Roller coaster

For this post, I had originally planned on writing about all the new winter clothes I've been making Haley with all of the cooler weather. Unfortunately, things don't always go quite as we plan do they? I've discovered that to be more and more true over the past 2 1/2 days. But then again, my road in life isn't full of just valleys. There are the hills, too.

I'm not sure how much I've mentioned previously about the complications I had with my daughter when I was pregnant with her since I started writing this particular blog after she was born, but I'll try to make a long, drawn out story short. While pregnant with her it was discovered that I have a small cervix. For those of you who aren't up to date on female anatomy, the cervix is a very important part that helps to keep the baby in. For women with a small cervix, that means there is a very good chance of having a premature baby. Unfortunately, I am one of those people.

At 25 weeks pregnant with my daughter, my cervix became so shortened that I was forced to go on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy, which ended up being 10 more weeks until my daughter made her way into the world in all of her impatient glory after only 30 minutes of pushing. See, I'm great at the whole labor and delivery thing, but I'm not so good at the whole staying pregnant thing. Which brings me to recent events.

This time around, my husband and I were aware of my incompetent cervix. I approached each monthly visit with my OB tentatively, always with the thought in the back of my head that things might take a turn for the worse like they had the last time. But when I made it to 26 weeks with still no sign of a singular complication I thought, "maybe this time things are different!" And they were, but only until this past Tuesday at my 30th week appointment when it was discovered that my cervix had shortened from a normal length of 3 cm to a mere 6 mm.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was at that moment. Disappointed that things were, in fact, NOT different this time around. They were just the same.

And so I was wheeled off to the labor and delivery wing of the hospital to make sure I didn't go into early labor. And that is where I sit now (still pregnant, thankfully.) It's been 2 1/2 days since I was brought here and part of me still can't believe it's even been that long. I feel like I've been on a roller coaster, one that I can't seem to get off. Despite everything though, I have found a lot to be thankful for.

1. My husband. Because of these sudden events, my poor hubby has had to take over a ton of responsibility, including being the sole caretaker of our daughter while I'm at the hospital. If you see my daughter and her hair resembles that of a Troll doll, I take no responsibility.
2. The support of some amazing friends. In the past 2 1/2 days, I've had friends come visit me to keep me company, paint my toenails, bring me foods I've been craving, help my husband care for my little girl at home, bring me reading materials, and handle my vomit container after I got sick. I don't know what I did to deserve such awesome friends, but I know that I'm eternally indebted to at least 9 people, and I'm ok with that.
3. Prayers of family. There's nothing like the knowledge that your family loves you so much that they have an entire state praying for your health and that of your baby. Between mine and my husband's family members, we pretty much have the entire East Coast praying for us.
4. Solid food. When someone tells you you can only eat ice chips for a day-and-a-half it's amazing how good a mediocre cafeteria hamburger can taste.
5. Hot showers. There's nothing like a good, burning hot shower to make you feel human again. It's probably good for the people that have to be around me as well.
6. Animal socks. Really, how can I stay down when I'm wearing monkeys on my feet?
7. I'm still pregnant. Thankfully, this little guy decided it would be ok after all to stay in his uterine home a little while longer.

The continued good health of my baby is what this is all about. While it's so hard for me to be away from my husband and daughter and the comfortable surroundings of my home, I know I'll look back in just a few short weeks after I'm holding this little boy in my arms and say "it was all worth it."

And this will be just another small hill in my journey.

Quilted burp cloth tutorial

Finally, the long-awaited tutorial for how to make a quilted burp cloth! Sorry for the wait, but I promise it's worth it :)

In this post, I explained how I found a great tutorial for quilted bibs in one of my craft books. I used the same idea and made some coordinating quilted burp cloths. These burp cloths make adorable gifts for any baby boy or girl depending on which fabrics you choose. The possibilities are endless.

Here's what you need:

• Cloth diapers
• Scraps of 5 coordinating cotton fabrics (I just dug through the remnant pile at Hancock Fabrics)
• Thread
• Rotary cutting tool and mat

1. First, cut out all of your fabric scrap rectangles (use a rotary cutter and cutting mat if you have them. It's much easier that way.) My rectangles were approximately 2 inches wide by 4 inches tall. You can cut some of your rectangles in half to make your final quilted pattern look more interesting, or cut them any sizes you prefer to make your own unique quilted pattern.

2. Lay out all of your pieces on top of your cloth diaper to make sure the pieces are long enough and that you have them in the pattern you want. Your outer edges may not all line up exactly (see picture below), that's OK, you will trim them after piecing them together.

3. Piece your scraps together by placing them with the right sides (or the sides with the pattern on them) together and sewing the edges to join. Repeat until all scraps are sewn together in one long rectangle. Iron flat.

4. Trim the edges of your pieced together rectangle so that both sides are straight and even. Use a ruler and your cutting mat and rotary tool to do this, or use a ruler and fabric marker to mark a straight line down each side, then use scissors to trim the extra.


5. Lay your burp cloth flat and pin your rectangle of scraps to the middle of your burp cloth. Using coordinating thread and a straight stitch, sew lines 3/4 of an inch or so apart from one end of the burp cloth to the other, making sure to backstitch some on each end to secure your stitches. For mine, I used a zig zag stitch to enclose the outside raw edges of the fabric rectangle and give it a nice decorative look. If you're feeling extra adventurous, you could also stitch all around the perimeter of the burp cloth with the coordinating thread to add to the look.


6. Place baby on burp cloth, pat away!


Pretty easy, right? I love these because they're so unique; you'll never find ones like them in any store. Let me know if you have any questions! I don't consider myself the best teacher, so if I've confused you in any way let me know :)

A visit from an old friend

Whew! Where did September go?? I feel like I blinked and it was October already! September was a great month of visiting family, garage saling, preparing for #2, and more recently, a visit from my best friend and her son Nate - who has grown up way too quickly if you ask me.

Chrissy and I have been friends since we were 17 and 18. We've been through a lot together, but besides all of the history we've shared, one of the biggest things that has kept us so close is our sense of humor. Chrissy is the only person I know who is as weird as me, and yes I mean that as a compliment. Don't get me wrong, my husband is pretty weird too (love you!) but Chrissy and I take our weird humor to a different level. Once when we were younger, we dressed up in my brother's clothes and walked around Wal-Mart looking like thugs. Yes, we were 18, old enough to know better. Another time, we smuggled Chrissy's cat into Wal-Mart in my sweatshirt, just to see if we could get away with it. We did. We did a lot of stuff at Wal-Mart apparently, which included digging through the bargain movie bin for treasures like "The Never Ending Story 2." By the way, there's a reason that movie is in the bargain bin.

Chrissy is also the only other person I know who holds a conversation by talking about whatever comes to mind in rapid successtion - regardless of whether the topics relate or not. From the time I picked Chrissy and Nate up from the airport until we got back to my house half an hour later, we had covered everything from Jersey Shore to church and raising children. Believe me, there are few people in the world that can understand the link between those 3 topics easily.

I had a great time while Chrissy and Nate were here, it was just nice catching up face-to-face instead of talking over the phone states apart.


We went to the zoo...


...and saw a panda who conveniently decided it was nap time while we were there.


We played some football...


...blew bubbles...


...and Nate even pretended to tolerate Haley (not something easy for an only child to do.)


Even though Chrissy and I are both much older now and have kids of our own, there's still a lot that has stayed the same. I guess us weirdos have to stick together, right?

Steelers fever

Football season has begun! This means of course that I lose my husband to the television yet again until football and hockey season ends. He warns me each year before football season begins to get as much TV watching in as I can because come September, I have to hide myself away in the bedroom to watch any shows I might want to see.

My husband and his family are HUGE Steelers fans. I don't think I ever knew what a "fan" was until I met my husband. His love for the Steelers means when they win a game, he's on cloud 9 for the rest of the night which is great for me. But if they lose, I get Grumpy Husband who mopes around the house for the rest of the day and then goes to bed at a rediculously early hour because he's in a bad mood. Good thing they won the Super Bowl 2 years ago or he might have secluded himself in the house forever.

For his birthday this past year, Pat's family got him a Steelers jersey. Haley got one recently too, thanks to an awesome garage sale find courtesy of my mother-in-law :)


With my husband's love of the Steelers and the discovery that Baby #2 is a boy, I knew I had no choice but to make Connor a Steelers-themed baby room. I bought 7+ yards of Steelers print fabric on top of some gold fabric and other materials and set out to make matching Steelers stuff for Connor's Steelers/football baby room, including bumpers, bed sheets, a dust ruffle, and a Boppy cover. I might also throw in a blanket if I'm not feeling completely worn out by the entire ordeal.

Knowing this was going to take some time, I began with the bumpers and I'm proud to say I finished them in about a week's worth of sewing after Haley's gone down for naps and bedtime. I used Sew 4 Home's crib bumpers tutorial and they turned out great!!



The back of the bumpers is gold like the piping on the top. I'll have to get better pictures once I finish everything and can actually put it all on the crib. The actual sewing part of the bumpers wasn't difficult, but the measuring and cutting part was what took the longest. I'm extremely happy with the result though, I'd recommend this tutorial to anyone who would like to make their own bumpers (and at a fraction of the cost I might add.)

More baby room decoration updates as I continue to finish the projects!

A ruffly apron

There has been a lot going on lately, namely nesting nesting nesting! I'm 27 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow, and the thought hit me recently: this kid is coming soon and nothing is done!

Well, some things are done...I have some boy clothes and a lot of essentials left over from when Haley was a newborn, but Connor's room isn't ready. We plan to put him in the room that Haley is currently in and move her to a toddler bed in one of the other spare rooms...but she's currently occupying the crib, and I'm not so sure she's ready to make the big move yet. So with that in mind, I've been feverishly working on Connor's Steelers themed baby bedding so that it will at least be ready by the time he comes, even if he has to sleep in the Pack 'N Play bassinet for the first month or so. I'll have pictures up soon of my progress, but it's taking some time...which seems to be slipping away more and more lately, which is funny because it drug by with my last pregnancy. It's exciting and scary at the same time! Soon, we're going to be a family of 4. FOUR. I can't wait.

In the meantime while I've been running around like a madwoman cleaning and making baby bedding, I've managed to work in a couple projects, one which is an apron for my Mom's birthday....which was in July (I know I know, it's September.) Anyways, I found some fabric in my favorite colors - brown and blue - and made THIS super cute Ruffle Apron from One More Moore. I really wanted to keep it for myself, but I did end up with some leftover fabric, so I may just make a second one soon. Soon being after December when Connor is born.


I love how it turned out! It looks more like a skirt than an apron, if it were me, I don't know if I could bring myself to get any food on it. Oh, and see the belly? It was impossible to get a picture of me wearing the apron without the belly getting in the way. I guess I probably should have picked a shirt that coordinated better with the apron :)
So here it is, your apron is finally on the way Mom! You should probably try it out by baking me some cookies....for the baby of course.

Vacation and a new chair

We are back from an amazing (and very refreshing) trip to Pittsburgh to visit family one last time before Connor is born. After driving 13 hours each way, I'm glad to be on an unmoving surface again, but I would make that drive a hundred times over if we could have as much fun as we did this past weekend.

We packed so much stuff into 4 days: shopping, yard saling, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, 2 birthday celebrations, a trip to Kennywood Amusement Park, a visit to Treesdale for canoeing, and plenty of hang out time with family. It was a great final getaway before the baby comes, and Haley had SO much fun

getting an ice cream mustache at Kennywood...

...canoeing on the lake with Cousin Lena...

...wearing a crown made of wildflowers...

...and riding her first rides at Kennywood (with Mommy of course, I'm not ready to let her try it on her own just yet!)

Oh, and did I mention one of the Christmas presents we got for Haley came in yesterday?

It's a toddler-sized recliner! Yes, I realize it's September, but we just couldn't wait to give her her present. She loves sitting in the kid-size foam chairs at daycare, so we knew we had to get her one of her own. And why not get her one to match Daddy's chair?

How cute are they?? Now they can both watch the Fresh Beat Band together in their recliners :) And by the way, I would like to thank the whole cast of the Fresh Beat Band for making our 26 hour round trip to and from Pittsburgh that much more enjoyable. Although I have to say their songs are unavoidably catchy, and I think I may have infected my in-laws with Fresh Beat madness while we were visiting...there are worse things I suppose.

The tutorial for the quilted bibs is coming soon, stay tuned!

Quilted bibs and burp cloths - upcoming tutorial!

My mom emailed me recently wanting some burp cloths and bibs made for a friend at her church. I have this really cute book of baby crafts called Sweet Booties! which is where I got the pattern for all of the cloth rings I've made.



The book has so many cute projects that I haven't tried yet from crib shoes to blankets. There was one project in particular, a quilted bib, that I've been wanting to try for months so my mom's request was the perfect opportunity to try it! It took a little more time than usual, but the result was sooo adorable and worth the extra time and effort!


I went to Hancock Fabrics and bought 5 different fabrics that I thought would look cute together, but you can always use whatever scraps you have laying around. The only other materials needed were some bias tape to line the edges, flannel for the back of the bib, and string. I love that this project can be done with things I have just laying around. Best of all, I used the same quilting technique and made some adorable coordinating burp cloths!


They're almost too cute to let your baby spit up on. Would you like to know how to make some quilted burp cloths of your own? I sense an upcoming tutorial...