Bump it: 37 Weeks

Hey everyone! I'm 37 weeks along!

OFFICIALLY FULL TERM!!!!!

I can't believe that I'm full term with this pregnancy. I feel like I have been waiting to say that for...well..9 months! Now this baby is pretty much fully cooked and just waiting to greet the world when he's ready. We are so excited to meet him!

He still is moving constantly and getting the hiccups daily. I was told by my buddy who delivered a few weeks ago that her son had hiccups in-utero a lot and now her little two week old still gets hiccups all the time. I think this little man will be the same way. 

Kyle and I have settled on a name and we are excited to let you all know what it is.....after the baby is born of course!

I have still been feeling pretty good but the exhaustion is finally kicking in. I have been **gasp** actually taking naps in the afternoon. On Friday I actually slept for almost three hours before dinner (anyone who knows me knows how weird and uncommon that is for me)

Well I do have some interesting news to share....

My doctor did my first cervical check this week at my regular appointment and.......

I'm already 4cm dilated and 100% effaced!!!

When he told me that I almost fainted from surprise! I seriously couldn't believe it especially since I have had ZERO contractions (even brackston hicks "practice" contractions, none, seriously!!) and no pain really at all! I almost didn't believe him and he had to repeat it a few times to get it to sink in. He's guessing that I won't make it to my due date of the 6th, which frankly is OK with me because I am ready to meet this baby!

My doctor was out of town this weekend so I took it really easy and didn't listen to any of my hypnosis tracks because I was nervous about going into active labor without him here (even though I have herd a lot of good things about the MD who covers him) so far so good...

I'll keep you guys posted, this baby could come at any time!

Bump it: 36 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 36 Weeks along!

We are getting down to the wire now!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH

I'm constantly oscillating between feeling so excited and anxious to meet my son and feeling terrified about motherhood. Despite all of these crazy constantly changing feelings I am actually feeling somewhat ok about the labor. I am working hard on my hypnobabies training every day and that has helped me to feel a lot calmer going into this experience. I have no idea how I am going to feel when it's actually happening but I do feel like the hypnobabies tracks are helping me relax. 

The baby is getting so big that I don't feel "kicks" at all any more, I only feel him switching positions or moving from side to side. I guess he doesn't really have enough room to really kick me anymore. ;-) The little man weighs in at about 6 lbs and is about 18 inches long. He's pretty much fully "cooked" and is now working on gaining weight (at the rate of about one ounce a day) and finishing up the final details of his lung development. My total weight gain to date is 28lbs and I'm feeling OK about that. It's all for the baby after all...

We pretty much have everything together for the baby. I went on a huge target run for baby wipes and last min supplies and I ordered my diaper bag! I had settled on a ju-ju-be bag months ago but I wanted to wait until this week to order it because the fall patterns were coming out and I wanted to see them first before I decided which one to get. I decided to go with cobalt blossoms

I really love the pattern! I am so addicted to purses and I haven't gotten a new bag in almost a year. (hello withdrawal!) so since I needed to get a diaper bag anyway I figured I would splurge.

Had another doctors appointment this week, the first of my weekly visits. We're all pretty much just marking time until the baby comes. Patiently waiting (well sort of!)...

One more week until I'm term and then three weeks until my due date!! 

Bump it: 35 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 35 Weeks Along!

I have been getting sooooo TIRED lately it's not even funny. I have totally lapsed on my workouts and I actually have been taking naps in the afternoon. I am slowly turning into "really pregnant lady" and it's getting pretty difficult for me to be ok with her. I feel guilty every day I go without a workout and every day I feel like I get nothing accomplished. What I need to do is stop listening to the little voice in my head making me feel guilty and instead listen to every other person on the planet who is practically screaming at me to REST!!! ENJOY THESE LAST FEW WEEKS!!!! PUT YOUR FEET UP FOR GOODNESS SAKES!!!!

I have been noticing that the baby has been getting hiccups practically every night. For awhile I thought it was just him punching me in the pelvis since I can only feel it on the lower right side of my hip but it was so quick and rhythmic that I'm guessing its hiccups (which apparently is pretty common, who knew?) 

We installed the car seat bases in the car this week and I started my cloth diaper stash. I am planning on doing a 80/20 hybrid system with the diapering (80% cloth and 20% disposable when traveling etc) and we'll see how it goes. I'll probably write another separate post on that soon because just getting ready for this has been quite the process. 

Only 2 weeks until I am full term!

Your favorite happy mama!

Nursery Reveal & Roman Shades!

Want to see what I have been up to the last few weeks?

the Nursery is finally (almost) done! I am sooo happy with how it turned out!!!

The changing table is on the far right corner of the room. I have all of the diaper changing supplies in a neat little basket next to the changing pad. The dresser belonged to my Nonni (grandma) and I think she would like that it's getting good use still (and it's a strong workhorse of a dresser!) The dresser drawers are divided by type of clothes all newborn and 0-3 month. Top drawer is sleep shirts and white onsies, second drawer is printed onsies and pants, third drawer is more shirts and crib sheets and the bottom drawer is where all of the disposable (and eventually cloth) diapers will go. I have space in the back of the basket on top of the dresser big enough to hold about 10 diapers so I will only have to fill up from the drawer one a day (hopefully!) I don't know how functional my organizational system is yet and I am totally open to suggestions for ways it worked for you. I'm trying to keep things as streamlined as possible so i'm not ducking and bending over every time I need to change him.

You can also see a peek of my curtains in this pic, so here's a shot of them full on...

Those curtains are my pride and joy of my DIY projects for this nursery. I used a pattern I found on Shanty 2 Chic.com, check it out here. I fell in love with the pattern which I found at fabric.com, my friend Alex suggested an ikat pattern and i'm so glad she did! I lined the shades with a light block fabric which really darkens the room even during the middle of the day (makes it great for naps!). It took me about two days to sew them and one frustrating hour of me and kyle mounting them but the finished product is worth it! I forgot to take a picture of the ugly yellow mini blinds that were there before but trust me this looks so much better!

Here's what it looks like with one shade down and one up. I also strung them in the center of the window so baby can't reach the cords.

Wall decal: Etsy.com

The crib has my mother's crocheted baby blanket and my mother in law's quilt in it, both grandma's represented! The pooh sepia tone print was a gift from Kyle for our 4 year anniversary (about a month into my pregnancy). At that time he didn't even know that I wanted to do Winnie the Pooh in the nursery!

This armoire is right next to the changing table and holds most of his toys and extra blankets. The carriers (moby wraps and ergo) are in the lower drawers. The framed print is actually a jigsaw puzzle I put together about a month ago and glued together. 

  

Right next to this bookshelf is a large closet that has another dresser inside of it for his larger clothes and other supplies. 

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing the pictures of my nursery as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

It's done, instant nursery just add baby! 

Bump it: 34 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 34 Weeks Along!

This week was very productive in terms of preparing for this baby. For all practical purposes the nursery is completed and ready for use whenever this little one want to make his debut. There are only a few things left to do which will be done in the next few days (get the carseat bases installed in the car, pack the hospital bag etc...) and yes I will be posting pictures of the nursery soon!

Friday we went back to the hospital for our pre-admission interview. I filled out all of the paperwork for my registration and got all the paperwork for the hospital squared away so they don't bombard me with questions durning my birthing time (labor). Saturday Kyle and I had our child birthing preparation class which went really well. I am glad we had an opportunity to attend a live class since the hospital I am going to deliver at only offers an online class. This wasn't my first experience attending such a class since I was required to go to one for my Labor and Maternity Nursing class back in college but at that time I was only half paying attention (well maybe only a quarter...). Since now I am on deck to go into labor anytime starting at the end of this month (or earlier) I made sure to pay better attention this time!

I think the best part of the whole day was seeing Kyle really pay attention to what the doula was saying. I loved looking over and seeing him focusing, it looked like he was really processing the information (or at the very least faking it incredibly well haha) It was a long day chocked full of information but I think we both really got a lot out of it. She spent a lot of time talking about the appropriate time to go to the hospital which I appreciated since I want to stay home for as long as is safe (possible). We went over the stages of labor, pain medication options and steps for coping with contractions (hello hip squeeze for back labor!) I hope I remember the information when my birthing waves (contractions) kick in!

3 more weeks until I'm full term, YIKES!!!

Until next time I remain a happy (and excited!) mama to be!

DIY Nursery: Adjustable Crib Skirt with Box Pleat

I am really happy with how this crib skirt came out. It was a coordinating fabric that was grouped in with the fabric I chose for the Roman Shades I sewed for his window. I liked the pattern because instead of one complete skirt it is 4 separate pieces which are secured to the spring base for the mattress with velcro. It will make it very easy to adjust when I move the mattress lower when the little man starts trying to sit up and escape.

Here is the "naked" crib

and here it is with the skirt attached...

I do think it looks soooo much nicer don't you??

I am a little regretful that I spent the extra time sewing the box pleat into the front because the crib slats totally hide it, oh well...

Check out the pattern brought to us by {adorkable}duo here! 

DIY Nursery: Car Seat Cover

 There is a lady in my neighborhood who goes on walks past my unit several times a week with her little one and she had the cutest car cover for her car seat. When I see her walking past as I am sitting feet up on the coffee table watching Mistresses on my DVR with a bowl of cherries balanced on my ever growing belly I wonder "hmm that is so cute! I want one for my carseat! I wonder how much those cost?" Ya like 50 bucks.....WHA???????? Not only are there about 1 million things I can think of to spend 50 bucks on that don't include a glorified blanket but I knew I could sew one myself without spending oodles of $$.

I did a google search and found a fairly simple pattern for the cover and sewed it in about 4 hours over a few days. The pattern I found used a rounded corner style with frilled trim but I thought that was a little feminine so I decided to go with a mitered corner border in a lime green to match the inside of the carseat. The mitered corners were the hardest part of the whole thing so if I had skipped that I bet this project would have only taken me about 2.5 hours. I lined it on the inside with a nice fleecy fabric so it can work as a nice blanket in a pinch

I ended up purchasing the fabric online to save a few bucks and I was so happy to see that the lime green I picked matched the inside of the carseat perfectly! 

For those of you who are interested I used the pattern that was lovingly supplied by the ladies over at DIY Divas. Check it out here

I used this YouTube Video to learn how to sew the mitered corners for the border.

Now I can be strutting my stuff around the neighborhood with my nifty car seat cover when we go on walks together!