33-35 Weeks

How far along? 33-35 weeks

Total weight gain: + 28 lbs at the end of 35 weeks. boo. 

Total weight gain: + 28 lbs. 

Maternity clothes? Still not wearing much, but definitely no more pre-pregnancy jeans! If it wasn't summer, I'd probably be in all maternity clothes. But I am wearing lots of stretchy shorts & tank tops after work since it's so hot! 

Stretch marks? I'm not sure... definitely none where I thought I'd get them. But I might have one next to my belly button..? It's really hard to tell though because I am SO pasty white. With as big as my belly is, there is no way I'm going to get off without any though.

Sleep: Awful. 

Best moment of the week: Or the last 3 weeks? So many exciting things! We've had baby showers, started packing my bags {haven't quite finished}, made a few fun purchases & gotten baby's room pretty much completed.... with a few exceptions! 

Miss anything? So many things. I've officially reached uncomfortable this week. 

Movement: Yes, but much smaller movements. He is so squished in there!

Food cravings: Not necessarily cravings.. just still eating tons of sweets. And you can see it in my face! 

 Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Gender prediction: Boy 

Labor signs: Lots of painless contractions... but not really anything that makes me think he'll be coming anytime soon! 

Symptoms: Ribs. They have to be popping out on my left side. Thank goodness for ice packs that I shove under my bra as often as possible. 

Belly button in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? As you can see, they are finally off. It has also been around 100 degrees with extreme humidity... Swollen would be an understatement. Someone please tell me that my face will go back to normal size?

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy. And so excited to meet this baby! 

Looking forward to: The baby coming! At my 35 week appt the dr. told me that he is fine with him coming any time now! I guess that's the perk of having a giant baby? 

Daddy-To-Be Survival Kit

It's almost Father's Day & even though our little man is still inside my belly cookin, I think the daddy-to-be deserves a little gift, too! This could be customized for any daddy-to-be and would be fun to bring to a baby shower... because the daddy usually gets ignored while mom has all of the fun! 

I put together this little kit for Trav full of some fun things for him & some things that will be useful when baby boy arrives. 

 Here are all the goods stuffed in a basket from the Target $ wall :) I downloaded these adorable & free printable labels that I found on pinterest {click here for link}. I cut them out with a scalloped punch & then put blue paper on the backside. I wrote a little note on it explaining each gift. 

 Here's what I put in the basket {See Notes Below}:
1. Hershey's Hugs & Kisses
2. Trail Mix
3. A Baby Book
4. Handmade Bib {daddy is obsessed w/batman stuff for his little boy}

5. Handmade burp rag
6. Starbucks Via Carmel Packets
7. Starbucks Mug {venti sized- for long nights!}
8. "I Love Daddy" Paci's
9. Handmade Peepee Teepee's

10. Cologne Sample Packet
11. Pack of Granola Bars

 I made the black bib out of one of Trav's t-shirts. It was super easy! I just traced another bib we have and sewed the two pieces together. I used some scraps of heat transfer material & my silhouette to cut out the saying & cut the batman logo by hand. 

To make the burp rag, I used a cloth diaper & felt. I printed out a batman logo I found on google & traced it onto the felt. I used my sewing machine to sew the felt on. 

Trav is obsessed with batman recently... which is so strange to me because he's not a big movie buff! I think that having a baby boy on the way is making his inner-boy come back out & his childhood favorites reappear... Plus the new batman comes out a couple days after baby's due date. He even bought him a batman onesie the day we found out we were having a boy! 

 The venti mug is from starbucks & we have grown to love this via stuff! It's so nice to have when you don't want to make a whole pot of coffee. And yes, I am going to be a "bad" mom and let my baby use a paci. :-)

 The notes read:
"Because after a long night up with baby, you just might need a venti!" 

and on the coffee it says
"and you might need to make it fast!"

 "For all of the icky things that will come out of him while you two are watching batman!"

 These notes read:
"For the nights when daddy puts baby to bed" {book}
"Use these until you are quick at changing his diaper... or risk getting wet!" {peepee teepee's}

"Because sometimes he might be fussy... these will help!" {paci's}

 I made the peepee teepee's off of this tutorial at make-it love-it. I saw them at babies 'r us but didn't buy them because they were like $12!!! They are not super practical & more of a novelty item... but for a guy who is slow at changing diapers they may come in handy! Plus, I made them out of all scraps & they took about 10 minutes each so I definitely think it's worth it! I am going to make a bunch for future daddy-gifts! 

 These notes read:
"For the days mama doesn't have time to make you breakfast" {granola bars}
"To remind you that baby boy needs lots of hugs & kisses" {hersheys}

"For a snack after he wakes you up in the middle of the night!" {trail mix}

I can't wait to give him his father's day gift! I think I am more excited than he is {although he is really excited about having a son!} I will definitely be making more of these baskets to bring to the next baby shower I go to! 

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!

Need something for the mamas to be?? Check out my Hospital Survival Kit by clicking HERE.


Linking Here:
Weekend Bloggy Reading- Serenity Now
Sundae Scoop - I heart naptime
Saturday at Seven - It's Overflowing

31 & 32 Weeks

 How far along? 32 weeks

Total weight gain: + 25 lbs. 

Maternity clothes? Nothing new. I am loving leggings these days! 

Stretch marks? None that I can find... although I am super white so they could be hiding under there? I also feel like my belly just doubled in size in the last 2 weeks so I am thinking they will probably show up soon!

Sleep: Terrible. It hurts every time I try to roll over & everytime I get up to pee, my dog steals my spot. 

Best moment of the week: We finished the baby's room!! Ok, not all of it. But we have all of the painting & board and batten done, all of the furniture set up, curtains set up, clothes put away & closet organized, book slings done and now I'm just waiting for a few finishing touches! 

Miss anything? Oh nothing new... it would be nice to not be in pain after 3 hours of work though!

Movement: Tons. I still have the strangest shaped belly at all times. I can't imagine this is normal. ;)

Food cravings: Just fruit & sweets. That might just be my new diet! 

 Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Gender prediction: Boy 

Labor signs: Lots more braxton hicks, especially after work. 

Symptoms: Have I mentioned that my ribs are on fire? Because they are. 

Belly button in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!

Looking forward to: Finishing up the nursery decorations!

How far along? 31 weeks

Total weight gain: + 25 lbs. Can I quit counting now?!

Maternity clothes? Just jeans & a couple shirts.. mostly just squeezing into longer shirts w/leggings & stretchy pants/summer dresses. 

Stretch marks? None yet 

Sleep: Not so great.  

Best moment of the week: We celebrated our 1 year anniversary! It is crazy to think that we will only have 1 anniversary before we become parents! We spent the day in the city, ate lunch at fogo de chao & did some power-shopping for baby! 

Miss anything? Subs, walking normally, being able to go an entire shift without peeing.

Movement: Always... as we speak I have an arm jabbing me in the bladder.  

Food cravings: Fruit ALL the time!! But it's been really hot here so it might just be because it's summer!

 Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Gender prediction: Boy 

Labor signs: I have started having lots of braxton hicks (at least that's what I think they are!) I think I've felt them before, but always thought it was just baby balling up inside my stomach. I don't think I'd notice them except that they take my breath away. 

Symptoms: Lots of rib pain & back pain. My heartburn has also returned with full force... thank God for zantac! 

Belly button in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On! I took them off for a couple of really humid days... but just in case. They are back on now! 

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!

Looking forward to: Our next appt and seeing how big baby is getting! 

Book Sling Tutorial

I am so excited that we are finally making some progress on baby boy's nursery! I made these book slings the other day & thought I'd show them to you! I didn't take pictures while I was making them because I planned on following this awesome tutorial that I found at pinterest. However, once I started reading it I realized that it sounded too complicated for my little non-sewing-brain... so I just made it up as I went along {using the least amount of cutting possible} and this is what I came up with. They are not as fancy as all the other book slings floating around pinterest but I love them & they were so easy! {even for me, who can ONLY sew straight lines... that are usually not even straight}

The easiest part about making these is that I made the slings before putting any of the brackets into the walls so that it didn't matter what size I made them. For this project, I purchased 1 1/2 yards of fabric from Joann.  I pretty much just cut my fabric in half to make them even. The dimensions were 32 inches long x 24 inches high {all unfolded, so when folded over the sling will hang down around 6 inches}. *see picture below*

I ironed the edges over to make a 1 inch seam on each side so that my sling would be 2 1/2 feet wide. I don't have one of those fancy tools to make your hems perfect, so  I just sprayed homemade cornstarch and folded/ironed along the line of the stripes to make it straight. I pinned & sewed about 1/8" from the edge. 

 Once the edges were sewed over, I simply folded the fabric in half {printed sides together} and did my best to sew a straight line from one side to the other. I may not be explaining it well, so please ask if you have questions... but it really was as simple as that. 

So, instead of making a loop for each rod to go through {like the original tutorial}  you are basically just sewing the sides over & then creating a big "muff" for the curtain rods. 

The hardest part was hanging the brackets {but thankfully, hubby did that}. I sewed the slings first, so we just put them on dowel rods & held it up to the wall to see where the brackets need to go. 

I got these brackets from Lowes for $5 each. They are in the curtain section and take it from me, they do not sell these at every hardware store... so just go to Lowes. We never shop at Lowes so I went to Home Depot to see if they had them, but no luck & I ended up wandering Lowes anyway! 

 I also got the dowel rods at Lowes, but they only had 4 foot long rods, so for my project I had to buy 4 separate ones and cut them down to about 2 3/4 feet {they were almost $2/each}. But they do carry the same width at joann for $1 cheaper, but they were only 2 1/2 feet... so depending on your size you may want to look around. I cheated & just painted the ends with craft paint. I don't plan on adding anything to the ends, although you could add some decorative knobs if you wanted. 

To assemble the slings, you just loop the entire thing around both of the rods. 

I put the seam right on top so it rests in between each rod. 

Then, just push down the middle of the fabric & your books will sit right in there! 

The main difference from all of the other slings out there is when you look at it from the sides you can see the double layer of fabric. But once you have the books in the sling, you really can't tell much at all. 

I love how they turned out & I have to admit, I really like that they look almost seamless from the front. 

I hope this tutorial wasn't too confusing... sewing really is not my thing! So here is proof that if I can do it, you can too! Otherwise, if you are more ambitious than me here is the link again to the original post. It truthfully is probably not all that difficult... I am just really bad at following directions! 

linking up here: 

sugar bee crafts: take a look tuesday

today's creative blog: get your craft on

tip junkie: tip me tuesday

weekend bloggy reading: serenity now

sundae scoop: i heart naptime

saturday at seven: it's overflowing