33 Weeks! (and a few days)

Another week down.  Yay uterus!

So what did week 32 hold for us?.............

This last week started off eventful with another trip to the hospital late at night.  The contractions I was having were stronger than the ones that sent me to the hospital the first time, and they were consistently rolling at only three minutes apart.  Needless to say, I was pretty nervous.  My body was shaking and I couldn't tell if that was from anxiety, or my body reacting to labor (I've gotten the shakes in labor with all 3 kids).  Those contractions rolled for almost two hours and just as we were walking out the door, they stopped very abruptly.  ????    My midwife still wanted me to come in, so we made the hour drive to the hospital, late at night, dropping off sleeping kids along the way.  Thankfully that visit was much less eventful than the first visit.  Contractions still showed up on the monitor, but they were inconsistent and no meds were needed. 

Thankfully, the rest of the week was very uneventful!  However, I kinda feel like a ticking time bomb. 

I hand sew a lot in bed so here's some of my views from the last week in bed.......

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32 Weeks!

Today I'm 32 weeks pregnant!  This is a weekly marker that would have gone unnoticed if I wasn't on bed rest and thankful for every week baby stays inside.  I've never worried about pre term labor before,  so the passing weeks never meant much more than a passage of time.  Now, I think we'll be excited for every week in a brand new way.

So what did week 31 in bed look like for me?

 I had a bed rest buddy in bed with me ALL day yesterday.  Poor Kian had a fever all day.  Grammy took the older two kids to the beach to play with cousins, but Kian had to stay back.  He felt so miserable, he didn't even care.  Besides, he was thrilled at the thought that he could watch movies on Daddy's computer all day long AND got to choose every single one.  We don't own a T.V. so usually, if the kids get to watch a show, its few and far between, and agreed on by all.  He thought he was in heaven (other than being pathetic from the fever).  :)

 

 I made 12 of these little felt tea bags for Felicity's 5th birthday tea party that's coming up.  As requested, they're done in purple and pink.  And the "tea" inside is lavender dried from our garden.  And how am I going to throw a tea party from bed?  Oh, I just have the best friends ever, and the best husband ever!  My wonderful friend Cheri is helping plan and execute Lissy's tea, and making sure she feels extra special.  And Zac is there to help in any way he can.

 

Speaking of wonderful friends, my other amazing friend, Elisa, knew how hard I'd been working to get Felicity's quilt done for her birthday.  By the time I went on bed rest, all that was left was binding it.  Well, I can't make binding or sew on the machine so my sweet friend did it for me!  With the binding sewn on the front, I just need to sit here and hand stitch it on to the back.   Its been a very good use of time, as I'm sure you know if you've ever done binding on a twin size quilt.

 

 

Bed rest is going well.  Its easier than I thought it would be, and all of that is because of the wonderful friends, family, and AMAZING husband I have.  However, its not as restful as I always assumed.  I have contractions every day, some clustered close enough that I've almost had to call the midwives and go back in to be monitored at the hospital a few times.  Thankfully in those times, the contractions quit just before I'd have to make the call.  I have them off and on all day, but when they start coming more frequently, my body hurts all over.  I get a restless leg feeling, but all over.  I'll get surges of tingles through my body, and before a contraction my airways and lungs will feel tight.  Those times make me anxious but I try to relax, drink lots of water, and lay flat to fight them off.  It feels like half my body is trying to go into labor, and the other half is trying to fight labor off.  It just makes me feel kind of cruddy.  Some days I'll have stints of those times, other days, I'll feel like that all day.  Very seldomly do I feel my uterus fully relax for any length of time.  But when it does, it feels glorious!  It only took a few days of being inactive for muscles to start hurting so ice packs on my knees, back, and neck are a favorite thing.  :)  All in all, I've stayed pretty positive so far.  I have 5 weeks of complete/strict bed rest total, so I'm sure there will be some frustrating moments, but I am trying my hardest to see the joy in it, which hasn't been too hard so far, and I know that's only from God.  Zac is home now, of course, and won't be going down South to work again.  That in itself is such a blessing...to have him around.  Add in the fact that he's amazing and has jumped full into the role of single parenting and caring for me, with an amazing attitude....well, I just feel so blessed. 


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Oh, and for my own personal record keeping, I lost a pound this week, so now I'm at 147.  How that's possible given my mass Oreo consumption is beyond me.  But I'm sure I'll pack it on now laying in bed all day.  :)

Creative Boy

I've always felt like Logan was creative and artistic.  His love for music was extremely obvious by the time he could crawl.  At Bible study one night, our friend started strumming away on his guitar and Logan's excitement could be seen all over his body.  He could hardly crawl, but he made his way across the floor to that guitar as fast as he could make his limbs move.  Lots of two year olds get trucks and tractors for their birthday.  Logan got his first guitar.  I wish we had the money to feed into his love of music.  Maybe one day.  In the meantime, I have always known his creativeness didn't stop there.  I just had a feeling.  But his patience with the creative process was lacking.  He's a busy boy.  :)  Last weekend, Zac was out puttering at his workbench again (he's been pumping out some beautiful stuff!) and Logan went out to putter along side him.  I wondered to myself when Logan would watch his Daddy and move past the helping stage and into the independent stage.  Funny to think that because just a little bit later, Logan came running inside with pride streaming out of him.  "Mom!  Can I PLEASE hang this on my wall?!  I made it MYSELF!  Daddy didn't help me.  I used his tools!"  He held above his head a little hook rack.  He had thought it up, found the scraps, used the tools and paint, and created it all himself.

And its beautiful!

Sometimes its hard to just let Logan be.  He definitely does things better at his own speed.  But usually, his speed is a little bit slower than I expect.  But when we have moments like this, when his pride is bursting out of his ears, I'm glad I've left him alone to grow into tasks at his own pace.

He was so proud.

Today

I've been pulled away from the blog lately.  Zac had surgery on his shoulder so last week was spent doing a whole lot of relaxing and laying low as he healed.  Though we didn't like seeing him in pain, the kids and I SURE did love having him home for 10 days straight!  TEN!  We are all counting down the months until this out of town job is over.  He was supposed to be home by my birthday in March, now its looking more like April.  **sigh**  I mean, thank you Jesus for employment. 

So, today......
Today started off very slow, windy, and rainy.  We had to be inside all morning, which I was not thrilled about because we are on a two week homeschooling break while I learn the ropes of our new curriculum.  So I didn't even have scheduled school stuff to keep the kids busy.  And they started getting full of energy fast.  So I gathered up all sorts of art supplies and loaded up the table.  This sort of project never thrills my busy boy, and he was tired of painting on paper nearly as soon as we started.  For some strange reason, I reached into Grammy's fire starters pile and pulled out a cardboard egg carton.  "Here, Logan, try painting this."  He was HOOKED!  The kids spend ALL morning water coloring egg cartons, TP rolls, and sticks of kindling.



I showed them how to reveal secret messages with watercolors.

Logan thought that was pretty cool.

This is the kind of mess I love.

Now, Kian naps, Felicity and Logan are finally outside in the sunshine and wind, and I'm off to soak up some "mama sanity" time (as a wonderful blog friend says).

Valentine's Day Prep

Valentine's Day is really one of those days I didn't get into much before having kids.  After having kids, its pretty fun!  I've been pinning lots of Valentine inspiration on my Pinterest board, and the other day, I thought I'd give one of the inspirations a go with the kids.  I started to set out supplies, and what was supposed to be stuffed felt hearts, turned into its own little creation.....one that incorporated reading skills for Logan.  Sweet!  I love when projects take over and turn into school projects as well.

Somehow, stuffed hand sewn felt hearts turned into this.  Don't ask how.  My mind is usually all over the place.  As I was setting up the supplies, I realized I had to order the steps somehow or madness would ensue.  So I decided to set up a station type thing.  Each station had directions printed on the craft paper and I used words that Logan was capable of reading.  When I showed them how the stations were going to work, Logan read each direction to us.

Then I set them free and a sort of semi controlled, creative chaos took place.

They worked hard and were totally into the project.  I think they liked the clearly laid out stations and knowing what to expect next.

All of a sudden, I was left with a very controlled mess, and a table full of BEAUTIFUL Valentines!  The kids were excited about their creations, and clean up was easy for them since it was controlled and sorted out, if that makes sense.

I kinda don't want to send these off.

They're so pretty!

Pocket Babies

I made these for Felicity's friend's birthday.  I just love them and can't wait to make Felicity a set too so I can have them lying around my house.

So tiny!!!!

I call them pocket babies because I made this little pocket to be worn around her neck so she can carry her baby with her wherever she goes.

Lots of heart crafting

The kids and I made some Valentines the other day.  I can't post them here yet as they will be going to family who follow this blog.  :)  But that got the kids going on hearts and they've been crafting hearts like crazy. 

Felicity and I made last minute (because I forgot) handmade Valentines for her Cubbies Valentine party.  I cut hearts from card stock while she watercolored.  Once the watercolors were dry, I cut those into smaller hearts.  All hearts were hole punched.  With curling ribbon I tied a card stock heart and a watercolor heart together and curled the ribbon.  I added a Valentine message and she "signed" her Valentines by making thumbprint hearts on each one.  I also punched a butterfly shape into each watercolored heart since Felicity LOVES butterflies.  I was bummed that I'd forgotten her party and that these were simply thrown together at the last minute but when I was later going through her goody bag and throwing out junky Barbie (hate her) and super hero printed papers, I felt a lot better about our handmade creations.  Call me old school, but I'd take handmade anything, any day, over the same store bought stuff everyone else has.

I'm a saver of fabric.  I save the smallest scraps, and even stuff that I KNOW is totally trash, I have a hard time throwing out.  I did a lot of cutting the other night (for a project I'm really excited to complete and share) and I had LOTS of scraps in my throw out pile.  I suddenly had a wonderful idea and pulled them out of the trash pile.  I made a pile on the kitchen table, cut large hearts for the kids, dribbled glue all over the hearts and they set to work putting fabric scraps all over their hearts.  When they needed more layers, they haphazardly dribbled more glue all over and continued piling on fabric.  Once they were dry (which took a LONG time), I cut the excess fabric off that hung over the edges, revealing a heart shape.

Hmmmmm....glue tastes interesting.

On a night Zac was working late, I was bathing the baby after dinner and Logan and Felicity wanted to paint.  I told them they'd have to wait until I was finished bathing Kian.  A few minutes later, Logan came running in so proud of himself.  He had set up the dinning room table full of paints and supplies!  All I had to do was cut two huge hearts and they set to work painting.  They also added more fabric to their painted hearts, along with linguine noodles.

This is the kind of mess I don't mind at all.

Mixed medium hearts

Lissy's painted heart

And lastly, we simply used their old artwork to cut hearts from.  I folded the paper and drew a half heart for Logan and was THRILLED when he cut it perfectly!  Normally, his cutting is haphazard as he lacks patience to do slow steady cuts.  I was so excited to see this growth.  Felicity still has a hard time cutting on the line so when we do cutting work that needs to be specific, she sits on my lap and we cut together, my hand on top of hers on the scissors.

We have hearts on windows, hearts on bedroom walls, and secret Valentine hearts hidden away for Monday.  I'm not usually one to really get into Valentine's day, but I have to admit, the kids' excitement is starting to rub off on me pretty good.  :)

The End of the Season, and Handmade Gifts From Loved Ones

Our Christmas season came to an end this week by celebrating Epiphany and by having Zac's family in town to finally celebrate Christmas with.  To end this season, I just wanted to share the wonderful handmade things that OTHERS blessed our family with this year.  I LOVE handmade gifts and we were given some beautiful things.

Here are some cozy pajamas for the kids made by my mom, a.k.a. Grammy.

A beautiful collage for me, made by my amazing friend Sarah.

 
I LOVE this burlap bag my friend Cheri made me!  Inside were lots of little treasures.

My friend Elisa made the kids wonderful lovies.  Elisa's son, Cody (Logan's buddy), wants to be a toy designer when he grows up.  He drew out the plans for Logan's and their other friend's monsters.  His details included material design, color, and number of eyes.  Then he helped his mom bring the monsters to life.

Kian's owl made by Elisa.  So sweet!

Felicity's owl is so cute!  This is Elisa's own concept which I think is so amazing!  The Mama owl's wings are pockets and inside each one she holds a baby!  How cute is that?!  Totally Etsy worthy in my opinion.  Felicity has been inseparable from her Mama and baby owls.  Not only are owls her favorite animal, she loves all things Mama and baby.  I think it was one of her favorite Christmas gifts. 

Elisa also made Felicity these wonderful Waldorf inspired ribbon rings with jingle bells.  Elisa is my Waldorf buddy and we love finding Waldorf inspiration together.

Aunt Rachael made this adorable hat for Logan, which made me wish I could knit.

OK, I admit, it has graced my head more than his.  But I just LOVE it.  I've requested one for my birthday.  : )   Rachael also made me these button magnets.

She also made this cupcake set for Felicity.  The frosting is removable so they can be switched around.

Here's Felicity playing with her cupcakes and wearing an apron her Aunt Becca made her.  She can't play cupcake baker without wearing an apron.

Aunt Becca also made Logan this marker and paper caddy.  So cute!

Wow!  I truly am surrounded by some crafty people!
Hooray for handmade gifts!