carseat recover

I sold our old infant carseat back when Hailey turned one because it was a set with the single jogging stroller.  I have known I needed to replace the carseat for a long time now but just never found a good one.  They are soooo expensive brand new and you can never find one that hasn't expired used that's in descent shape and for a good enough price.  And then we finally scored a nice carseat at a yard sale last week for $10 with two bases and over a year away from expiring.  The cover left much to be desired....plus it was pink...so I thought what the heck.  I'll try it.  recover project commence.

pink with light and dark pink butterflies.  First I tried dying it because Curt thought that might work.  It didn't.  I didn't think it would but I tried it to appease him :)  But that was no harm done because I already had the leftover dye from the onsies and I planned on recovering it anyways.  So....Then I got to do the fun part.  I unpicked it all, made myself a pattern form it and had a party.  It took wayyyy longer than a skilled person would have taken but I thoroughly enjoyed the process.  The canopy was the hardest part.  It didn't actually match the carseat.  I didn't get a picture of that for some reason but picture poop green with maroon polka dots and a bit of plaid.......it was awful.

Before

 And AFTER!!!!

When I brought home my fabric choices and tried to explain to Curt what I was going to do he just kind of looked at me like he thought I was crazy and hoped I didn't make our baby boy look like an outcast.  haha    

good news

results from my last lab test showed that I am immune to toxoplasmosis and CMV!  (CMV is what matthew was born with and why he is deaf in his left ear).  I told Hailey that the kitties won't get william sick and she started squealing "yay yay yay hold kitties all the time!"

33 weeks

I feel so happy to be in the 30's!  But I still feel like I have forever to go, even though it is only exactly 5 weeks 5 days away from today!!  Oh I love planned c-sections.  Downfall : his birthday will be sep. 11th....kind of a day associated with negative things.  But good thing is we will be able to remember his birthday easy and William will probably think they are putting up flags just for him on his birthday for a while until he gets older.  Time for me to get down to business and start really getting ready for this guy, but my energy level is so low all the time!  I get to the top of the stairs and just want to go lay on my bed instead of do whatever it was I went up there to do. haha   I get compliments from some people and insensitive comments on my large size from others.  pregnancy sure makes people feel like they can say whatever they want to you, even strangers.  I don't feel that huge, but I know I am.  I'm already making weight loss goals!  Food is the ever enemy though.  Always hungry, never can find what it is that will hit just the spot.  I've had a huge sweet tooth lately and that's not good.  I'm trying to limit myself so I don't gain too much more weight.  I've heard that the more sweets you eat the more you want to eat.  But tonight I made a killer awesome chicken alfredo.  pasta makes me happy.  We switched bedrooms with the kids...again.  We switched when I was pregnant with Hailey to give the kids the bigger room to fit everything.  Since then we've acquired more furniture and the kids sleep in a bunk bed, so they actually take up less space.  So for Curt and I to fit everything including william's bassinet playpen we had to switch back and give us the bigger room.  Curt was so kind to oblige.   It was a tooooonnnnn of work.  Took an entire day to get everything in order.  In fact more than one day I guess, the second day was mostly just odd and ends though.  Makes me nervous for when we ever do move out of this place.  The next day I was exhausted.  I like it a lot though, and so do the kids.  Not sure how that works out, but their stuff organizes so much easier in the smaller room.  True that I did eliminate a HUGE bag of toys in the process....

Anyway here's the pictures.  Today I thought I'd document different angles.  

 You see my toes?  I have to lean over to see them!  Sadly they don't get as much beautification as usual because I just don't notice them daily!  That tells me I need to sit down and put my feet up more often so I see them and notice when they need to be repainted.

 And I can't forget the belly button.  I think it looks more like a nose.  Or the stem of a pumpkin.  Maybe for next post I will draw a smiley face on my belly and take a picture of that.  haha, just kidding.  I won't scare you with that!  My skin is a road map of veins.  It's so crazy how the veins increase and enlarge to supply a good amount of blood.  But at least no stretch marks on the belly...yet.  

31 weeks

 There was only 3 weeks between doctor's appointments this time, and I go back again in 2 weeks!  I can't believe how fast this is going.  I seriously still sometimes forget that I am even pregnant, which is weird because I am larger and more uncomfortable than ever but I think I am just too distracted with other things.  Sometimes I feel really bad for this little guy because I don't dwell on him all the time like I did Matthew and Hailey.  But I don't worry too much because he will get PLENTY of attention once he's here!  I gained almost 2 lbs since last appointment, which I think is pretty much on track.  I hope it's like the last two pregnancies though and I stop gaining weight the last 6-7 weeks or else I'm going to go over my goal :)

I also completed another project!  This one was super easy because I planned and figured everything I needed to that made it a challenge when I made a new boppy cover for Hailey.  I love how it turned out though.  And I did a better job this time.  Tears were shed by the little girl for her pink pillow though!  And then I showed her all of the cool things her pink cover could be instead (like a shawl, a bonnet, a skirt...) and that ended the tears and made her laugh.  

And since the picture exists, I might as well post it for entertainment.  I can't stand this picture though, not so much because I've got funny tanlines and a HUGE belly, but because I'm standing so slouched!  ugh, that drives me nuts.  So there you go, me and baby at 29.5 weeks (in my non maternity swimsuit from last year. eh, it works.)

Little project #1

I finally got started on some of the projects I wanted to do!  

I had a whole bunch of white onsies 0-3 months so I decided to take some of them and make them more interesting.

First I had to wash the bajeebers out of them and try all sorts of methods to make them white again.  These onsies must've been through a war :)

I got them mostly bright, well, bright enough.

 And then I got brave and I DYED them! I was really nervous to dye them but with a little help from Matthew, we got the job done!

 In fact I liked it so much I did TWELVE!  hahaha  but 4 of them are 3-6 months

 And now I'm doing fun things with some of them like this...

I think they look a lot cooler in person.  The colors are richer than they appear in the photo.

28 weeks

Third TRI MES TER!!

Baby William is now an eggplant.  Information tells me that he should weigh babout 1.5-2.5 lbs now, but I'm just going to go ahead and say he's a whopping 20 lbs.  (Because I don't want to admit that the majority of that is actually my thighs)

I had the glucola test.  I love that drink.  No, I'm serious.   Really sweet to the point that it's almost fizzy sweet orange crush.  That's what it tastes like to me!  But I did notice that so much sweetness kind of upset my otherwise empty stomach by the time we headed to the doctor an hr after the drink for the blood test.  and I PASSED.  No gestational diabetes for me.  Which is awesome.  Because Curt was giving me a really hard time since I like me some candy!  

Also for the first time ever that my blood has been tested I was not anemic!  Yay for Raisin Bran!!!

Cravings:  still cheesey gooey warmness, lately I've really loved fruit, milk (after eating my raisin bran in the morning I usually refill my bowl with milk and tank it), NUTTY BARS (they are heaven), and sleep. haha

I went through the baby clothes tonight and I got so baby hungry seeing just how SMALL he is going to be!!    I'm still having a hard time picturing life with 3 kids and how I will juggle them all day.  Lucky for me I married such a good man and I know things will work out fine.  Getting a little nervous about the Cesarean.  Just thinking about having the stitches in me and the tenderness of the incision makes me a little woosey.  I'm worried also because there's no possible way that the recovery could be as amazing as it was the last two times.  I just can't be that lucky and it scares me to think of the alternative!  The date isn't set yet, but should be scheduled at our next appointment.  Sleep is still kind of difficult.  It takes me a long time to fall asleep and then I keep waking up with restless legs.  SUCH a pain!  Sometimes taking a warm bath before bed helps, but most of the time nothing helps!!!  It's especially difficult now because Hailey is going through a phase where every morning around 4 am she crawls into our small Full size bed with us and says "scuze me, scuze me mommy I wanna lie here."  just like that.  And squiggles her little way in between us so I'm pushed to the very edge.  I am trying to break her of it though.  She has always had this obsession with rubbing my ears when she's falling alseep and lately it is just too much for me!  So I usually say "mommy's too big for us to fit like this now, time to go to your own bed" and I carry her back to bed, give her a water sippie and leave.  MOST nights she'll stay in her bed but frequently she'll wait 10 minutes and start the whole thing over.  Ugh!  as if pregnancy sleeping wasn't hard enough.  Luckily she still takes 2 hour naps every day and I can usually catch about an hour of that for myself on the couch (or actually in bed if Curt is home) while Matthew watches a movie.  My "mask of pregnancy" is getting darker and more annoying the longer summer goes on.  hopefully it fades quickly and completely afterwards.  I LOVE the way Matthew and Hailey talk to my belly as if they already know this child!  At the doctor's office the OBGYN asked if we had any questions.  Matthew's hand shot up and the doctor says "yes?"  Matthew says "uhhh, well I don't really know WHY there is a baby in my mommy's belly, but I am going to love him so much every day!"  I laughed so hard!  I love my kids and can't wait for this little one to join us!

A little more than twenty four!

24 weeks!

Baby is the size of a Cantaloupe?  I always have a hard time with their fruit/veggie descriptions of baby's size.  Cantaloupes are very spherical.  I doubt this little guy is built quite like that.  But I get the point, same weightish, same lengthish, my belly pokes out about that far (or farther)...But really. 

My belly has POPPED OUT!  I love to hear people say "oh you're so tiny" because it just makes my day that they would try that hard to be so nice to me.  hahaha  because I KNOW that I am not.  Weight gain?  yeeeeeeahhhh.  like 15 lbs already.  And it is mostly hips :)

No stretch marks yet, but I think that this kiddo will be my first experience with em (on the belly at least.  Like I said, I put most of my "motherly love" on the hips and buns so they are no stranger to a little give and stretch)

I'm still having a hard time getting my exercising groove back (refer to previous weight gain comment).  It feels like plenty to go up and down those dang stairs as much as I do.  

I am always hungry!!!!  Still loving MEAT AND CHEESE.  And rolls, but that's been my weakness all my life.  Let's not even discuss chocolate.  

That love comes from a long line of genetic inheritance.

WATER!!!  GIVE ME WATER!!!

I am one thirsty lady!  I can't imagine how it will be in August when I am sweating to death.  It is already getting hard to sleep at night because my legs get so restless, which I am sure I can attribute to not enough water.  I still nap whenever I can.  Hailey is in a glorious 2 to 3 hour nap phase and Matthew loves the 1 1/2 hour down time while I sleep and he watches a movie.

My irritation?  Directed solely at my "mask of pregnancy" DANG IT.  Dark spots on my forehead, nose, and cheeks do not make me happy.  I wear sunscreen every day and it isn't helping.  I wonder if it is normal but the rest of me tans ridiculously easy too.  Like frighteningly so.  Yesterday it was cloudy the majority of the HOUR we were outside and I came in with a farmer's tan.  I would be happy if I were still 16 and dying for the "perfect tan" rather than 26 and fully aware of how bad skin cancer can be!

I shouldn't complain at all though, pregnancy has been good to me.  Curt already can't even remember me ever being sick in the beginning!  I mean I remember it yeah, but I am sure it was more mild than 80% of pregnant women.  

I love to feel him kick.  I like to compare how each of my children moved inside of me.  Matthew would push on me and just sit there pushing for probably as long as his teeny arms/legs would allow it and I would have this painful knob sticking out.  Hailey was a slow roller.  She just rolled and rolled and gracefully swished along.  It actually tickled sometimes.  Yeah it got more painful when she was bigger, but not as painful as with Matthew.  I am not looking forward to the last month movements with this baby.  He likes to SLAM fast and then he pauses, and then BAM fast and another pause.  Quick, powerful movements. 

I daydream sometimes about what he will look like, obviously.  I waver between thinking he will be another little Matthew and thinking he will be all his own, because to me Matthew and Hailey really look nothing alike, except their chins and foreheads (I think they look like mine).

We think we have a name picked out.  Well, first name for SURE (we have known that for a long time, like since we started planning for Hailey) but maybe middle name now.  Curt's sold on it but I'm not as sure.

William Crew Coates

I really NEED him to have a middle name that starts with C just because by coincidence Matthew's and Hailey's both do (I didn't even realize the significance of it until recently, we didn't plan it to be like that).  Curtis and Colette.  And since this is our last baby, yes yes...topic for another day, he'd better go along with it too.  Curt's done trying to pick a name.  He just wants to leave it there with Crew.  but others on my list:

Carter

Carson

Cory

I think Carter may be my favorite, but Curt likes Crew better.  hahahaha that's a tongue twister.

Enough Rambling, we're doing great, baby's healthy!