The sweet smell of Sculpey clay

The first time I can remember using Sculpey clay I was in elementary school and was supposed to make a diorama of ocean life in a shoe box. My mom bought me some Sculpey and helped me make a shark, a sea anemone, and a little orange fish.

The clay still smells the same now as it did then. Full of possibilities and so easy to bake in the oven. Suzi and I both love it and it's the perfect medium for a joint craft time. Suzi plays with the clay and makes many different things before finally deciding her project is ready for baking.

Not yet ready to bake, but she calls it "A Pile of Laundry"

It had been a while since I'd used polymer clay but I decided to get it out one day while we were waiting on Robert and Ivey was sick. It was the perfect quiet, not-too-messy craft activity. Suzi's final project ended up being something sort of abstract that she called "a car and a little man" and I made the three bellies pictured above. Later, I painted them with a satin glaze.

What is your favorite art or craft activity to do with your kids?

Upcycled sweater baby cocoon

ETA:  Here's how it fits a real baby!

We are now officially in pregnancy overtime. It's not a bad thing, it's just that all the imperative items on our to-do list are done and it's time to wait patiently for the baby. I am 40 weeks today and felt like trying out a little craft I'd been wanting to do for a while.

I wanted one of those baby cocoon things like people knit and use for photos. But I wanted to make it myself, and I don't knit or crochet. I had this soft merino wool sweater that was perfect for an attempt at making one.

Here's the sweater before I got started. The back piece was all I needed.

So I cut that out.

Then I turned it upside-down (the ribbing from the bottom of the sweater will become the top of the cocoon) and trimmed it.

And I cut two rounded things like this. (I also pulled all the lint balls off.)

Then, starting at the top, I rolled the edges under so nothing raw was hanging out and hemmed a little ways. I did this on both sides.

I only went about 5-6 inches.

Then I folded it in half with right sides together, and starting where the folded edge meets the beginning of that cut bottom curve, sewed it together by hand. You could do it on a machine depending on your fabric, but hand-sewing didn't take me long. Besides, I didn't want to climb the stairs to get to my craft room and rethreading the machine is a hassle.

When I'd sewn up to about 4 inches from the top (a little into my rolled hem) I stopped and reinforced that spot.

Then I turned around and sewed all the way back over what I'd just done to be sure it'd hold up well. It only took about five extra minutes. This is what I had at that point.

I turned it inside out and was pretty pleased.

I borrowed one of the girls' baby dolls to try it on. This baby, whom we've taken to calling Big Baby after the doll on Toy Story 3, didn't want to put her arms down or bend her legs, but it did fit. I think the concept is a keeper, and we'll see how it fits a real newborn after Robert arrives. I may need to find another soft sweater and try again for a better fit. I'm wondering if I should have made the bottom wider, for instance. Hopefully it'll at least be good for a belly cast photo prop.

We made that last night!

WW: Blessingway

Saturday, March 19th. Photos by my friend Jenn.

My mom brought me a pussywillow with hydrangeas. Jenn and Megan made wonderful snacks and those cupcakes. They were Jenn's and they couldn't have been any better. The large amount of leftovers lasted an embarrassingly short time.

Megan made me a crown.

And did belly henna. The design is one we'd both been admiring from the woodwork in our church.

There were notes with wishes for my birthing time, gifts, birthing beads and a foot bath for me and then Jenn took some pictures of me and Jordan. It was a special day.

And I have really cool friends.

36 weeks right... now.

It's Friday night, and Jordan is asleep on the couch and I am just coming off a nesting high. My mother-in-law came today. We met Jordan for lunch with the girls and then he went back to work and we went shopping. It was fun, and the girls were so sweet too, until Ivey got sleepy. I made an extra trip out to the van just to drag out the stroller because she kept darting away from us in Belk's. She rode nicely in the stroller for about ten minutes before saying "I'm done." She didn't just mean she was done with the stroller, though. She was done with shopping. There was a major tantrum all the way back to the van, which was a pretty long walk. Poor Nana carried kicking, screaming Ivey part of the way for me. She fell asleep on the way home, of course.

We did get Robert a couple of cute little outfits and four Aden & Anais muslin swaddling blankets with adorable zoo animals on them. I love them so much. Most of what we got was for the girls, though.

And I've gotten a ton of stuff done today. I'm going to make a list, because that would make me happy.

1) Set up a changing station for Robert in the top two drawers of my bedside table. All his little Kissaluvs are in there, but I do need to find the rest of our newborn diaper covers.

2) Picked out and ordered gifts for Robert to give his big sisters. Suzi is really into Toy Story right now, and she's been going on and on about wanting a Woody doll. So we ordered Woody for Suzi and Buzz Light Year for Ivey. Suzi calls him Buzz Life Year.

3) Threw together my basket of comfort tools for my birthing time. Just my flaxseed heat packs and stuff. I didn't go all out this time like I did last time, because we hardly used any of it. Ooh, I do need to find the wooden rolling pin though. Or maybe I will just grab the one out of the kitchen.

4) Packed up all the towels and stuff like Robert's first outfit in a bin for the birth. This took me a lot longer last time. I feel so efficient!

5) Got all the kids' new clothes into the wash. Soon it will be folded and put away.

Here's what's left to be done:

1) Buy a few supplies

2) Make sweater flowers to decorate inside of belly cast

3) Make belly cast

4) Freeze some casseroles

5) Plan some birth day snacks

6) (Try to) make a birthing gown for me to wear

7) Make Robert some cute wool diaper covers (shorties)

8) Get all the cameras (Flip, camcorder, and regular) ready to go

9) Make CD of music for the birth

10) Install the car seat

11) Clean our bedroom and bathroom (I'll end up doing it five times)

12) Set up Robert's Bed Bug Bumper

13) Make a bunch of crafts--there are several things to finish before the big day!

Tomorrow my parents are keeping the girls for a while, and depending on our mood we're either going to go to the movies or get some of the things on this list knocked out. We'll see.

Oh and I finally worked up the nerve to post a more complete belly pic, way down at the bottom of my post. Just a little one. Here it is. 36 weeks.

A day so wonderful I had to make a list

1) We got our tax refund this morning, a day or so early. Hooray!

2) I ordered my birth tub, Suzi's new car seat, and a couple other things we needed to get before Baby Robert comes.

3) I got haircut appointments for me and Suzi tomorrow, which is the day my parents can keep Ivey, with the person I wanted even though she was really already booked.

4) I had a playdate with two of my favorite mama friends after being stuck at home lonely and sniffly for a long time. My friends are awesome and I missed them.

5) While I was at the playdate I bought some adorable cloth diapers from Jenn and she gave me a great deal. They are so cute and soft I just want to cuddle them and squeal. And Jenn also did a wool wash/lanolizing demonstration for me, and it's not as confusing as I thought.

Size zero Kissaluvs with a special snap to stay off the umbilical cord. 25 of em. 100 times better than what we had when Ivey was born.

This one is so sweet. We won't be needing any pants for Robert, just t-shirts. Don't want to cover up his awesome diapers.

6) And then Jenn agreed to come to our homebirth and take pictures for us, which is exciting.

7) Megan and Jenn and I discussed belly image and now I am feeling better about how mine looks, even though it is not stretch-mark-free or "perfect." I've been wanting to post a picture of it since this post by Hobo Mama, but I kind of want to ease into it. So here. This is Robert popping out to help me during a crafting session.

8) The kids all played pretty happily together, and it wore Ivey out so well that I brought her in from the van asleep and she stayed asleep until a few minutes after Jordan came home. Suzi watched a movie, so I had a little time to myself!

9) Jordan and I finished up a big project--a timeline of the events in his grandparents' lives, which will be displayed at the party we are attending this weekend. I think we did a good job.

10) A friend is getting rid of some clothes and offered me some wool sweaters for craft projects. Yay!

11) Jordan told me a few weeks ago that he thought we should get a little netbook for me to use after the birth when I will be upstairs in bed, and to have something we can take with us on trips. We went tonight and found one we liked and came in well under budget. Because Jordan is a geek, it was easy to pick one out, and he is setting it up for me now. It's really for both of us but I'm going to sew a girly, flowery case for it. That will mark it as my territory.

12) It was so warm outside, even after it got dark. What a welcome change!

This has been such a good day I don't want to go to bed. I don't see how tomorrow can possibly top it. I don't. But I'll be getting a desperately needed haircut and enjoying some Suzi-Mommy time so it'll probably come pretty close.

31 weeks? Time for a pregnancy update!

I can hardly believe it, but I am 31 weeks and 5 days today. Baby Robert could be here in a couple of months! I'm not envisioning a due date, because I want to enjoy the end of my pregnancy, but mid-April. Sometime in there. Right now I am enjoying an icy glass of extremely lemony water. If it had sugar it would be lemonade. Sorry for the uncropped photo.

There are so many things to say about this pregnancy that I know they won't all fit into one post. Here's a start.

1) Hypnobabies. Jordan and I have had two babies and two childbirth classes--the hospital one and a really good one that promoted natural childbirth, taught by a doula. We weren't sure if we should take another class or not, but finally decided to sign up for Julie's Hypnobabies class. While a lot of the childbirth information has been a review for us, the relaxation techniques are awesome. I have to admit I didn't see how the "positive pregnancy affirmations CD" was going to help me, but I think it has, and I haven't even listened to it every day like I'm supposed to. Not nearly. I love the scripts too, but it's been hard to find time to do them. We haven't practiced Hypnobabies in the recommended fashion, but I think it'll still be what we need it to be. If I were having a hospital birth I'd probably have been more serious about carving out time for it every day.

2) Paranoid! I really haven't been bad this time around. With Ivey I worried over every little remote possibility for things to go wrong, but until a couple days ago I'd made it through this pregnancy almost totally worry-free. (Except for the first trimester when I kept thinking I might not really be pregnant.) Anyway, remember how the last two times I kept getting comments about how big I was? Well, this time I had been getting comments about how small I was. I had noticed the same thing myself, but figured it was a good thing, because I had still gained a normal amount of weight and have been getting more exercise this time and I felt fine! Then I read this about a woman whose baby might have had IUGR (but he was actually fine). And then to make myself feel better I decided to try and measure my own fundal height, and got 27, when it is supposed to be about the same as the number of weeks pregnant I am. So I got worried that Robert is just TINY! And they are going to want to induce!!! And it's all my fault his growth is stunted because I didn't completely give up coffee! I called Carey and she came over and measured. Turns out I was measuring to the top of his butt and not to the top of my uterus. I feel better now :-)

3) Happy! I feel great about this birth. I worried about the last one, but I'm not worried about this one, because it's going to be the most beautiful, wonderful home water birth ever. I'm truly excited about the process. I think it's partly that I had one homebirth that went well, and partly the positive pregnancy affirmations. I am serious, they work.

4) Hungry for sugar. I don't know why I haven't been able to lay off the chocolate. Other than eating too much candy and stuff, my nutrition hasn't been bad. I've added Cal-Mag Fizz and ChlorOxygen to my supplements this time around. Love those! I don't mind eating enough vegetables and protein, especially if somebody else fixes it for me, but restricting the things I want has been hard! I've been hungry, too, and I must be burning those calories off running all over the place after the girls, because like I said, I'm smaller this time.

5) A little emotional. Pregnancy intensifies whatever I am going to feel. I'll be really excited, or a sort of cute joke will be hilarious and I'll laugh for 15 minutes, or, on the other hand... I won't be able to do all the housework and I'll spend an entire day convinced I am a totally useless drain on society and Jordan will have to talk me down when he gets home. Ha. That was a bad day.

6) Crafty and nesty. I've enjoyed the third trimester nesting and crafting energy I've had. It's going to be sad when it's gone!

That's it for today. I need to post soon about some birth craft projects and our plans for the big day.

Big belly, long list

By my calculations, I am 36 weeks, 3 days. By my midwife's, I am just 36 weeks. The official date is August 6 instead of August 3, which is good because if Ivey is a little late, she won't seem that late to me. Either way you look at it, I've got less than a month left to get a bunch of stuff done! In a way I'm glad, because I'll spend that time doing meaningful (sometimes fun) activities rather than groaning about how I'm so tired of being pregnant and ready for the baby to come. That's what I did with Suzi and it was stupid. You don't get to be pregnant for long--enjoy it!


A belly self-portrait. I wanted to get a picture of my sashay that I'd been saving to wear for months and nearly forgot about. Those little feet definitely represent how my belly feels most of the time as Ivey gets her exercise.


It would've looked bigger if I'd turned completely sideways, but again I wanted to show off my accessory. It really is good for adding length to my maternity shirts, because now even they are too short. Also, awesome new amber necklace that my parents got me for my birthday! I'm turning 25 Saturday!

Here's just part of the list. I am probably going to have to prioritize some of these things...

1) Finish buying supplies (just 4 or 5 things left)
2) Sand and paint belly bowl
3) Pack (just-in-case) hospital bag
4) Make some casseroles and freeze for later
5) Get snacks to have at the birth (my mom volunteered to help)
6) Make wrap carrier for Suzi's doll (more on this later)
7) Wash Ivey's diapers
8) Take a few more pictures of my belly
9) Get video camera ready to go
10) Make sure every camera has batteries in it
11) Put together basket of labor tools
12) Install Ivey's car seat (well, this one's for Jordan)
13) Deep-clean our whirlpool tub (possibly Jordan too? Please?)
14) Clean bedroom and bathroom for birth

And there's more, such as cleaning and organizing tasks not related to the birth but which I'd still like to get done. I've also been meaning to paint my toenails. We've already done a bunch of things, though. I'll try to post a list of those later. Today we have an appointment with our midwives, and next week we have an appointment with the OB (required for a homebirth in SC). We're almost there! I'm so excited!

Gloworm in the belly

Tonight I worked on my Belly Girl project some more. After finishing the first one I discovered fusible web, which keeps the fabric from fraying and makes a neater job. I traced and cut out a bunch of these on the way to Columbia this weekend, so they're ready to sew on. The idea also came to me to put an ultrasound picture in the belly. This one is of Suzi when I was about 10 weeks pregnant. It was amazing--we didn't expect to see much this early, but she was jumping around, playing peekaboo and waving. We called her our little gloworm because with her legs curled up that's exactly what she looked like!

Anyway, now I just need to figure out what to do with these. (Let me know if you think of anything.) I want to put one on a bag but first I have to learn to make bags. I also thought about making pregnancy heat packs because I frequently required heat packs when I was pregnant. I don't want to use rice, though--does anyone know where I could get some flax seeds? I have a flax seed heat pack I bought at Impressions (Jennie G's sister store) and I love it! It has a combination of smelly herbs in it and is very relaxing. Rice is okay but it seems to overpower any other scent you might use.

I'm going to go hang out with Jordan now! Good night!

Do you need a cup? Yes, you do. (Hint: No strings attached!)

I'll explain about the cup in a minute (that discussion is for girls only).

I also wanted to go over my new project. I'm a little proud of it. This afternoon I was telling Jordan I felt like making something creative, and he said "you should make a quilt with a pregnant belly on it." I thought this was a great idea, so I started drawing it up and went through several drafts before I realized a pregnant belly is nothing without some boobs and a neck and face, etc. I drew and erased and drew until I had her about right. I can barely draw at all, and I'm terrible at drawing out of my head so I used a Facebook picture of Melissa's belly as a starting point. I hope she doesn't mind! My tendency is to jump headfirst into a huge project, but I stopped myself and decided to make a small pillow first. Pictured below is what is going to be my pilot pillow as soon as I stuff it.

It's a little rough around the edges (literally) but I'm happy with it for a first try. I want to do more Belly Girls in white on black, but I don't want them all to be pillows. This will be a ton easier on my mom's Viking.

As a sidenote, I went to the fabric store tonight and the cutting lady was so rude! I laid the fabric on the table and she didn't say hi or kiss my foot or anything, just scowled at me, and then when I didn't say anything she barked "How much do you want?" This rudeness has happened to me many times, and it's always the fabric-only stores (not Wal-Mart, for instance). Does anybody know what I'm talking about? The funny thing is these rude women can be award-winning butt-kissers when an expert quilter walks in. They only seem to hate people who haven't taken twenty sewing classes.

Now, if you are a guy please look at the following cute picture of Suzi and then be on your way. The rest of this post does not concern you (it's about periods).



Let's talk about the Diva Cup. You know that fantastic feeling you get when you don't have your period for over a year because you were pregnant and then breastfeeding? I had that once. Sadly, although I am still breastfeeding, it recently came to an end and I was not ready to go back to tampons and pads. I will not enumerate their many faults; you know them already. I have seen the future and this is it: the Diva Cup. Here's a picture of one because I know you need a visual.

The cup fits in the vagina but stays very low compared to a tampon. (And no, it doesn't feel like it's going to fall out.) It's as easy to get in and out as a tampon, and I think it actually made my period a day shorter because it doesn't block the flow, it just catches it. I'm overwhelmed by the good things about this product, so I'm going to list my favorites:

1) Never buy another box of tampons! One Diva Cup is all you'll need for an indefinite length of time. We're talking years.

2) More comfortable than tampons! I don't know if the company promises this, but I swear I felt better when I used this. I won't go into details.

3) Think of all the tampons and pads you won't be sending to landfills. This may be an unusual way to reduce your daily impact (or monthly impact, as the case may be), but every little bit helps. What if every woman had a Diva Cup?

4) Reduce your purse and bathroom clutter. This little cup barely takes up any space!

5) 12-hour coverage! This is my favorite! You can leave the cup in for up to 12 hours, while tampons are only good for 8. (You may need to do it more often on your heavy day.)

If you're thinking of getting one of these, go to the Diva Cup site. The price ($35) may seem high but you'll save this back after just a few months. I found mine from an eBay retailer for about $25 (brand new and sealed, of course!) The cup does take some getting used to, but I did it in one cycle so it can't be that hard! (Half the battle is getting over the idea that for something to go into your vagina it has to have a string attached.)

We are going to Columbia tomorrow so I'd better go to bed! Good night!