31 Weeks!

How far along? 31 weeks! Another week toward our goal! PLEASE stay in baby girl! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 18

Sleep: tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? about the size of a Pineapple. 15.2 to 16.7 inches and 3.25lbs

Best moment this week: not dilating any further as of Tuesday despite the contractions and cramping

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: granola bars and strawberry banana smoothies

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: being allowed to take Bray to the park, walks, and other fun places :( 

What I am looking forward to:  scheduling our growth scan

Patriotic Bunting!

I bought fabric forever ago to make patriotic bunting for Memorial Day/4th of July/Labor Day. I've been slacking with everything else going on in life and finally remembered I had the stuff. I figured it was a good craft to do since I can sit and make it.  It turned out cute! My only issues is the bias tape I had wasn't as long as I would of like but it that's okay. Here's some pics!

Bella's Newborn Hat!

Bella's Newborn/hospital hate finally came in! I think it turned out SO cute and I absolutely love it! SO of course I had to blog b/c i'm that much of a dork. lol  I totally recommend the Etsy seller, she did a great job. I'm sure the hat will be a little big but at least she can wear it for a little while.  

30 Weeks and another l&d trip

Another "exciting" week for us around here. We had another trip to L&d triage on Wednesday. I've been having some intense cramping and a few irregular contractions. It was the 3rd day in a row where it was consistent and it wasn't getting better, so I called the ob to see what they thought. So off to L&D we went. The monitors were showing uterine "irritability" the whole time i was there, but fortunately no full blown contractions. Which i knew but at least I'm not crazy on the cramping. The cervical check showed that I'm not 80% effaced and a finger tip dilated. The ob was NOT happy about the dilation since its still so early, and said it's a "slippery slope" at this point. Fortunately the FFN test came back negative so we aren't in immediate danger of going in to labor. I'm greatful that Bella is still laying  transverse at this point. The fact that her head is not pressing on my cervix directly is our saving grace. Hoping and praying she stays in for AT LEAST another 4+ weeks. Obviously the longer the better but we are trying to get to that milestone at this point.  This little girl sure does love messing with mommy! 

How far along? 30 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 17

Sleep: tossing and turning, hot flashes and having to pee a lot 

How big is baby? the size of a cucumber Average size: 15.2 -16.7 inches, 2.5-3.8 lb.

Best moment this week: getting things ready in the nursery 

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's having a dance party

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, tail bone pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: granola bars and strawberry banana smoothies

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: being allowed to be more active but Bella needs to stay IN 

What I am looking forward to:  scheduling our growth scan

Getting Ready for Bella!

Slowly but surely we are getting everything together and set up for Bella's arrival. Of course I'm not due for another 10weeks and 4days but with my premature contractions/effacement/cramping I'm trying to make sure we have things done a little earlier just in case. Of course my "Type A" personality wants me to have things done ahead of time regardless so it's nice to get things together.

The kids will actually be sharing a room, which should be interesting but we painted the whole room a turquoise color (Brayden's color) since her bedding has the same color in it. It ties everything together really nicely. Brayden's wall is going to be painted with horizontal stripes in varying sizing in the turquoise, a darker turquoise and white.  We already had chocolate brown curtains in there (they darken the room nicely) but I'm not sure if I like them with the new bedding but that's the least of my worries. We got the same style crib as Brayden so they match and it keeps things looking cohesive. Brays bed converts to a toddler day bed so he will be using that for a while.  I love the butterfly bedding that I found. Big surprise I picked butterflies!! It's SO cute! I will have to drop the mattress down later but I know she won't be in it for a long while so I'm not worried about it right now.

I also ordered a few things for her off Etsy.com.  I LOVE that site, it's addicting and just plain trouble when it comes to buying things. I did find this awesome seller who does personalized wall decals. I got Bella's name in white with dark purple butterflies. I absolutely love how it turned out. I totally recommend the Etsy store Just the Frosting their stuff is reasonably priced and beautiful.  I am absolutely in love with how our decal turned out, it's beautiful.  Here's the link to the one we ordered.  PS girl stuff is so much fun to buy/decorate ext. I have the hardest time finding things for Bray that I really like.

I also ordered Bella's monthly onesie stickers! I loved taking the monthly photos of Brayden so I had to get her, her own!  They are SO CUTE!

I think all we are waiting for from Etsy (for now lol) is her newborn hat for the hospital.  We had gotten Brayden a hat with his name embroidered and I wanted to keep up with that tradition. It's definitely a great keepsake after it no longer fits.  We ordered this ADORABLE hot pink hat with zebra bow, obviously with her name on it. I can't wait for this to come!!

Mothers Day Crafting!

I love trying new DIY crafts and projects so I figured I would try some cute personalized gifts for our moms for Mothers Day. Pinterest of course was my inspiration.  I decided to make photo coasters and collage flower pots. The coasters were super easy and totally cute. The modge podge did leave a little bit of textured lines on the photos but they still look nice. The flower pots were a little tougher since the pots are wrapped. They came out okay.  Definitely a trial and error kind of thing. I sealed the pots and the coasters with acrylic spray to water proof them. Both moms loves them so that's all that matters.  Here are some pics on how they turned out.  

Coasters

Flower Pots

Spring day!

Yesterday Pennsauken's Historical Society had a Spring Day for the kids. I know, I know I'm suppose to be taking it easy but we decided to take a short trip just to get out of the house and enjoy the amazing weather. Brayden had a great time. The whole even was really small and there wasn't much to it but it made for a nice relaxing time. Bray's favorite part was the animals. Of course! When we got there they were still setting up but since there wasn't a crowd there was plenty of opportunity for Bray to get lots of "petting" time in.  I love his curiosity with everything. He really loves animals so this totally made his day!

He also got to go on his 1st pony ride and absolutely LOVED it! They had a two med size horses and a miniature horse named Lollipop. lol Bray's always been too little to ride the horses before but fortunately the miniature horse was perfect for him. I was a little worried he wouldn't want to stay on the horse. Since he never wants to sit still for anything but he did great! In fact he didn't want to get off when he was done. lol Fortunately because the place wasn't packed he was able to get another ride later on. :) He really looked like such a big kid riding the horse. *tear*  Glad we decided to head out despite the car breaking down afterward.  uggh. That's a whole other story but we didn't let it ruin our day.