I have not been blogging about this pregnancy (or much else, for that matter) nearly as much as I did for the previous two. I think having 2 little girls to keep up with makes that acceptable. ;-)
Nearing the end of this pregnancy, though, I did want to write down some things just for the sake of having it recorded somewhere.
This pregnancy continues to be the easiest one yet, I believe. I remember having different periods of terrible pain (back, abdominal muscles, whatever) with the previous pregnancies and so far other than general back aches I haven't had any huge, debilitating issues. Getting in and out of bed and rolling over in bed my back and hips sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies and have the accompanying hurt/ache to go with, but nothing lingering. I have seen my chiropractor much less this time around, too.
The past few weeks I've had a lot of heartburn. I can't pin-point it to any specific food group or meal even. A snack can even cause it! Strangely enough, it doesn't usually kick in until at least 45 minutes after I eat. Having not had much of a problem before, this is a little new. I have been having great success with getting relief by swallowing 1/2 - 1 spoonful of apple cider vinegar. I take it straight so it burns going down, but within 5 minutes the burning feeling of "all my food is backing up into my throat" goes away. Some say heartburn can mean the baby will have lots of hair or the baby is the opposite gender of pregnancies without heartburn. Since the girls both had plenty of hair I'm guessing any or all of three things: This baby is bald; this baby is a boy; this baby is another girl and I'm 2 years older than last time. :-)
Choosing a name for this baby has been an adventure. Daniel and I both have made suggestions (probably me more than Daniel to be honest ;-) ) and have talked about it at length a few times. Since we don't know if we're having a boy or girl we want to have a name for each picked out. This past weekend Daniel told me the two first names he wants to use. Both are names that I like and it's exciting to now know who our baby will be. We still don't have middle names picked out so we're continuing with the name game!
The baby's heart-rate has steadily been in the 140's all through the pregnancy with the exception of one appointment when it was 138. I am pretty sure I remember both girls' heart-rates commonly being in the 140's as well.
Since I switched to a different OB-GYN for this pregnancy, one who is fine with letting me go past 41 weeks if everything is going fine, I have been keeping a very open mind to the "fact" that this baby could arrive as late as 2 weeks past my due date. I am growing eager as the real due-date nears, and the whole mystery of "we could have FIVE people living in this house in three weeks!" (if the baby would come a week early) or... "I might have 6 weeks left... ugh" is exciting. It is also motivating to be getting things done that I want to get done before I am living on much less sleep than I'm getting now!
I have been working at getting food into the freezer by doubling casseroles and other easily frozen meals when I make dinner for us. I think I have made 6 meals so far and want to keep adding as I can and still have time. I know so well that the less I have to cook/bake after the baby is born the easier transitioning into our new, "real life" is!! I have also started adding little things to the grocery list. I had been thinking I had everything we need (since I have diapers left from when Sylvia was born), but the other day I realized I need to pick up diaper cream (Sylvia uses a very specific kind), I should pick up another case of wipes, I need to check my supply of bags for freezing milk, and so on.
Oh! One thing I do want to mention about this baby is his or her wiggle patterns. :-) The baby definitely has a sleep/wake cycle going on and I feel wiggles throughout the day, but consistently at night, usually between 11:30 or midnight, he or she is awake and active for several minutes. It doesn't matter if I'm still awake and sitting or standing, or if I'm already in bed. I will be curious to see if this goes on once the baby is on the outside.
I think Susannah is already in love with our new baby. It is not uncommon for her to whisper-talk to the baby from time to time. She hasn't been as interested in feeling the baby move as I thought she might be, but she's always happy to tell the baby goodnight and give it a "kiss." She always says the sweetest things, usually something like "Goodnight, Baby. I hope you sleep well. I love you." Oddly enough, and to my amusement, both she and Sylvia seem to think that my belly-button is what they should talk to or give kisses to for the baby! Sylvia will sometimes just walk up to me and say "see baby?" and then unless I object (usually I don't) she proceeds to pull my shirt up and the maternity waist-band of my pants down to rub my belly and say "Hiiiee, Baby!!" All a fun part of seeing the world through my children's eyes.
Right now we are experiencing thunder-snow/sleet. We got a good 8" of snow last night and the snow-sleet started up this afternoon. It reminds me that we have had snow on the birth days of our two girls, and I wonder if we will have snow on this baby's birth day, too?
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Oh, What a Night!!
Or make that a week! Let's see, our week has included: 3 hands of bananas, meals consisting largely of starches/breads (rice, bread, crackers, pancakes, waffles, pasta), 2 quarts of applesauce, watered down juice and Gatorade - which Sylvia calls "Gatorwater" ;-) , plain yogurt, a large batch of homemade chicken noodle soup, lots and lots and lots of hand-washing and lots and lots and lots of laundry (not so much "dirty" laundry as much as it was "let's wash these germs away!" laundry).
Yep, a stomach virus. For each one of us.
Poor Sylvia was the first to come down with it Tuesday morning at breakfast. She threw up a few times and was very tired... so much so that she took a morning nap on a pallet of blankets in the dining room (so I could keep an eye on her) while Susannah and I worked in the kitchen. She had her last episode of the day shortly before 5pm and after that was happy and as chipper as a bug in a rug. A few times this winter each of the girls have had a very short-lived (as in, just a few hours) bout with vomiting so when things were still going great for everyone 24 hours later I breathed a sigh of relief and we went on with life.
Then, oh. my. word. Wednesday night I became sick in a way that I cannot remember being sick since I was a kid. Before going to bed Wednesday I felt like I had horrible indigestion, but I had eaten a Spicy Chicken Combo from Wendy's for supper and it just felt like it was really sitting the wrong way. I mentioned to Daniel that if, in fact, I did end up sick maybe he could stay home from work to care for the girls. I'm glad he agreed because that is exactly what happened. I did not sleep much Wednesday night at all and while being sick was "bad" the worst part seemed to be my poor, very pregnant, stomach muscles that took the load of the abuse.
Daniel did stay home on Thursday which was a heroic thing to do. I could not have gotten through the day without him... I don't think. Especially since it turned out that the day started with Sylvia getting sick again at 6am and then developing a horrible, horrible case of diarrhea that resulted in a lot of wardrobe changes and one mid-day bath. I felt badly for Daniel having all of that do take care of in a "single-parent" day, but I certainly wasn't anywhere near able to do all of that (both from lack of sleep and still trying to get to a point of feeling better). Sylvia didn't have any more vomiting and Susannah had a minor turn of sickness mid-afternoon and that was it. Susannah was perhaps the one that had this bug the easiest!
By Thursday night we were planning for Daniel to go back to work on Friday. My appetite had finally returned, a lot of napping through the day had me feeling better in general, and both girls seemed to be fine. Susannah had one final throw-up in the middle of Thursday night/Friday morning, but even when I got up to assist her I felt like a whole new person!
Then Daniel came home from work on Friday... and by the time it was suppertime he decided it was time to decline food and seclude himself upstairs. Hmm, let's just say that all evening until the girls' bedtime I was making sure we had something with noise going on downstairs!! We watched a movie, sang songs, I played the piano, we read lots of books... it also helped to distract me from knowing how awfully ill my husband was being upstairs. :-(
I slept in the guest bed and didn't get much sleep, but both girls slept the night through. Saturday was a day of recovery for all of us in various ways. Daniel felt mostly back to normal by Saturday evening, but we still opted to stay AWAY FROM PEOPLE and stay home from church yesterday. I think we're all on the other side of this bug now. The girls' digestive systems are still working at getting straightened out so they're still on a limited diet, but at least things are much improved.
I am ready for a new week with normal people, normal food, normal sleep (ahh, glorious sleep!!), normal laundry...
Yep, a stomach virus. For each one of us.
Poor Sylvia was the first to come down with it Tuesday morning at breakfast. She threw up a few times and was very tired... so much so that she took a morning nap on a pallet of blankets in the dining room (so I could keep an eye on her) while Susannah and I worked in the kitchen. She had her last episode of the day shortly before 5pm and after that was happy and as chipper as a bug in a rug. A few times this winter each of the girls have had a very short-lived (as in, just a few hours) bout with vomiting so when things were still going great for everyone 24 hours later I breathed a sigh of relief and we went on with life.
Then, oh. my. word. Wednesday night I became sick in a way that I cannot remember being sick since I was a kid. Before going to bed Wednesday I felt like I had horrible indigestion, but I had eaten a Spicy Chicken Combo from Wendy's for supper and it just felt like it was really sitting the wrong way. I mentioned to Daniel that if, in fact, I did end up sick maybe he could stay home from work to care for the girls. I'm glad he agreed because that is exactly what happened. I did not sleep much Wednesday night at all and while being sick was "bad" the worst part seemed to be my poor, very pregnant, stomach muscles that took the load of the abuse.
Daniel did stay home on Thursday which was a heroic thing to do. I could not have gotten through the day without him... I don't think. Especially since it turned out that the day started with Sylvia getting sick again at 6am and then developing a horrible, horrible case of diarrhea that resulted in a lot of wardrobe changes and one mid-day bath. I felt badly for Daniel having all of that do take care of in a "single-parent" day, but I certainly wasn't anywhere near able to do all of that (both from lack of sleep and still trying to get to a point of feeling better). Sylvia didn't have any more vomiting and Susannah had a minor turn of sickness mid-afternoon and that was it. Susannah was perhaps the one that had this bug the easiest!
By Thursday night we were planning for Daniel to go back to work on Friday. My appetite had finally returned, a lot of napping through the day had me feeling better in general, and both girls seemed to be fine. Susannah had one final throw-up in the middle of Thursday night/Friday morning, but even when I got up to assist her I felt like a whole new person!
Then Daniel came home from work on Friday... and by the time it was suppertime he decided it was time to decline food and seclude himself upstairs. Hmm, let's just say that all evening until the girls' bedtime I was making sure we had something with noise going on downstairs!! We watched a movie, sang songs, I played the piano, we read lots of books... it also helped to distract me from knowing how awfully ill my husband was being upstairs. :-(
I slept in the guest bed and didn't get much sleep, but both girls slept the night through. Saturday was a day of recovery for all of us in various ways. Daniel felt mostly back to normal by Saturday evening, but we still opted to stay AWAY FROM PEOPLE and stay home from church yesterday. I think we're all on the other side of this bug now. The girls' digestive systems are still working at getting straightened out so they're still on a limited diet, but at least things are much improved.
I am ready for a new week with normal people, normal food, normal sleep (ahh, glorious sleep!!), normal laundry...
Monday, January 27, 2014
Sewing, Bows and Snow!
Susannah is fascinated with the sewing she's seen me do lately. She hasn't watched me do much because, quite honestly, I can't be very productive with little exploring hands around so I do pretty much all of my sewing during naptime or after the girls' bedtime. One evening she was pretending hard to sew with a few scraps of fabric. I decided to be a brave mom and give her a threaded needle and show her how to push and pull the needle through the fabric. I warned her that the needle was very pokey and that she would probably poke herself sometimes. I also gave her guidelines for sewing: she had to be sitting down and she had to be sitting where I could see her. Since I was working in the kitchen, she brought her rocking chair to the kitchen where she sat and sewed while I worked on supper. She chit-chatted much of the time, telling me what all she was making (clothes for her Baby). Once in a while I would hear "Ouch! I poked myself!" and then she would go on sewing. She had a lot of fun and she was fun to watch.
It's been colder the past several weeks than what seems normal for our area. While I'm really glad to have an actual COLD winter (though I know it's nothing compared to out west or up north!), it does mean more inside time for all of us. One day the girls decided to bring me the hairbows out of the drawer in the bathroom. One at a time, they would bring me another bow to put in their hair. When the bows had all been placed upon their heads, I took their picture. :)
With the cold weather we finally got some real snow! It started snowing late in the evening and was likely to stop before the girls woke up the next morning. Susannah really wanted to go out in it, which meant Sylvia then wanted to as well. Though the temperatures were in the low 20s I decided since they wanted to, why not?? I bundled them up and sent them outside to romp for a few minutes while Daniel was getting a load of firewood. I knew they wouldn't be out long but that they would really have fun. They were outside for maybe 15 minutes at the most but came in pretty excited to have been outside. Since the snow was just a few inches deep, it was easy enough for them to get around by themselves. Over the next few days I repeated the process (in the daytime, though) and they enjoyed it.
It's been colder the past several weeks than what seems normal for our area. While I'm really glad to have an actual COLD winter (though I know it's nothing compared to out west or up north!), it does mean more inside time for all of us. One day the girls decided to bring me the hairbows out of the drawer in the bathroom. One at a time, they would bring me another bow to put in their hair. When the bows had all been placed upon their heads, I took their picture. :)
With the cold weather we finally got some real snow! It started snowing late in the evening and was likely to stop before the girls woke up the next morning. Susannah really wanted to go out in it, which meant Sylvia then wanted to as well. Though the temperatures were in the low 20s I decided since they wanted to, why not?? I bundled them up and sent them outside to romp for a few minutes while Daniel was getting a load of firewood. I knew they wouldn't be out long but that they would really have fun. They were outside for maybe 15 minutes at the most but came in pretty excited to have been outside. Since the snow was just a few inches deep, it was easy enough for them to get around by themselves. Over the next few days I repeated the process (in the daytime, though) and they enjoyed it.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Susannah's Pink Shirt
Back in early December when we were at the "big" WalMart I was tickled to find a lovely print of soft cotton fabric on clearance. I purchased all that was left on the bolt, just under 7.5 yards, I liked it that much and knew it would make really cute little girl clothes. (I mentioned finding it here.) Susannah expressed that she liked it, but after we got it home and it had been sitting upstairs in my sewing corner for a while she more frequently mentioned how much she liked the pink fabric. I had in mind to make something for her with it anyway, and knowing how much she liked the fabric helped.
Earlier last fall I purchased a couple of girls dress patterns to make clothes for Susannah. I looked through my collection and settled on using Simplicity's New Look 6884 as my base. I wanted to make her a shirt and knew that if I could easily shorten the bodice and skirt to the lengths I wanted, it would be exactly what I was looking for without having to try and find another pattern.
I spent one Sunday afternoon cutting out the pattern pieces (the paper part). Oh my goodness. That was a headache and I wasn't sure I wanted to keep going with this pattern but I stuck with it. I can understand why some people get frustrated or just don't like sewing. The pattern is for 4 styles, each in 6 sizes, and finding the pieces I need among four different, big sheets of pattern paper was like trying to find Waldo. THEN (my biggest frustration!) only a very few of the pieces have the pattern sizes marked where the pattern piece is labeled, so I had to unfold and hunt on the cutting edge to see the size of most pieces just to find the piece in the size I need. I am convinced that patterns are not printed as easily to decipher as they used to be. Or maybe I'm just not that familiar with little girl clothes patterns?
Over the next few afternoons and nights I cut out the fabric. It was a little tricky because not only was I shortening the bodice and skirt, but I also wanted to make it long-sleeved. This pattern doesn't have a long-sleeved option. I ended up using another pattern's long-sleeve pattern as a gauge for length and width. (I saw patterns for dresses with long sleeves that I liked the sleeve but not the dress, and vice-versa. Is it not possible these days to find one pattern that has everything? Maybe not.)
Once I had the fabric cut out I was so eager to start sewing! I like gathers well enough, but I fell in love with the box pleats for the skirt. They are so easy to make and look so lovely!
It didn't take me very many nap-times and nights to get the main part put together. It was very exciting and motivating (and fed my "addiction!") to have it go together so quickly, easily and turning out beautifully.
Then I got to the parts that were new territory for me. Interfacing and the collar. I purchased fusible interfacing from WalMart, and after carefully reading the directions I tried fusing it to the fabric. It would not fuse no matter what I tried. I eventually went to the manufacturer's website and facebook page and saw that someone else had the same problem with their product purchased at WalMart (but the same brand from a fabric/craft store worked great). A sweet friend offered to pick up some interfacing for me since she was already making a trip to JoAnn's. That saved me from having to wait until a town trip AND from having to go into a fabric store with 2 little girls.
After that, it all went fairly well. There's a few things I would do a little differently next time, but nothing big or major. It was a learning experience working with the interfacing and I'm glad it turned out well. :)
One thing that I discovered about this pattern is that the collar and bodice do not match, size-wise. I cut both for size 4, but when I went to attach the collar to the bodice, the points that were supposed to match up did not (the collar was shy of each point by about 1/2"). Not sure how it would or would not effect the finished product, and knowing that sometimes points shift/move with sewing, I put the collar on anyway.
After I got the facing put in for the neck and front opening, I realized that the collar was not going to meet in the middle over the buttons, but instead there was going to be about a 1 1/2" gap. Since it still looks cute and I didn't really feel like ripping that much of the shirt apart to figure out how to cut a longer collar, etc., I opted to leave it. My guess is that most people will not even notice it, but I wanted to make that note. I am hoping to have a friend look at the pattern and the shirt and see if I made a mistake somewhere, or give me advice on how to adjust the pattern for future uses.
When it was time for the buttons, I looked in my button stash and found these perfect, ivory-colored, glossy buttons that look so elegant with this fabric. At first I thought I would try to find pink buttons but I don't have any of a matching pink color. I love the subtle but sweet accent these ivory buttons add to the piece.
This morning I finished sewing the buttons on before the girls awoke. I had prewashed the fabric so as soon as I finished sewing it was ready to wear. Susannah saw it on the couch and asked if she could please wear it today. :) She loves it and I love seeing her in it! It fits her perfectly and is exactly how I pictured it in my mind. I do wish the elastic in the sleeves were a little tighter fitting, but I don't plan to change it at this point.
My next project is already in the works, a pair of pants for Susannah that I actually started before I started this shirt. They will pair with the shirt and I just need to do a little work to have them finished. I think I might be able to do that this week and she can have a whole new outfit to wear for our town trips next week!
** I do want to note that two people have cautioned me on the quality of fabric purchased at WalMart nowadays. I am anxious to see how well the colors of this fabric hold up as being quick to fade is one of the issues I have been cautioned about.
Earlier last fall I purchased a couple of girls dress patterns to make clothes for Susannah. I looked through my collection and settled on using Simplicity's New Look 6884 as my base. I wanted to make her a shirt and knew that if I could easily shorten the bodice and skirt to the lengths I wanted, it would be exactly what I was looking for without having to try and find another pattern.
I spent one Sunday afternoon cutting out the pattern pieces (the paper part). Oh my goodness. That was a headache and I wasn't sure I wanted to keep going with this pattern but I stuck with it. I can understand why some people get frustrated or just don't like sewing. The pattern is for 4 styles, each in 6 sizes, and finding the pieces I need among four different, big sheets of pattern paper was like trying to find Waldo. THEN (my biggest frustration!) only a very few of the pieces have the pattern sizes marked where the pattern piece is labeled, so I had to unfold and hunt on the cutting edge to see the size of most pieces just to find the piece in the size I need. I am convinced that patterns are not printed as easily to decipher as they used to be. Or maybe I'm just not that familiar with little girl clothes patterns?
Over the next few afternoons and nights I cut out the fabric. It was a little tricky because not only was I shortening the bodice and skirt, but I also wanted to make it long-sleeved. This pattern doesn't have a long-sleeved option. I ended up using another pattern's long-sleeve pattern as a gauge for length and width. (I saw patterns for dresses with long sleeves that I liked the sleeve but not the dress, and vice-versa. Is it not possible these days to find one pattern that has everything? Maybe not.)
Once I had the fabric cut out I was so eager to start sewing! I like gathers well enough, but I fell in love with the box pleats for the skirt. They are so easy to make and look so lovely!
It didn't take me very many nap-times and nights to get the main part put together. It was very exciting and motivating (and fed my "addiction!") to have it go together so quickly, easily and turning out beautifully.
Then I got to the parts that were new territory for me. Interfacing and the collar. I purchased fusible interfacing from WalMart, and after carefully reading the directions I tried fusing it to the fabric. It would not fuse no matter what I tried. I eventually went to the manufacturer's website and facebook page and saw that someone else had the same problem with their product purchased at WalMart (but the same brand from a fabric/craft store worked great). A sweet friend offered to pick up some interfacing for me since she was already making a trip to JoAnn's. That saved me from having to wait until a town trip AND from having to go into a fabric store with 2 little girls.
After that, it all went fairly well. There's a few things I would do a little differently next time, but nothing big or major. It was a learning experience working with the interfacing and I'm glad it turned out well. :)
One thing that I discovered about this pattern is that the collar and bodice do not match, size-wise. I cut both for size 4, but when I went to attach the collar to the bodice, the points that were supposed to match up did not (the collar was shy of each point by about 1/2"). Not sure how it would or would not effect the finished product, and knowing that sometimes points shift/move with sewing, I put the collar on anyway.
After I got the facing put in for the neck and front opening, I realized that the collar was not going to meet in the middle over the buttons, but instead there was going to be about a 1 1/2" gap. Since it still looks cute and I didn't really feel like ripping that much of the shirt apart to figure out how to cut a longer collar, etc., I opted to leave it. My guess is that most people will not even notice it, but I wanted to make that note. I am hoping to have a friend look at the pattern and the shirt and see if I made a mistake somewhere, or give me advice on how to adjust the pattern for future uses.
When it was time for the buttons, I looked in my button stash and found these perfect, ivory-colored, glossy buttons that look so elegant with this fabric. At first I thought I would try to find pink buttons but I don't have any of a matching pink color. I love the subtle but sweet accent these ivory buttons add to the piece.
This morning I finished sewing the buttons on before the girls awoke. I had prewashed the fabric so as soon as I finished sewing it was ready to wear. Susannah saw it on the couch and asked if she could please wear it today. :) She loves it and I love seeing her in it! It fits her perfectly and is exactly how I pictured it in my mind. I do wish the elastic in the sleeves were a little tighter fitting, but I don't plan to change it at this point.
My next project is already in the works, a pair of pants for Susannah that I actually started before I started this shirt. They will pair with the shirt and I just need to do a little work to have them finished. I think I might be able to do that this week and she can have a whole new outfit to wear for our town trips next week!
** I do want to note that two people have cautioned me on the quality of fabric purchased at WalMart nowadays. I am anxious to see how well the colors of this fabric hold up as being quick to fade is one of the issues I have been cautioned about.
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