Silly little baby quiz :)

How far along? 26 weeks, 6 days. :)))


Total weight gain: 17 pounds


Maternity clothes? Can't live without them. I still mix in non-maternity pieces like cardigans, but it's mostly stretchy pants and empire waisted tops :)


Sleep: Terrible. Avery is most active at nighttime....figures. lol


Best moment this week: Sitting with Marty and actually watching my stomach move as she kicked me.

Movement: She is VERY active. Thebump.com says that babies in the 2nd trimester should be sleeping/resting up to 14 hours a day....I think my little one sleeps maybe 5. She is her father's child.

Gender: Girl (although I keep having a reoccuring nightmare that we go to the next ultrasound and they tell me they've made a mistake...)

Labor Signs: I would sure hope not! I'd be panicking if they were coming this early.


Belly Button in or out? In. The day I wake up with an outie belly button will be the day I go into complete hibernation.


What I miss: My non-maternity clothes and high heels.


Weekly Wisdom: Just trying to enjoy every little milestone in my pregnancy. It's such an amazing experience!

Baby's Size: An eggplant. She weighs almost 2 pounds :)

Milestones: Her eyes are developing this week and will be blinking soon. She's getting stronger every day....and kicking me HARD to prove it!

Decorating a baby's room....my idea of fun?

Does it make me a bad person to admit that the first reaction I had after we found out we were pregnant (behind shock and excitement, of course) was obsessive thoughts about how I was going to decorate the nursery?? I was beyond excited that I had a new room to decorate...a blank canvas almost. And a nursery is a room where you can get away with doing a lot of cutesy, crafty things without it looking totally overboard. I laid in bed at night and dreamt of all the possibilities. I knew, of course, that we were going with a black and white theme. It's classy, it's gender neutral and could be used again if we have a second child that's a boy. Plus, it's totally me. :) So my nursery hunt began with the search for black and white nursery bedding. It took several months before I found anything I even halfway liked. Finally, I came across a major deal on toysrus.com. Mix and match black and white print bedding....almost EXACTLY what I had pictured in my mind. I was beyond thrilled. The baby mattress came yesterday from Wal-Mart and I immediately rushed to put the bedding in the room to see what it looked like against the purple walls. Love!

I really don't think I could love the result any more than I do. I adore the polka dot, damask, and black and white stripe combination. It's beautiful. And again, exactly what I had pictured in my head. I love it when a plan unfolds just like you envisioned :)

After I had the bedding, my thoughts quickly turned to craft ideas. Things that I could make for Avery's room that would make it uniquely hers. Don't get offended or anything, but I'm just not a fan of the cookie cutter, let's buy a "12 piece set and everything in the room will match perfectly" matchy-matchy type of baby room. Yes, I realize it's more convenient, but I love the idea of mixing and matching things. Finding bedding online, a lamp from Kirklands, a chair from Target, painting her a canvas for the wall. Then the room suddenly turns from just another baby room to completely, 100% Avery's room. But anyway, back to my crafting ideas. The first vision I had was of a bow holder. Yes, I've seen the cute bow holders with the block of wood and the ribbons hanging down where you can attach the bows, but I wanted something a little bit different. Inspiration came in the form of a giant picture frame I found at Hobby Lobby last year for $6...

I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but I just knew this would be the perfect solution for my unique bow holder plans. After throwing around a couple of ideas, my boss informed me that she had roll upon roll of this plastic netting that she used in her garden and no longer needed. Easy to cut, but durable, I knew I had found the solution. Adding a metal flower from a garden ornament on clearance at Kirkland's and a massive burn from my hot glue gun, Avery now has a bigger bow holder than even I think she'll need:

It's not the finished product I had in mind, but it's pretty close. Project #1 of baby's room....done!

My next project I had pictured was a mobile to hang over her crib. Gone are the days of little stuffed bears playing lullabies for baby's crib's. Extensive searching on google provided the most gorgeous results. Butterflies and printed patterns that fluttered with the slightest breeze, long pieces of tulle decorated with gorgeous flowers, pinwheels....you name it, they have made it into a crib mobile. After searching through page after page of mobiles, I decided that I was going to save a considerable amount of money if I just made it myself. The end result isn't exactly what I had planned, but I'm still happy with it. That's all I have done so far. She'll be here in another 3 1/2 months (ahhh!) and I have the following projects:

One VERY large canvas to be made into a personalized subway art painting. A wine rack...this one's a secret :) And attempting to find a super cute black and white printed glider. You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this process. Yes, because it's decorating for my own baby's arrival, but I'm loving the process of finding things that match or go with the room. I wonder if there's a career out there as a nursery interior designer?

Cloth diapering=crazy mommy?

Why is it that everyone looks at me like I have three heads when I mention that I'm thinking about using cloth diapers? No, I'm not a "hippie mom" that's against disposables, I just like the idea of not spending as much on disposables when I can just wash and reuse the cloth diapers. Call me old fashioned, but I love the idea of cloth diapering. And it's not like they're the plain, jane white burp cloth-like diapers from days of old. Have you seen the new cloth diapers? They are super freaking cute! You can get them in all kinds of prints to match babies' outfits or let them be super stylish when they're crawling around in nothing but a diaper!

Yes, there are a few issues when looking at cloth diapers. 1. When purchasing them for the first time, they can be expensive. Some brands charge $18 for just one little diaper cover! That doesn't include any inserts or multiple diapers. Just one diaper. I think that's crazy. But the more I research, the more options I'm finding (and boy are there a BUNCH of options out there!!). The best deal I've found so far has been SunBaby diapers. (http://sunbabydiapers.com/) 12 diapers with 24 diaper inserts for $78. Before you throw a fit, that's just $4 a diaper. I'll spend more than that on disposables. Especially since I can reuse these until they fall apart! I'm also looking into the old fashioned cloth diapers and then keeping them closed with a Snappi (oh, the things people think of now!) http://www.snappibaby.com/products/snappidiaperfastener.html Issue number 2. The mess. When using cloth diapers, you have the diaper itself and then cloth liners that you slide in and out of a pocket in the diaper. I'm not so fond of the idea of having to reach into a dirty diaper and pull out the liner to clean it off. I also get a little grossed out about the idea of actually cleaning off the diaper. But I need to be a tougher mommy. Just the idea of blood and throw up and guts is enough to send me running to the bathroom. Not really an option when Avery will come running up to me with a snotty nose. Or when I change her first not-so-neat diaper. Or when she spits up on me for the first time. Like it or not, I'm going to have to start dealing with the really yucky things. #3. More laundry. Everyone has said that the biggest part of using cloth is the increased laundry you'll be doing. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but won't you be doing more laundry anyway when a baby comes? I've heard I'll be doing laundry all the time because the second you get a clean outfit on the baby, they spit up on it. Why not add a few little diaper inserts to the pile? Baby clothes are little and don't take up that much room in the wash, I can't imagine that it will increase my washing time and water use enough for me to notice a difference.

At first, cloth diapering was just an idea I was throwing around to save a little money. Now, it's become more of a "I AM going to use cloth diapers" kind of thought. I guess I'll just have to get used to the skeptical, "oh, you're a hippy" look and the "you're wasting your time" kind of speeches. Yes, I'm doing it more for the money saving aspect than the save the enviroment one, but it might be nice to become a little more green in the process......I'll let you know how my venture into the unknown world of cloth diapering goes!