Round Two: Seventeen Weeks

 
"One of these days, I'm going to wake up feeling great." I keep telling myself that. One of these days, it will happen.
 

how far along // 17 weeks!

maternity clothes // a little. maternity leggings have got to be the most comfy article of clothing ever invented.

movement // nothing too noticeable yet.

sleep // when Rosemary sleeps, I sleep. soundly, solidly, without waking up at all.

 

what I miss // enjoying food.

cravings // nothing. I feel too sick to think about food that way.

 

symptoms // morning sickness (still!), migraines (not fun!)  

favorite moment this week // timmy and I, for the first time ever, agreed on a boy name. 

So far, this pregnancy has left me reeling. Throwing up, gagging, dragging. I'm hoping that a happy stomach will arrive with some warm springtime weather.

Aaand, just for fun, here's me at 17 weeks with Rosemary.

Introducing…

Rosemary Katrina

born at 2:39 AM, on Saturday, September 3rd
7 pounds, 9 ounces • 20.5 inches long

We are home, happy, and loving our sweet little darling.

P.S. I knew she was a girl. :)

Some Advice to Induce Labor.

 (after nap = looking frowsy = tim tied a ribbon around my belly and took a picture)

No baby yet! My due date is four days away, and I have been getting a lot of advice on how to encourage this baby to enter the world. Here are some of my favorites:

“Stare at the full moon.” (Hopefully I won’t have to wait to do that, as the next full moon is September 12!!)

"Swing on a swing." (We're giving that a try tonight.)

“Get a pedicure.” (Pressure points on your feetsies can induce labor. I tried to show Timmy where to push and neither of us really understood the process.)

“Eat spicy food.” (Disaster. I tried this one and ended up with severe jalepeno pepper burns on my hand… and no baby.) 

“Walk, walk, walk.” (I went on a 1.5 mile hike the other night, truly convinced that would do the trick. No. Luck.)

“Crawl around on your hands and knees.” (Not trying this one.)

“Castor oil.” (No thank you!)

“Evening primrose oil.” (I’ve been taking this for three weeks…)

“Talk to the baby, reassuring her you’re ready for her to be born.” (Yup, I even tried this one too. She’s not convinced.)

I’ve gotten several more tidbits, but they are not proper to share.  

Let me just say that whoever “THEY” are that say these things work… THEY are really just laughing at us poor pregnant women walking in circles around the block at midnight… during a full moon… while downing hot sauce and talking to their stomachs.

ABC's

A. age :: twenty-four

B. bed size :: queen (currently piled with seven pillows for me and one pillow for Tim)

C. chore you hate :: shaving my legs - does that count as a chore?

D. dogs :: no-thank-you

E. essential start to your day :: raspberry smoothie made by Timmy

F. favorite destination :: Hawaii!!!

G. gold or silver :: gold

H. height :: five feet, four and a half inches

I. instruments you play :: piano (kind of), flute (kind of)

J. job title :: wife, mom-to-be, graphic designer, support analyst

K. kids :: Baby Love! (yup, still pregnant)

L. least favorite :: DENTIST (just thinking about the dentist makes my skin crawl) 

O. overnight hospital stays :: once for tonsils

N. nickname :: Sweet Bea (my family), Little Darlin' (Timmy) M. maiden name :: Davison

P. pet peeve :: people who complain all the time

Q. quote :: "Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness." - Mother Teresa

R. righty or lefty :: righty

S. siblings :: older sister, younger sister

T. time you wake up :: 6:45 AM (weekdays), as late as possible (weekends)

U. useless information :: I love eating ice.

V. vegetables you dislike :: sweet potatoes, squash

W. what makes you run late :: the snooze button, being distracted by Timmy's kisses

X. x-rays you’ve had :: dentist x-rays

Y. yummy food :: fresh summer tomatoes

Z. zoo animal favorite :: penguins

 (ABC Banner made for Baby Love's nursery)

Loving LZ.

Baby Love is still snuggled inside my belly. I’m getting the feeling that she’s pretty happy and doesn’t have a whole lot of motivation to exit. When our good friend Laura offered to do a maternity photo shoot for us on August 25, I naively thought, “Oh dear, that’s so close to my due date. I hope I’m still pregnant!” Right. No worries, I was still VERY much pregnant and that’s a good thing because Laura, as always, captured many sweet shots of this special stage in our lives. 

 
Laura is kind of like our life photographer. She first photographed us when we were newlyweds. And again last year for our one year wedding anniversary. She also photographed us this summer – we were lucky to be chosen as “models” for a school project – when I was 21 weeks pregnant. You can see the first two shoots here and here. 

 
She also gave me the photos from this summer’s shoot last week, and I love them all.

 I had to laugh when I saw this one.
I remember being so proud of my “bump” at that point…

Laura is amazing. We love Laura and we love her photography talent.
 
Check out her website! www.laurazastrow.com

Stuffed Turtle.

Because I'm on a sewing kick these days, I decided to try out another pattern I found online for a sweet stuffed turtle. Using leftover fabric from decorating the nursery, I quickly stitched each piece together and the end result is this cutie.

There is something incredibly enjoyable about making a stuffed animal. It’s so fun to cut and sew each piece and watch it “become” something. My favorite part of this project was sewing in the little feet, tail, and head. The addition of those parts suddenly made my pieces of fabric a turtle.   

Thirty Seven, Thirty Eight & Thirty Nine

Baby Love is now around 19 inches long and weighs about 7 pounds.
She can be compared to a watermelon.

Yes, a watermelon. Let’s not even think about that. 

At thirty-eight-almost-thirty-nine weeks, I can happily report that I’m feeling great. Super-duper even. Now we’re just waiting, waiting, waiting. Sometimes I'm okay with waiting. Other times, not so much.

Each day that passes leaves me more anxious to meet this baby, but also thankful for another day with just my sweetie. I will miss our hugs with my tummy getting in the way, miss needing Timmy to pick things up for me because I can no longer reach the floor easily… miss feeling Baby Love's many kicks and wiggles, miss daydreaming about the uncertainty of the future, and miss Timmy's passionate prayers into my belly button. (Which really no longer exists, by the way.)

We've been praying into this little soul for nine (ten, really) months. I feel a special whisper in my heart, and I know that this baby - whoever s/he turns out to be -
will be one who knows God. 

God is so amazing. I can't wait to find out what day
He has destined Baby Love's birthday to be.

P.S. I'm really hoping for an August baby
so that Baby Love can share a birthday month with my Daddy.

Cloth Color Book.

My mom came out to visit us this week. Timmy and I love it when she visits, and she will often pop over to spend the night when my dad is out of town on business. Whenever she comes, she always brings a yummy treat - this time it was blueberry oat squares - and we always do something delightful.

Our definition of "something delightful" varies from trying a new recipe to making a fun project. Before I got pregnant, we made things like scarves and desserts and dresses. But since then, we've been working on things like stocking my freezer with frozen meals and sewing diapers, burp cloths, booties, and bibs. She is the perfect sewing partner because she really knows what she's doing, and I can often have an idea or see an inspiring photo and she will be able to figure out how to make it without any instructions. Yay Mom.

While Mom was out this week we made a soft fabric color book for Baby Love. I got the idea from this, and we modified it a bit to make it exactly how we wanted it.  

To make the different color pages we sorted through scraps of fabric and put them into piles by color. Then we sketched out different quilt block squares and assigned a different one for each color. It didn't take long to cut and sew each block together.  

We ended up with 8 different 6"x6" colored blocks - red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, and pink. (Yes, I'm going to teach my baby the color teal.) The hardest part was arranging them in the right order so that when the book was all sewn together, the colors would progress correctly.  

After lots of rearranging, we sewed them together into rectangles of two. Then we sandwiched the rectangles with quilt batting and sewed them, right sides together, leaving a space for turning. After the "pages" were sewn and turned, we stitched them all together down the middle of the book.  

Ta-da! Baby Love's first book of colors!

This book makes me so happy. One of my favorite parts is that many of the scraps we used have specific memories from my own childhood - like the penguins from the backing of the quilt I had growing up. Baby Love won't be learning colors for a while, but the pretty shapes, bright hues, and contrasting shades will keep her pretty baby eyes entertained until she learns what to call them. 

And I kind of believe that nothing is cooler
than making baby treasures with your mom.

The Last Straw.

I've been trying to keep a positive attitude when it comes to these last weeks of pregnancy. I believe that when you start acknowledging/complaining about something, it makes that something ten times worse. Positive words go a long way in making unfortunate situations bearable. So I've avoided complaining about my sleepless nights, my huge uncomfortable belly, my return to all-day morning sickness, a constant stuffy nose, my inability to breathe, and the fact that none of my clothes fit me anymore. And I really, truly have been enjoying these last weeks of pregnancy. For real.

But then. The Last Straw. I started getting a *sty on my left eye (thanks to my pregnancy hormones) earlier this week and then the right side of my body - and only the right side - began to swell. Yesterday morning it all hit me at once, and I woke up with my eye nearly swollen shut and my right foot resembling a sausage. And I say "woke up" very loosely because I was awake most of the night due to my throbbing eye and nausea so in reality, I didn't wake up but just surfaced to consciousness from my zombie-like state. And I looked in the mirror. I think my exact words to Timmy were, "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE." Meltdown.

A trip to the eye doctor confirmed my sty and showed that this cranky doctor was having a bad day too. He commented on the fact that my sty did not seem to be TOO bad and poked it repeatedly, asking me if it hurt -  in a voice that showed he didn't think so. My response? Yes, it hurts. It hurts like the dickens! Every time I blink it feels like someone is stabbing my eye with a needle! (Do you know how often we blink? Every three seconds. Yes. Miserable!) So he condescendingly agreed to prescribe some antibiotic drops. As he was filling out the prescription on the computer, I noticed an error message flashing in the corner that said, "WARNING! May present risks to fetus. Not to be taken when pregnant." which naturally caused some concern on my part...  But when I questioned him, he said, in an altogether unfriendly voice, that it would be FINE and shoved a handwritten prescription at me. Obviously, this prescription was torn to pieces shortly after leaving Dr. Cranky's office and right before calling Tim and sobbing hysterically about the horrible ordeal. (Crying doesn't help sties feel better, by the way.)

Meanwhile, my poor right foot just kept getting bigger and bigger. I called my midwife. She told me this freakish right-side-only swelling was probably due to the position of Baby Love and she was putting pressure on the blood vessels on my right side. She told me to lay down on my left side and relax. She also let me know that putting a black tea bag on my sty would take care of the problem naturally - no baby-harming antibiotic drops needed. I love my midwife. (I should have gone to her first.) But laying on my left side hasn't seemed to help much. You can add "lopsided" to the list of adjectives describing me right now. Also on that list would be miserable, emotional, and whale-like. (Pampered, loved, and happy are there too, thanks to my sweet hubby.)

The silver lining? My mom happened to be out visiting this week, and that was lucky for me because Moms always make being sick better. It's funny how just having Mom around makes things seem less scary. Also, my brand-new glasses with an updated prescription came in the day before I had to stop wearing my contacts due to my sty. I couldn't have functioned outside my house with my old glasses (the prescription is from a long time ago) so these new glasses enabled me to once again join the world of the living - at exactly the right time I needed them. Although I'm not totally certain I WANT to be outside my house...

*The word "sty" kind of makes me want to puke and I feel like it sounds like I have some sort of gross disease. Sties are just blocked oil glands in the eyelid, FYI.

**photos from a recent date night... see how well Timmy takes care of me?

Baby Booties.

My friend Courtney sent me this free pattern for cloth baby booties several months ago. Last weekend my mom and I finally gave it a try! These sweet booties are too cute and much easier to make then I had imagined.

The only thing is, the pattern says these will fit 0-6 month babies. In reality, these booties wouldn’t even fit my 8 month old nephew. They’re huge! If my baby is born with 3.5 inch feet, I’m going to be concerned. So, I consider this a REALLY well planned-ahead first birthday present for Baby Love.

We’re going to try again, this time adapting the pattern to make them more the size a 0-6 month baby bootie should be. 

But, size issues aside,
aren’t they darling?

Thirty Six.

Last week Baby Love was 18.5 inches long, and weighed about 6 pounds.
Kind of like a honeydew melon. 

“Come soon, Baby Love, come soon.” Those are the words Timmy and I have been repeating daily, hoping our whispered ideas will become a reality. We can’t wait to meet this little darling. SOON doesn’t seem soon enough. I’m impatient! 

 
And then, while daydreaming and wish wishing for an early arrival,
God spoke these words to me: “Baby Love WILL COME.”
 

Baby Love will come. So true, so simple, but so hard to grasp. Sooner or later, she will be born and I’ll be a mom and we’ll be a family of three. It will happen, that’s a guarantee… sometime within the next four to six weeks. 

 
A visit to the midwife last week showed that the baby is head down and has started to drop. Her heartbeat is strong and so are her movements. She responds to Timmy’s voice and when he laughs I can feel her wiggle.

I’m taking evening primrose and red raspberry leaf capsules in addition to my daily regimen of over 13 vitamins. (Thanks for taking care of me babe.) I’m going on walks and bouncing on my birth ball. I’ve been seeing a chiropractor who has straightened out my pelvic floor (apparently I was quite crooked) and is doing some sort of  magic with my uterine ligaments. Being well-aligned is essential to having an easy birth, and that’s what we’re praying for. 

So. We're ready.
"Come, Baby Love!! … whenever you're ready."

Timmy recently bought me a rotary cutter and cutting mat (essential tools for any seamstress) and since then I have been on a sewing kick. Burp cloths were my first project… and I made over 20 of them. Yes, I am a little over-prepared in the burp cloth department. But once I got started, I just couldn’t stop! 

Baby burp cloths couldn’t be easier to make. Just cut two rectangles of fabric 18x8 inches and sew them, right sides together, leaving a little opening to turn it right side out. Clip the corners, turn it, iron it smooth, sew the opening closed, and sew around the edge to keep it all in place. Easy as can be and cute cute cute! 

I used a variety of fabrics for these burp cloths. My first batch is entirely girly. (Isn’t that rose patterned flannel beautiful?) BUT, Timmy gave my girly fabrics the a-ok after I explained that burp cloths are just as much for the MOM as the baby, and since I’m the one who will be wearing it over my shoulder… these pink ones will match my outfits perfectly. (Besides, this baby just MIGHT be a girl, although I’ve pretty much convinced myself by now that it’s a boy.)

My next batch of burp cloths included more gender neutral patterns. You can’t go wrong with fruit, right? And at first glance the ones below MIGHT look a little girly, but there are babies dressed in blue in that pattern – I checked. Blue babies in yellow strollers = boy. To be fair (once again, just in case Baby Love IS a girl) there are babies dressed in pink, too. 

Some of the burp cloths have flannel on both sides, and some have flannel on one side and cotton on the other. They are all super soft and I love the way they fill my specially designated burp cloth dresser drawer. Hooray for beautiful baby burp cloths!  

Thirty-Four & Thirty-Five

Baby Love is 18 inches long and weighs five pounds,
kind of like a melon.

Is it normal to feel apprehensive at this point? Because I am. Suddenly the reality of this baby coming – in less than one month! – is hitting me square in the face. My emotions spin in a wide range throughout the day. Moments of panic, where I sniffle and confess I’m worried about being a good mother. Hours of frantic cleaning, where I purge our cupboards with ruthless vengeance. Times of reflection, where I sit in the nursery and think and think about what having an actual baby really means.

I’m scared, anxious, excited, and nervous. I bounce back and forth between an overwhelming desire to finally meet our Baby Love and a want to stop time and stay exactly as we are.

It’s a good, good thing that I have Timmy. He somehow remains confident and the only emotion he consistently exudes is pure, uninhibited, gloriously enthusiastic excitement. He is excited to be a father, excited to have our lives disrupted for the better, excited for the challenge of putting a little someone’s needs above our own, and excited for how our marriage is going to grow stronger and closer. He says life is about to get a whole lot better. He says we will love each other even more than we do now. He says I was made to be a mom.

And I believe him. (I think.)



Once again, this post is late. I'm already on to 36 weeks... eek!