Saturday, September 29, 2012

39 Weeks (Pregnancy Update)

No baby on the outside yet, but we're still doing well. Everything looked really good at my checkup this week. All of baby's and my vitals are measurements are still great. The baby is head down in the ROA position, one of the two best positions for a baby to be in at the time to birth. Interestingly, all three of my babies have settled into this position during the final weeks of pregnancy.


I have been having contractions on and off, but they don't stay close together for long and then quit all together. This is also quite similar to the time leading up to the birth of my second though. I am hoping the baby will decide to come sometime during the next week that my husband has off for the holidays here. But we'll have to see, babies don't always like to come when it is convenient.

Linking up to My Pregnancy Journal at My Joy-Filled Life.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Family Fridays: Small Miracle

No baby yet, but we did just have a different miracle. We lost power for at least 24 hours, at a time when I have the freezer fully stocked for after the new baby. I was really worried about losing a bunch of food, and especially thought the ice cream cake I made for the baby's b-day was probably long gone.  However, this morning just as we were trying to decide whether we should call and bother our friends again or buy an expensive generator from possibly not the greatest source, the power came back on. Then when I checked out the freezer a little while later, everything was still fine!!! The ice cream cake was just barely getting soft, a single popsicle was still frozen solid, and the only thing that seems to have softened up much at all was banana bread which is fine. Amazing! We're really thankful.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Family Fridays: 37 Weeks (Pregnancy Update)


I think this is going to be a rather boring update, but I guess that is really a good thing. My checkup today was again very normal and boring. My weight, measurements, BP, and baby's heart rate were all fine. The most exciting part was walking to the bus stop and watching everyone stare at the waddling white lady, but we generally get stared at everywhere anyway, so it isn't that big of a deal.

I am very glad that the baby is full term now, but I know that it could still be a while for the baby to come, and that's fine too. We're basically ready for the baby to come, and I am pretty ready for the baby to come. But we found out that Nate has a week long break from classes that starts a couple of weeks from now, so that would actually be a convenient time for the baby to come.

I am still working on a few little projects here and there, but don't have anything that has to be urgently completely before the baby is born at this point. Baby's got diapers, clothes, and a place to sleep and newborns really don't need much else besides love and care.

Looking forward to enjoying my older boys now and meeting this new little blessing whenever the right time is.


Latest baby creations
How did my first baby get this big?

Baby's Moses basket style bed

Thursday, September 13, 2012

DIY Baby Sweater Pants

Many sweater pants, baby jeans, and baby black skirt
Another item I made quite a few of for the new baby's wardrobe are these sweater pants. I used this very basic tutorial which tells you all you really need to know is you cut off the arms of a sweater about the length you want the pants, sew a crotch seam, and make a casing for an elastic waist at the top. It is a really simply and fast project.

I don't have any of our tiny size baby clothes with us, so I used the patterns from here to guesstimate the correct sizes. In the picture of the pants you also see a little pair of jeans I made using the 0-3 size pattern. I tried to make the size of the sweater pants so with the sweater cuff folded up the pants would be about 0-3 length and down about the 6-12 month length. So far we've have big babies who have grown incredibly fast, and with cloth diapers the bum area really does need to be about the same size through all those sizes. So hopefully these stretchy sweater pants will last awhile. We discovered grow cuffs on baby clothes with our second, and thought they were amazing.

Anyway, I made a bunch of similar pants from upcycled sweaters, leggings, and knit turtlenecks. Save the other parts of the sweaters and turtlenecks for making infant gowns, onesies, hats, and even socks if you like. These will hopefully make some more great free (save the cost of thread) additions to our newborn wardrobe.


For this pair I used the hem of the sweater
to make a separate casing for the elastic.


For this pair of pants I just folded the top over
to make the casing for the elastic.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

DIY Infant Gowns and Onesies

I mentioned before how we were having a hard time finding newborn clothes we liked and that I ended up sewing an newborn wardrobe for Baby # 3. The staples of this wardrobe are probably the infant gowns and onesies I made.

For the gowns I ended up using this pattern and tutorial. I upcycled clothes as well, making these gowns basically free to make. I even was able to re-purpose elastic so I didn't have to pay for anything other than thread. For a few of the gowns I re-purposed very soft sweaters instead of t-shirts, and I thought that worked well also. I didn't put elastic in the bottom of the sweater type gowns, but simply used the bottom hem of the sweater that was already more tightly woven and stretchy.

Instead of using designs already on t-shirts, I chose to applique and embroider them. This took longer for sure, but I was able to make very custom baby clothing this way. And I think they turned out really cute. I think these could also make really great baby shower gifts.

For the onesies, I could find a 0-3 month pattern on the internet, so I ended up simply folding the gown pattern into a onesie pattern. Probably tracing an existing 0-3 onesie would be even easier, but I didn't have any in that size here. I sewed the onesies together in similar fashion to the gowns, just finishing the contoured bottom with a tiny rolled hem all around and adding snaps. After I had sewed a bunch of onesies, I embroidered and appliqued these as well.

Upcycling clothing

Gown pattern folded into a onesie pattern












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