A Not So Everyday Kind of Blessing

A couple of weeks before we went on vacation I started to feel a little off. Odd things were happening...at one point I had to talk myself out of an extreme and very strange craving for raw beef. How gross is that?! Obviously, red flags went up. I took a pregnancy test but thought there was no way it could be positive, and it wasn't. I chalked the weird craving up to needing more protein or iron and just moved right along. But, then I missed my period, so I took another test. It was negative. The night before we left for the beach I fixed Levi the only vegetable he'll eat...asparagus. I could barely finish cooking it. The smell! Ugh. That feeling was all too familiar. The next morning I took another test. Turns out that it is indeed possible to have two false negatives.

That's right. Baby number 3 is on its way! Arrival is estimated to be June 23. We are thrilled! Now if only I could get through this first trimester fatigue and sickness, so I can get to knitting! I have 9 months worth of stuff I want to make, but at this rate I may only have 6 months of time to make it in.

Weekend Photos

Stephan actually had this past weekend off...a rare treat! We spent most of it at my parents' house celebrating my birthday and hanging out.

Turns out that my camera wasn't really broken. About a week ago, I had finally decided to take it into the shop...no more procrastinating. I tried it out for the first time in awhile, and lo and behold the thing worked. Oh, well, I'm calling it a nice birthday present.

Isn't she cute?!! She is the most curious and adventurous little girl. I just want to squeeze her all. the. time.

Also, she started waving....on my birthday. :-) Happy day to me!

And, happy Wednesday to you!

8 Months

I took the kids thrifting today. Someone in line was admiring Sophia and asked how old she was. I smiled and said, "7 months". When we got to the car she was hungry. I sat down and nursed her. As I was looking at my sweet baby it dawned on me....She's not 7 months anymore. Sigh. Time. It just flies.

P.S. Have you checked out my giveaway?

Dandelion Giveaway!!

Giveaway Closed
The winner is Aimee!

At nearly 8 months old
Sophia's toy collection was lacking in all things pink, but Dandelion remedied that situation. They generously sent her a selection of toys from their Pink collection...

We received the Brunette Toddler Doll, the Little House Sorter, and Baby's First Doll (all pictured above)....quite a fun package! These toys are soft and squeezy and cute, but best of all, they're organic. This is good because Sophia feels the need to put everything in her mouth. In fact, the first test these toys had to pass was the taste test, which they did with flying colors...

Yum! :)

One cool thing I wanted to mention is that a portion of the proceeds from the Pink collection goes to support Breast Cancer Research. Just another reason to buy a little girl in your life a touch of pink.

Dandelion also has lots of other adorable, eco-friendly items to browse through....natural tableware, organic canvas totes, teethers, and more. So, head on over and find that perfect baby/kiddo gift you've been looking for!

Now for the really fun part! Dandelion is giving one of my readers his/her choice of a product from the Pink collection!! Here's how to toss your name in the hat....

1. Mandatory Entry: Check out the Pink collection and leave a comment with an item you'd love to have...don't worry. You can change your mind later if you win. :)

2. Bonus Entries: You can tweet (once daily) or blog (once total) about the giveaway.  Be sure to link back to this post.  Leave separate comments with urls for each of those entries.

Please, leave a way for me to contact you!!!

Contest is open to U.S. only. Apologies to my international friends!!
Contest will end May 6, 2011 at 10:00 pm central time.

Good Luck, Y'all!

A Little Throwback

I was at my parents' house today looking through old photos. This is me checking out my parents' first computer. Can you believe the size of that thing. Just in case you're wondering I'm 29 inching very close to 30, so that's quite the vintage computer there.

Of course, I was instantly reminded of this photo of Levi.

I think I was 4 months and Levi was 5 months in the above photos. Can you believe how tiny we once were. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

Babywearing Daddy

I don't know if I can handle all the cuteness happening around here.

Stephan and baby Sophia sporting a Sleepy Wrap.

His Own Sling

Levi took care of his baby all afternoon...except for handing her off to me to nurse.  But, finally he just had to have his own sling, so I made him one using the instructions in this book. 

P.S. The baby doll's name is "Brother Sister".  While I was pregnant we seem to have made a little too big a deal about the baby being a brother or a sister.  Levi has actually introduced Sophia as "my brother and my sister." :)

 

Daddy's Little Girl

Yes.  My heart is just one big puddle these days.

She's Here

Her name is Sophia Mae.  Isn't she beautiful?

Born at home on Wednesday.

7 lbs 13 oz

20 in

We're soaking her in....

every last beautiful, wonderful bit of her.

Morning Me

I probably should refrain from posting photos of myself fresh out of bed, but the pretty photos I'd planned on never happened.  Did I mention it's ridiculously hot out there?  Totally drains the energy out of a gal. 

I'm down to just a few outfits and my pajamas are barely fitting now.  With less than 4 weeks to go, I'm hesitant to buy new stuff.  But, if my wardrobe selection gets any slimmer you might find me perusing the maternity racks.

Weekend Loves

I've got baby on the brain....hmmm....wonder why?  ;)  Here are a few links that made me smile this week:

: : When babies hit the brain so too do diapers, so I've been doing lots of diaper stash fluffing.  I've made a few new wool soakers.  One from this awesome book (Thank you, Nell :-), and two from this free pattern.  I have plans to stitch up a few of these and these, and I want to knit a couple of these for winter.  Although, something tells me all of that will not be done before baby gets here. 

: : This wonderful roundup of baby knit patterns makes me wish I was faster with those needles.

: : I'm loving this bunny and think it would make a wonderful first stuffie for this little one.

: : Being pregnant in the oh, so hot month of August has me dreaming about fall and winter.  These little bird seed cakes are already going on the list of things we must do when the cool weather comes in.

: : This last link is for my mom.  She has a thing for magic shell.  So, Mom, next time you run out here's a recipe for making your own.  :)

What's on your brain this week?

A Full Belly....36 1/2 weeks

Our midwife came for a visit yesterday.  Levi was her "big helper"...measuring, and checking on the baby.  After she left, "Where's my Miss Norma?"

Fast and Easy

When I look back at the things I've made and done during this pregnancy, I'm surprised.  I've actually accomplished quite a bit considering I thought I had only managed to sleep and neglect housework.  Thank you, blog, for reminding me that sometimes I do more than that. 

To be added to the list are these hot off the sewing machine baby legwarmers....

I followed this tutorial....the perfect craft for a tired pregnant mama.  They take all of about 3 minutes to make, and they turn out super cute!  Oh, and they are cheap, cheap, cheap.  Target had knee high socks regularly priced at $2, and then they had a few on clearance for less than $2!


My notes:
I did alter things just a tad.  The original instructions say to roll the hem over 1/2 inch and sew down the middle of the hem.  I did two parallel lines instead of one.  One down the middle of the 1/2 inch hem and one closer to the frayed edge.  That way there's not a 1/4 inch of fabric rolling and making baby potentially uncomfy.

Also,  I thought their instructions for the ruffled edge were confusing.  It could just be me and my very tired brain.  But, I tried them two ways.  For the purple legwarmers, I didn't fold over a hem.  I zigzag stitched a line 1/2 an inch from the raw edge, and then I zigzag stitched the raw edge.  For the striped ones, I folded a hem; zigzagged the the top of the hem (where the raw edge is), and then zigzagged the fold.  The last method was my favorite.  It just looks more finished.

32-ish Weeks

Yesterday was one of those freak out pregnancy days...tell me you know what I'm talking about.  You know the ones when you wake up, and NOTHING fits, and you are unbelievably tired and maybe cranky, and then you go shopping only to find that somehow NOTHING fits, and then you are even more tired and maybe even more cranky?  Ugh.  Well that was yesterday.  I might have nearly cried once or twice in a dressing room or two.  And, I might have viewed myself more as a beached whale than a beautiful pregnant lady.  

Thankfully, today is a little different.  I am tired but not cranky.  And, although, nothing fits....still....I don't feel quite as whale like.  And, I even almost feel pretty.

You've had those days, right?

More of the Baby Belly

These first two are from 27 weeks.  Levi's stethoscope obsession led to lots of "checking" the baby's heartbeat...

And, these are from 28 weeks.  My sister was in town over the weekend, and took a few shots while we were wandering around the farm....

More here.

Baby Bump: Week 28

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last official baby bump update!  We had an appointment with our midwife Thursday.  Stephan's mom got to be there and to hear the heartbeat....very cool.  She also brought some of Stephan's baby things and a gorgeous old quilt (but that's for another post).  :)

The baby is growing as expected, and has turned which explains the recent wonderful lack of drop kicks to the bladder.  Although, it's too early in the pregnancy to know if s/he will stay that way, my midwife thinks it's likely.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.

And in other baby related news:

: : I have gained a whopping 22 pounds.  I'm sort of in shock.  With Levi I gained a total of 25 pounds.  I still have three more months to go before the final tally is in on this one.  The part that really has me bumfuzzled is that I am not nearly as hungry with this one as I was with Levi.  In fact, for a while there I was afraid I wasn't eating enough....um....wrong.  We're just hoping this one isn't destined to be a 10 + pounder.  Oh, and, Stephan, being the sweet husband he is, when I told him how shocked I was over all of that weight gain, said, "Good.  I was afraid you were losing weight."  Either he's just being nice, or he needs his vision checked.  Has he seen that belly?!!

: : Levi has recently revealed that he believes this baby will be moving in with Nanno and BawBaw once it gets here.  Oh, my, is he in for a shock.  There's no preparing or convincing him.  Even Nanno got in on trying to correct his view on this one.  No luck.  He's determined.  My only guess is that he remembers living next door to them, and he thinks that's what babies do.

: : This new little munchkin already has opinions.  S/he is seriously opposed to me slouching.  Apparently, s/he likes his/her room because every time I slouch, s/he kicks me really, really hard in a hey-give-me-some-more-room-in-here kind of way.  Also, when we tried to hear his/her heartbeat with the stethoscope, sh/e kicked the stethoscope every single time...dead on excellent aim, too.

: : We are still working on boy names.  I think we might be coming closer to a decision.  We'll see.  So far everybody thinks it's a girl....even strangers.  I'm going to laugh when a boy comes out, and we don't have name for it.  Any suggestions?  I tend towards Old Testament names.  Stephan tends toward New Testament and non-biblical names.  A happy medium has yet to be reached.  There have been a couple of first names agreed on, but finding a middle name is tough.  Josiah and Abel are in the top running.  But, every name we put with Abel makes it sound like a sentence.

A Not So Fabulous Blanket

This is what's been on my needles ever since the alien pop tart came off the hook:

I knew about 1/4 of the way through that I wasn't going to like this blanket or this knitting experience.  I almost threw in the towel a few times.  Not because it was difficult, but because it was painfully boring.  But, here's the thing...I always throw in the towel if a project is too boring, difficult, or just flat out unloved.  I'm also a frequent unfinisher (yes, I know that isn't a word).  There are so many projects that get started and then tossed aside for newer, shinier ones.  Out of a determination to change my ways, I kept going....and going....and going.  Oh, my stars, y'all, I thought this blanket was never going to end!  Everyday for the past week, I've woken up thinking, "Yay, today is the finish day!"  And, then it wasn't.  But, yesterday, it was.  And, I am relieved and so happy. 

Even though, this yarn has been stared at far too long for me to like it anymore, I had plenty of leftovers.  So, I'm making a hat.  Because, really, babies can't have too many blankets or hats.  It's just not possible.

P.S.  I seem to have photographed the blanket's backside.  The front doesn't look much different though, so oh. well.

And, P.P.S.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!

Hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!

Week 23...The Bump

This pregnancy is rolling right along.  I can't believe we're already well beyond the halfway point.

And, looking mighty pregnant....

I've given up on having the energy that I had during Levi's second trimester.  Something about chasing a wild two year old and growing a life seems to be making me extra tired.  Other than tiredness, all is well.  This little one moves like nobody's business....possibly more than his/her older brother did!  And, except for all of the times that s/he drop kicks me in the bladder, I love it!  Seriously, though, note to baby #2: Please find another area to kick.  M'kay? 

Portrait By Levi

Levi is beyond fascinated by all things photography.  It's inevitable that at some point all of his toys become cameras.  He holds them up to his face, grins the biggest, most amazing grin, and says "I take pictures!"  When I took the photos from yesterday's post, Levi was itching to take some of his own.  Since it was just my old point and shoot, I decided to let him have a go of it.  (I not so secretly want a new one anyway.)  Of course, most of the pics ended up being of the blue wall or his lap, but I thought this one was pretty passable for a two year old...

If I do get the camera that I really, really want (I know, like a Rebel isn't enough!), then I'm giving this old point and shoot to Levi.  Well, giving might be a strong word for it.  I'll let him use it under supervision until he's a tad older.

And, for future reference, I've bookmarked this pinhole camera tutorial.  How cool is that?!! 

Halfway There!

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on yesterday's post.  Your kindness and prayers mean a lot to me.  :)  Now back to regularly scheduled blogging...

So this week I hit 20 weeks...the halfway mark!!  I love pregnancy beyond this point.  Don't get me wrong, I was glad to be pregnant during the previous 20 weeks, but pregnancy really gets fun now.
This little munchkin's teeny, tiny feet are already creating visible bumps in my belly when s/he kicks.  Stephan was even able to feel him/her move on Wednesday....so incredible!  Sigh.  I'm glad to be a woman.  I think men miss out on the whole carrying a baby thing.  Okay, maybe not in the first trimester, but still, babies are so cool!
Levi is very curious about this growing belly of mine.  He  likes to "feel" the baby.  Although, he has yet to actually feel a kick.  That doesn't seem to bother him though.

I think Levi is well on his way to being an awesome big brother.  He's already "reading" to the baby...

He takes his job very seriously.

Ha! Levi just woke up, took a look at a couple of these photos, and recognized me from my belly.  "That's mama!!" followed by, "It's a baby!!  I need to see de baby!  I need to kiss it!"  :-)