Pregnancy Stats

This week I will be 36 weeks pregnant aka 9 months pregnant.
Weight: 157 lbs
Belly measures : 36 weeks / 36cm
Dilation: 2 cm
Effacement: 70%


So far I have only gained 12 lbs with this pregnancy! Which is GREAT not only for me during pregnancy but also for after. Baby is strong and healthy and right on track. My doctor said he does not expect me to get above 165 and that my body should go back close to what I was before I had Jocelynn and got on the Mirena IUD.

Now I will show you my stretch marks.... lets just say I could not count them if I tried. Before this pregnancy I still had 1 million of them but they were all underneath my belly button. Now my belly button has turned into a stretch mark and the stretch marks have gone above my " belly button " as well. I decided I am a fence sitter with stretch marks on my belly. I don't necessarily hate them, but I also don't love them. Although I will say I HATE when girls complain about getting just a couple stretch marks no matter where they are. If you can say couple and stretch marks in the same sentence, then really its not worth getting upset over. But I am also not one of those people who are like," I love my stretch marks because they gave my child life." Obviously I prefer to not have them, but thats what most of us sign up for. Ok enough rambling here is a top view of my belly, I figure you'll get the idea by me just picturing the top view.

Dreams

So the last little while of being pregnant has been quite " adventurous." I have been having some CRAZY dreams. Anywhere from hospitals flooding and my baby falls out, to people not coming to visit me because my baby was too ugly and small.

Another thing I have been experiencing is I am having terrible nightmares that wake me up out of a dead sleep, then I cry to Andrew and he has to snuggle me the rest of the night while my brain automatically thinks of every scary movie I have ever seen. The stupid thing is that it's not that I saw something scary in my dream, scary music just starts playing and all of a sudden I am awake terrified.

With Jocey I always dreamt that she was born a cat and nobody loved her because she was indeed a cat and not a baby.

Lets just say I am excited to get back to my sleeping schedule and back to my normal dreams. Being pregnant just aint my "GLOW" as What to Expect while Expecting calls it. I know that I just do much better the second the baby is in my arms and not in my tummy. Good thing Vivian will be here before I know it!

The Girl's Room

I am finally done with the girl's room. It took a long time considering I made or re-did most of the new additions. I re-painted an old mirror we had $2, made custom letters out of scrapbook paper and framed them $10 ( includes all scrap book paper and frames from Hobby Lobby ), spray painted the curtain rod black ( painted with the same paint as mirror), made both the toddler bed sheets and crib sheets $15, bumpers $71, bed skirt $10, flower ball and button ball $40. The curtains I got at Target for $20, the dresser is from Walmart for $180 and the crib from Target for $175. I already had the toddler bed and flower light, that you can get from IKEA.

Total with dresser and crib: $523 

Total without dresser and crib: $168

Not too shabby for most everything being custom. 

Mirror, dresser, flower lamp and framed scrapbook letters.

Crib, ruffle curtains, bumpers, flower and button ball.

Jocey's bed 

( I am going to hang a sister picture collage or giant sister picture right above her bed once Vivian gets here)

Their closet. Toys, toys, toys, toys, books, toys and more toys. I did not realize how many toys Jocey had until I tried fitting them all in her closet. I got the biggest pink bin I could find at Walmart for $5 and we already had the square shelving unit that we got from Target, which has 9 compartments.

I had a lot of fun re-doing Jocey's whole room to prepare for the new baby, and Jocey really likes it too! This was also what was making me feel not ready for the baby to come, now I feel prepared and it turned out better than I expected. All the organizing, washing clothes, sorting through toys and books, putting together a confusing dresser, hours of sewing and burning my hands with hot glue was all worth it. I am now done with major projects for a while and it feels really awesome!

Crib Bumper Tutorial

I got all the measurements from THIS website. You can get your bumper tie measurements and crib skirt measurements from there as well. She did give incorrect measurements for how much foam to buy and just gives pictures of how to do the bumper ties and crib skirt. I recommend making the ties and bed skirt from the pictures she made, they are pretty self explanatory. She does not explain how to put the whole bumper together. So here is me giving it my best shot. I tried explaining things the best I could without physically being with you. Good Luck!

The pieces shown were cut out with the fabric doubled. So I am not crazy you should end up with 8 pieces.

#1. I am a HUGE fan of serger's so if you have one I recommend serging all the edges of your cut out fabric pieces.

#2. Next you will be attaching 4 pieces of fabric together, two of your 27 1/2" x 13 3/4" ( short pieces ) and 2 of your  55"x 13 3/4 " ( long pieces). Take one of your short pieces of fabric and attach its 13 3/4 inch side to one of your long piece of fabric's 13 3/4 inch side with patterned sides pinned together. You will attach the pieces so that they are long, short, long, short as one continuous piece. Sew the width of your sewing foot or 1/2 inch into your fabric. When you're done sewing your first 4 pieces together put to the side and repeat with the remainder 4 pieces of fabric.

#3. Take your now two giant pieces of fabric and iron flat all the seams you just made.

When you're done they should now be 2 continuous pieces of  fabric like this. Set one of them aside.

#4. Now take 1 ( you will NOT be doing this to the other long piece of fabric ) of the long strips of fabric you sewed together and lay it out with patterned side facing up.  With the patterned side up pin your piping, with the bulgy part facing down , along the top edge of your fabric. If you are using a patterned fabric that has a right and wrong direction, be sure your pattern is the correct direction and you are pinning along the top edge of the pattern.  Pin piping all the way to the end of your fabric.

#5. You should have 7 ties for the top of your bumper and 7 for the bottom of your bumper. Making a total of 14 ties. You will fold your tie's in a V shape before pinning to the edges of your fabric. They should look like the picture above when done pinning. When pinning, there should be one tie on both the top and bottom about every 27 inches starting with the first edge and continuing to the last edge. So 2 on each of the ends, 2 at each of the seams and 2 extra ones in the middle of each of the long seams.

#6. Once everything is pinned, with a zipper foot sew as close up to the bulged edge of piping as possible all the way down your fabric. This will also secure your top bumper ties. Then individually sew bottom ties.

This is what the top with piping and bumper ties should look like when you're done.

Your bottom ones should be directly underneath your top ones only sewn with no piping.

 This is where you add the zipper. It is kind of confusing, but bare with me! If you choose not to do a zipper just skip to step #13 and make sure to leave one end of your fabric open so you can put your foam in. You can also look at the picture at step #13 before doing the zipper to hopefully help you understand better.

#7. Take your 2 pieces of fabric (one with bumper ties and piping sewn to it and the other one we set aside at step #3)  and with patterned sides together (making sure your pattern is the correct direction) match up 2 of your short sides( two 13 3/4 inch sides) and sew the width of your sewing foot up 1 inch from the edge of your fabric. It should look like you are adding to the continuous strip of fabric to make one giant strip.

* Note: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MATCHED YOUR SEAMS FROM BOTH PIECES OF FABRIC BEFORE DOING THIS STEP.

#8. Then fold back about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of the fabric and iron back

#9.  Pin your zipper upside down on ironed seams.

#10. Flip fabric over when you're done pinning and it should look like this. Make sure the teeth on your zipper are not underneath any fabric. And everything is securely pinned.

#11 Put a pin at the end of the zipper where the sewn fabric starts. This way you know where to turn your fabric and sew back up the zipper.

#12. With a zipper foot sew as close to the edge of your fabric as you can.  Starting at the top of one side of your zipper, turning at the bottom to continue up the other side.

When you are done sewing around your zipper flip everything over and this is what it should look like. This also shows the inside bottom of the zipper.

Now all your fabric should be one super long piece that is connected by your zipper. If you do not understand, I recommend hand sewing the open end instead of putting your zipper in once your foam is in your finished bumper.

#13. After you have folded back your fabric at the zipper so patterned sides are together, make sure ALL seams match up and pin all of your fabric together. Also make sure all your bumper ties are inside with the patterned side of your fabric. *If you chose not to do a zipper, just lay fabric patterned sides together and match up all of your seams before pinning.

#14. On the top of one side of your fabric you should see the sewing line from adding your piping. So with a zipper foot sew on top of that line or as close as you can to it. * Do not go over the line otherwise you will not see your piping when you flip everything right side out. 

Then sew shut the rest of your open sides about a half inch in, unzip your zipper and flip right side out! If you did not add a zipper sew both long sides and one short side. With one end open flip everything right side out.

#15. Stuff your bumper with your foam, then zip closed or hand sew bumpers shut. I used 2 inch foam from Joann's and had them cut 2 long pieces that measure 50 1/2" x 12", and 2 short pieces that measure 23" x 12". I recommend buying the foam when you can get your hands on a 50% off coupon because otherwise it is $30 a yard. 

FINISHED PRODUCT!

The Zoo

So we went to the Zoo a week or two ago. IT WAS SO HOT. We chose to go on a day where it was 96 degrees outside. No bueno. We all had sweat spots and red faces, but it was worth it and Jocey liked it too. It was her first time going and all in all it was good!

Jocelynn LOVED the zoo stroller

Cute baby elephant taking a bath

They had an awesome eagle's nest and of course I had to take an awesome picture in it.

Polar bear bum

Riding on the Carousel 

Getting back to my roots, tiny sloth

Blessing dress

Check and Check! I have completed Vivian's blessing dress. It was SO easy doing this the 2nd time around.  The pattern is pretty easy but of course I did modify it to what I wanted. The pattern has sizes XXS to LG for babies, and it will tell you how much to buy of everything depending on what size you make. I am posting a collage kind of summarizing what I did. I also posted some pictures of Jocelynn's dress that I made 2 years ago to kind of give you a different style of the same dress pattern.

You hand sew the bow and button on

After you machine sew the velcro you then hand sew the buttons on the back.

I made Vivian's dress before she was born because the thought of all the holidays coming up + having a brand new baby and 2 year old = a mama who needs to take a break from projects for the first month. You can have a lot of fun with this dress and it seems to make it extra special when you're able to make it the exact way you want it.

Carseat Canopy Tutorial

I took several tutorials that I saw on how to do these, I decided this was the easiest I could do it and the cheapest way as well. It is a thinner canopy which is another reason I decided to the tutorial.

1. Cut your fabric and make sure it is 40 inches long and 31inches wide.

I used cotton fabric, but you can use almost any kind you want.

2. With the right side or patterned side down iron back about 1/2 inch of the sides of your fabric . Do this on all sides of your fabric.

3. It should look like this at each corner after ironing.

4. With a single straight stitch, sew all the way around your ironed fabric the width of your sewing foot. Meaning make sure the outer edge of your fabric is lined with the foot of sewing machine.

5. Repeat step 2 and sew all the way around your fabric again. Only this time when you are sewing make sure your original sewing line is about in the middle of your sewing foot. *This step is crucial for a finished edge and to make sure your cover does not fall apart.

When you're done sewing around all the edges all the INSIDE corners should look similar to this.

All the OUTSIDE corners should look like this.

6. Buy at least 26 inches of ribbon for each tie, total 52 inches ( Basic knot). If you want to be able to tie in a bow buy at least 30 inches of ribbon for each side, total 60 inches. Pin the ribbon, right side facing down,  about 22 inches up from the bottom and 7 inches in from the sides. Make sure you pin in the middle of the ribbon with the ribbon vertical. Also make sure to cut the ends of your ribbon with a slant and then use fray check or some sort of clear glue on the edges to keep from fraying.

7. With a straight stitch sew a little rectangle where you have pinned the ribbon. I used 2 kinds of ribbon to make it look better, in that case you just center the smaller ribbon under the larger ribbon before you pin and sew.

TADA!!! Super easy cute car seat canopy.

This was just how I wanted mine to look, you can also add lace around the edges or do shorter or longer ribbon. You can definitely let your mind be creative!