An Update!

Otis is measuring in at 3.75 lbs and is still here in my belly.  I am off monitors for now, but I have to wear these crazy air pressure leg coverings that help ensure I don't get blood clots.  I woke up at 4:30am with contractions and had to have yet another ultrasound to make sure if I did go into labor, Otis was still head down.  Good boy, he is. 

I'm actually not freaking out, which is good.  I miss Ingrid (she's with gramma) and it's strange to see Brendan for short bursts of time before and after work, but I'm staying sane.  Ish.  I'm enjoying being taken care of, actually.  People are always asking me what they can get for me, I get to order room service meals whenever I want, and they have THE BEST chocolate layer cake here!!  I'll be gaining enough weight to get Otis up to five lbs before he's born :)

Thanks for the comments, it really makes my day.  I'm stuck here with no connection to the outside world until Brendan comes to visit with his computer, so it's nice to hear friendly things when I finally to get to connect. 

Change of Plans

Well, Otis is causing more ruckus...I woke up at 2am leaking.  TMI, sorry, but I was!  I waited to see if it really was my water breaking and sure enough, I soaked myself again.  The midwives told me to come right in, so at 2:30am we dragged Ingrid out of bed and brought her with us to the hospital.  She and Brendan only stayed for a bit, then went home until my mom could make it over to take over wee one duty. 

I'm exactly 31 weeks today, so it's not horrible but they'd like him to stay in for three more weeks.  Three weeks of me being on bedrest in the hospital.  Three weeks of me sitting around a hospital room with a view of a brick wall, no joke.  Three weeks of NOT SEWING!  I don't want Otis to be too early, but I also would not like to spend three weeks here.

I'm hooked up to monitors and he's doing fine, heart rate is good, they gave me meds to calm down the contractions.  It's wait and see.  My whole life is wait and see.  Like once he's born he's going in the NICU and we'll wait and see how he does.  He'll have to stay for awhile, and in the meantime Brendan's going to hear about job offers.  So we'll be planning a move, dealing with a preemie, and a 2 1/2 yr old.  Sounds fun, right?? 

Keep us in your thoughts, we'll be here. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving was...fine?  Or it would have been, had any of us been in a good mood.  Which none of us were.  Our day started with Ingrid getting up early and instantly being whiny and crying over everything.  It did not go uphill from there.  Since she doesn't nap anymore, if she's tired at 7:30am, she's just gonna be even more tired at 3pm.

The idea was that we would stay home, be cozy, eat lots of food, and relax.  The reality was that I was exhausted and begging for naps, Ingrid was throwing tantrums every five seconds, and Brendan was crabby because he just wanted to have a day off and watch football. 

We did manage to have a nice afternoon, with lots of good food and pumpkin pie that came out perfectly because I used canned stuff instead of trying to be fancy and cooking a real pumpkin like I did last year.  We were sufficiently stuffed, I got a good nap in, we tried to go for a walk in the rain to look at holiday lights that are already up in the neighborhood.  But none of us were feeling it.  Something was off...

Oh well, it's done.  And today was better.  I am not one for Black Friday, like EVER, I hate the idea of crowds and all that buying stuff no one needs.  You never really get that good of a deal anyway, and you have to fight people over it, or wait in line for hours, or whatever.  Just not my cup of tea.  BUT...Joann Fabric was having a sale on flannel and fleece, both of which I use a lot of in my sewing, for so cheap that I couldn't pass it up.  I woke up early anyway and decided to check it out. 

How naive of me to think I could just zip in and out!  Who really goes nuts at a fabric store on Black Friday?  Aren't they all at Target buying $2 Barbies or something?  Ha, how mistaken I was.  I got there around 6:30am and the place was packed.  I looked through the fabric, luckily I had a list to remind myself of what I needed, then I got in line for the cutting table. 

Fast forward TWO HOURS.  It was finally my freakin' turn.  Two effing hours for fabric, I must be crazy.  I did get some really good stuff and the bottom of my reciept said I saved $109, but really, two hours to wait for cutting fabric.  Never again, I don't care if they're giving away flannel!  I am just thankful I didn't try to lug Ingrid with me, oh my god.

When I got home I washed and dried and ironed all of the fabric I had gotten, all with a little help from my wee helper.  She loves doing laundry with me for some reason, it's awesome.  She played by herself a lot today, which was a nice change of pace.  Brendan and I got to do what we wanted to do.  It was what we wanted Thanksgiving to be, at least it only came one day late.  And now it's back to reality and hoping to hear something from Brendan's job interviews!!   

Fairies, not Princesses

Yesterday we went to a friend's house.  Neither of us are into the whole princessy girly thing, but her family has gotten her daughter some dress up clothes that are very frilly and pink and come with wands and crowns.  She was so funny, she said "fairies are okay,  princesses are not."  Isn't that funny?  I feel the same way.  If Ingrid says she looks like Abby Cadabby or the tooth fairy, I'm fine with that.  But princess?  No, stop please.

Anyway, the girls had so much fun in their flouncy skirts and crowns and hitting the cats with their fairy wands.  This morning Ingrid kept asking to dress up like the tooth fairy so I made her a wand, dug out her old crown, and put a skirt on over her PJs.  She loved it!

Stripey Tights and Slippers

Our weekend was very relaxing.  Brendan finally did not have to do any preparing for any job interviews and was set on spending time with Ingrid.  I got to take a nap and when I woke up I found they had made cookies together!  What a nice surprise!

Ingrid found her stripey tights from last year.  They were huge then, so they still fit her now.  It's a nice change of pace from all the sweat pants she's been wearing lately!  When we went out the other day she had a pair of tights and a sparkly skirt.  She kept saying "Ooh, I'm so fancy!"  Today she also opted for some tights and a skirt.  I would never ever opt for that, so more power to her.

And since I was given so much free time this weekend, I was able to get some more Christmas presents made.  One of them was for me.  I have had this pattern for adult sized kimono slippers sitting in my binder of patterns for ages, but never tried it.  Finally busted that out and made these pretties with full fleece lining.  So comfortable and warm!! 

Ahhh, relaxation for once, instead of the nonstop stress I feel like we've been under lately! 

Olivia Slippers

Our Olivia slippers came in the mail today and it just made Ingrid's day!  We have had slippers from this lady in the past and I just loved them.  I didn't think she made any bigger sizes but while scouring the etsy pages for Christmas gift ideas, I came across these slippers with Olivia on them.  And Ingrid hates socks, needs slippers, and loves Olivia, so the stars aligned and we got them!

I caught her playing with Plex and Foofa today on her bed, it was pretty cute.  She was feeding them breakfast and kept telling Plex not to sit in his eggs.  It's always interesting to hear her playing by herself because she has these full conversations with her stuffed animals.

Luckily she and I are both in a good mood today.  Brendan got back last night and it was like we both just let out a huge sigh of relief!  I think we need that Daddy buffer in our lives.  Our personalities are just too similar!  I had to call my mom to apologize for when I was younger because Ingrid was arguing with me over everything!!  I totally remember learning the word "argue" early on in my life because I did the same thing.  Ha!  It's payback time apparently...

Lots of Driving.

I took Ingrid to meet my mom halfway the other day so I could take a break for a couple days.  I did get some rest, but was unable to sleep still because of my stupid nose.  Then yesterday I drove the 2 hour drive to my sister's for a birthday party, where I met my mom and Ingrid, and then we drove the 2 hours back that afternoon.  Sigh, that's a lotta driving. 

But the party was fun.  Ingrid loves her cousins a ton, and it's nice for me because they play with her and keep her occupied.  We had brownies and ice cream, which Ingrid is still talking about!

And today was supposed to be a relaxing, non-driving day but we still ended up in the car somehow.  I had to send some stuff out at the post office and I HAD to get coffee.  We managed to go to the park, though, which was nice.  It was super cold and windy but Ingrid has a new winter coat, boots, and mittens to keep her warm! 

Another thing to keep her warm:  this little number I found at the Kiwanis sale this weekend.  It's all polyester, so you know it's nice and toasty.  No breathability at all!  But super cute.  I thought Brady Bunch but a friend mentioned Mary Tyler Moore and I can totally see that, too!

Brendan is in Milwaukee right now, he had a four hour interview which he says went really well.  And he has an interview here in Ann Arbor sometime this week, so things are happening!  I can't wait for him to get home, though.  I'm exhausted.

Ahhhhh, a Break.

I'm sick.  I can't breathe, therefore I can't sleep.  When I try to nap, Ingrid jumps on me and suddenly wants to "cuddle" (really she just wants to jump on the couch around me.)  I was at my wit's end, so I did what anyone would do--I called my mommy.  She agreed to take Ingrid for the weekend, so we met halfway and made the switcheroo.

I love this.  Ingrid was SO excited to go to Gramma's, Gramma is happy to have a bundle of energy around for a couple days, and I get to sleep.  And get things done.  And go out to eat with my husband.  And watch a movie.  Ahhh, bliss.

I got SO MUCH accomplished today without Ingrid around!  I made a burp cloth set, three bibs, a felt garland, took pictures of them all, and listed them all on etsy!  That would normally be one week's worth of work for me because I'd have to fit in sewing something here, snapping a picture there, and getting time on the computer whenever I could.  But today I just sat and did it.  It felt amazing!

I love my kid but boy do I love the break, too!!

Vintage Dresses Are Cute.

Ingrid has been into nothing but "cozy pants" and her Thomas the train tshirt lately, which is driving me nuts!  All these cute clothes we have and she pulls out her rattiest sweatpants and a tshirt...But, a couple days ago we were actually going out so I said she had to put real clothes on.  We searched in her closet and found this little gem:

I had gotten this perhaps even before she was born, I can't remember.  I do remember I had it hanging as decoration in her old room and couldn't wait for the fall for her to wear it!  She kept looking in the mirror and saying "ooh, pretty dress!  Lookit me, Mama!  I so pretty!"  Indeed.

Fat Squirrels and Felt Circles

Yesterday we got to see nature at its finest!  We still have a pumpkin we never ended up carving for Halloween and have noticed little chunks missing.  The squirrels in Ann Arbor are FAT so we had an idea of who the culprit might be.  And lo and behold, we looked out our window to see this:

We had a nice time watching.  Ingrid was yelling at him to get away but I reminded her that everyone needs to eat, and why not let him eat a pumpkin we were just going to throw out anyway?

We also played for two hours with felt yesterday.  I wanted to make another garland so we sat down with the felt box and I was overcome with the urge to clean it out (which has never been done before.)  So...piece by teeny piece I went through it and threw away the scraps that were too small for anything.  Along the way I cut out leaves for Ingrid's giraffe to eat.  Then she got out her other animals, so we also made a fish for the penguin and a bone for the dog.  She had so much fun feeding them their felt food!

I got some cute shots of her yesterday.  I have to say it, she's pretty cute.  I can't wait to see what Otis looks like!!

I feel so blessed that this is my life.