34 Weeks

I am nearly overdue for another update. Each week seems to fly by lately! 

 This might be the last belly picture with Kile that I'll get. Bummer. But this was over Easter. She's about 29 weeks and I'm 31 weeks. 

How far along? 34 weeks

Baby is the size of? A Cantalope - At my *last* ultrasound on April 8th, baby weighed in at 4.7 lbs and was measuring in the 67th percentile! I've got a big baby on my hands!
Baby's Heart Rate? 147 bpm...same as my weight...

Maternity clothes? Suck. I can't seem to find any pants that will stay up! And my tummy is starting to hang out the bottom of my shirts, but I don't want to buy a bigger size if I'm only going to have it for a couple more weeks...oh the dilemma..

Sleep? I've been actually getting a lot of rest. If I wake up at night, it's not because I have to go to the bathroom, it's usually just to roll over and then I'm out again. 

Movement? All the time. And since baby is learning to swallow, baby has been getting hiccups. More lately I've been finding them to be completely annoying, but at least they aren't as bad as Hunter's were! He had them all the time and for what felt like forever! That's a long time for that "twitch" feeling!

Symptoms? My boss was so nice to get me in for a back massage the other week and it did wonders, but I think I'm going to have to go back for another one. It still feels much better than it did! Other symptoms I've been dealing with are depression, and the dreaded heart burn. This baby better come out with hair! I ate a chocolate chip cookie and got heart burn for the rest of the night....not cool.

Food cravings? Still surprisingly haven't had any cravings

Anything make you queasy or sick? My prenatal pills are making me nauseous again.
SCH News? The reason for my ultrasound on the 8th was to check up on the hemorrhage and to make sure baby was growing normally despite it. I received nothing but good news - the hemorrhage resolved itself. It either bled itself out in January or my body absorbed it. Either way its gone! 

Moment of the week? I was able to spend some quality time with my sewing machine :)

Looking forward to? Planting my garden soon!

At my ultrasound, I brought JP along. He's been so excited about this baby. "When is your tummy going to crack open so the baby can come out?" "And you'll have to go to the doctor so she can fix all the cracks on your tummy from the baby" Those are stretch marks bud...from Hunter. :) But I thought he might enjoy seeing the baby on the screen. He did. For about 10 seconds. Normally he's pretty shy around other people. Not this time. If there was a button to push, he probably pushed it. Thank goodness he was distracted by my Kindle for most of it. The other part was spent messing with the bed I was laying on. What started out flat ended up at about a 60 degree angle by the end of the ultrasound, and I was just trying not to slip off the bed. Lesson learned. But the tech didn't seem to mind. And she said the baby was measuring to be due on May 22, which is 8 days sooner that my due date. And if baby come early like JP did... I could be holding my baby in... 3 or 4 weeks! I need to get my bags packed...

So I Been Sewing...

The last few weeks This month has been a real struggle for me mentally. Normally I can get a handle on my depression, but it has recently just flat out kicked my butt. I'm usually pretty good at putting on a good face for people, but even my doctor could see through it this time. I'm a little surprised no one else could... But between struggles with the boys and working but not wanting to and anxiety about becoming at stay-at-home mom, I've just been in poor spirits.

Needless to say, I've been getting a bad case of nesting going on too so I've been focusing on getting ready for baby to arrive. (We're only 6 weeks away from my due date!) The nursery, which I'm so anxious to show everyone, will have to wait until after baby arrives. But I will say it's almost done. It has a subtle owl theme to it. I've completed painting the walls and ceiling, but I'll be painting a tree in one of the corners with a couple owls sitting on the branches. That project is scheduled to start....tomorrow? 

To fill the rest of my time, I've been sewing non-stop. It seems to have helped me to think of things other than what is getting me down. For now its a nice little outlet to have. 

My first project was to "update" the mobile that was given to us when I had Hunter, and also used with JP.

There is nothing wrong with it, but by baby #3, I am tired of watching these stars go round and round. But mostly they didn't go with my nursery theme :)

 I sewed (and glued) these little cuties together in an afternoon. Not too bad for just wingin' it?!

My next project was these burp clothes. Semi-neutral, but regardless if baby is a boy or a girl, it's not going to remember them anyways, but might find the colors interesting? My mom had made me some for when I had Hunter, but I could have used a few extra. I never had one when I needed it! Typical. So those will be in circulation too.

 Capes for my little superheros. I felt bad that everything I had been doing lately was for the baby. Whether it was washing the car seat liner, or swing liner, or painting, or sewing stuff, it was all for the baby. I had planned on making these a while ago, but never had the chance to just sit down and do it. 

 Last week we finally made a trip to JoAnn's to pick out fabric for their capes. JP *loves* the Hulk, but unfortunately he's not too popular outside of the Avengers. But he loves his Hulk cape (which is actually an Avengers cape). I made his first and after I finished sewing and ironing it, I held it up to see how I did, only to realize all of the Avengers are upside down...oops. I made a point not to make the same mistake with Hunter's Superman cape.  

 To match my burp cloths, I made this cute car seat cover. With the boys we just used a blanket to cover the car seat in the winter months, but I was always nervous about the blanket falling off and suffocating them. Problem solved with this one!

I should have made it opposite so the colors were on the inside so baby would have something to look at. I guess he/she will get to study the words "Faith Love Hope" in various colors. Overall it was a very simple project, but it seemed to take forever since the boys were trying to "help" with various stuff.

Other projects I've completed in the last couple weeks include two crib sheets and a window valence. I'm sure Perry is getting tired of listening to the sewing machine in the kitchen while he watches movies in the living room...good thing I'm almost done with all of my projects!

And here's a few photos of the boys since they've been off the blogging radar lately.

 My pajama boys 

 Here we go again practicing with Eeyore. 

 He's going to be a good big brother!

One of my superheros - The Hulk. I was surprised he knew exactly where his Hulk mask was! Hunter's cape wasn't done yet, but he insisted on being in the picture :)

My Boys Are Gross!

Reason #937 why I hope this baby is a girl: My boys are gross! And I'm hoping they don't teach her their ways, but inevitably kids will be kids I guess. Let me just describe to you what led me to this decision today. It's not that I couldn't have decided this on another day, but I think I just caught them in the act more times today.

Gross #1 This morning, the boys decided on cereal for breakfast and as a treat, I let them eat in the living room at the coffee table. Because this wasn't my first rodeo, I didn't put milk in their cereal because, obviously, as I'm sure many moms will agree, kids and couches don't mix. So should they have spilled their cereal, I didn't want to chance it and get it on the couch. And I called it. Hunter spill his bowl of dry cereal all over the floor, and I instructed him to start cleaning it up. How did he go about it? Licking it off the floor! We have hard wood floors throughout most of our house, and I'm pretty good about keeping them clean, but honestly, I wouldn't ever eat off of them...let alone lick them!? "But mom, I'm eating like a dog!"

Gross #2 After a busy morning/afternoon playing outside, we came in to have some quiet time while watching a movie. Today I snuggled by JP on the couch. Halfway through the movie he started picking his nose, which is a pretty common thing with him. This time, however, he actually got one out. A big hard but slimy one. As I struggled to get off the couch to retrieve a tissue for him, he proclaims "Look mom! It's a big one! I'm going to put it in my ear!" And then he did. But if that wasn't gross enough, by the time I got back with the tissue to get it out of his ear, instead of his finger, he proudly proclaimed "I ate it! And it was good!" Eww.... talk about saving it for later!

Gross #3 While I was cooking dinner, I let the boys play outside in the backyard so they'd stay out of the kitchen. Plus it was just a super nice day out. I kept my eye on them from the kitchen window, and left it open so I could hear them just in case. During one of my checks, I caught JP with his pants down in the garden peeing. From the window I shouted "Jim! What are you doing?! Pull up your pants - if you have to go potty, you need to come inside!" And he clearly heard me because he retorted "But I wanted to make some mud to play in!" Yeah...let's think about that again...

Gross #4 We had a side of corn with our meal tonight. I don't know why, but it seems to take *forever* for the boys to eat their dinner. I'm talking 45 minutes. Needless to say, after twenty minutes, I was done, so I took my plate to the sink. When I sat back down, Hunter murmured something about Jimmy's nose, and just as I turned to look at Jim, two pieces of corn came literally shooting out of his nose. I probably should have explained why we don't put things in our noses, but the sight I saw was quite comical and I was just trying to keep from laughing. Not exactly what I was expecting. But a bit later at dinner as he was eating his corn, he declared in excitement "OH! This one has a booger on it! It's going to be good!... Mmmmm It WAS good!" Jim. Seriously. Stop with the boogers in the mouth thing.

By that point, I was glad dad came home so I could go to yoga and cleanse my mind of those icky gross things.... Your kids do these things too right?

Missoula Phoenix Easter Egg Hunt

This year I thought taking the boys to a big Easter egg hunt would be a lot of fun for them. In past years, we've hidden eggs in the backyard, but with my family in town, I figured this might be more fun. Although I wanted to take them to the hunt on the oval at the university, I knew there was no way I'd be able to make it because I had to work. Luckily there was one before the Missoula Phoenix football game started that was later in the afternoon. I barely made it. I had about 5 minutes to spare. Thankfully Perry brought the boys earlier. From what I hear, they were pretty excited!

 I always enjoy looking at Perry walking with the boys!

While I was finishing up at work, the boys waited patiently for the festivities to begin.

 Those silly boys...

 Still waiting...

Yeah...I know...the sign says 0-3 and Hunter is pushing 4 1/2. But this was his first hunt, and honestly, he got destroyed in this group, so I can only imagine how he would have fared in the 4-5 age group. Plus, we wanted to watch them both.

 Once the buzzer sounded for the hunt to begin, the boys just stood there in awe. I ended up having to help JP out quite a bit since he was....a picky hunter.

 Aunt Bobby helped Hunter, and scored a bunch of Tootie Rolls herself. They didn't do too bad. 

 Hunter managed to get quite a few.

JP did alright. He's a funny kid. Insisted on *only* collecting the green eggs. He even went as far as putting the other ones back that I grabbed for him because they weren't green. It made collecting eggs quite challenging. We'd run to a big patch of eggs and as soon as he go to grab one, another kid would scoop them all up.

 Turns out all the green eggs had toys in them, at least all of JP's. He collected quite a few bracelets and a pair of stick on earrings and a couple stickers.

Hunter and Aunt Bobby opened his eggs together. I believe in this photo, Hunter won some free fudge. Guess who was pretty excited about that?! 

After the hunt, the field cleared and we took our seats in the stands to watch my cousin play on the Missoula Phoenix football team. There were 4 teams in total playing football so it made watching the game/games kind of hard. Two teams would play on one half of the field and the other two on the other end and they played for 40 minutes and then switched opponents. We only stayed for the first set of games because the boys were getting a little rambunctious in the stands, probably because they were hungry...! 

10 Things I Can't Do When I'm Pregnant

As I was pacing up and down the halls at work today, all of a sudden it hit me. I HAD to pee. Like now. And then once I made it to the bathroom, I thought, gosh, I can't wait until I can pee on my own schedule again. Which got me to thinking, what else will I be able to do again once the baby is born? Of course holding my baby and snuggling with my baby is on the list, but that's so cliche. Let's be serious now. So, in no particular order, I've come up with list of things I can't wait to do again once this little munchkin is born.

1. Go to the bathroom. 

How about going when it's convenient for me, not when the baby jabs me in the bladder a few times? I still remember how good it felt to empty my bladder *completely* after having JP...amazing. And how about they start making the stalls a little bigger to accommodate my large belly? I have to "suck it in" just to open the door to get out!

2. Sleeping on my belly. 

I've been a stomach sleeper for a long while, and even now, with a belly as big as mine, I still manage to wake up laying on my stomach...eek! Its so much more comfortable than putting a damn pillow between my legs. You try to roll over with that between your legs.

3. Putting on my socks.

I'm sure there is probably a lot of comedy involved in watching a pregnant lady put her socks on, but still...I actually sucked it up and sat down on my bed for the first time to put my pants on the other day. Even that was a struggle. 

4. Standing up. 

I know a lot of you probably take this for granted as you just jump up off the couch to grab your phone. But seriously, if I miss your call, it probably because I either gave up trying to get up, or didn't even bother because I knew it'd be too hard. Needless to say there's a lot of grunting and groaning going on here... And don't even get me started when I lay on the floor. I feel like a turtle upside down on its shell. I actually had to have my husband help me out of the tub once because I couldn't sit up...that was after I had to call him to come home to help...

5. Get rid of my maternity pants. 

I don't know if hate really describes them. They just don't stay up and I feel like a baggy mess wearing them. I don't know if I just bought the wrong size, but seriously. 2 more months...

6. Have a glass of wine. 

Okay yes, I will be breastfeeding but still. After a long day (which I'm sure there will be many), a nice little glass of wine sure would be nice...Those bottles on top of my fridge are calling my name, I just know it.

7. Have a conversation. 

Okay I can have one, but since baby is all up in my business, I have to limit my chat time because if I talk too much all at once, I become short of breath. And then I'm panting like I just got done running, when all I did was tell a short story. Pretty lame. I've had to tell my co-workers quite a few times, "Hold on, let me catch my breath" before explaining the rest of their task...Pretty awesome.

8. Have an innie. 

My belly button popped out right around 20 weeks. And since then you can see it sticking out from under my shirt. I hate it. But more or less those "Looks like your timer popped!" comments. 

9. Shave my legs...and stuff. 

Do I really have to get into this one? Bending over is a struggle as is - should I really have a razor in my hand while I balance on one foot to do it? Yay for a Spring baby! Mommy doesn't have to worry about hairy legs for swimsuit season!

10. Painting my toenails. 

Again with the bending thing. Not worth the energy I have to exert just to have pretty toes. 

And there you have it. What I am looking forward to doing....again...2 more months!

29 Weeks

Here's more belly pictures from the last 2 weeks!

 This is the start of my 3rd trimester. 28 weeks. I went home to visit my parents and to work on a crib skirt. While there, Hunter attempted to cut a crayon and missed. He instead snipped his finger pretty good, and got blood all over me, as you can see on my shirt. We ended up super gluing his wound shut. Poor guy.

29 weeks. Clothes are getting a little tight....

How far along? 29 weeks

Baby is the size of? A butternut squash - 15inches long

Maternity clothes? They are becoming more of a necessity, though I still wear some of my normal clothes.

Sleep? I wake up every night at 1:30a and can't go back to sleep. No matter what time I go to bed. And then I'm wide awake. Kind of frustrating. 

Movement? Lots of jabs going on

Symptoms? Back pain galore!

Food cravings? None lately

Anything make you queasy or sick? Still just dog poop. Perry stepped in some the other day and I almost hurled.
SCH News? No news is good news. My next ultrasound on the 8th will be to check up on it.

Moment of the week? Working on finishing up the baby's mobile.

Looking forward to? Feeling 100% again. I am recovering from my head cold...that I caught nearly a month ago. I didn't know my nose could have so many boogers! 

Elephant Cake

Over this weekend, despite still feeling a bit out of it from the cold I *still* have, I created a cake for a little girl turning 1 today. I'm not sure why I stressed out about this cake as much as I did - after all I think it turned out pretty good!

 This was the first tiered cake that I've done, and I had a lot of fun with it. Her mom said she wanted it elephant themed and I couldn't have thought of a better idea!

 For the top tier, I used buttercream frosting. I knew that fondant might be a little tricky for a 1 year to dive into! Plus, this gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my frosting skills, since I normally rely on fondant.

 The bottom tier was made of fondant. I used candy sticks as dowels to support the top tier, since I didn't have any wooden ones. I probably should have cut them a little bit shorter, but I figured this way they could take the top tier off fairly easily without wrecking it. 

 I am in love with the elephant I made to go on the top. She took all of...10 minutes to make and maybe 10 minutes to decorate. Not bad at all! I think she turned out so cute! 

AND I created a Facebook page for my cake too! So find me on Facebook and "like" my page: Simply Delightful Cakes : )