Sneak Peak

This is a picture of the baby bedding I'm working on. It is one part of the bumper pad and the crib sheet. The green part of the bumper pad will face the outside and the brown/yellow part will face the inside of the crib. I like the way it turned out a lot... it looks like little pillows.

The crib sheet is so precious... I love all the stars. Unfortunately the fabric was really expensive so I only made one... I will just put a white sheet on when this one is in the wash. The dust ruffle will be the same red color that is on the edge of the bumper pad.

More to come :)

How babies get outies

Last night at our Bradley class we were talking about what to pack in the bag that you bring to the hospital. Some of the things we "need" are a basin and a puddle pad for the car ride... in case you have the baby in the car. I don't think this will be a problem for us because we are only 15 minutes from our hospital and there is a different hospital across the street from our house.... and yet another ER on the way. So we are set.

Steven always gets really excited when we talk about having the baby in inopportune places. He gets so excited because, of coarse, he will be the one doing the catching. The idea of him "catching" the baby worries me a little. They seem to be pretty slippery when the come out... and doctors/midwives are trained in "catching." Maybe on our second time around.

After sharing this, someone said, "It's okay, you (Steven) can catch him (John) by the umbilical cord if he slips!"

And I said, "And then we can tell him (John) that that is why he has an outie!"

It was funny (and kinda made my belly button hurt a bit), but in all seriousness I totally trust Steven with our delivery. He has been very involved and such a great coach already. However, I'm not sure if I'm just being naive but I really think our birth isn't going to be that dramatic. Tons of people have babies every day... and you only occasionally here crazy stories... and if you do here them often, they are probably repeats. Our plan is to stay calm and take it one contraction at a time.

Scrapbooking

After two year of marriage and a baby that is definitely on his way, I have finally completed our Wedding Scrapbook!!! It is huge! 116 pages. I would have taken pictures of my favorite pages to share with the world, but I have too many other projects on my To-Do list.

I finished this week because I was with Steven on a trip. The hotel didn't charge for me to come along, so I was able to work on our book while he was at work. Also, I was able to hang out with friends that had moved away... which turned out to be a distraction, but a good one because I just could not simply work for 8 solid hours on pasting paper together.

Luckily scrapbooking paper was half price this week at Hobby Lobby. I made several trips for last minute things. I also picked out paper for John's book. Can you believe it... one HUGE project down and I'm already thinking of another big one to do.

The plan for his book is to start NOW and hopefully get the entire thing together before he comes. That way all I have to do is put pictures in and fill in details. I have also put a limit on the number of pages... hopefully no more than 80, but I'm planning on doing his first year... so we will see.

A lot of the paper I got is more little boy-ish than baby-ish. He will have a couple of light blue pages that say, "I'm a baby!" But the rest are more little boy things... like Super Man! I found a great stack that had spaceships, jungle animals, robots, (old school) Super Man, circus, cowboys, ocean prints and pirate paper. It's really fun.

I also looked through the sticker section. I usually don't buy stickers because they are really expensive... unless a page really needs them. I was actually looking for some for our wedding book... one of the shower pages is really lacking. Anyway, I came across a couple of little boy stickers. Then the baby section. As I was reading them I started to cry! The hormones got the best of me... and I probably looked really silly in the store with a huge belly holding a baby sticker with tears running down my face. What can you do?

These hand made books are a lot of work, but I really feel like they are worth it. Especially our Wedding and John's first year. I'm planning on doing all of our kiddos' first year and then doing online books through Kodak, Walgreens or Shutterfly that are more just organized photos. I do prefer to have our pictures in a book. I feel like if they aren't in a book then no one looks at them... and that is really sad.

Anyway, that is how scrapbooking is going!

Month 7?

I was looking through a book when I realized that I'm seriously confused about the way they count months of pregnancy. I have completed seven months of pregnancy and am currently in my 8th month, hence the month 7?

As of right now (and I know my picture is a little late) I am almost 33 weeks pregnant! Which means in around SEVEN weeks we will have a child! That is less than two months away. The thought is kinda overwhelming and as a result we have kicked our baby preparation into high gear at our house.

For our blog that means less posts and more baby projects. The crib is coming along and I have fabric for the bedding. I'm also making letters for the wall and refurbishing an old dresser to use as a changing table. Hopefully I can get a couple of toys finished off as well.

Changes for Me

-Heartburn has changed a bit. My doctor said I could start taking Zantac. It has helped reduce the amount of heartburn, but I'm still living next to a bottle of Tums.

-He is still alive and kicking. I'm positive his head is down, because I feel two little feet/knees poking into my ribs often!

Changes for Steven

-Fallon has been complaining about a tight belly

-Recently I have been envisioning John taking up more and more space and being more squished inside of Fallon.

Changes for John

-He is up to 4 pounds and will top off 5-6 by the end of the month.

-He is starting to fill out. Looking less like an alien and more like a cute squishy baby :)

-Supposedly, the uterus will get more cramped and less vigorous kicking will result. But this kid is pretty strong... I'm still startled by a nice strong kick at night.

-Lung are approaching maturity and soon he will be ready to live outside the womb. (The lungs are the last thing to develop)

Baby Bib

Here are a couple of bibs I did a while ago. Sorry I don't have a cute kiddo to display them... he is still in the oven!

The first one was for a friend who really likes turtles. I looked all over for a pattern, but came up with nothing! So I had to make one myself. It took some time, but I it was worth it. I made it with super soft cotton (I think it's called "I love this cotton" from Hobby Lobby). I picked cotton because I wanted it to be super absorbent!

Here is the little button and button hole set up.



so cute...



The next bib I originally made for a friend who is doing her nursery in owls. However, after I completed it Steven asked if it was for John because he really liked it. Whenever Dad likes a craft I jump all over it. I made one for John too. I used this pattern from Lion Brand Yarn Company... but I added some things. Like more rows to make it a little bigger.... bigger bibs catch bigger messes... or they are suppose to in theory. And I added a better neck tie. My friend likes hers and I can't wait to see mine on little John because it is pretty stinkin adorable!

Knitting on the cheap!

My church had a women's retreat a little over a week ago, and I was asked to teach knitting during our fun time. I eagerly agreed and began preparing.

I asked around at my church for ladies to donate yarn and/or needles to the cause... and while I had a few takers, I still needed about 5-6 sets of needles for the amount of people I expected.

Then, one of my friends recommended using dowel rods purchased from Home Depot. I was initially hesitant because I didn't want to spend much money on this adventure (the Women's Retreat was already operating on a very tight budget). Steven and I decided to just go price it and see how much it would cost to make about 10 sets of needles.

Well... even with the purchase of a new pencil sharpener and a full pack of sand paper it cost about $8 for 10 sets of needles.

We purchased all of our supplies and began working on the needles. I loved that all the girls had the same size needs (~10.5 US) and that they were able to take home their very own set. Here is how we did it!

Measure the rods out to about 11 inches & cut

(based off a set of needles I previously owned)

We were able to snap them in half after only

cutting part of the way through them.

Steven made points on them

with a pencil sharpener.

I sanded down the rough spots

We had all kinds of ideas for a stopper at the end...

rubber bands, those slip on pencil erasers, etc..

but I had some hot glue and no gun so we melted

down the glue in a cup and dipped the end in.

Here they are!

And finally, a picture of me teaching. I had a good time. By the end of the day I had no needles left and just a few balls of yarn. I felt like everyone at least learned something and a few girls were really able to pick it up. I didn't have time to teach anyone how to bind off, but I did teach a few the purl stitch. I sent them all away with a hand out, needles and a ball of yarn. Mission accomplished!