Videos, Pictures, and bargains, Oh My!!!

Well I figured out how to add a video correctly.  If you go back to the last post the video is now working.  I have been in the habit of taking videos as well as pictures.  So you will get weekly pictures as well as videos unless I don't see something I want to record.  So to start this post here is an adorable video of Ivy talking as she is playing on her play mat. I can't take credit for this video, Kevin took it while he was playing with her. 

Ivy just found her feet this week and finds them fascinating. I took this picture of her yesterday when she woke up from her walk she found her feet. It was just to cute not to post!!

She is so cute looking at her stinky feet!! I love her!!!   A lady at work gave me what is called baby paper, I call it crinkle paper.  She loves it I did get a video today of her playing with it, but since it takes so long to upload,  I will save it for this weekend. In the mean time here is a picture of her playing.

Well today Ivy and I went shopping. I had a gift card to Macy's and thought I would use it.  When we got there they were having a 40-50% off sale with an additional 25% off at check out.   They should have never told me that because of course I went crazy.  This is the first time I went shopping for her. I could have gotten more, but I had to stop myself.  I have decided to take back the long sleeve tee shirts and pants.  Most of it I will keep. I thought Kevin was going to kill me for getting so much stuff, but to my surprise he was ok with it.  Here is what I got.  It was a steal. Most outfits were $7-$8.

I got some pretty cute outfits and I am happy with my purchases.  Its a good start, I am sure I will find a few more things over the next few months to buy her.  Ok that is it for now.  I will try to keep posting, and I promise they won't all be about Ivy!!! Although I am sure that is what most of you are hoping to see!!

Ivy Lynn Sours

Well, Its been a long time since I have posted in here. I do apologize.  Being a first time mom and having a needy little girl its taken me some time to get organized and post.  I was going to post my birth story but since its been so long I'll give you the brief story and post pics of Ivy since I know that is what you really want to see.  I started having contractions on Friday February the 10th at 4pm. I left work thinking this was it.  I did have serious contractions 1-3 minutes apart but in between I felt good so Kev and I agreed that it was not the real thing and around 3am my contractions started to subside.  I had them on and off all weekend.  Sunday the 12th, I was tired and crampy and rested all day. About 7pm I lost my mucus plug.  At 8 pm I started labor contractions, by 2am we called the on call nurse and she told us to go to the hospital.  When I got there I was 3 cm dilated. They said since my contractions were so close they were keeping me for 2 hours.  If I dilated more they would admit me if not they were sending me home. My plan was to go natural and not use any meds.   I got to 5 cm and they had to break my water, which immediately moved me to 6 cm. After many hours of no progress and a total of 18-20 hrs of labor I broke down in tears when they said I had no progressed. Ivy was head down but face up causing the birth to slow down.  I was so devastated and frustrated at this point I decided to get the epidural.  I was proud of myself for going this far with no help, but after no progress I just couldn't do it any more. Everyone tells you that the epidural slows things down, but in my case it actually sped them up. With in no time they were coming in and telling me I was 9.5 cm, it was like 2-3 hours later. Before I knew it I was pushing.  I have to say the epidural did nothing for the contractions and they had to give me 2 bolus if other meds.  I was numb for pushing , it just didn't elevate my contraction pain. After 1.5 hours of pushing I met my beautiful baby girl!!  It was love at first sight, I was so mesmerized by her I didn't realize what was going on. Next thing  I knew they were taking her out of my arms and there were 2 doctors and 5 nurses. My placenta had not come out like it was suppose to, I had a retained placenta.  They had to remove it manually and follow it by a d&c.  I have to say I would take the contractions over that any day. That was by far the worse pain of the whole experience.  It was worth every part of it and I am so thankful for her each and every day!! I loved the hospital we delivered in and I will hopefully be able to deliver there again if we are so lucky to have another.   Yes, that was the short version. Enough writing here are some pictures of our little baby girl, followed by a video!! I hope you enjoy  

Birthday!!

 Taking a nap in my pack n play

 Playing on my play mat

 My hat is too big, but I still look cute!

 Taking a stroll wearing my pumpkin hat my mom made me!!

 

 This was taken today. She was talking up a storm until I put the camera on her, but its still worth showing!!

I will start posting weekly again, if not more often!!

33 Weeks

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! Sorry I haven't posted in quite some time. With preparing for the holidays I have been extremely busy.  I missed taking a picture at 32 weeks but I did take two pictures this week , 33 weeks.  I have grown quite a bit since my last post at 28 weeks.  The baby is moving quite a bit.  It was breeched at 17 weeks and I know it had plenty of time to flip, however for weeks my movement was so low and I couldn't see the baby moving. On December 14th, I had bad painful braxton hicks contractions. I called the Dr and she told me that if its just one not to worry and to relax and get plenty of water.  Later that day I noticed and felt movement in my belly.  It was so amazing to see and feel I burst out in tears.  Glad no one at work saw me.  Any way, I feel the baby turned and the Dr said it was likely the pain was caused by the baby turning. Now, I have no proof of any of this but intuition and just how I felt.  The position of the baby will be checked on Jan 17th at 36 weeks. Here are some belly pics for you to enjoy!!!

I am feeling pretty good. The baby has been on my sciatic nerve but this week I have had some relief.   I have gained about 25-27 lbs so far. It fluctuates.  I have 6 1/2 weeks left until my due date!! I can't believe its getting so close!!!   I hope to have some nursery craft pics and updates for you in the next week or so.

30 Weeks with only 10 more to go!!!!

Well its hard to believe that I have reached the 30 week point!! Its going buy so quickly!! In 10 weeks we will get to meet this little one kicking, turning, and hiccuping inside me daily.  We are looking forward to meeting this miracle.  Things are getting harder and I am more uncomfortable these days.  Sunday I did the outside Christmas light with Kevin's help but he really didn't want me to do them.  I should have listened. My back was so painful I couldn't even walk I was in tears and had to crawl that night. I felt so much better the next day, but now I know that I am very limited as to what I can do.  Over all I am feeling pretty well, my energy has lowered but that is to expected.  Below is a picture of my belly as of today. I really think it looks like I have swallowed a basketball.

Below is a picture of a maternity top I had knitted this summer. It was a regular tank that I made larger to fit for maternity.  I may have shown this earlier in my posts, but it fits much better now!

I hope to have an update on some baby items for you in a few days!!!

A Visit with my Sister and her family

Normally on Thanksgiving we have a big dinner here at our house and Mom and Dad Sours come to visit.  This year with me being pregnant and not wanting to leave all the work to Kevin, we decided to go visit my sister, BIL, niece and nephew for Thanksgiving. The main reason we went is so my sister and I could get some quality time together which was much needed. The past 4 years have been nothing but stress and taking care of some issue either with health of a family member or some item that needed to be cared for.  It was really nice to see her and the family and relax and talk.  We all had a wonderful time. Thanksgiving we went to my sister's IL for dinner.  Then Friday the weather was so gorgeous that we spent the whole day outside. Kevin and Russ raked while Amy put lights on her bushes, and the kids and I played.  Then Saturday was even more gorgeous so we went for a walk on the Ocean City, NJ board walk and played putt putt.  That evening we visited Pat and Amy Costello and met Spencer. Sadly I left my camera at my sister's house and didn't get any of them. Sunday we went to my church then I helped my sister with her tree.  It took us 4 hours to cut lights off her pre-lit Christmas tree. Half of the lights she replaced last year and this year we did the other half.  We had a nice dinner and played games with the kids.  Monday we flew home. Kevin and I had a nice time and I am very thankful  I got to spend the long weekend with them. Below are  a few pictures I took while we were there.

Thanksgiving day

Dance Party and Dress up!

 Gertie

 

 The kids in front of their own special tree

Since we have been back I have been busy trying to get the house decorated for Christmas and doing my Christmas cards.

28 Weeks!!

Well I can't believe I only have 12 weeks left and I will finally get to meet this precious package who keeps kicking me!! Its all going so fast! I am excited but just can't believe it!  We have been to our birth class already and  I have 2 more in January. I had my 28 week appointment today and things seem to be going well.  The heart beat was in the 140s and my belly is measuring where it should be. Haven't gained any weight since I was really sick last week and didn't eat much!  Things seem to be going well so far!! I haven't worked on my baby blanket since I was sick this week.  Below is a picture of my belly at 28 weeks!!

 I will not likely post anything here until mid next weeks with Thanksgiving and we will be busy over the next few days!! I just want to wish every one a very Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you enjoy the nice long weekend with friends or family!!!

Nursery Theme and Projects

     Well, I figured it was about time I decide on my nursery theme, colors, and get it together.   After much searching it took me a few months to decide on a theme. Since we do not have a clue on the gender and it has to be neutral, its really hard to find something I liked.  Honestly, I have to say that I am more happy that we are not finding out the gender because I feel it took the nursery to a whole new level.  After much thought I started to wonder why do we have gender specific colors for our babies?  Do women only wear pinks and purples and do men only wear blues and greens?  It just started to make me think of how babies are treated so different and held to a  different color level then we are as adults.  If they could speak what would they say?  Any way, I then started to wonder why I would spend so much on crib bedding when I don't even spend that much on bedding for myself?  Why is it that retailers think the word "Wedding" or "Babies" gives them the right to jack up prices?  Now I am not trying to be cheap, I just don't see the point of spending that much money on something the baby doesn't really care about.  Lets face it, its for the moms, dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and everyone else you are going to show the nursery off to.  So after much thought and much consideration I decided to make 80-90% of the nursery decor myself.  I have some fabulous ideas and I am so excited to get started. First the theme.  I decided to do a nursery theme and I was first  inspired by this set which was labeled as gender neutral but looks boyish to me.

I fell in love with the concept of the alphabet theme and how the crib blanket looked.  So I went to Joanns and I bought some fabric. Now I didn't buy fabric for the borders at this point, I just bought the front panel, the colors for the letters, and the backing.  The fabric choices are pictured below.

Once I was finished cutting out the letters and decided to cut the top fabric, I stopped and stared for a minute.  As  I looked at it I noticed how pretty it was and I wondered if I really needed to do a border. So I looked on the internet some more to see if I could find something to inspire my thought. Here is what I found below.

I decided just to make the top one color and place the letters on how I wanted. So I cut my 37" x 61"  ( I had to leave some extra fabric for the binding. The blanket will be 36 x 60 when finished.  After cutting I pinned all the letters on and I am pretty happy so far.  The w is missing since it broke when pinning.  I will make a new one over the weekend.  In addition the yellow letters are hard to see in this picture.

Once the letters are sewn on I will then add some appliques to some of the letters of the alphabet. For example a kite to go with the letter k.  Once the appliques are on, I will sew the backing and attach the binding.  I am really excited to see how it looks when its all finished. I also have many more projects in mind for the nursery and will update you on them as I go.