Packing

I have been packing for the hospital just in case the baby decides it's ready to be born sooner than we're expecting. The hospital packing list includes "Baby Clothes - weather appropriate for trip home." There is probably a 35 degree temperature range that it could be on any given day in March in Colorado, so I'm trying to plan accordingly.

If the weather is nice and we have a boy, he'll be sporting this:


If the weather is nice and we have a girl, she'll come home in this:


If the weather is cool or cold, we'll layer this over either outfit above:


And here is the back - I think when you're a baby is really the only time it is appropriate to wear a duck on your backside, but it is oh-so cute for that age!


I've also got two blankets packed, heavy and lighter weight, that we can cover the car seat with. Hopefully we've got it covered with these items. And yes, I've packed a few diapers too - I hear those are essential!

Nursery pieces

I don't have completed nursery photos to show because we don't have a completed nursery yet. However, the pieces have been arriving one by one and I'm just too excited to keep from posting them. Here are the two latest additions...

The changing table



I think I've mentioned before that this is the changing table my parents used with me and my brother, except it was white and didn't have the rail around the top edge at that time. I love it because it has sentimental value and also because it has doors! We didn't want to spend the kind of money that it apparently costs to purchase a changing table with doors or drawers - seems like all you can get for a reasonable price is wide open shelves. I like to keep things organized but I'm also thinking there will be days when that just doesn't happen and having doors to close over the mess will be much appreciated. My dad put a new top on it and added the rail and my mom painted it for us. This color coordinates with the color of pooh bear in our crib bedding, so hopefully thing will look cohesive once they are all in the room together.

The rocking chair


This chair also came from my parents house and the chair pads were sewed by my mom. I found the fabric and then gave everything to her to sew the pads. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I'm looking forward to rocking our baby in it! Right now it is sitting in our living room because there's no room for it in the nursery so I get to see it and enjoy it all day long.

This isn't related to the nursery, but I just had to post a picture of how Jasmine spends probably 80% of my bedrest time. I'm usually on our living room couch with a quilt and she curls up at my feet. Isn't this too cute?


I just love how she puts her paw over her face! Such a sweetie...

9 months!

Holy moly - I am 9 months pregnant today (aka 36 weeks)!! Things are really starting to fly by and I am getting more and more excited/nervous to have this baby. According to babycenter.com, the baby weighs almost 6 pounds and is 18 1/2 inches long!

I had my 36 week check up today and thankfully things are fine, although my blood pressure was up a little bit today. Go figure...apparently I'm trying to keep them on their toes with this up-down-up-down blood pressure thing. Since it was elevated they did a non-stress test on baby who did just great on the test. They are going to check some blood work on me and next week I'll have an ultrasound along with my regular appointment/NST to double check that my fluid level is still good. Please pray that the results of the blood tests are normal and that my blood pressure goes back down.

Monday night my wonderful friend Dottie threw the most lovely baby shower for me!! The guests were friends from my book group and my Bible study, along with both of the grandmothers (my mom was in town visiting for a couple of days and A's mom lives here). We were spoiled and showered with so many great gifts! Here are some pics from the evening:

My 36 weeks photo

The food and beverage table - everything was so delicious!

AMAZING cake - Italian cream with apricot rum filling and cream cheese icing!

Opening gifts

Hooray for a diaper genie!

Lots of cute and useful gifts that we are looking forward to using very much!

Success!!

I made a quick trip to Walmart this past weekend and look what I found in the baby department!!!


Now if we have a boy, he is ready for Easter. And he'll be mighty cute, too!

We ordered this over the weekend:


The crib will be here in a week to 10 days. Although for the first few weeks the baby will sleep in this, which we already have (it's hard to tell but it's Classic Pooh):


We just might be ready for this baby by the time it's born - here's hoping!!!

Might as well face it...

...I'm addicted to chocolate! It's a good time of year for it though:






This must be a pregnancy thing because I have never craved chocolate this much! Can't wait for my weigh in at the doctor's next week... :)

Boot Camp and Blankets

This morning A had a class at our doctor's office called "Boot Camp for New Dads." It lasted three hours and was all about current dads giving new dads advice about babies. I wish I could have been there to hear the "inside scoop" from a dad's point of view!

While he was gone, I took care of some things around home - namely baby laundry. I have a baby shower on Monday and I still hadn't washed the things we received at our first shower, so I thought I'd better get going on that. I don't think I have ever had so much fun doing laundry!!


I love that everything is so little and soft and in such sweet, pastel colors!


Jasmine helped out as best she could. I like to pretend that this means she's excited for the baby, but it's more likely just something new that she wanted to check out.


Call my crazy, but this just makes me HAPPY!

I also took some photos of the baby blankets I finished up yesterday. Seriously, these are nothing special but they were quick which is what I needed. I just took two pieces of coordinating flannel and sewed them right sides together, then turned them inside out and zig-zag stitched around the edge. The finished blanket is about 35x42 inches. I made two girl blankets and two boy blankets.






I hope these will be a useful size and that they'll hold up well. Guess I'll find out when our baby makes its debut and I take one to use one with him/her!

Big Friday night plans

Hey y'all - Happy weekend! It has been a sunny but windy Friday and some cooler weather is moving in for our Saturday. I was glad for the sunshine today but not the wind. I do not like wind, which is unfortunate since springtime in northern Colorado can be pretty gusty.

I ended up going out for a little bit today to take care of some very important business...


...renting High School Musical 3!!!! I loved the first two and I wanted to go see this one in theaters when it came out in October, but life just seemed to keep happening and we never made the time for it. Now that it's out on video and we can rent it for a whopping one dollar, I had to get it. I consider myself lucky that A doesn't mind watching these kinds of things with me. :) So that's what our big Friday night plans are - two soon-to-be parents getting in touch with our eighteen-year-old senior year selves. I'm not sure if that makes us cool or pathetic...

While I was out I stopped by the mall to see if there were any cute new things that I couldn't survive without for these last few weeks of being pregnant - ha! I ended up with a pair of khaki pants and this cute black and white polka dot top. I am such a sucker for polka dots!!


This afternoon I finished up some really simple baby blankets that I'll be adding to my baby gift stash. I'm too lazy to photograph them right now so I'll post about them separately later this weekend. Enjoy your Friday night!

Another good report!

My check-up at the doctor's this morning went very well - fluid level, blood pressure, and non-stress test were all normal! Because my fluid level has been consistently normal for the past 3 weeks, I don't have to have that checked next week. They may check it every other week but that depends on what my blood pressure does. Thank you to everyone who is praying - I'm so grateful for normal doctors visits!!

To celebrate, I decided to do a little shopping after the appointment to see if I could find some cute Easter outfits. The plan is to purchase a little boy outfit and an Easter dress for a girl so that we're prepared either way. I'm afraid if we wait until he/she is born everything will already be sold out.

I didn't find a boy outfit that I liked today so I'm still on that hunt for that, but I did find this cute dress for a baby girl...


My mom has a white bonnet with purple smocking that my grandma made for her when she was a baby. That bonnet has been offered to us if we have a girl, so I wanted to get a dress that had some purple in it to coordinate with the bonnet. I think a white bonnet will look pretty darn cute with this dress and those little white, lacy shoes!

Baby Preparations: Crafty Style

We are having a windy afternoon here today - must be something moving in! Jasmine and I are on the couch having a cozy afternoon, plus I'm trying to be extra good about my bed rest today since my 35 week check-up is tomorrow. It's just me and Jasmine this afternoon because A was feeling better this morning and went to work. I'm SO GLAD that he's doing better and thanks to everyone who prayed for him!

Before I was put on partial bed rest, I had a bazillion craft and sewing projects planned for the baby. Blankets, burp clothes, nursery decor...you name it. And then my hours at the sewing machine got cut back severely. I've accepted that I won't be able to have everything I wanted done before the baby is born, but I've also resolved to be very wise about the free hours I do have in a day. Since my mom was here last week and got lots of meals cooked and frozen for us, I don't need to focus as much time on dinner preparations and as a result, I've gotten a little more crafty the last few days...

I have GOBS of cute baby fabrics and have been trying to make a dent in that stash. Not all of my projects will be for our baby, but I'm getting stocked up on baby gifts as well. Once our baby is born and we find out its gender, I'll probably go "shopping" from my gift stash and select some gender-specific items for our little one. In the meantime it is fun to pour lots of love into each project, wondering if it will be for our baby or another family's bundle of joy.

This first project IS for our baby since it's gender neutral and Classic Pooh. I found this cute Tigger flannel at JoAnn fabrics and couldn't pass it up. I turned it into a snugglie blanket and two matching burp cloths:




I love this next fabric which I used to embellish some cloth diapers to make them into cute burp cloths. If we have a girl she is SO getting these!



Sunday afternoon I made a fleece tie blanket that I bought before I knew I was pregnant (this one is for our baby too since it's gender neutral). It's a kit from the craft store and it was on clearance for $6 or something, so even though it isn't Classic Pooh, I couldn't pass it up.


This last project is for me, but it does have to do with the baby. On the hospital packing list, it is suggested that you bring no-slip socks. I know what kind of no-slip socks the hospital gives you and they are U-G-L-Y. Last fall I saw an idea and tutorial on "homemade by jill" for this very thing! She had a baby boy in October and made these for her hospital stay. Since they're so easy and cute, I decided to do the same. They're just puffy fabric paint on the bottom of whatever socks you like!



I guess most of the stuff I've made recently is for our baby, but I promise I have other projects in the works that are not. I'm still working on some flannel blankets that won't all be for our kiddo and I may make a set of flannel burp clothes too - can you tell I love soft, cuddly flannel for baby items? I'll post those once they're finished.

I'll update tomorrow after the doctors appointment!