Baby Project: Pacifier Clips

With Miller, we definitely valued his pacifier clips. I am not germophobic by any means. In fact I am the mom who, when the paci drops on the ground, as long as it was not in dirt, I would wipe it off and give it back to him. I really hated getting looks from people who thought that was disgusting. Well a paci clip pretty much eliminated the problem. Plus, it stopped the pacifiers from getting lost.

For the past year, we have weaned Miller to only have the paci at naptimes and in the car. I had a trusty paci clip for the one on the car so when he would get mad and throw it, he could find it again when he realized he wanted it back. A few months ago, the velcro gave out on us and he could pull it off. I knew I could just change the velcro to snaps or make a new one but I kept getting sidetracked.

I finally tackled them and ended up making 6. I was only going to make one or two but once I started going through my fabric remnants, I wanted to make some to go with other outfits that Baby Bug might have. Once I got the hang of it, these things only took a couple of hours to make.

I cut a remnant that ended up being 2.5" by 8". I ended up varying the lengths by an inch or two just to try them out. One trick I have learned in sewing lately, iron everything!

Fold the fabric over so you are seeing the backside and sew a small seam.

Turn it inside out, which is a pain because it is so narrow. I used a clean chopstick to help me out.  Iron again and then sew a small seam on both sides so that it will lay flat.

Double fold it over and sew up the end. 

On the other end, pull the strip through the clip and do another double fold over (I have no idea what  the correct term is but this seems appropriate) and sew it down.

I have tons of snaps leftover from converting our cloth diapers so I installed those where they need to go. You could sew on velcro but it eventually wears out and I think the snaps are more child proof.

Aren't they cute? I like that I have options this time around with the baby.

Weekly Update: 24 weeks

How far along: 24 weeks (Viability!!!)

Total weight gain/loss: +5. That is right body, now that you have started gaining some weight, just go slow.  

Maternity clothes: We had some cooler weather this weekend and I felt completely unprepared. With Miller, it never really got cool when I was pregnant and this time I will have to go through the whole fall and beginning of winter. I did assess some things in my closet and should be okay with leggings, sweaters and jeans. 

Stretch marks: Nothing new but I need to be more vigilant with the cocoa butter.

Sleep: We are all off on sleep. Going to bed late, waking up late, Miller taking wonky naps. I am not sure what is going on but when I do sleep, I sleep fine.

Best moment this week: I pointed to my belly and asked Miller who it was. He responded as usual with,”Baby”. I asked him what her name was, and he said it. Yay! He is connecting the dots. He also laid his hand on my belly throughout this whole interaction.

Movement: This week she was trying to headbutt her way out from my belly button. She has lulls but I feel her pretty consistently.

Food cravings: I want nice, warm comfort food. Chili, soups, stews. That might just be a craving for fall though.  Thank goodness Ben is not picky with what I make for dinner.

Food aversions:  Another pregnant girl pointed out that she cannot do lean meats, only full fat meats. When I started thinking about it, that might be my problem with meat. I made chili with ground beef instead of ground turkey and it tasted great.  

Gender: She better still be a girl because I made her 23 headbands last week and 5 skirts on Tuesday.

Labor Signs: I was on my feet a lot this weekend and had lots of belly aches. I got a little nervous that they were Braxton Hicks or other contractions but it was just my body being cranky with me.

Belly Button in or out? Still very much in.

What I miss: Sometimes, I think about her being here and I already miss being pregnant. What is wrong with me?!?! I wish I could just be happy with where I am.

What I am looking forward to: I am looking forward to getting through and hopefully passing my 1 hour glucose test in a few weeks.

Weekly Wisdom: I had a major freak out about having so many boys clothes and not enough for a girl but my mom made sure to do what she could (ahem, shopping) to make that better.

Milestones: Viability is a great milestone to be at but a scary one. On the one hand, it is comforting to know that if God forbid something were to happen, baby girl would be able to survive. One the other hand, I do not want to jinx anything and even find comfort in that. I want her to get to full term status only before she makes her appearance. 14 more weeks!

Weekly Update: Week 22 and 23

I was in Knoxville for a week and did not take my picture until it was a couple of days late so Week 22 is late. I just figure that I would combine it with Week 23 since we were so close.


In other baby news, we had the rescan from our anatomy scan last Tuesday. I wish I had a cute little picture of the baby to show you but she had decided to be shy. She had her back turned toward us so they were not able to get any good pictures but her foot. The good news (and what really matters) is that they were able to get all the measurements that they could not before and she looks perfect. One measurement they needed was her right hand because she had it curled up last time. This time, she had it like a paw and then she finally opened her hand and pointed her finger. I am pretty sure she was pointing to the tech telling her to stop bothering her. I wish we could have seen her little face but I know from previous ultrasounds that she looks perfectly fine and is as cute as can be.

One interesting tidbit, they measured her head and it is is the 45th percentile. At this point, Miller was 80th and we all know that it only got bigger and stayed that way. I am okay with another big headed baby as long as she is smaller than her brother. She might actually have a normal size head. They also said that she is 45th percentile in general and weighs approximately 1lbs 3oz now. I like knowing that!

Week 22

How far along: 22 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I think I finally gained weight this week but since I am at my moms house, I did not want to weigh on a different scale. 

Maternity clothes: This is obvious by this point.  

Stretch marks: Nothing new thank goodness.

Sleep: Since being in Knoxville, Miller started waking up at 8, which is not early but he got me comfortable with waking at 9:30 and 10 for the last few months. Thankfully, mom would take over for a little while so I got an extra hour or so of sleep. 

Best moment this week: Mom and I got a ton of stuff done for the nursery this week. There is not much left to do now. I am waiting to hang anything until we buy the rest of the furniture, which will probably not be for another month. I really want to just be done and see if all come together but I know that there is still plenty of time.

Movement: She has had a few lulls but most days she is pretty active. It just feels so darn different than it did with Miller. I did start to feel her at the top of my belly and I had no idea that she was that high yet.

Food cravings: No major cravings but I seem to have my appetite back this week. Thank goodness!

Food aversions:  I was able to eat chicken twice this week. Yay!

Gender: Sweet baby girl.

Labor Signs: No but I had a dream that I was having contractions and did not even know it. That freaked me out a bit. I do not want to have any of that stuff for at least 15 more weeks.

Belly Button in or out? No change this week.

What I miss: I miss being able to walk normally! I recently taught Miller that penguins “waddle, waddle, waddle” and every time I ask him and he responds, I think it would be more appropriate to say that about mommy since he sees me demonstrate it every day.

What I am looking forward to: My ultrasound rescan from my anatomy scan is Tuesday and I am so ready to have it over with. I am excited to see baby girl and watch her move around (although occasionally I can see it from the outside), but I just want their “study” to be complete and they tell me that my baby is fine.

Weekly Wisdom: I really have nothing this week.

Milestones: Nothing major. One of my baby websites said that the baby might have hair, it just doesn’t have any pigment yet. Please, be red hair!!!

Week 23

How far along: 23 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I am officially +4lbs. This is silly but I feel guilty for this until I remind myself that gaining 4lbs at 23 weeks is not a lot and at this point with Miller I had gained 20lbs. I am just hoping that I only gain another 16lbs and keep my total gain at 20lbs or less. 

Maternity clothes: Nothing new here. Although, I am debating about buying a special shirt to wear on our upcoming shirt to Disney World. I hesitate to spend money on something that I will only be able to wear once.

Stretch marks: I am happy to report that I still have no new ones.

Sleep: I keep getting flack from Ben and mom about doing too much, but I realized why I do that. If I don’t keep myself busy during the day, then I would fall asleep while Miller played. No amount of night time sleep seems to be enough for me. Thankfully, Miller has let me take a few naps. I woke up from one and he had covered me up and laid all of his friends (stuffed animals) on me. I love that kid!

Best moment this week: I had the rescan from my anatomy scan. They were able to get all the measurements that they needed and said that our little girl looks perfect. She would not turn so we could see her little face but I loved being able to watch her move around while I felt her.

Movement: I swear a few times this week, she was trying to break out through my belly button. She has started to be so much more consistent and I tend to feel her all through the day in different spurts.

Food cravings: I always crave sweets (pregnant or not) and this week I wanted plain old chocolate chip cookies.

Food aversions:  My appetite is not as good as last week but no real aversions.

Gender: A little lady. I made the ultrasound tech check this week again to make sure.

Labor Signs: I do not even want to think about this for a few more months.

Belly Button in or out? Still in, unless the baby is trying to manually push it out.  

What I miss: I really miss not worrying about every ache and pain.

What I am looking forward to: I am starting to really get excited about our Disney World trip.

Weekly Wisdom: No real wisdom except the info from the ultrasound. Baby girl is measuring in the 45 percentile (including head). She may be smaller than her brother after all. That bodes well for delivery for me. 

Milestones: At our ultrasound, they estimated  that the baby weighs just over  a pound now (1lb 3oz to be exact). That does not seem like much but considering that for 19 weeks she has been gaining fractions of ounces some weeks, getting to one whole pound is huge. Now she just needs to gain 7 times that.

 

Nursery Progress: Start-up Issues

Sorry, this post is wordy, but I had a lot to explain. Rather than planning to do one reveal and then go back and give more detail (which never happened) like I did with Miller's nursery, I decided to blog about the nursery progress and baby related projects along the way. First, a little background information.

When we moved into this house last year we were so excited to have an extra bedroom so we could have a guest room. People asked us what we would do if we had another baby while we are here and we toyed with the idea of the kids having a shared nursery. It might work because the baby would be in the rock n play in our room for a while. Then I started thinking about how erratic Miller's sleep schedule was for so long, and would I want to deal to with the stress of trying to coordinate naps and bedtime. This, as well as the fact that we do not have that many guests, we decided to make the baby her own nursery.

I started planning a girl nursery as soon as we found out that we were pregnant. I had nothing for a boy so thank goodness our guess what correct. I have searched through my pinterest boards and we discussed logistics and finally came up with a long list of projects to make this room perfect for our little girl.

The biggest logistical problem was that this room has some insulation issues. It is burning up in the summer and freezing in the winter. We have not figured out the main reason but we do know that those 3 large windows are letting in way too much light. We have made a few other attempts to block out the light but nothing seemed to work. If we owned this place, I would have some black out shades made for the windows but since we do not, we want something semi permanent and cheap. We have since figured this out and I will blog about it once I am finished up. 

The other issue is that we are not allowed to paint and the "white" on the wall is a very dingy shade. I have come up with a few ideas for wall coverings and have since executed them. I think they make the room look much nicer. 

We have actually gotten a lot done on the nursery so far. As soon as we had some guests leave, I started working. It all just kind of happened quickly. I feel kind of crazy being this far along but I figured it would be better to get it done now when I have the time and ability, rather than when I can barely move around. Plus, and my friends think I am crazy for this, but since this baby is due in December, I have lots of things to get ready for for Christmas. All of this on top of a trip to Disney World in October.

Stay tuned for more updates and projects.

Miller Happenings

This blog seems to be overrun with new baby stuff but Miller is definitely our main focus. He keeps us quite busy most of the time and constantly laughing. Admittedly, I have not taken many pictures lately because we have not done much but here are a few recent pictures of him.

This past weekend we had a 1st birthday party to go to for our good friends, Ruby and Luke. Miller was great for the first hour we were there but there was nowhere for him to be wrangled. He kept running for the street and I think he got tired of mommy and daddy hovering over him and constantly telling him no. He finally started having tantrums (after tantrum, after tantrum). He started getting mischievous. He is normally a very good, just active child, but this was just a rare instance of him acting up.

Miller, Isla and Caleb had a nice ride in the wagon.That kid is so darn handsome!

The poor boy watched me work on cupcakes for two days, so it was finally his turn to have one.

He was watching TV while playing on my phone (yes, mother of the year here). I just love the way he is standing.

This kid thinks he is hilarious when he puts things on his head. Okay, I do find it hilarious.

He has been pretty good lately. Of course we have many moments everyday where he drives me crazy but all in all, he is a good kid. Here are some other notable happenings for Miller.

-I have been on a push lately to make sure Ben and Miller spend time together and they finally found a fun daddy/son activity the other night- playing with Ben's old RC car from college. They took it outside and Miller was in love. I went out to run an errand that night and Ben did bedtime. He sent me a text saying Miller had to take the car to bed. He dragged it up the stairs with one hand as he held on to Ben with his other.  He laid it on the ottoman in his room but I took it out once I got home.He asked for it the next morning but we said it was napping.
- He knows all his letters. Sometimes he mistakes one for another if he is not paying attention but he definitely knows them all.
- He can count to 11 all by himself. We have been working to recognize the numbers now and he is doing pretty well.
- He knows sooooo many animal sounds. My favorites are goose ("hon honk"), penguin ("waddle waddle waddle") and crab ("pinch pinch pinch" with coordinating hand motions).
- He is pretty good with shapes. He knows circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle and star.
- His favorite movie is "Toy Story". He even knows the difference between the 3 of them. Besides, Baby Eisensteins, he will not watch anything else but that movie.
- We are working on colors. He his starting to be much more consistent. When you ask him what color something is, he immediately responds with red, then blue. Then he looks at it and is right about 65% of the time. He is good with pink, purple, green and red.
- It may seem weird to some folks out there but Miller seems to officially stopped nursing this week. He has been losing interest for months and I know being pregnant can change the milk but it makes me sad. It was the last thing that only I could do for him. I have definitely had a few good cries over it. My baby is growing up and doesn't need me anymore. At least he chooses to cuddle with me over anyone else most times. 

Weekly Update- 21 weeks

How far along: 21 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: -2lbs. My doctor was a tad concerned that I have not gained any weight yet but not a big deal. She just wanted to make sure that I was eating enough.Truth is, I am probably not. Food aversions plus keeping up with a toddler means I hate eating now.

Maternity clothes: I am finally filling out some of my maternity clothes properly. My bump is rounding out so I do not look as awkward.  

Stretch marks: Same old ones.

Sleep: Miller has decided to start waking up at a decent time this week. Unfortunately, mommy does not want to. I liked sleeping in! At least I am sleeping good when I do sleep. I have had to take a few naps though.

Best moment this week: For the past 4 weeks, I have tried to get Miller to say the baby’s name. He always ignores me or just barely says it and runs off. I was thinking that it was going to take a while for him to understand that the baby in my belly would be the baby that we are calling by this name when she is born. Tonight before bed, he lifted up my shirt, pointed to my belly and said her name. That stinker picks up more than I think he does. Then he kissed my belly and laid down on her. Sibling bonding already!

Movement: She is still inconsistent but the other night I did see my belly move for the first time. She is doing lots of stretches and rolling more than kicks. I was telling my doctor how her movement is so much more inconsistent than Miller’s. She looked at my chart and apparently, the placenta is anterior so it is muffling her movements. I am still feeling her a bunch but it just feels different. That was like a light bulb moment. Everything clicked and made sense then.

Food cravings: I hate food right now. It does not help that my doctor is telling me to eat more.

Food aversions:  Still no meat. Even bacon tasted bad to me. It is like my taste buds are messing with me.

Gender: Baby girl

Labor Signs: Heck freaking no!

Belly Button in or out? Way in but I did notice that it is stretching out some.

What I miss: I still feel crummy most days. I miss just feeling okay. Debilitating headaches have been the problem lately. I have been trying to take it easy and not work so hard on projects but I still feel yucky.

What I am looking forward to: We have a continuation from our anatomy scan in two weeks and although they said that everything is fine, she was just not cooperating then, I look forward to getting that out of the way. It is always good to hear that your baby is just fine.

Weekly Wisdom: From my mom and doctor, I need to take better care of myself. Resting, eating, sleeping, etc.

Milestones: Nothing special this week. Just another week closer to meeting our little girl.