeks he/she should be settling into the birthing position. I think I can feel when the head is down, because it's lots of pressure down low, and sitting gets uncomfortable. Plus the kicks are higher up!

Last night we had fun lying in bed and feeling around, trying to sort out the head from the butt. I love to think about a little baby butt in there. I know I'm getting hormonally sappy, but I get teary thinking about getting to pat that little butt when it comes out! Josh said yesterday he's probably going to cry at the birth, so I know I'm not the only one.

Also, I'm just going to admit this and get it off my chest, but all I want to do now is sit around all day. Crosswords, tv, internet, naps. Just standing up and making food for myself makes me tired. I'm getting over my "need to stay busy" guilt, and now part of me is wishing I had a Mom, or sister, nearby to come over and do stuff for me. Only 2 months to go...

29 weeks

I need to put up a new post, with a bunch of sewing projects, and basement remodel updates, but i'm feeling too tired. Josh and I had the say off together today, and it was great, but I'm worn out.
We did just get back from our monthly appointment with the midwife, and everything is going fine. Urine pH is good, blood pressure was slightly higher than normal, but not in a bad range (I'm blaming Josh who is really stressing about this basement project, and making me stressed). My uterus is big and the baby was sideways when the midwife felt him/her.

I can't believe we're halfway through February, and next week is 30 weeks. It's finally starting to feel REAL, and a little scary.

posture correction

Julie said I looked huge in the picture (in a loving, sisterly way), and while I do think I'm big for 28 weeks, I think it is mostly attributed to my incredible slouch. So here is a more realistic shot, where I am standing up straight.
Any difference? My boobs look a little less like they are sitting on my belly at least!

Extreme Nesting

Here it is, 28 weeks of heavy, awkward baby. Am I wearing the same outfit as last time? Probably! Because I like to wear the same thing every day, and I've settled into a maternity uniform of $8 target t-shirt, tank top (under the t-shirt, keeps it from riding up!), and jeans.

Also, I keep waiting for my belly button to pop out, but I don't think it's going to happen. Pregnancy has led me to discover that I have the deepest, most cavernous belly button you can imagine, and I still can't see the inside of it, even with all this stretching.

Josh has been working away on the basement every night after work. It's kind of hard to show it to you at this stage, because it looks like a total disaster, but I guess that's the way it goes. He pulled up all of the carpet, scraped up the old floor tiles and has now scraped the walls and painted them with the first coat of concrete sealer. Two more coats of that to go, and then the floor.

I ended up kind of accidentally getting my way about all the built in cabinets. Once we realized we could put a bathroom in down there, we came up with a new layout that involves a short hallway, and it needed to go where the big cabinet was. So Josh pulled it out, and HOLY CRAP it made such a huge difference! It opened up the space so much. The window in the last picture and in this one below are both getting cut out and turned into full size egress windows, which will be so nice for light.

He was able to take the built-ins out in pieces, and they are actually really nice, so we're able to save them to use as storage in the laundry room part of the basement. This one in particular is so well built, and has lots of nice drawers, it will be a great cabinet for down there.

Josh is pushing himself so hard to get all of this done, he's been exhausted every evening. He has the whole basement torn up, the changing table halfway varnished in the garage, along with another little side table for the Bloob's room, and he hasn't vacuumed the house in almost 2 weeks. I'm going to do it today and surprise him. I was tempted to not to do it, and see how long he would let it go, but that seems mean. Plus, Valentine's day is coming up, and I should be doing nice things.

When we cleaned out the basement I went through some boxes I never unpacked when I moved in, and came across a bunch of old pictures. This one is valentine's themed, so how can I not post it? 2nd grade. Check out that sweet sweat shirt with hearts on it! And I was also wearing matching sweat pants! Julie, I'm pretty sure you had a matching one just like it, but in pink. Do you remember?

I have a few photos from this day at the beach, and I love them so much. I only wish there was one of mom, so I could know what she looked like at the time too. Dad, look at all that black hair! And with those glasses you'd fit right in in Portland now. That baby is me.

A few days ago I bought myself a fancy box of vegan Valentine's day chocolates from Food Fight. I figured that if Josh didn't get me anything I would pretend they were from him, just like I did with my Christmas stocking (pumice stone, lip gloss, and new mascara! just what I wanted!). I hid them in my closet, under my stack of shorts, which aren't gonna get worn for a long time, so I figured they'd be safe. But I couldn't stop thinking about them. I mean, look how pretty they are. So today I had one. Then two. But that's it! I put them back under the shorts, and I'll try to forget for a few more days.

That's all I've got guys. We have a midwife appointment coming up again on the 15th, then one at the end of March, and then we start going every two weeks. Final countdown!

I'm just a stay at home

I was joking today that being a stay at home mom is pretty boring when you don't actually have a baby yet. Then someone said "You're just a stay at home." Ha! It's been nice to not actually have to work, but I'm still figuring out how to fill my days, and how to force myself to REST. I have a bunch of sewing projects going, and two lucky people have very late xmas presents going out in the mail tomorrow! (Sorry, mom, it's not you yet.) I can't wait for you guys to get them, so I can post pictures.

After I made those nursing pads, I was staring at the rest of the flannel sheet set and wondering what I was going to do with it all. It was a queen size set, and Woolrich I noticed, as I was cutting it up. Can I say now that I have Woolrich brand nursing pads? Look how much is left over!

I definitely need to make more pads, but I decided to start making washable flannel baby wipes. Because apparently I have become a complete hippie. You can say it, I know it's true. But I think I'm also just cheap, because have you seen how much disposable diapers and wipes cost?! I looked around online a bit for a tutorial, but just decided to wing it. I made them 4x6, and I think I'll make some slightly larger ones as well. Josh says, good thing the flannel is already brown, har har.

They're just 2 sided flannel, with stitched edges. I thought it would be cute to use some of my machine's fancy stitches, so I started with this one. I wasn't too excited by it.

Then, loop-de-loops! I liked this one, but realized sewing 3 dozen wipes with this stitch was going to take approximately 84 days, which is the same amount of days the baby ticker says I have left until the Bloob comes.

So, back to the overlock stitch. My machine's handbook calls it an overcasting stitch, I need to look it up and see if it means the same thing. I can crank 'em out with this stitch, so that's what I did.

Ali got me all paranoid yesterday about the Bloob coming early, and us not being ready. So I went out today to do some necessity shopping, just in case, but I ended up feeling unsure about where to start and what to buy. I did find two organic cotton crib sheets at Tuesday Morning for $5 each, in just the right colors. And that's it. What things will we just not be able to live without at first? I need an "emergency early baby" list.

Mom says it's time for a new belly picture, but I'm too tired tonight, so it will have to wait til tomorrow. Josh and I are supposed to be having "pizza and movie night", and we had pizza, but now he's brushing Stella, and I'm blogging. We're also listening to the Air Supply station on Pandora, which is always a sing along party.

You're probably wondering how the pregnancy is going, since I have now turned this into a sewing blog. I'm finally at the third trimester, and starting to feel it. I'm heavy, and uncomfortable and get tired pretty easily. Sleeping is just sucking. I wake up and my belly just aches, and rolling over helps, but in another hour I have to wake up and roll over again. Rolling over at this point is no simple movement; I have to lift myself up with my arms, scoot my butt over, move the pillow that goes under my knee, kick Josh in the back, lay back down, get comfortable and then, (insert bad word here), now I have to pee.

Once I'm awake and out of bed though, I'm feeling pretty good. Drinking lots of water, eating lots of food, gaining weight. Bending over is a joke, but I think all of the yoga has really helped with my general mobility and limberness. I'm going twice a week now, and it is the highlight of my week. I love being around all of the other pregnant ladies, partially because most of them are having a much rougher time than me and I can secretly feel really good about my genetic proclivity for baby making, and partially because I don't really KNOW them, and it's fun to hear everyone else's problems without the commitment of having to be a good friend and deal with the problem. Shallow much? BWAHAHA

Enough for now! Tomorrow I'll aim for belly pictures, and basement pictures. Josh is feeling like all of his hard work isn't getting enough blog time. 'Night!

DIY nursing pads and a minor meltdown

I'm marking today as the official start of the third trimester, because today is the first day I felt like a fat, useless, unhappy, gross, weepy, needy, tired pregnant lady all at one time. I don't know if I just got up on the wrong side of the bed, or if it was just time for me to experience this type of day, but I hope that tomorrow is back to normal. It also may have been that I jinxed myself yesterday by saying, repeatedly, how happy I am to be having an easy pregnancy, with great accommodating friends, and no weird touchy judgmental people bugging me.
Anyway, I may elaborate on this at some point, but I really wanted to post pictures of my sewing project for the day. Ali suggested recently that I sew my own washable nursing pads, instead of buying them. I searched online and found an insructional blog, and today, I finally sewed something for myself instead of working on gifts. They're super easy, and I was able to make them out of an old flannel sheet that I was going to donate to Goodwill!

I used a coaster that just happens to be the perfect size as a template. It also has a handy hole in the middle, so I could mark a dot for the center of the circle with my fabric marker.

I cut them out, and then cut out a portion of the circle, using the handy center dot, so the pad will come out slightly contoured. These have 4 layers of flannel, I think I might make a few more slightly thicker ones as well.

I stitched it all together, using some new stitches on my machine that I've never used before, including the overlock stitch for the edges.

I cranked out 12 in under an hour! Super easy project, not to mention free. Plus they're brown and stripey, which is more fun than boring old white. And they look like a little stack of pancakes!

Apparently to wash them, you should throw them in a little lingerie bag, to keep them from getting wrecked. If anyone has an extra one lying around somewhere, save it for me! I don't have one. But maybe I can make one!

Just another week.

It's been kind of a boring week. I wish I could write an awesome and funny blog about the 6 hours I spent on the couch yesterday watching episodes of Friday Night Lights, but there isn't really much to tell. I'm feeling very big and full of baby right now, and even just sitting on the couch is getting uncomfortable. Also today I dropped something and Michelle laughed at my awkwardness as I climbed of the chair and bent over to get it. I'm glad someone is there to laugh at me, because it really is ridiculous. I can't believe I have 3 more months to go.
Josh is out of town this week. He figured out that he has 19 days of vacation to take before the end of May, or he loses them, so he'll have plenty of time off for the baby, and hopefully some days coming up to get the basement done. I was day dreaming today of us taking a couple days off together and doing something alone before the baby comes, but I don't know how much adventure I'm up for, and I think he just wants to get the basement done.
I also keep forgetting that I have a birthday coming up, because I'm only focused on the Bloob's due date. But I'll be 35 this year! Which makes me "Advanced Maternal Age" as far as doctors are concerned. (Which reminds me, we need to find a pediatrician for the Bloob soon too.) Josh was asking me the other day what I wanted for my birthday, which I haven't even thought about. The only things I can ever think of are expensive gifts, because most other stuff I want, I just buy. So I told him I want a vacation to Germany or Hawaii, a bigger iPod, and a new bike that I will be able to ride comfortably with a baby. Hopefully I get a cute pair of earrings again, and maybe he'll cook me dinner. That would be nice.

I'm feeling a little lonely today, and I think it's mostly because Josh is gone, and I'm apparently a needy pregnant lady, but I also can't wait for the baby shower and for people to come visit. It will be fun! I've already got the cake all planned out.