#24 Ladybug's Baby Shower

The Shank baby shower was this last Sunday. I got to spend some time with the girls from my Bible Study group (F3) and my girlfriend Beth. Along with that I got to see a good friend, Dodie, who I haven't seen in months!

The baby shower was cute.

Some memories of the day:

Adorable Ladybug cake ( Thank you Beth!!!!)

The preggo stare down

The whole gang

Beth blowing up balloons for the bash

Me and my girl Beth

Testing out Janet's (Bible Study leader) recliner

Why the face? Well, when I first looked at this frame I thought cute. It took me a minute to realize that one of the photos was not a dummy photo. I looked down and noticed that a picture of my unborn daughter was in the frame. It took me by surprise and I wanted to cry sitting there looking at how precious this miracle is. For a moment in time ( whether she realized it or not) my girlfriend Beth brought back such an awesome memory for me !!! It's when I found out I was having a little baby girl!

A Closer Look: 

It's Ladybug!!

This day was filled with presents, cake, and good friends! I am so blessed!

My Honeydew - 34 Weeks

34 Weeks Pregnant with Ladybug

Ladybug Update:

Ladybug is still very active. She isn't able to jump around anymore. Now all I see are knees, elbows, and feet. It's so very uncomfortable when she does decide to stretch out. She has started to kick me in the ribs. I was waiting for this. And boy does it hurt.

Her heart rate was at 130 BPM at my last appointment (a week ago) and my belly measurement was within normal range. I went through a phase where baby wasn't as big as she was supposed to be for the month of pregnancy I was in. Well, she has hit  a growth spurt finally and is within normal range now. So that is very good.


Right now we only have 5 weeks and 1 day until we meet our Ladybug!

Mommy Update:

Weight Gain: I have gained another 3.4 pounds. So my weight gain so far is right at 25 pounds. The weight has caused my legs to tire more easily. I've noticed that walking upstairs I have to stop and rest for just a second. But I'm on track and healthy. So grow baby grow!

Welcome aboard heartburn! Heartburn is also killing me during this trimester. I have never had heartburn this bad before. I don't know what the deal is but I am loving the Tums smoothies. They aren't as bad as the regular tums. Thank goodness. I can't stand the taste of a chalk tablet.

Everything hurts! I mean everything. I'm just hurting. This pregnancy was pretty o.k. for a long time. I am now at the point where I just have to go lay down throughout the day. The back pain and leg pain is killer. My ribs hurt too. I will make it through. Not very much longer!

I have just recently gotten to the point of almost not being able to put my own shoes on. I can but it's difficult. Last Sunday before church I went to put a shoe on and fell backwards on the bed. I couldn't help but to laugh at myself. I called Kale in to put my shoes on for me. It was truly a priceless moment. He laughed, I laughed. It was just funny.

I am really dreading this upcoming surgery. Colten's c-section wasn't that bad. Tyler's was terrible! I am hoping that this pattern doesn't continue ( as there is no way of me knowing anyways ). I am really hoping for less pain and a better recovery. With our family and Kale being there to help me so much, I might be able to recover a little smoother than I did with Tyler. I still fear the surgery though.

My first c-section with Colten, I was knocked out. I had no clue what was going on. I didn't really have all that much pain afterwards either. With Tyler, I went into the hospital also not knowing what would go on. Then they explained a lot to me. The "drill". I was o.k. with it all because I had never experienced this before either. They pulled out the big needle and I thought I was going to die. I took it like a champ and before I knew it Tyler was born. But I remember every detail of his birth. That's the problem now. I am going in for a c-section knowing what they are going to do, remembering that very large needle, remembering the actual c-section, and knowing that when Ladybug is born all I will be able to move are my arms. I remember the 3 days I spent in the hospital too. The pain. The IV Pain Pump. I remember being so medicated I could barely hold Tyler by myself. I was so scared of dropping him. I just remember so many details and every move the nurses made. I'm terrified really. I almost want to ask my Doctor to knock me out so I don't have to experience this. But, if I do that, then I won't be able to see my beautiful baby girl when she enters our world. I definitely don't want that either! So I guess I will have to put on my big girl pants and hope for the best with this surgery. (I am sure this won't be the last time this fear shows up in my blog posts).

I love that I have so many family members and friends supporting us. I am so very thankful for each and every one of you as well!


Daddy Update:

Daddy Shank is still dealing with his preggo wife. The ups and downs. The mood swings. The naps. The sleepless nights.

He also has been doing a lot around the house as well. Hanging Ladybug's curtains for me. Moving furniture. Helping me out with kids, cooking, and cleaning.

He is a champ too! I know living with me is sometimes hard. Plus I'm pregnant so go figure! I love him so much though. He has been my rock throughout this pregnancy. I'm thankful that I have such a great man taking care of me.

Disposable vs Washable

O.K. So I have seen these weird looking diapers before. They are reusable diapers that you wash. My husband's sister uses them and I have a few friends that used them.

My initial thoughts:

Gross!
How do you wash them?
Do you have to shake the poo off?
Gross!

What I am thinking of now:

Can I save some money and sew inserts myself?

Money savings!!!

Yep. I was at a girls house the other day drilling her about these washable diapers. She said that from newborn to age 2 she would have spent at least a few thousand on disposable diapers.
So far her son is 18 months and she has spent about $600.00.

That's A LOT OF SAVINGS!!

So I guess today I will do some research and find out about these washable diapers. Check into the "good ones" and how to wash them.

This is weird for me. I have had two boys use disposable diapers. I have never used one before. I am a little grossed out thinking that I wash these in my washing machine as well. Then cleaning them off before washing them is also another stink for me. Kale thinks they might be a good idea. They are also bulky. So getting clothes on the baby...is this harder? Not sure. I am going to look into these crazy money saving diapers and see what I can come up with. Saving money is always a great thing. I want to be frugal but not sure if I want to be this frugal.

Any comments anyone? This would be so helpful..


Thanks

Mommy to Be!

Grease Monkey

Today has been a slow day for this mom-to-be. I have entertained myself by cooking. Yep. Sometimes I just enjoy cooking. I have a list of a million things to do today. Do I have the motivation to do any of it? NO. I'm just taking it easy and enjoying the weather.

While I cook and get some baking done my boys are outside working up a sweat! They are going to town on Kale's beater car :) It's been a while since Kale has been able to work on his car due to him working so much.

He is teaching Colten the 'ropes'. It's normal to see Kale covered in grease and muck but Colten? This is a first. I've never seen my handsome man looking like a little grease monkey! I'm glad Kale and Colten are getting some quality time in.

Some pics of my boys working hard:

Boys will be Boys!

#13 C. Quilt

#13 - Pick out material and make crib skirt, crib bumper, and quilt myself.

Another task complete.

My First Quilt !!! I'm thrilled that it turned out nice. I still can't believe I actually made a quilt!

Here it is...Ladybug's Quilt

Making this quilt was actually a struggle for me. Frustrating and very tiring. It only took me two days to make this quilt but it was a struggle. I learned a lot throughout this experience and hope to make another.


I used this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew to make the quilt top.

Many Many Mistakes and lessons learned :

The tutorial used a "charm pack". I did not. I purchased about 8 different print materials and decided to cut the squares myself. WOW. This took me forever! I got about half way done and decided next time I make a quilt using squares this small I am buying a charm pack! I had to cut 160 squares all together.

lesson #1: Purchase a charm pack!

Another mistake I made during the making of this quilt was not back stitching. When I proceeded to sew all of my squares into strips, I kept noticing little holes throughout the squares. This became frustrating as I noticed this at least 12 times. 

lesson #2: Back stitch !!

Another mistake I made...I didn't use enough prints. How do I explain...The charm pack used in the tutorial was made up of 80 strips originally. She then cut each strip in half creating 160 squares. So all-in-all there were only 2 matching squares throughout the entire quilt. I had 20 of each print in my quilt. This made "mixing up" the squares much more difficult. I kept running into the same problem over and over and over again. I went to lay out all of my strips and kept noticing that the one square was touching a square of the same pattern. I didn't know what to do. I called Kale in. He became my quilting expert! He did the best he could to lay my quilt out in a way so that hopefully a square of one pattern wasn't touching another square of the same pattern.

lesson #3: Use a larger variety of prints to create a small square quilt

Kale also labeled each strip with a fabric marker before I started sewing them together. This would ensure that I didn't mix them up again.

The top quilt was finally complete and I was able to go to bed! We were both exhausted.

For the 'sandwich part of this quilt I decided to use a fusible batting. This made sewing the bottom of my quilt to the top much easier. I didn't have to use pins to secure if I didn't want to. Of course I did being that it was my first quilt. I didn't read this on the Internet or tutorial, I just went shopping for the batting and sew the word fusible. I immediately thought hmmm sounds easy enough! So that's what I went with. I sandwiched my quilt together and used this tutorial to finish the border and completed my first front to back miter corner!!

This was frustrating and exhausting but the experience was well worth it. I learned a lot from making this quilt. I am excited that it is complete and I am ready to move on to the crib bumper. I am hoping to take some lessons learned from this project into the next.

#9 - Pick out material for curtains and make myself

Task complete. Sheesh. All this sewing is killing my back! But it's totally worth every minute.

I started out viewing Pottery Barn Kids Curtains for this idea. It's sort of like "THE LOOK FOR LESS"

The idea:

bright pink polka dot curtains

with butterfly sheers

I did the best I could with what I had and was able to come up with beautiful curtains similar to the ones I loved from PBK.

Mommy made these curtains for her little Ladybug and daddy got the pleasure of hanging her curtain rod.

An exhausting but well worth the effort kind of day!

The only problem I had with these was the sheer material bunched up on me. I am not really worried about it at this point but might go back and try to fix this later!

 I might go back and add some more detail to these. Not sure. Right now my goal is to at least get everything made for Ladybug. Then I can go back later and add small details.

I'm happy with the curtains and Kale thinks they are adorable. He also appreciates the money savings by mommy creating these herself.

# 13 A. Crib Skirt

#13 - Pick out material for  A. crib bumper, B. crib skirt, and C. quilt. Make myself.

A. Crib Skirt

Creating her crib skirt wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was very simple. I also used this tutorial. I didn't follow it exactly but it helped so much.

Well, here it is. Ladybug's adorable crib skirt.

In the making of this skirt, I did run into one little problem. First, I decided to put this together late at night. Oops. I should have stopped when I got tired and rested. But of course I didn't. I decided to "get it done" and made a boo boo that cost me an extra hour and some stitch ripping. I don't enjoy stitch ripping!

here's the blooper:

I sewed the wrong side out ! Ugh. The joys of sewing!

Other than this, the crib skirt turned out fabulously. I wish I would have gotten a little more creative and made a pleat. I'm in love anyways. I love love love the material. It's bright and girly.