Baby Bedding

I'm not sure if our child will have his or her own room, but they will definitely have their own bed. Besides a travel system, bedding was something I wanted to pick out before I knew the gender. I knew I wouldn't pick pink bedding if the baby's a girl, or blue bedding with sports/animal themes if the baby's a boy. I like simple patterns, nothing too busy on the eyes. So I set out online to find that. I'm not sure how many sites I perused, but it was more than a few. Of course, I found some really beautiful, awesome crib sets. I just don't think my baby needs $300 (and sometimes more) bedding. Leave it to me to like the expensive stuff the best. As for the sets in my price range, I didn't find anything I just loved. But I wasn't too discouraged. I still had some time.

Next, I turned to Etsy. Surely there would be people on there making crib bedding out of awesome fabrics...and there was. Plenty, in fact. There is some gorgeous baby bedding on Etsy. But, it's completely out of my price range due to the homemade aspect and the quality of fabrics being used. It's more than the manufactured sets...as it really should be. I'm sure it's worth it. My baby just won't be sleeping on any of it.

Then my friend Kelli, who is amazing at sewing, offered to make the crib bedding! Problem solved. I guess I will be getting some custom bedding after all. On Black Friday, we went to a few fabric stores in Shreveport to hopefully find something I liked. I really like brown, turquoise and lime together, and I figured that would work for a girl or a boy. At least I think it does. I like it and I'm a girl! We went to Jo Ann's first because I had a coupon. We didn't find anything there for bedding, but we did find a great, soft flannel that's brown with light and dark turquoise, lime, and white polka dots. We bought a couple of yards, and Kelli is going to make swaddling blankets out if it. The only bummer is that it was barely put on sale which meant I couldn't use the 50% off coupon. Shady Jo Ann's...shady.

Next, we went to Hobby Lobby. There, we found some fabric that is dark brown with small turquoise polka dots. I decided it would be the perfect fabric for the crib bumper. We then found a solid turquoise fabric that is the exact same color as the polka dots on the first fabric, at least to our eyes. That's what the bed skirt will be made out of, and it will be trimmed in the crib bumper fabric. You know, to tie it all together. So that left the quilt fabric. It will be a patchwork quilt incorporating all the different colors. It will have squares of the brown polka dot fabric, turquoise fabric, as well as light turquoise fabric and white fabric we found at Hancock's. It will be backed with white minky fabric. That way it will be super soft on one side. So the bedding doesn't have any lime in it. It ended up being brown with turquoise polka dots, dark turquoise, light turquoise, and white. That way, I can just get white sheets and call it a day. I think  it's going to be so cute! I can't wait to see it all finished one day. Thankfully, Will liked the colors and approved of the choices. Right now, I just have some fabric scraps to help me envision it.

It's kind of a dark picture. Crib bedding fabric on top, swaddling blanket fabric on the bottom.

An Update on Our Baby

I had my second baby appointment today. It's hard to believe it's been a month since the first one. The appointment was very quick and laid back. Blood pressure is great, I only gained two pounds in the last month, and I'm in great health (the sinus infection is on the way out). I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was strong and healthy and 155 bpm. The doctor said it was perfect. Yay! Even if everything feels fine, I still have random thoughts like, "What of the baby has stopped growing?" and stuff like that. So now I have proof the baby has not stopped growing.

On my way into the doctor's office, I was called about starting a temp office job this afternoon. We need the money for sure, so I accepted. I start in about an hour and a half.

The next appointment will be December 28th, and we'll find out if we're having a boy or girl. So I will not know before Christmas.

Today...

begins the second trimester!

Babies

Not babies in general, but the documentary, "Babies." We streamed it on Netflix about 2 weeks after we found out I was pregnant. It follows 4 families from different places in the world raising their child from birth to about one year old. The families in Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco are raising their first child. The families in Namibia and Mongolia already have one or more children. There isn't much talking in the film, so you don't have to read subtitles the whole time. The pictures tell the story. I thought it was so interesting. The SF and Tokyo families seemed very similar to each other and what all of us would think of as pretty normal as far as baby-raising goes. They had the means to give their child anything she wanted (both are girls). They went to playgroups and outings with other families. They have dedicated play rooms full of toys and books and whatever else. Yet, I couldn't help but think that I don't want my child to have that much stuff. You could tell that the children were somewhat spoiled, and out of the 4 babies, these two were the ones most likely to throw a temper tantrum over not getting their way.

Of course, the Mongolian and Namibian babies are on the opposite end of the "having stuff" spectrum. In America, we have no concept of raising our children like these families are doing. The Namibian child (a girl) sits in the dirt most days, but she plays with her siblings or cousins, and there are a few things to play with. The baby doesn't seem angry about having to sit in the dirt all day because that's all she knows and everyone else is doing it too. I'm pretty sure she gets breastfed by at least one other woman who is not her mother, which probably seems strange to us, but you could tell it is more like a community raising a child rather than just one or two people. The Mongolian family lives on the plains and is farming and/or tending to animals all the time. You get the impression from the film that the baby is left inside alone a lot of the time. I'm not sure if that's really how it is, but I'm sure at least one of the parents could not be inside watching a baby all day when there's so much that has to be done outside. So they bundle up the baby (a boy), and place him on a bed surrounded by blankets and such so that he cannot fall off the bed, and there they leave him. At one point, a rooster jumps on the bed beside him, but he doesn't even flinch. Once the child is older, they tether him to a bed post, so he can crawl on the floor some. That seems like something folks would go to jail for in America. But that's how it is in their culture. The baby has an older brother who terrorizes him, which I'm sure parents of two boys can sympathize with. Once the child starts venturing outside, it's interesting to see how he interacts with the animals. It's so different from here, but he's not having any less of a childhood than kids here are having.

All in all, it was a joy to watch this film. One thing I noticed about all the babies is that at some point  they all say, "Mama." I thought that was so cool how that word is used all over the world. It lets you know that even though they're being raised in such different circumstances, they still have something in common. Very cool. I'd say it's a must see, regardless of whether or not you're pregnant or already have kids.

Babies

Strollers, Travel Systems, Whatever.

Amid my days of scouring the Internet for jobs to apply for, I've recently let myself take breaks to look at baby stuff online. I figure it's about time to start thinking about some things baby related...like strollers. Since it was confirmed I actually have a baby inside me on October 25th, I've been thinking about stuff I would like to pick out before we find out if we're having a boy or a girl. A stroller, or travel system (stroller, carseat, etc.) is one of those things. I definitely want to choose something suitable for either gender. Baby bedding is also something I want to pick out before knowing the gender, but that's another post.

While looking at travel systems online, I had a few criteria. It had to be safe and proven safe by whoever proves those things. It had to work for either a girl or a boy. That means pink was out. Pink was out anyway. I would never buy a pink stroller. I think most blue things work for girls as well, so this left lots of color options. Finally, it had to be something we actually could see ourselves pushing and carrying around for the next year and half or so. That means we had to check them out in person to make sure we could be comfortable carrying, pushing, and folding up the thing.

First came the Internet research, though. I knew I would not let this consume my life and make it harder than it had to be. So after some casual looking for a couple days, one night I decided to pick one or two that we liked. I wanted to choose something available at Babies R Us because that makes it super duper easy to register for. I ended up mainly looking at Graco and Chicco. After looking up all the info I could find about them, I ended up preferring a Chicco travel system. I liked the colors (from what I could tell from the pictures online), it got great ratings from actual users, and it had excellent safety ratings. Last weekend, we went to Babies R Us and checked it out in person. We pushed it around some and carried the car seat down the aisle. We had some assistance from an employee who showed us how to take the car seat out the stroller and fold up the stroller with one hand. Yeah, we had no idea what we were doing of course. We are newbies. We liked it, though, and we're going to stick to this decision. That wasn't so hard. Check one off the list.

Chicco Travel System

What Can I Expect?

I admit, I haven't read much about being pregnant. I did not run out and get "What to Expect When You're Expecting" the first day I had a positive test. In fact, when I thumbed through the book a few days later, I could only handle a couple minutes of reading it. Apparently, what I can expect is to be paranoid and overanalyze everything for the next six months. Of course, I read some stuff on what foods and medicine I should avoid, and found out what foods I really need in my diet. Being a vegetarian is fine while pregnant, at least my doctor thinks so. So please stop telling me I need to eat meat or my baby will die. I just don't think that's true.

The past couple days, I've been doing some research online about whether or not I should get a flu shot and what medicines I can and can't take for a cold or sinus infection. I only started thinking about this because I have a sinus infection at the moment. It seems like the flu shot question is evenly divided down the middle with people saying you MUST get it and those saying YOUR BABY WILL HAVE BIRTH DEFECTS if you get it. What the heck am I supposed to do then? I can skip the shot and hope I don't get the flu. I haven't gotten the shot in a really long time and I haven't gotten the flu. Is my immune system really that different now that I'm pregnant? Of course, I might end up actually getting the flu and it could get out of control and develop into pneumonia and I will end up in the hospital with a high fever and a steady dose of drugs that while helping me, could give my baby birth defects. Or worse, I could die. At least that's what the Internet tells me. On the other hand, there's a pretty good chance that me getting a flu shot will not hurt my baby at all and he/she will be born as perfect as can be. So why not get it? Because there's a small chance my baby WILL HAVE BIRTH DEFECTS. That's what the Internet is screaming at me. I have no idea what to do. Honestly. I may just forget about it as soon as this sinus infection goes away anyway. I really don't like the idea of taking ANY medicine while pregnant, but I know that really won't be possible. I've already had to take antibiotics once, and if this infections continues, I might be taking some again soon.

This has really been the first thing I've researched, and the reports are so conflicting. I'm assuming it's going to be that way on pretty much any pregnancy issue. I'd really just like to avoid all that hassle and stress. I prefer to just keep going along, and if everything feels fine, then assume that everything IS FINE. And right now, aside from the nasal congestion, everything feels perfectly fine. Do I really need to be a pregnancy expert and read everything I can about it? I have no desire to do that. I just want to enjoy this. It's going well so far. I don't want to worry about anything unless something comes up that needs worrying about. Even then, I know it's better for me and the baby not to worry. I've learned from the Bible that worrying does no good whatsoever.

Wondering...

Here I sit, living through the last week of my first trimester of pregnancy. I have to say these first 13 weeks have flown by, no doubt helped by the fact that I didn't discover I was expecting until I was 7 weeks along. As I'm sure most pregnancies are but no one wants to admit, this one took us completely by surprise. Complete shock. Life is changing. This is a BIG deal. I admit, it was tough at first to accept all of this so quickly. I can't say my first feelings were joy and happiness. Is that bad? However, joy and happiness came quickly after I got more used to the fact that I was, in fact, pregnant. I am completely happy that I'm having a baby and I already love this child. We still have some hurdles to get past, though. The big one being that I don't have a job. I figure I've got about 3-4 weeks max to find one before I start looking pregnant. This freaks me out so much. I've applied for around 200 jobs in the past 2 months and I'm still not employed. This has never happened to me before, and I hate it. It just makes me want to say, "Blerg." Enough of the negativity. Surely there is something out there for me.

As far as being pregnant goes, it's not so bad at all. I haven't had a tummy ache in a long time and I feel pretty normal. I have another doctor's appointment in a week. Everything was fine and dandy last time and we got see the little baby on the sonogram swimming around like a little fish. Amazing. I'm praying everything is still going fine, and from my perspective it seems like all is well. I'm quite thankful for that. This little baby will be here around May 22, 2011, Lord willing. Yay!!