26 weeks

How far along: 26 weeks

General feeling: Hot and tired. Summer has decided to go out with a bang here in Michigan. After a pretty mild summer, it's suddenly hot hot hot. We don't have air conditioning at our place, and the past couple nights its been so sticky and warm all through the night.
Boy or girl: Boy.

Weight gain: 13 pounds up from pre-pregnancy weight and 2 down from last week (how does that even happen?). When I went in to the OB last time, he said some women will have a jump in weight gain, and then it'll plateau for a while instead of a steady and consistent week-to-week gain.... so maybe that explains it.
Maternity clothes: Still about half and half. Non-maternity jeans still work with a belly band and shirts still fit as long as I have a long tank top on underneath.
Innie or outie belly button: Innie, just barely.

Rings on or off: On.
Braxton Hicks: Just a few.
Movement: There are days when I just feel him rolling around, and then there are days when he's dancing a jig. Breakfast in the morning and juice in the evening get him wiggling like crazy.

Cravings: Nothing really.

Sleep: Hot and sticky and pretty much not happening the past couple of days. Fall come soon please.

Best moment of this week: Our countdown till Baby's due date is now in the single digits (98 days today), which is exciting and absolutely terrifying at the same time.

Looking forward to: Long holiday weekend!

25 weeks

How far along: 25 weeks.

General feeling: Good. Sleep has been pretty good over the past couple of nights, which is such a relief. There are days when I huff and puff to catch my breath more than usual, but that doesn't happen too often. On Sunday I worked in the nursery at church, and chased an eleven month old all afternoon. I was exhausted afterwards and felt like I had a peek into my future. I've gotta hand it to all you second time (or more!) moms.
Boy or girl: Boy.

Weight gain: 15 pounds up from pre-pregnancy weight. Holy weight gain Batman.
Maternity clothes: half and half. I'm still able to comfortably wear my pre-pregnancy jeans with a hair tie at the button. When I wore a non-maternity shirt this weekend, I did notice that with my belly as big as it is, the shirt was just a little too short to cover it.

Innie or outie belly button: It is just barely an innie. Like a shy outie. If I push on the sides around my belly button, that'll make it pop out, which Trevor hates and says it gives him the creeps. Which makes me do it more.

Rings on or off: On.
Braxton Hicks: Just a couple, but they went away after a minute.
Movement: All the time. I've gotten so frustrated because the biggest kicks would always happen when I was at work or on evenings when Trevor was gone, and he still hadn't felt anything. Finally, last night when we were watching Netflix, I felt a couple wiggles and we paused the show. After a few small kicks that Trevor didn't feel, there was finally a big one right where his hand was. :)

Cravings: Nothing really. Honestly, I kind of feel like I'm missing out on the pregnancy appetite. In the first trimester, I could rival a teenage boy with how much I could eat. Now when I eat, I feel like a fill up faster and can't eat large helpings anymore. Maybe my stomach is being squished and it doesn't have enough room... that doesn't bode well for Thanksgiving though. 

Sleep: Good overall. Tossing and turning (which is proving more and more difficult), but since I've gotten use to that, I go right back to sleep after shifting around.

Best moment of this week: Trevor feeling a kick last night. Finally! 

Looking forward to: Using this nesting urge to get projects around our house done.

diy polka dotted wall

I have loved polka dots as long as I can remember.  When we first bought our house and where trying to figure out what to do with the master bedroom, I knew I wanted to have a polka dotted wall.  

left, right top, right bottom

I started combing the internet to find a place to buy polka dotted decals.  Then I read this tutorial. It suggested using colored contact paper instead, so you could trace and cut out dots in the exact size you wanted.  Lo and behold, buying a roll of contact paper is so much cheaper than buying pre-cut dots.  I found a roll of gold contact paper on amazon (here) and got to work. 

As shown in the inspiration pictures above, I liked confetti or glitter-like polka dot patterns instead of something very organized.  In order to make things look more "confetti-ish", I decided to make different sized dots and used two items to trace the dots.  The larger dots ended up being about 4 inches across.  I used the top from a small kitchen canister to trace the smaller dots, which were 2 inches across.

This step took the longest amount of time. Trevor and I would put on a movie in the evening, and I would spend the next couple of hours just tracing and cutting out circles. I traced just a handful of the larger circles and around 100 smaller circles by the end of the project.

The next step was figuring out a pattern to stick up the dots.  I knew I wanted the dots to look more like confetti falling than a specific length apart.  I decided to start from one corner of the bedroom where the dots would be more concentrated and then sprinkle out from there.  Before I began, I put up sticky notes to mark where I wanted the dots to go.  That way, I could take a step back and rearrange the sticky notes before I put the dots up if things looked too far apart or close together. 

Once I liked the sticky note placement, the dots went up quickly and without any problems.  Our wall has a little bit of texture, but that didn't interfere with the contact paper's stickiness at all. The hardest part of this step was getting the paper's backing to separate from the sticky side.  After putting up the dots after a while, I stopped putting up sticky notes, since I had gotten use to the placement of the dots and was able to eyeball it.  Once I buckled down and was focused, it only took me a day or so to finish this project.

Here's what the wall looked like when it was half done.  I'd take a picture of what the wall looks like right now, but our bed is covered in clean laundry that still needs to be taken care of... so that picture will come later.  

All in all, this was an easy project.  The most time consuming part was tracing and cutting the circles.  Over a hundred circles later, I still have half a roll of the contact paper left, so it's a relatively inexpensive project.  I put up the first circles a few months ago, and they haven't fallen off or lost any of their stickiness.  The only problem I had was when I didn't like the placement of a dot and went to peel it off to reposition it.  Once or twice when I did this, the contact paper held on to the wall and some paint peeled off.  I love the way our wall looks and Trevor says it doesn't look too girly.

Linked up on: sixsistersstuff, mysnippetsofinspiration, craft-o-maniac, flamingotoes, niftythriftythings, vmg206, 

thecasualcraftlete, delineateyourdwelling, thegirlcreative, uncommondesignsonline, ishouldbemoppingthefloor, persialou, carolynshomework, sugarbeecrafts, ourtableforseven, astrollthrulife, lilmrstori, tipjunkie, thenymelrosefamily, snapcreativity, thehappyhousie, somedaycrafts, gingersnapcrafts, whitelightsonwednesday, sewmuchcrafting, lambertslately, lifeinvelvet, bloomdesignsonline, theboldabode, the36thavenue, thepinjunkie, ,atkinsondrive, lifeoffaithblog, thegirlcreative, 

love list

These zucchini oatmeal choco chip cookies are amazing. I decided to make a double batch of the recipe since our zucchini could've fed an army. And it's a good thing I did. I went through the first full tray of cookies right when they were cool enough. Whoops. Worth it.

Right now I am in nesting mode. I want to clean and organize everything and I'm on the sewing machine once a day whipping something up. I have a to-do list that is made up of things to make or do around the house that'll make it a little more home-y. One project I've been dying to do for a while now is a DIY tufted headboard. I'm terrified, but I collected dozens of tutorials on my inspiration pinboard and figure I'll take a whack at it in the next week or two. What's the worst that could happen, anyways?

rocking chair

It is so exciting to see the nursery come together more and more. This past week, we received a rocking chair from my parents that fits perfectly in the space (and the cat, our official tester, refused to get out of the chair. He's a fan.) This past week, I made a fox basket to use on the dresser/changing table. Right now, I'm using it for the swaddle blankets we have so far, but it might be a catching area for cloth diapers in the future.

fox basket

And on the subject of foxes, this drawer pull from Anthropologie is the cutest thing ever. I don't want to really have a themed nursery (our theme is "baby room", ha), but I can't get over how sweet this hardware is. I keep thinking about using it on the dresser or on a bedside table we're going to bring up.

Happy weekend!

24 weeks

How far along: 24 weeks.

General feeling: Good- the past couple days my sleep has been better and I haven't had as many leg cramps. Yay!
Boy or girl: Boy.

Weight gain: 10-ish pounds up from pre-pregnancy weight
Maternity clothes: About half and half right now.

Innie or outie belly button: Innie, but just barely.

Rings on or off: On.
Movement: Everyday. Some days there are a lot of pokes and kicks, and other days I feel him rolling over more often, but there is some type of movement everyday.

Cravings: Burritos. Anything with tomatoes. Although that's nothing new.

Sleep: Better this week. I try to drink soooo much water during the day so I don't wake up to leg cramps, and I try to work out in the evening so I'm more tired when I head to bed.

Best moment of this week: Eating pesto toast. Ha.

Looking forward to: The weekend, just to be able to sleep in again...

2nd trimester must haves

I'm not totally out of the second trimester yet, but I definitely find myself needing a few things that I didn't need earlier on in this pregnancy... pregnancy heartburn is the worst....

1. Even before pregnancy, I would live in these tank tops, but they are the best right now. The longer length is perfect for tugging over a belly and tanks are great right now when it's too warm to wear anything with sleeves (August with no AC = sad face)

2. I have loved vegetable juice forever. Right now, I love drinking it knowing that I'm making at least one healthy eating choice for the little bun in the oven.

3. Oh my word, I was in for a world of shock the first time I got heartburn a couple of weeks ago. I had never had heartburn before, and it was pretty much the worst thing in the whole world that had ever happened to me. I fell asleep feeling like I was going to die or puke up fire. Fun. The very next day, Trevor and I made a special trip to Meijer to grab Tums. They've been a lifesaver.

4. Favorite maternity pants. These are affordable, comfortable and H&M's "tregging" pants come in a few different colors.

5. "Drink water, stay hydrated" is something I hear every time I see my OB. After having a kidney stone a few years ago, I'm already in the habit of drinking so much water every day. After becoming pregnant, I see different things in my body if I don't drink my normal amount of water... I have more leg cramps through the day, I feel more sluggish, and I'm more prone to headaches. 

I'l probably have a few more items that I would add to this list before I'm out of the second trimester, but these are things I couldn't live without so far!

23 weeks

How far along: 23 weeks.

General feeling: Good! I'm so thankful for the up-spike in energy since I can't sleep through the night. 

Boy or girl? Boy

Weight gain: I'm guessing right around 10 pounds, since I was up 9 from my pre-pregnancy weight at my last OB appointment.
Maternity clothes: About 70% non-maternity clothes, 30% maternity clothes. All my shirts still fit since I lived in knit items before. Nothing's gotten stretched out yet either. :)

Innie or outie belly button: Innie.

Rings on or off: On.
Movement: Wiggles every single day! Trevor still hasn't felt anything though.

Cravings: Nothing really, but I had a crazy craving for a cinnamon roll in the middle of the night a couple nights ago.

Sleep: Ugh. I feel like I change positions every 20 minutes. I start every morning already looking forward to a nap that afternoon.

Best moment of this week: Feeling wiggles everyday- it never gets old.

Looking forward to: Figuring out more things in the nursery. We've hung bookshelves, moved up a dresser from the basement (the top surface will double as a changing table), and I keep thinking about painting the closet doors with chalkboard paint.