planning for baby

Some days I feel like this little one is sucking every last drop of energy right out of me. Others, I feel like I'm already into the nesting stage. Crazy to think that we're halfway there. Halfway.

Over the weekend I got out my sewing machine and put it to work. I made a couple dipes for K and then an itty bitty (matching) one for our baby. Complete with umbilical cord snap-down. I tell you, it's pretty tiny. I called my fellow cloth diapering sister and marveled over the cuteness of such a small dipe. Then I promptly found a cabbage patch doll to try it on. It fit! :) It's so adorable!








K is quite enthralled with the idea of having a matching diaper as the baby. I've been letting the girls play with it until we get closer to the time of needing it. Just seeing the baby diaper makes K ask to wear her matching one. So, I've already washed it, what....three times....in 4 days.

Something out of the ordinary

When I decided to make a new bag/purse for myself recently, I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for--other than something "cute." Walking through the discount fabric store with hubby and both girls, I was continually drawn to fabric that I would never have chosen before. The had....flowers?....on them.... I'm mean, really, flowers? SO not me. But, time and again, I was caught looking at this cute fabric.

With hubby's encouragement, I just bit the bullet and bought it. Fabric with flowers on it. Seriously. Odd.

After a wash that changed the colors of the flowers a bit, (because I washed the outer and the liner together...oops) I hacked out a pattern with some newspaper. Then bravely began cutting.

While it didn't turn out perfectly, I'm quite thrilled with the way that this bag turned out. It was the first time that I had attempted anything like it, without a pattern, no less.

So, please, tell me how beautiful it is, k? ;)
















Here it is loaded up with all my gear:

more about me challenge

I'm not sure that I'm getting this whole blogging thing. I'm having a hard time showing very much about who I am and what I enjoy doing or what I'm interested in. It's so very easy to do snippets of life with children/about children. But that's not who I am. That's what this is supposed to be, about pickle Annie, as my dad calls me. No, it's not really that I love pickles, although we did have to purchase some the other day when walking down that aisle in the grocery store. Pregnancy does crazy things to a girl.

Anyway, back to me. Just like most moms, I have a hard time doing things just for me. I tend to make it for my kids, or my family, or including them at least. Well, with baby #3 on the way, I fear that if I don't start taking some things for myself I might not have time for quite a long while.

So, how do you blogger ladies blog about yourselves? How do you put things out there knowing that people will then KNOW that about you? How do you go about finding out what you want to say and where you want to be going with your blog?

That's what I'm going to by trying to do in the future here at pickleannie. I'm so much more than my beautiful children. To start off, I'm going to make a list of things that interest me and I'll be doing some blogging about this list. Maybe that will get me going on the right track. My interests, just like yours, are a fluid thing with interest in different things changing as our lives change. So, here they are in no particular order:

cloth diapering
sewing
all sorts of craft-y-ish-ness
photography
babywearing
gardening
easy-does-it
being a help meet to my husband
making a change in myself from frumpy to foxy
being more frugal
decluttering
pregnancy
natural labor/delivery

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I'll start with.

So, that's my plan, folks, to share more about myself and hopefully get to know you a bit more!

moving right along

Seems this baby is mover and a shaker. I'm getting lots of little kicks and wiggles and loving every minute. Those who've seen me recently have noticed that I have a wee bit of a baby belly. Let me tell you, it feels a bit more than a wee little belly, but I know where I'll have to go, so I'm not complaining...too much. ;)

Fetal development in pregnancy week 18:

fetus in fifth month

We have two more ounces! Your "getting bigger-n-better by the minute baby" is already up to 7 ounces and 6 inches! This is a big week for their baby skin. There are now two distinct layers—the epidermis (or the surface skin) and dermis. Currently, their skin is covered with a greasy, waxy, cheese-like substance, known as vernix caseosa. Sure, it sounds pretty nasty, but this mixture of fatty secretions covering your little swimmer from head to toe is the best way to protect their oh-so-thin skin from bruising and abrasions as well as chapping caused by amniotic fluid exposure (and your little one is swimming in that stuff!).

Oh, and I'm not going to mention that I've already gained 8 lbs.... what in the world? This baby weighs, what? 7 oz? this is ridiculous!

The other day, I pointed to my belly and asked K what that was. Her first answer was belly button, but her second answer was, BABY!! ;) I love it! B likes to give hugs and kisses to "my baby" before snooze and bed, too. This little one sure is loved.

Now, to find out if it's a boy version or a girl version..... (update on that coming in about 3 weeks.)

heard at our house

Eating lunch today, B asks, "Mommy, why are you knocked up?"

hmmm...still not quite sure how to answer that one.

Hea

A B funny: "Daddy, that tickles my feelings. It makes my tummy laugh!"

family fun

I was really annoyed to not have a car (blown head gasket on my car) for most of a week and feeling very home bound and lonely. I had spent many hours on the telephone, but it just wasn't cutting it. So, Thursday night, after we got kids into jamas, Hubby and I decided to head to Barnes & Noble for a little browsing and some hot chocolate at the cafe. It was actually quite a fun experience, even with 2 semi-tired children. The girls and I looked at magazines (OK, B & I looked at magazines while K climbed on the stepstool and tried to hang from every possible surface) while Hubby browsed.

We stopped at the cafe and got Godiva hot cocoa. YUMMM!!! Totally rich and fattening. Exceedingly delicious. The gal gave us a couple sample cups and we shared with the girls. They were so cute! I'm sure the fellow patrons thought we were crazy filling our children up with coffee at 8:30pm. Oh, well. It was a really fun treat.





These were in the car on the way home. The hot chocolate was gone, but I had refilled the cups with water to mix with the dregs of the chocolate. Who would have known? The girls were still thrilled--cheap dates, I guess. :)

so much going on....

In the last month, we've listed our house on the market, sold our house, found a new house, moved in, done all the fixes on our old house and now we're getting ready to close on the old house. WOOHOO!! Thursday is the day! Not to mention that we've done all this with a pregnant wife/mommy. Yeah, not so much fun.

I have, however, turned that glorious corner from 1st trimester to 2nd trimester. Thankfully, I'm now enjoying feeling SO much better and having much more energy. Afternoon naps are no longer necessary every. single. day. I can usually make it a day in between. usually. :)

All this to say that I'm still here. Alive and kicking. Up to my ears in switching everything over and unpacking and putting away. I'm still here. I'll be back soon.

Heard at our house

During our nightly reading of Bible stories tonight, we read the stories about Joseph's dreams. The dreams that involved his 11 brothers' bundles of grain bowing down to his bundle of grain and the sun, moon and 11 stars bowing down to him. All of this signifying, of course, that Joseph's parents and brothers would later on bow down to Joseph.

Anyway.....

B: what's that? (pointing to the picture of the bundles of grain bowing down.)

Me: That's grain. The smash it to make flour for bread.

B: Why don't they just go to the store?

Me: They didn't have stores back then, kiddo. Kinda silly, huh?

B: Yeah, it sure would have been easier if they would have just gone to the store.

I continued reading the story, then I hear: Or maybe they just didn't know which aisle to look in. They should have asked where the flour was.

A good reason

There's a good reason for my absence. I promise.

It involves a little white stick with 2 pink lines showing up on it....
Or, a little white stick with the letters p r e g n a n t showing up on it.

Or both.

Or, in my case, 5 little white sticks with 10 pink lines showing up on them AND a little white stick with the word pregnant appearing.

Yep, I'm pregnant. Baby number 3 is on the way. The due date is November 10, but I'm already hoping for late October (what pregnant lady doesn't hope to have their baby a couple weeks early, after all?)

I'm also sick. All day, all night, all week. Really gross. I love it!

We're quite thrilled, though I'm not sure it has really sunk in. We've known for, well, ever since I tested pretty much the earliest possible day. I think it's gonna be a long 38 weeks. That's right. I'm only planning to be pregnant for 38 weeks. I'm sure it's setting myself up for disappointment, but so be it. October 29th sounds GREAT!

Here's to God for the miracle of life!!! ***Cheers***

This is what our baby is doing now (from pregnancy.baby-gaga.com:) Congratulations! Your amazing growing baby has been accepted into to the fetus-club, a very exclusive and exiting new stage in their prenatal development. Basically, this means the little sweet pea has graduated from swimming embryo creature to a recognizable human being! This week in particular, the irises of their little eyes can function, but (frustratingly for them?) their eyelids remain fused shut for a while yet. Their external ears are formed and their inner ears are now filled with fluid—so your little one is already developing their sense of balance. Your baby's little swimmer legs are still relatively, although other bodily developments are going forward at a nice pace: their kidney is actually functioning now, which means they’ve started urinating (this might seem charming now but wait till you have to start buying diapers!).

Now, I'm off to bed, since I'm absolutely EXHAUSTED in addition to feeling gross. Isn't it amazing that women continue to subject themselves to this, time after time? :)