Be still my heart

02Sep09

He weighs about 10lbs and is just over 6 weeks old. Check out those cheeks and double chin…definitely nibble-worthy.

Filed under: Baby News   |  5 Comments
Tags: baby, smiles

A nice visit

31Aug09

We had my mom and dad in town for a week-long visit a couple of weeks ago. It was such a nice visit with lots of trips to Hobby Lobby (Dad loved their train department haha) and wonderful, much-needed help from my mom (and dad) with unpacking the house. That woman is a machine, I tell you!

We miss you already, Nana & Pop Pop.

Filed under: Home Life   |  2 Comments
Tags: grandparent visit, nana, pop pop

Meet Skittles

27Aug09

First off, let me apologize for my long absence. Transitioning from a mama of 2 to a mama of 3 has been a challenge for me. I’ve been keeping my head above water, but still, it’s a challenge. I’m not going to complain; I feel extremely blessed to be trusted by God to raise these 3 little ones. The road may get a little bumpy, but man are these kids amazing.

Now that that’s out of the way, how about some knitting?

It’s cloudy here today…these were the best shots I could get.

While Dom was out of town, Kaitlin played with his snake almost every day. I think most of the reason why was because she missed him. Anyway, about a week before Dom came home I realized that there’d probably be some arguements over the snake, so I decided to knit her one. I asked her what colors she wanted and she requested a rainbow one. I think she probably wanted me to knit her a snake comepletely out of rainbow-y variegated yarn, but that seemed so boring and monotonous. Changing colors every 10 rows kept the endless rows of stockinette stitch interesting somewhat.

I also learned my lesson with Dom’s snake and knit this one on DPNs. It was so much easier, but stuffing it was certainly interesting. Kaitlin enjoyed the stuffing part because I needed her to help me. She giggled everytime she had to stick her hand in it.

Another lesson I learned from Dom’s snake was to stuff firmly. As you can see (sort of…oh cloudy skies!), Dom’s snake is a bit more limp than Kait’s. It’s okay though, so he tells me, he likes it that way. Kait’s snake is also shorter, mainly because the kiddos like to wear their snakes around their necks, and I didn’t want hers to be dragging the ground when she walks.

I’m sure I’ll have to end up knitting Seth one soon…maybe for his first birthday.

Filed under: Knitting   |  2 Comments
Tags: knit, knitted snake, knitted toys

Does this make me a hip mama?

24Jul09

A while back, I found this tutorial and thought it looked like something I might be able to handle, so I bookmarked it. We got a diaper bag at our baby shower, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it would be too big. Let me clarify now that I did register for this diaper bag but it was back when we’d decided to cloth diaper and I figured we would need a larger bag to carry around all the necessities. Over the following weeks, Steve and I discussed it more and I just got the feeling that he’d be more comfortable with using disposables versus cloth. I eventually gave in (although sometimes I still wonder if we’d made the “right” decision…Seth is fine; no diaper rash or anything like that, and we agreed that if he did start to develop any sort of rash that we couldn’t take care of that we would switch to cloth) and we started to build up our reserve of disposable diapers. Fast forward to last month when I came across this tutorial for an awesome diaper bag. I was starting to nest (and most of my nesting was sewing…I had it baaaaaad) and realized that the only diaper bag we had for Seth was much too big. I took this tutorial, made a trip to my local Hobby Lobby to discuss fabric and interfacing options with my favorite fabric lady (her name is  Shirley and she’s awesome), and then came home. The next day I tackled the fabric and 8 hours later (yes 8 hours…that includes cutting, ironing, ironing interfacing, stopping to tend to Kait, and all the sewing) I had this:

Please excuse the quality of the photos…it wasn’t a photography-friendly day when I took these pictures.
This is a shot of the outside front flap. I chose a plain brown fabric because I knew Steve would be carrying it too, and I used denim thread for extra stability.

I fell in love with this funky polka dot print the moment I saw it. The inside has 2 elastic pockets on each side. Figuring out how to attach the pocket fabric with the elastic to the liner fabric was a challenge, but I think I did alright.

A blurry shot of the back velcro pocket and one of the side pockets.

Under the front flap has 2 pockets with velcro closures. Sorry for the blurry photos.

Other side pocket & you can see how I attached the straps. The thread went a little crazy, but I don’t care. It works great and that’s all that matters.

Filed under: Finished Friday, Sewing   |  5 Comments
Tags: diaper bag, hip mama diaper bag, Sewing

Baby Love

23Jul09

We are all settling in surprisingly well so far. Of course, I haven’t set up a schedule yet that includes housework, but it’s only been a week, so I think I’m doing alright. The dishes and laundry get done; the kids are bathed, fed mostly wholesome meals and happy; the puppy is taken care of (mostly thanks to Dominic…he’s such a good helper!); and I do find some time each day to get a shower. The one thing that I have realized about myself is that I rely on Steve a lot…mostly for my own sanity, I think. Just having him around me helps me get through the second half of the day. I am so glad that he gets off work so early and is home in time to help me with dinner and getting the kids bathed and in bed.

Seth is doing so well too. He had a check-up this past Monday and we learned that he’d gained 6oz since we left the hospital the previous Thursday; that’s 6oz in 4 days. Woohoo. Mama milk is good. That’s what Kait calls my breastmilk. We had to come up with some way to help her differentiate between breastmilk and regular milk. Silly, I know, but it’s so cute to hear her say “Mama, is Seth having mama milk again?” And Seth is sleeping very well at night. He only gets up once or twice to nurse. I’ve been crazy worried about him getting his nights confused with his days, so I don’t wake him at night to nurse, but I do wake him during the day.

I have been up to some craftiness too. I’ve been knitting something for Kait and I hope to be finished with it soon. There hasn’t been much sewing since Seth was born, but I’m hoping to remedy that once Steve and I get the house in order. I have a few projects planned, the first being to finish my mama’s Christmas gift. haha. She and my dad are flying out in 2 weeks to spend a week with us and I am starting to get pretty excited. I’m determined to have my mom’s gift finished so that she can take it home with her in her suitcase.

Well, I’m off to go do some more laundry.

Filed under: Baby News, Home Life   |  3 Comments
Tags: baby love

July 14, 2009 @ 11am

16Jul09

We are all quite smitten with our new bundle of joy.
6lbs 8oz, 19 1/4 inches long
Please forgive me if I take a small blog break to enjoy my new sweet boy.

Filed under: Baby News, Home Life   |  5 Comments
Tags: delivery, pregnancy

Little gardener

09Jul09

Please pay no attention the sickly nature of our plants. The Houston heat has not been very nice to them. I am in the process of preparing an area on the window seat in our bedroom for them. But until that happens, Kaitlin waters them for me every day.



Look at that chubby little arm and hand. I just want to eat her sometimes.

Filed under: Home Life, gardening   |  3 Comments
Tags: children, gardening

For my mama

09Jul09

37 weeks. I promised my mama I would post this picture yesterday afternoon. Then we got home and I started dinner and completely forgot. Sorry Mama.

So, I had my 37 week appointment yesterday and my ob said that everything looks well (although my fluid is back down to 7.5 but that’s okay because I hit my 37 week mark) and she gave us permission to be more active in starting my labor. Don’t worry, I’m not going to run a marathon or anything, but I am going to start taking care of some things around the house (like moving Seth’s bassinet from the living room into our bedroom…haha I kid you not, the house is chaotic right now). I’d also like to organize my fabric and get them stored in some clear bins so I can see what I got. However, that will have to wait for when the hubs gets home because I don’t think I want to brave going out anywhere with the princess by myself. I’ve been doing my best to avoid having to lift her, and if I went to the store by myself I’d have to lift her into the cart. Anyway, I’m still nesting a bit and it’s driving me crazy. Most of the things that I want done in the house I need the hubs for. For instance, moving the above mentioned bassinet into our room, well he needs to move my dresser mirror off the floor (it’s propped up against the wall on my side of the bed) and mount it to my dresser. Yea, things like that. Apparently he can’t find the screws for it, which is fine, but it needs to relocate so I can get Seth’s little area set up. Yes, my mind is going a mile a minute.

Anyway, any labor starting tips…throw them my way ladies!! And I understand that patience is a virtue and yada yada, but I have a tight schedule this month, which no isn’t Seth’s fault, but I need to have him. My body is physically aching to get him out, seriously.

Don’t worry, Mama. I’m not going to take any castor oil, I promise.

Filed under: Baby News   |  3 Comments
Tags: pregnancy, third trimester

No fireworks for me

06Jul09

I originally posted this on my Facebook and wanted to share it with you all.

First of all, I am measuring 36 weeks & 4 days. I will be 37 weeks on Wednesday & considered “full-term.”

Okay, so I went called my doctor yesterday afternoon because Seth wasn’t moving like “normal” and I was told that since my amniotic fluid level was low (it was 7cm when it should be at least 10cm), if he wasn’t moving like normal then I was to call. They told me to come in so that they could monitor him. I was having mild contractions, but they were very managable. His heart rate was good. So, they did an ultrasound and found that he wasn’t moving like he should and was very sluggish. They also found that he was breech and transverse. He also weighs 6lbs 9oz. So, my doctor wanted to keep me overnight for monitoring and they pumped me full of fluids (4 bags total in less than 24 hrs…I was peeing like crazy!). Apparently I also had a UTI, so they had me taking antibiotics every 6 hrs (they even woke me up in the middle of the night to take them) too.

At about 6am, I started to feel Seth moving around more like himself, so I started to get a little hopeful. My doctor wanted me to have another ultrasound to see how Seth was doing and if he was doing better (they do this test that is sort of like an APGAR for in-utero babies and the highest they can score is an 8; Seth scored a 6 yesterday, but since his fluid was low, my doc wanted him to score an 8 to make sure that he was doing okay even though my fluid was low), then I could most likely go home. I was supposed to have my ultrasound around 7am today but because of various car accidents and other pregnant women with more urgent cases than mine (ie: bleeding), my ultrasound got pushed back to 2-ish.

I had my ultrasound and the tech said that he looked much better and that he had returned to a head-down position (I’m guessing that his crazy movements at 6am was him turning), my fluid was up to 9cm, & she rated him at an 8 for the test. I was so relieved!! My doctor said that I could go home but that I have to absolutely take it easy, keep taking my antibiotics, drink LOTS of water (they gave me a gigantic travel mug with the hospital’s logo on it that holds 34oz & I was instructed to drink 4 of them a day…yikes), and to attend my already scheduled appointment on Wednesday. I’m scheduled to have another ultrasound, so I’m hoping that everything will still be good.

On the plus side, I am already having mild, but very sporadic contractions…so hopefully once I hit 37 weeks, then it won’t be much longer before we get to meet this little guy.

Thank you again for all of your prayers, well wishes, and warm thoughts. They are greatly appreciated!

Filed under: Baby News   |  3 Comments
Tags: pregnancy

Our past week in photos

29Jun09

Lunch picnics under makeshift tents in the living room. The quilt she’s sitting on…$6.50 at the thrift store. Looove it.

Frequent, but short, trips outside to play with the puppy. Just for the record, I did let her in after I took the picture. I just love the way she holds her; almost like cradling a baby, and Penny just lets her do it.

Passing out from previously mentioned short trips outside….the heat will do that to ya!

Exploring just where exactly a 2.5 lb puppy will fit. Mama, Kait’s wearing the size 3T clothes you sent her. Looks like it’s time to upgrade to 4T. She’s so big.

A new weekly ritual that I’m loving so much.

Locked and loaded; assumed the position; making his final decent. Insert your own description for this photo. All I can say about it is yes, I do feel as miserable as I look. p.s. I’m 35 weeks & 5 days…only 4 weeks and 2 days to go.

Filed under: Baby News, Home Life   |  6 Comments
Tags: girl and puppy, pregnancy