feels like fall

The days are getting cooler. It's nice to be able to open a window in the morning now and not be blown over by the heat and humidity. The afternoons are still pretty toasty, though.

Lydia is getting too tall for her 18-month dresses b/c at church, her little bottom peeks out from beneath the dress when she bends over. I bought a few long-sleeve T-shirts and some coordinating woven material, and used this tutorial to make some fall dresses for her. They turned out cute, I think:


The method can be used for any size, even on up to adult. I'm so excited with how cute they are that I want to make some next fall for her, too. Hopefully she'll grow a little between now and then. :)

Lydia loves shoes, no matter if they're hers or mine or hubby's. Hers are a little too small for her to put on by herself, but she loves to step into mine and hubby's, and even walk around in them:


Hubby's jobs are still going great. He loves both of them and is able to relax at home now instead of stress out wondering what he's going to do with the rest of his life. My "three" jobs are going ok, too, but I'm waiting on an unexpected update for one of them tomorrow. I am an independent contractor for that company, and they posted something the other day about suspending operations, so I hope there will be work this quarter. But if not, I still have the other two things to continue helping w/ debt, etc. Our credit card is finally under 6K again, so we're making progress there.

eating and baby signs and dresses

Here's a little video of Lydia self-feeding some steamed veggies. I found out that actually steaming them on the stove makes them MUCH more tender and mushable than steaming them in the microwave. I also found out that already, Lydia is mooching the food off of my plate. Today after a ladies' Bible class, I went out to eat with a few people, and Lydia ate some fresh mozzarella w/ pesto, a crust of my grilled sandwich, and some roasted chicken. Then tonight she had some bites of a plain waffle. Who knows what she'll go for tomorrow? Anyway here's the video:



I've made myself another nursing dress. I'd been wearing the same dress to church every single Sunday and it was getting old. I could do skirts and tops, but I just really like the way dresses look and feel on me. Here's a picture. You may notice that the skirt portion looks a little familiar. It matches the pinafore that I sewed for Lydia a couple of weeks ago.


A few weeks ago, I started signing with Lydia. We do "milk" consistently, to mean nursing. And then "all done" when we're finished, and "sleep" occasionally. I'll add more as time goes on; I don't want to overwhelm her. But the other night when I got up for one of her night feedings, I really think that she signed "milk" to me. Of course, it WAS in the middle of the night and I was half asleep, so I could have been imagining the whole thing, but she seems to have done it a few other times since then. It's so hard to tell since she moves her hands around a bunch anyway, but the few times I saw her do it, it really seemed deliberate. I'm excited. :)

babbling again and sitting pretty

After a months-long hiatus of babbling, Lydia's finally picking it back up again. She has the "m" sound down now, and "accidently" said mama the other day, and a few times since then. So yay, she said mama before dada. lol. Seriously, though... I'm not convinced yet that she knows it refers to me, so I don't know if I want to "count" it as her first word yet. Plus, sometimes she'll say "mama" and other times she'll say "mum mum mum mum mum," just making noise. And still other times she'll talk with an entirely different consonant than "m."

But in other news, she can now get to a sitting position, and stay there, without having to lean on one of her arms for support:

I'm so proud of my little girl. :) And I can't remember if I mentioned earlier, we got her a high chair finally so she can experiment with food. She thought that was loads of fun:




I'll have to remember to keep the clip in her hair next time to minimize the chances of her getting food in her hair. It was so funny to watch her eat, because every so often she'd "shudder" (like how you would shudder if you ate something slightly bitter), but then grab another bite right away.

Lastly, here is a dress/pinafore set that I sewed for her to wear to church. I think she likes it:

the birds, not quite hitchcock style

Yesterday Lydia and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo with our local playgroup. It was pretty nice as far as zoos go, but hot and humid, so we didn't stay more than a couple of hours. But, I had to mention my favorite part - the giant walk-in bird cage. Most of the birds in there were parakeets, with a few cockatiels thrown in, and some random ducks down in the moat below. In the "foyer" there was a little booth where you could buy popsicle sticks with some seeds stuck on them, or some cups of nectar. With these treats you could enties the birds to come to you. I found a stray stick on the ground that someone had dropped, and I held it out and birds flew to the stick and nibbled. Then other birds flew to the stick and tried to fight with the original bird for dominance of the stick and the food. And the birds were so pretty, some of the birds had a green that was so green it almost glowed, and then there were yellow, blue, and white ones too. I would say there were well over 100 birds in there.

I'm looking forward to Monday, when my dad and grandmother will be in town visiting. They've just seen Lydia less than 2 months ago, so I wonder if they'll notice a change in her in just that short time.

My sewing projects are moving right along, including all our costumes. Hubby's going to take the 27th off so he can come to the party with us and be the father to go with Lydia's and my mother/daughter pair. I'm also still sewing several of her dress/pinafore sets, although first thing this morning I had to rip out a seam. The directions weren't clear to me when I first sewed that particular seam, and I did it wrong. No biggie, though, now I know for next time. And I also figured out a slightly different way to do the elastic for next time, too, that should hopefully be both easier and a little more secure.

halloween costume thoughts

I know, Halloween is still weeks away, but I started to think of costume ideas quite a while ago. Originally I was going to have Lydia be a troll doll (you remember the ones with the colored hair that stuck straight up and the jewel in their tummy?), but decided I didn't want to mess with it. I had thought that I had a sewing pattern for a one-piece footed sleeper, but I didn't. Then if she were a troll, I was going to be 1985 again, but this time with some loud earrings to go along with that shoulder-padded, overly-ruffled outfit. I no longer have that outfit and it probably wouldn't fit still anyway, so I would have had to go down to Goodwill and try to find a similar one.

So instead, Lydia and I are going to dress in coordinating costumes. What we'll be is a secret until I get the costumes made, but I think you'll like them. I will give you a hint, though... we are dressing up as a famous mother/daughter pair.

various updates

Well, on Wednesday I got back from a Very Long Road Trip. I have other updates to write besides that, but will put those in other entries so it doesn't become too long.

We left home on Thursday afternoon and spent the night with hubby's parents. (Hubby stayed home to work.) Then Friday we got up at a reasonable time and made the drive from OKC down to College Station. The drive overall wasn't too bad; I had downloaded a bunch of songs and sermons and was listening to them while I was in between radio stations. And Lydia was OK for most of the trip, though she did get mad towards the end of the drive during each of the 4 segments.

I had a wonderful visit and definitely want to go back and visit again soon. The drive is way too long to make it a regular trip right now, but hubby's work will likely let us transfer to Ft Worth later this year. Then if his sister gets moved from Japan to San Antonio, we would be central to everything... Springfield, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, College Station, San Antonio. It would really be the ideal spot. But before then I'll need to get going again on the organization/purging plan. I do NOT want to pack up all our things while our apartment is in this current condition.

The work at home thing is going great. I really love it. So far I'm not making quite as much money as I thought I would with it, but it's still more than enough to suit our needs. But it's also a company I can grow with, as they don't have "just" transcribing. Later on when I get a little better I can move up to reviewing and if I ever get a foot pedal I can "scope", whatever that is.

I am LOVING the wrap that I tie-dyed. I also am re-doing the shoulder on my sling b/c the way it was originally sewn disagrees with me. Once that's done, I'll have 4 carriers, with 3.5 of them being homemade. :P I think I will wait until June sometime to do any more other sewing, and instead make the decluttering a priority.

Lydia has finally learned to roll over! She did it yesterday twice and today twice so far. :) I tried to catch her on video so I could put it on here, but I haven't even witnessed a full roll over live myself yet (I'll put her down on her back and be away for a bit and she'll be on her tummy when I come back), but hopefully soon I can get the video up. Mom said that usually babies roll from tummy to back first instead of back to tummy, so the tummy to back roll may not be far behind.

they don't smell like cheese anymore, and some sewing

So, for the past several days, L's diapers have only been wet. I knew she was "saving up" a doozy for me, and it finally arrived this afternoon. Maybe it was the beans and chili I'd been eating this past week, I don't know, but her diaper did NOT smell like the strong cheese that they used to in the past. It was a regular stinky diaper. Very ripe. Certain circumstances have prevented me from going grocery shopping lately, but tomorrow I will have to try to get some healthier foods and hopefully her "cheesy" diapers will return. I had always heard that the dipes stay "unstinky" so long as she's not eating solids yet, but I guess there is always an exception.

As for sewing, I made a pouch that I'll have to take in quite a bit, and I'm also still working on a mei tai for my friends who are having their baby in Oklahoma later this month (or early next month). Hopefully I can finish both of those today and tomorrow.

I'm done training for my newest work at home gig, and have "real" work to do this afternoon already. I am very excited. :)

visit with the inlaws

I had a good visit with the inlaws this weekend. Felt sorry for my poor MIL though. She's been suffering from frequent UTI's and had one over the weekend... laid her up on Sunday with a 102 degree fever. (39 celcius). She'll have surgery this summer to make some repairs to that area. Hopefully the infections will stop then, too.

I took both the wrap and the pouch, intending to use the pouch on my travelling days since it's quicker and easier to pop her in and out than the wrap, and to practice w/ the wrap while visiting. But I never got around to using the wrap. I did get LOTS of comments on the pouch though. L is a quiet baby who usually just looks around at things. Today on the way back, I stopped for lunch and set my food down on a table, then walked back to get some napkins, passing a guy who was sitting close by. On my way back to the table he said to me that he thought I was pregnant w/ a baby's face printed on my shirt... until he saw L move her head. What a start that must have given him. :P

On that same lunch visit, I was sitting in a back corner so I could feed L a little privately. I was soon joined by another breastfeeding mother (she w/ a 2 month old) who also had a toddler. I was pretty much finished by the time she sat down, but we chatted for a bit. I didn't feel like my 5-hour drive was very long at all after hearing her trip... El Paso, TX to Ohio. She said it was going to have taken her 3 days by the time she gets to her destination.

L's newest "trick" is sucking on her bottom lip. Sometimes she just does that, and sometimes she talks while she's sucking on it. It's a good way for her to blow a bunch of bubbles. :P Over the weekend we visited the church that hubby and I went to when we lived there, and everyone said that she looks like hubby. :P Maybe our next baby will be a little mini-me. But that's a long way off. I'm still enjoying this one and trying to give her all the attention she deserves. :)

My next few months are going to be VERY busy. I have another trip planned towards the end of this month, then in May I'm going camping for a week (in cabins w/ showers and utilities... no tents in the woods for me, thank you very much. lol), then in early June I'm going to Indiana, then in late June back to OK to help out MIL after her surgery. Hopefully I can rest a little in July and then possibly make a trip to my family in August. Hubby's sister is arriving from Japan for a visit in August so I'll be able to coordinate a visit w/ her too around the same time.

So if you don't see a blog from me until after August... that's why. :P

on a big sewing kick

I'm still working on my big list of organizing, but I did manage to get my fabric sorted and inventoried, so now I am on a sewing kick before I tackle the rest of my "other" organizing. A few weeks ago I did sew a nursing dress b/c I was tired of wearing two-piece outfits to church. But lately, I have sewn another nursing dress and a matching little baby outfit (complete w/ dress, hat, and little bloomers). Tonight I am also starting a project that may be interesting. I'm making a "twist top" w/ nursing access. I'm on a sewing list and one of the listmembers has instructions for taking a regular pattern and modifying it both for twistiness and for nursing access. I didn't have a suitable plain shirt pattern so I'm using a maternity pattern. If it comes out OK, then I may make a couple more... I had 3 choices of fabric to do it up in and had a hard time deciding.

Baby L is growing. I missed her 2-month appointment due to a clerical error on my dr's office's part, but I was able to take her in and get her weighed and measured. She's now 10 lbs 9 oz and 22" long. She continues to delight me every day.

I'll get to visit family next week. I've been sending my parents weekly pictures of how she is growing, but I've held off the past couple of weeks so they can be "surprised" when I show up in person (by how she looks, not by my showing up... they ARE expecting me. lol). I can't wait. :)

how to melt a new mother's heart

On 16 January 2007, Lydia smiled. She has been smiling in her sleep since birth, but this smile was when she was awake. She did it a couple of times right then, but then the last 10 days or so passed and she seemed to "forget" how to smile. I even spent the last 3-4 days smiling at her pretty much the whole time she was awake, in hopes that she would imitate me, but nothing happened. Until today. I was holding her in my arms and smiling at her like usual, and she smiled back! And it was an even bigger smile than on the 16th. Then she did it a few more times right in a row. I was so excited and happy that I almost cried. :D But then shortly after that she got tired and I had to lay her down for her nap. lol :P

We've just yesterday started using cloth diapers. We are using Fuzzi Bunz and so far we like them. I can hardly tell that they are wet until I take out the (sopping wet) insert... the inside of the diaper just feels warm and very slightly damp. I haven't yet washed a load of them, I'll probably do that first thing in the morning... hopefully I will still like them after they come out of the dryer. :p

I got on a small sewing kick the past few weeks in between our travels (a local trip while the power was out for days and an out of state trip for a funeral), and sewed up a coat with a zip-in panel so that when I wear Lydia in a carrier, the coat will fit around both of us. I also sewed a baby carrier, and a nursing dress. I was getting SO tired of wearing two-piece outfits and I love the dress. Next I need to hopefully finally finish the last two sheets for Lydia's crib, sew up some cloth wipes, and then I'll probably inventory the rest of my fabric before starting more projects (baby clothes and nursing clothes).

Hubby's job is still going fine. He has a new district manager now who is MUCH better than the last one. The last one gave him a very unfavorable annual review but it means very little, b/c the new DM has seen what hubby does and how he works. Sometime this year we're probably moving with his job again, but as to where we don't quite know yet. I also am still working at home intermittently at LiveOps. Opportunities within that venture keep coming my way and I am glad that I didn't give up on it a while back when I was feeling burned out. I haven't worked a lot lately b/c of the travelling and power outages, but will probably start up again this weekend. Lydia's starting to get into a little routine so I can somewhat plan when to work.

Not a whole lot else is going on. I'm just waiting on 1 more W2 and then we can do our taxes. With Lydia's birth last month, we should be able to get an even bigger refund than normal. Like hubby's bonus a few months ago, we have plans for some of the money, but most of it will go into savings.

Otherwise everything is going fine. I'm still loving motherhood. :) I had my postpartum checkup on Monday and my tear healed well. We also weighed Lydia there too and she is 9 lbs 7 oz. Growing slowly, but growing. :)

countdown to last day of work

Yay, only 5.5 more days of work and then I will be a full-time mommy. :) And the days will go fast, too... Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays are VERY busy (although my supervisor said that this Friday will actually be unusually slow), Tuesday I am training a new person on how to do one of my assigned tasks so that'll take up a good bit in the afternoon, and then hopefully Wednesday and Thursday will just fly by. :)

We gave Tuxedo to hubby's parents... he never did stop pooping on the floor here no matter what the litter box(es) arrangement was, plus he would always pick on Rainy, biting her to the point of bleeding, etc. Hubby's mom said that he is fitting in well there, and Rainy seems SO much happier now that she is alone. She is "lonely" too though and wants lots more attention than she used to.

I had another prenatal appointment yesterday and everything is going fine. I'm still not having any swelling or other late-pregnancy discomforts and my doctor says that the baby is still head-down. Only 2.5 weeks until my due date, so probably about 4 weeks until it's born, given my family history of going late. I'm not even going to get anxious about all the projects and things that I still want to finish before the baby arrives yet, and I'm definitely not going to get excited about an impending birth until my due date. Too much excitement will wear me out, lol.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow and since I'm so far along, hubby and I aren't going out of town. No family or anyone is coming here, either, so we'll just have a "mini" Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of us. We'll have turkey, green bean casserole, pumpkin cornbread, brown'n'serve rolls, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes. And hopefully tons of leftovers for the next several days. :P

home stretch plus holidays equals new priorities

Wow, today I am 36 weeks. Only 4 more weeks until my due date, so baby will be here anytime from 2-6 weeks from now. I'm definitely in the home stretch, and counting the days until my last day at work. (13 working days and about 18 calendar days). Today I'm trying to get caught up on some things around the house. After I wash my sheets today, when I remake the bed, I'll put a painter's drop cloth over the mattress and mattress pad. I also want to do some more sewing. I still have that fleece coat that I want to cut out (it is one that also has an extra zip-in panel so I can wear it around just me or around me AND the baby). Plus my sewing things in general need to be organized. Then after I do that coat, I'll see what I have fabric-wise and try to make some nursing clothes.

At Thanksgiving I'll be just under 38 weeks, so we're not going very far out of town. A family from church wants to do something together with us but it might not be right on that day. Whatever we do, it hopefully will be fairly mild. In Thanksgivingses past, I would always look forward to making food and eating and having leftovers for days. But this year the food just doesn't seem that important to me. It's definitely a year to focus more on the "thanks" in Thanksgiving. And then Christmas is shortly after that, and I've done no shopping. DH and I are going to do that on Monday morning, but have already decided to get our siblings gift cards. Kindof lame, I know, but adult siblings that you hardly see or talk to are very hard to shop for. But we'll get something "real" for our parents, and also spend a little time pointing out things that we ourselves like so we can go back later and pick out gifts for each other.

Childbirth classes are going fine. Our teacher skips around in the curriculum, and last week we went over the newborn care lesson, which is the last one in the book. She said in the past that if she went through the book front to back, her couples would randomly go into labor at 36 weeks and miss the newborn care class, so she puts that one in earlier. And of course she made that comment within days of ME reaching 36 weeks. :P But it just made me excited for this little one to come. Our hospital tour is Wednesday evening. I can go to classes and read books and talk online about having a baby, but the labor and delivery tour will really be a wake-up call to me, and make this baby feel even more real.

My appointment yesterday went fine. I'm still not having a whole lot of late-pregnancy discomforts, BP is fine, weight is fine. I measured a week behind, but I have yet to have an appointment where I measure right on so that's pretty normal for me. Because of the weird schedule, I'm not having another appointment until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I did have my GBS test yesterday and she said they culture it for 48 hours and then will mail me the results. So hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday I should know those results, and start to plan for an IV or not.

Our male cat is still going #2 outside the litter box, but our in-laws want to take him. When DH goes down there in a couple of days he'll take Tuxedo with him. I think he'll do better there with the change of scenery, and when DH and I move again it'll be a lot easier to find an apartment that will let us have one cat than it would be to find one that would let us have two cats. (What the big deal is between one cat vs two I'll never know, but some apartments have a limit of one pet.) Plus now there will be half as much hair and half as much cat food and litter to buy. Going down to one income, every little bit helps.

parents' visit and more work on nursery

My parents came to visit all this week, and we had a good time. :) Hubby and I live close to a tourist town, so we went down there for shopping and shows early in the week, then when hubby had to go back to work, Mom and I started our marathon shopping sessions here in town for baby things. I definitely have a good start in supplies now, but she will probably be sending me some burp cloths, towels, and washcloths later on.

While they were here, Dad and hubby put together all the nursery furniture. I still have a few tiny things to sew (a couple of sheets, and re-doing the tabs on the bumper b/c I ended up not liking the way they turned out once installed on the crib), but the nursery bedding is pretty much done. Then I can sew my fleece coat that will have a zip-in baby panel so I can wear the coat over me AND the baby when it comes, and also I can make some nursing clothes too. But for a few days, I need a REST from sewing. :P I've been go go go the past few weeks and am taking a break. Plus Mom was helping me organize the nursery, and piled a bunch of my sewing stuff together so I need to go through it and really see what all I have, and what fabric can be used to make something and what fabric is just scraps. And there is the big box of CD's and tapes and miscellaneous electronic wires that I need to go through too. It is all out of the way in the closet right now, but I need to go through it so it's not piled quite so high as to be blocking the hanging bars. I want to hang up some of the cute li'l baby clothes when I get them. :)

Anyway Mom of course got to feel the baby kick several times this week and is still convinced that this one "needs" to be a girl. She gets frustrated b/c we didn't find out, AND also b/c we are keeping any names a secret until the baby comes. She doesn't know if she will be able to come up right after the birth or not but since I'll be staying at home then, I'll be able to come up in January sometime. She said she wanted to wait and see what hubby's parents were going to do, since they're closer, etc.

But back to the nursery. Now that all the furniture is put together and I can go in there and sit and rock and look at everything that is just ready and waiting for the baby, it is SO real to me. This baby is COMING! I'm really starting to get excited. :) I think my cats knew something was up all week, but now that Mom and Dad have left and the house is quiet again, they probably think everything is normal again. :P They are in for a big surprise in a few months.

Our childbirth classes are still going fine. I was going to take Mom to the class with us this week but our teacher ended up being sick and had to cancel class. Mom was kindof sad too, which was surprising b/c when I first "invited" her, she wasn't interested in coming since she went to classes w/ my sister already.

Also while Mom and Dad were here, I showed them the LiveOps thing. Dad thought it was cool and wanted to do it, but changed his mind when I told him that the phone line to use had to be free of call-waiting, etc. I need to start that back up but will probably wait until tomorrow or Sunday and try to "recover" from my vacation today. Mom said that if I lived in her town then she could hook me up with some freelance transcription work so I sortof wish that I did, but maybe someday we'll be closer.

nursery bedding makes baby feel more real

I'm about 40% of the way done w/ sewing the nursery bedding as of this morning. I've completed both curtains (though eventually I may re-do the sheers b/c I'm not sure if the look of them will "grow" on me or not... I'll post a picture early next month), and just have the tiniest bit of hand sewing left on the blanket and the crib bumper. The 4 sheets and the crib skirt and the wall hanging and the diaper organizer are still not started yet, but based on how fast these other projects are coming together I think that I will be able to finish at least the sewing before my parents visit in 2 weeks. I originally wanted to have the nursery completely assembled by then, but maybe they can help me assemble everything when they come. :) I am skipping sewing maternity clothes though until the nursery bedding is finished and the random boxes in the nursery are moved out of the way.

Anyway, this past weekend I went to visit Tim's extended family (cousins, etc). This is the family that we go see every Thanksgiving, too, but I had to miss last year b/c of work, and will have to see how I feel this year since I'll be 38 weeks along. During the visit, I had brought the bumper ties with me so I could finish the hand sewing on those. While I was sewing, I was talking to the baby since he/she can hear me now. I said "I'm making this for you, baby. I hope you like it." Then it sortof "sunk in" more that yes, I am going to be a mother in about 3 months. Yesterday I kept telling the baby "I hope you like it" as I worked on its quilt. I showed Tim the quilt when he came home and he thought it was just fabulous the way it turned out so far. He looked at the rough color drawing that I had made early in the bedding planning process and was amazed that the "real thing" looked so much better. I can hardly wait for the baby to come and actually use these things I'm sewing. :) Speaking of sewing, I have a bunch of fabric to make a wrap maternity dress, but am thinking now that I will use it to make a nursing top and a matching baby outfit. The fabric is yellow and red so that is gender neutral enough. Mom has sent over a few random cute sleepers and onesies but it'll be neat to have something for the baby that I made, too.

We had our first Bradley class this week. I think the relaxation methods and other excercises will definitely come in handy. I'm looking forward to Tuesday nights. Part of the class is about nutrition, so for the duration of the class, I have to write down everything I eat and count the protein in it. Guess my days of snacking on endless bags of chips are over. :P

heat is unmotivating for anything except a nap

It is hot hot hot. The heat index has been well over a hundred degrees for over a month with very little relief in the form of rain or anything. And in a black car, there is definitely no escape from the heaviness of it all.

I work all day in the air conditioning and then get into my hot car to make the 5-minute drive home. But in just those 5 minutes, the heat seeps all the way into my bones. I leave work with such good intentions of going home and doing some sewing, but for the past several days I have done none of that. On a few days I had "excuses" like "oh today is laundry day" or "today I need to go grocery shopping" or "the dishes are starting to stack up, I need to wash them". And I do those other chores, but there was more than enough time for sewing also. And it's not like I picked a complicated pattern to get back into the swing of things either. I'm making a pair of maternity khaki pants... 5 construction seams, two hems, an elastic waistband and we're done. So if I started it on Sunday or Monday, then by Friday I should have definitely already been DONE with the pants and on to a nursery item. But I've only managed to sew one seam each day just about. I did get off an hour early today and have a shift later this evening to do w/ LiveOps for an hour and a half, so I am going to take advantage of this afternoon and SEW THOSE PANTS even if it kills me. And then I should even be able to start in on the nursery curtains. My self-imposed deadline is creeping up rapidly, and I won't have all of Labor Day weekend like I originally thought I would. Hubby's family (including his sister that I've never met) will be here so I will be spending time with them.

That's about all I wanted to say today so off I go to sew.

coworkers got to feel the baby

Two of my coworkers got to feel the baby today. :D I had tried to have one of them feel it the other day, but baby of course got still and quiet when I called her over. But today, he/she was moving a TON so I let her feel again today. She was feeling my strong pulse first and thought that was kicking, but I didn't feel anything so I knew it was my pulse and told her so. Then the baby gave her a VERY big kick. The other coworker was watching and saw the girl's hand move when my baby kicked her. :P So then my second coworker gave me her hand and was able to feel several good kicks too.

We did have our ultrasound this past Wednesday and did keep the gender a surprise. Our doctor has a guess though. I didn't even realize that is what she was looking at until she went away all of a sudden and said "OK I have a guess for the gender." I have seen so many gender shots online, etc that if I had been paying attention and not spacing out I probably could have had a guess too. I think come December and this baby's birth day though I will be very glad that we didn't find out early. I'm still having strong girl feelings but a few people are starting to seriously guess boy so who knows.

I have one more hem to sew tonight and then all my mending will be done, and I can get started up on the "fun" sewing... namely maternity clothes and nursery items. I want to have the entire nursery done (including the closet cleaned out and my sewing/crafts pile organized, etc) by the time my parents come in the last week of September. I plan to sew maternity garments and nursery items alternately and then when I have a few days off I'll do the "organizing" part. Unfortunatly my next day off is going to be the Saturday before Labor Day... BUT I also have Labor Day off too so hopefully it will be a very productive weekend.

fun and games while watching the belly move

Today in the middle of chores, I took a little break to lie down and WATCH my belly move. When I feel the kicks, they feel strong enough to me that they might show up on the outside, so I thought I'd try and see them. The baby was moving a lot and I could see it! It was so cool. I called hubby to the room and he watched it too for a while. It looked like the bottom side of a trampoline when someone's jumping on it. Our ultrasound is going to be this Wednesday and I so cannot wait to get a peek inside my belly again. It's a morning appointment this time so I won't have to wait for hours and hours after I get off work. Oh but anyway about the fun part... while hubby and I were watching the belly, I got so tickled at something that he said or did. I can't even remember what it was now, I just remember the aftermath... when I was laughing so much, my belly button turned into a tiny little mound. :P It was funny. Hubby thought it was so cute but I couldn't stop laughing, and my sticking-out belly button because of the laughing was embarassing, so I kept trying to cover it up but hubby kept looking at it, which would make me laugh even more, and the cycle continued. :P

The organization project is going fine. I managed to completely go through both dressers last Saturday, and I was off today again too. I intended to do a bunch MORE organization but haven't quite gotten to it yet. I had some laundry and dishes to do. I do have two boxes from the second bedroom's closet that I can go through tonight though.

I haven't sewn anything since my last entry, but the fabric for the nursery has arrived. :D I washed that today and will probably start sewing on that next week sometime. I think I will tackle the curtains first since they just have measurements to go by instead of an exact pattern. The sheer fabric is going to be "interesting" to work with since it is very spider-webby textured, and isn't really woven or knitted but is instead loosely "matted" together sortof like felt. After I get the curtains done, the rest of it should come together piece of cake. But before I start on that, tonight I plan on doing some mending that has been sitting around for a while. Hubby has a few shirts that lost their buttons, and I have several pairs of pants that I need to hem. I hope to get all that done today, possibly sew a new garment tomorrow (but will at least get it cut out), and then do the curtains, then another maternity garment, then some more bedding, etc. I hope to have the nursery DONE by the end of September when my parents get here. It's a good goal. For the end of August, I've set the mini-goal of 4 maternity garments... and if I intersperse those with nursery bedding items, then I should be able to reach the September goal.

despite all odds, we are having a baby!

I did finish the bridesmaid's dress. Well I finished the machine portion of it. I still have to hand-sew the hem, lining, and hook/eye. But that is no big deal... I just have to DO it. And I also finished the curtains and had a GREAT night's sleep the first night they were installed. :) Unfortunately, they will not work for Lunaception though at this time.

Despite all odds and a really bad-looking chart this time, I did end up pregnant. I started wearing a pad on Wednesday in anticipation of my period coming any day the last half of this week. When it got to be Friday night and Saturday morning and my period hadn't arrived yet, I was confused but was enjoying my nice long luteal phase (after having a few 8 and 9 day luteal phases before this cycle). The in-laws were in town and Saturday afternoon I was able to sneak a quick test just before lunch. I went back after eating (probably about 9-11 minutes later) just to confirm that it "developed" into a negative test so I could keep on waiting for my period. I picked it up and was VERY shocked and surprised to see a second line. Then I put it down. I said "no way." I picked it up again and looked at it in disbelief. I smiled to myself and started to get a tiny bit excited. I put it down and went back into the living room w/ the in-laws and kept a secret.

I wasn't for sure if the second line was a "real" line or just an evaporation line though. It was pink, but it was likely read after the time limit. I waited 4 hours and tested again. I also tested with water just so I could see what a real negative would look like. Then I tested again 4 hours after that and 4 hours after that. (Gotta love insomnia lol... the last test was at about 2:00 am). All tests except the water one are positive. i'm still in a bit of surprise because I have been having NO symptoms at all. No nausea, no sore boobs, no hunger, no fatigue, etc. The only thing possibly different is that the past two mornings I've woken up a little warmer than usual. And of course the period that never showed up.

Hubby is SO excited. He keeps telling me, "You're going to be a mommy" or "I'm going to be a daddy" and wondering when we should tell people. I still want to live in the newness of this all before we start telling the world though.

keeping negative feelings at bay

Well it is now day 20 of my cycle and I am still waiting to ovulate. I was hoping that I would ovulate at least by Friday so that we would have a chance of getting pregnant, a chance of being far enough along to find out on the 31st, and a chance of being able to tell his parents (they live out of town) in person that we were expecting. But it doesn't look like this is going to happen. I'm ok with it, though, because I'll be seeing them in person at the beginning of May so if (all my if's are in a big, bold, loud font) I get pregnant before then, then I can still tell them in person. I'm in a wedding in early May so I would need to wait until after the wedding to not take away from the bride's big day.

I am still trying very hard to keep a positive outlook on this. I know there are lots of women out there who got pregnant with a very late ovulation but I don't think it will be me. What's really sad is how I am almost counting this cycle out when I haven't even ovulated yet. Someone out there help me keep hoping. I do get a little sadder as each cycle goes by, but I'm just hoping that the happy/sad ratio will stay more towards the happy side.

And really, now that this trying to conceive has been going on for a few months now, I am ok with not being pregnant already. I mean, if we got PG on our first try, then I would have been around 15 weeks pregnant now. Maybe not enough to be showing, but the time would be coming JUST around the corner... and I am a big procrastinator and I don't have NEAR the supply of maternity clothes built up that I want to. In fact, some more fabric is coming tomorrow and I have plans for a lot of "professional" outfits for it. A LOT of outfits, lol. (2 dresses, 2 skirts, and 8 tops). They will be fun to crank out since they don't have any zippers. And this is besides all the fabric that I already had, including 7 yards of khaki material for miscellaneous pants and a skirt. So since I'm not pregnant then I will have time to do some more sewing. I just need to not be on the computer so much. :P

And I'll get to work at my job for another few months. This year in Missouri I've had 3 different jobs already (since May). I won't feel like such a job hopper if I make it to a year with this one. And if I'm not pregnant this cycle then I won't have to worry about waiting to tell after my 90 day evaluation in 6 weeks. The next cycle will have me possibly just ovulating at that time or just finding out.

But getting back to staying off the computer. I need to do more things outside of the online world. Especially since most of what I come on to the computer for is pregnancy, childbirth, TTCing, and other related topics. LOL. Last cycle I didn't chart or check my CM at all and it was both my earliest ovulation AND my longest luteal phase. If this cycle would hurry up and put me out of my misery then I will probably do that for next cycle too. I did have 2 days last cycle (conveniently right around the time of my temp rise) where I had enough CM to notice it w/o actively checking for it. I found it very liberating and relaxing to chart only temps. Especially since a lot of the times my CM isn't really classifiable into a nice chartable category.

But anyway enough about that. It's time for me to go grocery shopping and get a book from the library that I've put on reserve. :) Oh before I go, not being pg now will also give me and hubby more time to save a little cushion to start us off on our staying at home, or paying for a midwife, or whatever. And it will also give us a little more time to help build up his credit. He has almost no credit at all so we are going to try to get him a credit card, and just use it very little, keeping a tiny tiny balance on it month to month to build up his history in the positive. I'm excited about that.

new job, but not where i first expected

Well the organization that I talked about last time is still going slow. For the half-sewn dress, it's actually a 2-piece set w/ a blue sleeveless dress and then a sheer duster that goes over it. I had only started the duster (the dress pieces were cut out but nothing was sewn). I managed to finish the duster and sew about 2 lines in the dress before my bobbin ran out and I had to refill it. At least I was able to finish the seam I was on when it ran out. And organizing is also stalled out... on the days that I go in early I am too tired to do any little thing, and on the days that I go in late I usually sleep in, and on my last day off I spent a bunch of it playing games. LOL. And on my NEXT day off we have to take a 4.5 hour road trip, have a little appointment for my LASIK, then take a 4.5 hour road trip again.

But anyway on to the new job. The pharmacy tech position that I was trying to look into was giving me major runaround, so Tuesday I was all frustrated. Tuesday evening I applied online at a few banks and at a cell phone place. Wednesday when I got home from work there was a message waiting for me from one of the banks I applied at. I called him back and he wanted me to come in for an interview just anytime so I went in that afternoon. Either he liked me or was just being friendly, but I think I would fit in really well there. He had two more interviews yesterday for a total of 5, and there was one position open right now and possibly another position opening up in a couple of weeks. Oh and a funny story about the interview... afterwards he was giving me a very brief tour of the bank (break room and training rooms in the back and whatnot) and there was one door, and I thought he said that was the door to the ETM. I was like "What's an ETM"... turns out he said ATM instead of ETM. No wonder I was confused.

Yesterday I waited until 4:15 to call since I didn't know what time his other two interviews were or anything like that. So he starts off and says "I'm glad you called. I was going to call you b/c the situation has changed." I was getting a little worried here and figured that it was bad news since he would have called already probably if I got the job. He goes on to say that one of his personal bankers wanted to step down and be just a teller again (so I'm thinking ok... so there is no position now after all since I don't have the qualifications for a personal banker) and then he continues and says that there is still a full-time teller position open, but it's the 6:45-3:00 pm instead of the 8:45-5:15 and wanted to know if I was still interested. I told him that I was, and he asked me to come down and pick up the paperwork for the drug screen and fingerprinting and to consider myself hired. It was funny because he was so mild about the whole thing I had to sortof rewind in my head to make sure I heard what I thought I heard. So I went and got that paperwork and this morning I'm going to take care of those errands and should be able to start in a couple of weeks. But now I'm a little sad about leaving Waffle House. I'm going to miss the people a lot. But overall it is good that I am leaving. There are a bunch of regular customers who use foul language (I don't have a problem asking my coworkers to watch their mouths but for some reason can't do the same for customers) and the smoke so overall it will be a good move. I just hope my manager isn't TOO mad at me when I put in my notice.