38 Week Check-Up

We had our 38-week check-up this morning, and everything is looking good. Blood pressure and weight are doing fine, my legs are swelling but that's to be expected at this point. I've been having mild contractions on and off for the past week, and they're apparently making a bit of progress b/c I measured at a "loose 1" and am about 40% effaced, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things, and I know I can stay at this for quite a while, but it's farther than I was when we checked in at the hospital with Melanie (when I wasn't effaced AT ALL and no dialating either), so I'll take whatever I can get! I doubt Claire will be making her debut in the immediate future, but I'll keep you posted... who knows, maybe there will be a post entitled "We're Going to the Hospital" in the coming weeks!

Nesting or Just Feeling Productive?

Overall recently I've been pretty tired and unmotivated to do anything more than what needs to be done on a daily basis. I'm very content to sit and read the paper or watch Melanie play, I've just had no urge to do anything productive. But Thursday came around and I finished knitting a hat, finished sewing a diaper bag and made pretzels from scratch. Then today I cleaned out and organized four sets of cabinets in my kitchen as well as moved stuff onto some shelves that Matt built in the storage room in the basement and have started packing Claire's hospital bag, all after going to my cousins basketball game and spending a few hours at my parents house. Not too sure if this is what nesting is like or if I've just gotten over a lazy slump I've been in... only time will tell I suppose.

The diaper bag I just made using a pattern from a book I got for Christmas

Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones

It wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Lots of interfacing and fusible fleece to iron on to stuff, then lots of piecing together. The pattern called for a divider in the main compartment, but I didn't want it so I didn't bother - one of the perks of making it yourself!

I've been wanting to make pretzels at home for a while, so when I came across the recipe for Soft Buttery Pretzels on Allrecipes.com I decided to give it a whirl. The only difficulty I had was my own fault due to forgetting to turn the dough to coat it with oil before letting it rise in the bowl, so the top of the dough formed a bit of a skin on it which made them a bit more challenging to roll out, but still very tasty. Matt enjoyed them as well, so I'm sure I'll make them again some time and experiment with different toppings or add ins - maybe I'll be able to duplicate the Parmesan Herb one that Auntie Anne's discontinued years ago and I've been craving ever since!

I just couldn't resist sharing this cute picture of my little girl and her daddy - being able to see love like this in my life daily truly is a blessing!

Preparing for Stockemer Offspring #2 / Melanie's Big Girl Bed

Baby #2 is fast approaching her arrival date, and now that the holidays are over I feel that I can focus on getting ready for her. We've decided on the name Claire Therese (haven't decided if we're using the ` marks yet). Tomorrow night we'll be going to the baptism prep class at church - the last one we'll have to go to since they only require 1st and 2nd time parents to go. We moved Melanie into her "big girl" bed before Christmas and will hopefully finish transitioning the changing table and glider out with the regular dresser sometime this next week, allowing me to finish up putting Claire's room together. Matt has dug all the baby clothes storage tubs out of "the pit" that is our storage room (still working on sifting through the post-basement finishing mess and probably will be for quite some time) and I've started washing everything in Dreft. We'll have to buy some new clothes since Claire is more of a winter baby and Melanie was a spring baby, but I'm trying to hold off until she gets here to see how big she is. Melanie was so small she wore her newborn stuff for a couple of months, but in reading the tags most of it says up to 9/10 lbs, so if Claire is bigger then there won't be much of a need for that size, so I have enough to get us through the first few days and we'll go from there.

It's starting to feel more "real" now. Not that it wasn't before, but with the time approaching so quickly I'm starting to feel like stuff needs to be done. I didn't really get that feeling with Melanie - no big burst of nesting at the end. I just contentedly sat on my rear end reading for the month I had between when I quit work and when Melanie arrived. Maybe it was because I had all this stuff done by the time I quit work. As soon as I had a baby shower I'd come home and wash all the stuff and hang it up and find appropriate places for all the other gifts. This time is different. I actually have a little one to keep me occupied, so I have to make time to do all the little things that were so easy to accomplish the first time. I worry that I'm not spending enough time getting ready for Claire, like she's somehow already getting less attention than Melanie, and she hasn't even officially arrived yet! I'm sure that's just mother's guilt, and I'll have to learn to live with it. Nonetheless, it's there and I don't like it very much!

Something I've done for Claire that I didn't do for Melanie as a newborn - I've knitted her a hat! (granted Melanie didn't really need a warm hat in April, and I didn't know how to knit then, but I need something to alleviate my guilt!)

It's super soft and I have a couple different colors of ribbon I can put in it to go with her outfits.

Melanie really did not like me putting the hat on her doll. As soon as I put it on she started saying "No! At!" and pointing at the hat that the doll normally wears. She only calmed down once I put everything back just as it should be in her eyes. Oh, how little Claire is going to rock Melanie's world!

How Melanie is preparing for Claire - ramping up the pouting quotient

The "Big Girl" bed

We opted to keep Melanie in the room she's been in and just switch the furniture instead of having her switch furniture and rooms and not be the center of attention any more. We figured the less disruption we could create in her little world the better. Plus, this way we don't have to patch all the holes in the wall from where we have Melanie's name hanging up, just to make more holes for Claire's name instead, and Claire will get some new decorations, so she won't strickly have hand-me-downs on everything.
We've already established a routine to go along with bedtime and the new bed. Matt gets Melanie and a sippy cup, she acts like she's crying (even though there are no tears and she isn't really sad - it's an odd part of her routine - more of a vocal protest than anything) they collect Spot the dog and the yellow bunny (which come out of the room with her every morning when she gets up), come give me a kiss and a hug (smiling by now), and go to her room. Matt lays her down, gives her her cup and sets a toy on either side of her, tucks her in and says goodnight and sits in the glider in the dark for a while until he can sneak out. She's very particular and if you skip something, like only tucking her in with the sheet and not the comforter, she makes sure to point it out. OCD is alive and well in our firstborn!

Giving Spot some lovin'

She really enjoyed posing for these pictures - that's why there are 4 when one would suffice!

The Play Room - AKA Maker of Free Time for Mom

Melanie has been getting to experience independence pretty regularly recently. No, she's not a latch-key kid yet, but I have been letting her hang out in the play room without me for brief periods of time. I tell myself this is to get her ready for when the baby gets here and I can't give her my undivided attention, but if I'm honest with myself it's also to provide a distraction so I can get something done or just have a few minutes to myself during the day. I take Melanie downstairs and turn on the light for her in the playroom, make sure all the other doors in the basement are closed, and then return upstairs to unload the dishwasher, read the paper or even knit for a little bit without Melanie becoming intrigued by my task and trying to "help" me. I leave the gate open at the top of the stairs, and when she feels she needs my attention, or she begins to suspect that I may be having fun without her, she comes back upstairs.

This arrangement has been working well so far, mostly because she doesn't stay down there alone for more than 15 minutes at a time, but it seems to be helping me keep my sanity. And since we don't have furniture in the basement yet and recently I seem to have the agility of a beached whale when it comes to getting up off the floor (the only place to sit right now) Melanie will continue to have these short bursts of independent play time throughout the day. Matt normally spends a while downstairs with her in the evenings so I get some "mommy" time, and I try to make a point of playing with her for a bit each time we go downstairs, but it's fun to peek in on her when she's playing by herself. It's fascinating to see her little imagination at work at such a young age!

Here are a few pictures of the playing in action

The Jumping Mattress

Don't worry - she really only jumps on this when someone is watching her because it's an exhibition thing for her - she's quite the little show off

You can't tell from the pictures, but she's getting some pretty good height on these jumps

(earlier today)
Her very own little kitchen!
She really enjoys this - my sister Laura gave it to her for Christmas

(just a few minutes ago)

While I was typing this post Matt called me in to the playroom to take a picture of something Melanie was doing and this is what I saw

Melanie had set the table for the two of them, making sure Matt had his crossword puzzle and even "filling" the pitcher and his cup with water at the sink in her kitchen - Matt said she wanted everything "just so" and arranged it how she wanted it. She prefers "cooking" for Matt - I have yet to be given a meal at Melanie's Diner. I guess little girls fall in love with their dad's earlier than I thought...
She even got out of her seat and made sure Matt folded his hands so they could pray before eating!

(Matt's been working on this with her at dinner time)

Puzzles - always a favorite!
What the playroom quite often looks like after Melanie has had 15 minutes to herself.
I think she feels she has to inventory all her toys each time she goes downstairs, so they are quite often dumped out of their containers and on the floor. I hope to get some shelves in the not-too-distant future to hopefully help deter this "need" of hers, as well as to clear up some floor space. I'm not too fond of the toy bins lining the walls - looks cluttered to me.

Melanie's Hat

So I got Melanie's super cute coat at Target, but couldn't find a hat anywhere to go with it, so I resorted to making one to match. I found a pattern in a Patton's book that I liked and it knit up really quickly, but was unfortunately too short in the crown due to what I think was an error in the instructions which said to knit in stockinette for 3 1/2 inches from the beginning of the work (which is the same amount of space called for in a newborn hat I just made for the baby- hmmmm.....), but I think it would be more accurate to go for 3 1/2 inches from the edge of the ribbing. Anyway, the hat didn't cover Melanie's ears, which kinda defeated the purpose, so I decided to try and save it by making some ear flaps to piece on it.

As you can see from the picture below, the ear flap idea, while less time consuming than making another hat, didn't quite work out. The combination of the brown plaid and the ear flaps was just too reminiscent of Elmer Fudd for my taste and not retro-chic like I was hoping for. So I redid the hat, making it longer in the crown and a bit smaller around since the 2T I had originally done was a bit too generously sized for our petite little lady. I also added the decorative stitching line above the ribbed edge since I didn't feel there was enough of a feminine touch to the large quantities of brown going on with the ensemble. But now Melanie has a hat that both fits and matches, and I'm happy with it, and she seems to enjoy it as well - we can't go anywhere without it!

Be vewwy vewwy qwiet... we're hunting wabbits!
The new and improved hat

Hamming it up for the camera
As soon as you take a picture she comes over and expects you to show her how it turned out in the review screen of the camera. She's so vain!

She Wears Her Sunglasses At Night

So this actually happened several weeks ago before we moved Melanie into her "big girl" bed, but Matt and I found it so funny that we had to share, and I don't know how to get videos onto the computer, so I had to wait for Matt to have some free time. Normally we would have taken a picture, but we thought the sudden flash would wake her up.

Christmas Baking

Just a few pics of some of the goodies I made this year. I scaled it back a bit and only made six or seven items for the goodie baskets, plus the jam I made during the summer. I didn't get pictures of everything - too tired or too forgetful (take your pick!) I gave these to RCIA team members and my PSR co-instructor.

Almond Croquant

(fancy speak for almond brittle)

Super easy - only 3 ingredients and it took about 20 minutes to make - no candy thermometer needed!

Peppermint Bon-Bon Cookies

Chocolate and Peppermint - two required flavors this time of year!

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

I must admit I thought the Thanksgiving cookies were cuter overall, but I didn't start decorating these until after 9:00pm, so I was definitely running out of inspiration (and frosting to color!)by the time the bells and Star of David came around at 11:00.

I also made White Chocolate Honey Roasted Nut Fudge, Peppermint Pinwheel cookies and the standard white chocolate covered pretzels. I have a feeling there was something else in there, but it's escaping me right now, so I guess it wasn't my favorite item in the basket...