38 Weeks and Still Preggers

Hi there! Julee's still cookin'!

Reached 38 weeks today - cool beans! Pregnancy-wise, I still feel pretty stinkin' awesome. I'm not "done" yet or feel like I need.to.get.this.baby.out.NOW. Nope...still reasonably comfortable. I can't believe how different my pregnancies have been.

Our family has been struck by lightening this week. Well, more like the plague. Black Death. A week and a half ago Lily Mae started showing signs of a cold, and I caught it just a day later. We tried to bear with things for a while but neither of us was showing any improvement or getting any relief from a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. When I reached full-term last Wednesday, I had a bunch of celebrating planned but didn't feel up to doing anything at all. It kinda stunk. There was just SO much snot. When that snot started turning foul colors over the weekend, I knew we weren't going to be able to fight it off without help. Clark's immune system was starting to break down, too. Monday came and I gave my midwife a call reporting symptoms of a sinus infection. She agreed and gave me antibiotics. I took the little one to the doctor that afternoon and MY GOSH - she is SICK. She has RSV (her doc said I have it, too), a secondary bacterial infection in her lungs, and infections in both ears. Poor, poor kidlet. For feeling so terrible she sure tries to not let it get her down. She's such a trooper. Anyway, she got antibiotics for the bacterial stuff. Then Tuesday, Clark was knocked out cold and had to take the day off. He went to a doctor's clinic and found he had the start of some infections, and for Julee's protection they went ahead and gave him antibiotics to try to clear all the germs out of our house before she comes. So, we're a family full of germs and prescriptions, but we're all starting to show signs of improvement. This has been the first time I've gotten really sick this pregnancy - I had forgotten how absolutely miserable it is.

Anyway...I had an appointment with my midwife today. They don't standardly do exams there, but they will ask if you'd like to be checked. If you do, then they will - simple. I declined last week, but was just curious today. I'm 4cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Julee is incredibly low (like, "right there" low)! They think she'll be coming really soon. I'm not having labor contractions or anything, but the Braxton Hicks have been picking up over the past couple of days. I haven't gained weight in 3 weeks now, but Julee is still growing well and sounding great so there's no concern. The midwives over the past two visits have both predicted that she'll be around 6.5 pounds (there are 3 midwives at the practice, and I see all of them). If I make it another week, I don't think I'll want to get checked again. I know that I'm making progress and I have confidence that she will, in fact, come out one day. I don't need to know every measurement. ;)

Clark's response when we left the center? "4 centimeters, huh? I guess I need to paint the room tonight." Hahaha. 'Bout time. (He still didn't.) (Love you, honey bunches.)

I look really goofy, but LM's cute for sure! We've been going for some walks around the neighborhood to get that pelvis of mine nice and loosey-goosey.

The weather's been crazy nice here for weeks. Today it was in the mid-seventies and sunny. I wore a t-shirt and skirt with flip flops. How silly of me for thinking that it would actually feel like winter when Julee was born....

But really....we're ready for her to come. Emotionally, I'm nervous for sure, wondering how in the world I'm going to be able to be a mommy to TWO. On the other hand, I know we've got everything we really need for now and I'm excited for and looking forward to the birth, breastfeeding a new little nursling, and meeting my baby girl!! My guess is that this will be the last belly picture and pregnancy update, but only time will tell! :)

Big Belly.

Gliding into Mommyhood (again)

This baby can officially come! Well...I would like our family to be a little healthier first, but today's big news is that my glider is finally finished!!

I found a used Dutailier glider on Craigslist when I was around 16 weeks pregnant or so. It had nasty, stained blue cushions that I intended on recovering whether I had a boy or a girl. I did the same for Lily Mae's room, but the glider I found for her was a much cheaper brand and man, you get what you pay for. I improvised on her chair's slipcover and had no clue what I was doing. It turned out ok (I never did finish the ottoman), but most importantly I learned a whole lot.

For this chair, I found my inspiration from none other than Pinterest. I loosely followed this tutorial for a glider slipcover (here is my pin). The designer's chair was very similar to mine, but as I worked I found some differences which meant I needed to do things a little differently.

Before - yuck.

After! Yay!

If you like this slipcover and would like to make one like I did, here are the things that are different between mine and the tutorial I used:

• One of the snap straps at the top of the back cushion was missing. Instead of making little tube sleeves to cover them, I just made new straps using velcro that loop around the back of the frame. (I think doing that looks better than the tutorial, anyhow. Just my opinion.)
• I like piping and wanted my chair to have it. I made the purple piping and pinned it between my layers before sewing.
• The bottom cushion on my chair attached to the frame with ties, so I added ties to my cover. I didn't see this step mentioned in the tutorial.
• The armrest cushions in the tutorial were rectangular, but mine are molded foam. Making a rectangular cover wasn't going to work, so I simply examined the cushions I had and tried to copy the pieces. I traced around the curves on the sides to make a pattern for those pieces before pinning it all together. Also, her cushions snapped right to the frame, while mine attached with two straps. I just left openings in my cover for the straps to come through and snapped them; I didn't bother making them pretty because they are barely visible anyhow.
• The tutorial shows how to make or add pockets to the armrests. On her chair, the armrest frame is open, so her pockets are on the outside. As you can see, that wouldn't work on my chair, so I added pockets to the inside of the seat (and I love them). I lined them with purple but wanted a little bit of it to show, so I pulled some of it around to the front before finishing my seams.
• My armrest cushions did have snaps on the bottom that fastened to the frame under the bottom cushions, and like in the tutorial, I just cut holes in my cover for the existing snaps to be accessible. I did finish the edges of those holes with a satin stitch before poking the snaps through, because the unfinished edges in the tutorial just gave me the willies (but that's just my preference).
• I didn't like the ottoman cover in the tutorial, so I did mine differently. My ottoman definitely needed piping to match the chair, so my top and bottom pieces were equal shapes with the piping sewn in between. I did do a sleeve opening like in the tutorial, but with not quite as much overlap - only about 2 inches. I also added snaps to the opening just to ensure tightness of the cover after several months of use.

So there you have it! I'm so happy with how it turned out. We've still got a ton more to do in the room, but I'm making progress! Clark will be painting the walls a deep purple color as soon as he's feeling good again!