Birthday Poll!

When will Rowen's birthday be? Vote in the poll!
I can't believe there's only 49 days until our due date. Crazy thought. Sometimes I feel like I've been pregnant a year already, but most of the time I just don't feel that close! Apparently I look it, however; on Sunday Matt and I were out walking and this guy walks past the other direction saying, "shouldn't you be somewhere having a baby right now?"






nice.

Haircut!

boy, it's cooler in here without that blanket on my head. ;)

"Hooter Hider"

Yay for craftiness! Sold in baby & maternity boutiques all around, this is my attempt at a knock off of the "hooter hider" or "bebe au lait" nursing cover. (Grandma Norma suggested I call mine the "Boob Blanket" haha) They hang around your neck so you don't have to hope it stays draped over your shoulder, and the neck pouches out so you can see your little one nurse. :) These babies are so nifty- I mean, I have yet to use one because obviously I've never nursed before- but they seem like such a great idea! So I have to give credit where credit is due. However worthy of credit, I simply cannot give them the CASH for such a simple piece! These cost around $35 - and I spent - well, way less than that. It was fabric I already had, so go figure. Maybe 10 bucks if I had bought the fabric for it? Maybe? The only things I had to buy were some boning, and a couple D rings which was like 2 or 3 dollars. (and of course I bought twice what I needed, so I can easily make a second one later!) I didn't have the camera when I whipped it up, so no tutorial today, but let me know if you're interested and I can tell you my secrets! ;) Or if you want me to make one for you, I'll do it on the cheap!

Another Diaper Post :)

Not interested? Read no further ;)




I finished my cloth wipes!! I've been making a few here and there- I now have three dozen which should be beyond enough- so I've decided I'm done! I still have so much left over fabric all cut out- but I can always make more later on if I decide I need them. I've read I'll only need 1-2 doz so I'm sure I'm good to go. Thanks to advice from Jamie, I just cut up an old flannel sheet. The measurements I found online were 4"x8" so I just went to town and cut up the whole thing in nice long strips, and then into rectangles. Easy peasy!
To make them extra absorbent, I decided a double layer would be nice. So I just put them back to back and zig-zag stitched around all the edges so they wont fray (using up random spools of thread! bonus!) and then threw them in the wash so they're all ready to go! Exciting, huh?
I've heard that all you need is water to make them moist, but I found a whole bunch of yummy wipe solution "recipes" that I'm just going to have to try. Here are some of them:

Castile Solution
Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap comes in several yummy scents!
1 tablespoon almond, apricot, or other oil
1 tablespoon Dr Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap
2 drops tea tree oil
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup water

Chamomile 'n' Honey
Brew the tea, add the honey, and drink any leftovers!
1 chamomile tea bag
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup boiling water

Fruit 'n' Veggie
1 teaspoon fruit or vegetable-based oil (apricot, olive, grapeseed, etc)
1 tablespoon vegetable-based soap (like Dr. Bronner's liquid castile)
1 teaspoon 100% aloe vera gel
1 cup water

Just One
1 chamomile tea bag
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon baby bath or shampoo
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup hot water

Lotion Potion
Baby lotion adds more softening power to this solution.
1 tablespoon baby oil
1 tablespoon baby soap
1 tablespoon baby lotion
1 cup water

Zany Apricot Solution
1 tablespoon apricot oil
1 tablespoon unscented baby wash
3 cups water

Zany Lavender Solution
1 tablespoon baby oil
1 tablespoon lavender scented baby wash
2-3 drops lavender oil
3 cups water

And a side note- I found these fabric bins at Target and I'm so excited about them because they fit PERFECTLY under the changing table like they were MEANT to go there! Even with the little laundry basket that I already had (from college!) Isn't that the coolest? Okay, okay, I know I'm a nerd... (come on- they're PERFECT!!) I can't wait to fill them with cloth diapers, covers, pins & snappies, lotion, powder, wipes, liners, doublers, onsies.... :)

32 weeks!!

baby boy at 32 weeks gestation:

Gee- and I thought I was getting uncomfortable!! hahaha
8 weeks to go! (5 until full term!) ;) He should be about 4 lbs today. At the ultrasound last week (sorry I still haven't gotten pictures up- I need to borrow a scanner) he was approximately 3# 9oz - which is right on track. He's "supposed" to gain a half pound a week now until D day. And I'm supposed to gain a pound a week- I've got to eat more. My weight hasn't budged since June, darn it.
He's so wiggly and squirmy!! I read this morning that he's sleeping 90-95% of the time. I...... don't think so. I guess he's pretty quiet most of the day, but it seems like he's a busy little guy much more often than 5-10% of the day!! Let's see... with 24 hours.... that's.... 21.6-22.8 hours of sleeping, leaving 1.2-2.4 hours of awake time. Hm..... well if that's average, I think I'm going to have a busy little beaver on my hands in a couple months!
Of course, movements are supposed to slow down starting this week as he gets more and more out of room. Poor little guy, that does look mighty cramped in there!!

Nursery Walls

I did a little painting this weekend :) What do you think? Matt & I picked out this scripture for him- it's Psalm 25:4,5 which reads (in case you can't read it in the picture...) "Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you." Seemed like a pretty good life verse for all of us.

Two of my favorite children's books are The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Okay, I have a lot of favorite children's books- but these two are stories about little boys so I couldn't resist :) I also threw in a little cow jumping over the moon, although the rest of his buddies from "hey diddle diddle" are no where to be seen.
I have one more spot above the changing table where I thought about putting peter pan- another great story about a little boy- but there's so many wonderful classic books out there I thought I'd poll you guys and see if anyone had a better idea. (I'm not attached to Peter Pan like the Giving Tree or Wild Things.) So leave a comment and tell me some of your all time favorite children's tales!!


Now for the rest of the room...... oh boy.

Duvet & Skirt

Over the past few weeks I've been slowly putting together Rowen's crib skirt and duvet out of some fabric that Matt and I picked out together at JoAnns. The fabric came "quilted" looking, little squares of white fuzzy, green, blue & green striped, & green plaid all sewn together. So that part I didn't do :) (cheater!) But I did put together the duvet (someone gave us a fantastic down comforter from pottery barn kids!)
Rusty was very helpful during the whole process, of course.and cut out little "things that go" shapes (car, airplane, sailboat) and sewed them onto a crib skirt that the same couple had given us. (It previously had circles on it, which didn't match the room, so I took them off with my handy-dandy seam ripper to make it just a plain cream colored skirt.) It's really hard to see them in the picture, guess I should have taken a picture before putting it on the bed :) But Matt had the camera and was gone for the weekend! :-P You can click on the image to enlarge it if you want to see :)

Yay!! One more thing DONE in the nursery :) One step closer to feeling "prepared" for our little bundle to arrive...

Pregnany Moment #982

You know you're pregnant when:

Feeling the desire for a little bowl of ice cream in the afternoon, you indulge yourself. A couple hours later, hungry again, you open the refrigerator door- and what do you find?



The ice cream.

4th anniversary, part 2

Being Thursday and having very little energy, we just went out on a simple date last night to celebrate our anniversary. We had a gift card to cheesecake factory, and as I mentioned a couple days ago, we always have to have cheesecake on our anniversary! So it worked out just fabulously :) We didn't get any great pictures, as usual, but managed to get this one as we enjoyed the avocado egg rolls... mmm...
We split an appetizer, a dinner, and a slice of Kahlua coffee cheesecake, and both walked away totally stuffed! There's always too much food at this place! But it was a great time to talk about the past year, all the blessings that have fallen in our laps, and every little moment that we've enjoyed together as husband and wife. The waitress told us we were "so cute" - we mentioned it was our 4th anniversary and she was like, "oh, really? I thought you had JUST gotten married!" That was sweet :) We do kind of feel like we just got married, the years have flown by so fast! It's funny going through wedding pictures the past few days because it really does seem like it was just last summer or something. Can't wait for the next 50, should the Lord tarry.

7 month belly!

Wow- can't believe we're in our 8th month of pregnancy now! It's gone by so quickly- and yet so slowly at the same time. I feel like I've been pregnant forever. Yet in a blink of an eye, we're going to have a wrinkly, wriggly baby in our arms! Crazy thought!
This month has been filled with lots of baby movement (loving it!), crazy hormones, and nesting madness. I feel I must clean, organize, and purchase everything I "need" for this little bundle of joy before he makes his grand entrance! Hopefully it wont be for another eight and a half weeks, but we'll be "full term" in just over five weeks! So there's a lot still on my "baby to do list" that needs checking off :) Hopefully before I go completely insane.
We've been going to our "preparing for childbirth" classes for four weeks, and have two weeks left. They've been pretty enjoyable- the instructor is a hoot. Sometimes I wonder if she might be on something. She's so wide-eyed and enthusiastic. But it's good information that hopefully I'll be able to use when the time comes!
We had another ultrasound this week that went well- I was a bit disappointed because it was short and we didn't get to see much of him, but I guess the other times we've been have been so awesome that it's time we had a lame one. And unfortunately, both our moms came to watch this time! Well, they got to see a lot of indiscernible organ and bone shots, and then a few quick profile glances at the end. We didn't get to watch him move at all. BUT- the important part is that he's looking great, measuring well (as far as the bone disorder goes) his fluid levels all look wonderful, and the tech said he has a "beautiful" heart. :) She couldn't get over how great it looked. He's estimated 3#9oz - and average for this week in gestation is 3.5# so he's perfect, even though his long bones are a bit small. Way to go- baby Ro! We could tell that he's definitely put on a bit more fat in the past two months. He had some chubby little cheeks :)
And I'm still doing well too, which I'm thankful for every day! I've had some pretty fabulous bouts of insomnia (haha) and the indigestion continues full force, but considering my body is being taken over by another human, I'm doing great! I'm still getting around fairly well, exercising, and wearing the same shoes. I'm certainly retaining water, but not enough to make my feet swell up all huge. And hopefully that will stay the same for the next week and a half because I just bought some cute shoes to wear to Evan & Jackie's wedding NEXT weekend!!

the progress:
pre-pregnancy: 102# 24"
one month :100# 24"
two months :101# 29"
three months :104# 32"
four months: 108# 32.5"
five months: 114# 35.5"
six months: 118# 37"
seven months: 120# 37.5" - wow, cant believe I've gained 18lbs and 19"! I should have another 8 lbs to go, but the inches will remain a mystery.