Small Sewing Project and Nursery Progress

Pregnancy

I will be 35 weeks pregnant this Tuesday! Time sure is flying! Here is the most recent photo of my "bump." Ignore the mess in the background, our neighbor was cleaning out his garage at the time. Besides exhaustion and lack of sleep, this week has actually been better than the past couple were! The problems come and go, but I only have about 6 more weeks and then it'll be baby problems instead of pregnancy problems ;) The exhaustion and sleep deprivation are just going to continue, of course. I did end up in the hospital a couple weeks ago due to some issues they were worried may be related to my epilepsy. They kept me for observation and monitoring of the baby for a few hours and some meds. Once everything improved, I was sent home with the meds in case it happens again. Hopefully not, though, I felt terrible for two days after from the meds. I think this issue was they made me sleep all day - which ended up leading to me getting really dehydrated. This made the ongoing circulation, swelling, and cramping issues worse. The monitoring did show I was already having some contractions, so we will see if I make it all the way to 40 weeks. I know I've been having a lot of false labor contractions, but the monitors showed some real ones that were weak (I didn't even know I was having them). They did an exam though, and everything seems to be going well. 

Nursery

We finally got the nursery painted! We painted it Sherwin Williams "Balmy" blue (SW 6512) , it is a calming sky blue color. My "plan" is to put up some cute tree and woodland creature vinyls, but we will see if that actually happens. 

Here is the "before" picture of the nursery in the color it was previously as well as all of our not-yet-assembled nursery furniture. 

Here are the "progress" pictures from yesterday and today. Yesterday we did the first coat of paint, and today we did the second final coat and worked on assembling the big items. 

We still have a few things in boxes - nothing major. One musical swing, a bath seat, and a pack n play. Then it's on to figuring out storage, furniture arrangement and decorations! We don't have much in the way of decorations, yet. By not much, I mean nothing ;) So I may need to paint some cute little woodland creatures to hang up in there!

Once we finish all of that, we have another huge project to take on: my sewing room. It will no longer just be my sewing/craft room, but also a guestroom. Complete with TV, games, futon, bookcases, as well as all of my sewing and craft stuff. Dealing with that this week is going to be "fun." We also need to order another baby gate to put on the bathroom door so that we can move the litter box out of my sewing room (who wants that in their guestroom, right?) and into the bathroom. Why a gate? Bruce is gross and eats cat poop. What a problem pup. 

Baby Shower

Yesterday, TJ's squadron made me cry (darn pregnancy hormones!). I was told to take the day off work for his squadron's barbecue. I just thought it was a good time to be social, eat free food, and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having. I even cooked up some cornbread for it! When we arrived I was greeted with his entire squadron and their families surprising me with a baby shower! 

This made me feel so grateful and overwhelmed. I have been so far from close friends and all of our family members this entire pregnancy in this new place. Knowing the military really steps up to provide this kind of support is so amazing and appreciated!

I was asked quite a few times at the "barbecue" and I have also been asked at work, via text, and messages on Facebook about the baby's sex and name. Well, we have not found out whether we are having a boy or a girl, but we DO have names picked out. Here is my post on the names from Facebook: 

"If we have a boy, his name will be Theodore Edwin Dalen. He would be named after my great-grandfather on my dad's side, Walter Theodore Boyett, and TJ's grandfather on his dad's side, Edwin Olai Dalen.

If we have a girl, her name will be Valera Kate Dalen. She would be named after TJ's great-grandmother on his mom's side, Valeria Varna (Koerner) Bridges (with a slight spelling change), and my great-grandmother on my mom's side, Kate Rhea (Peckens) Slaughter."

Small Sewing Project

I forgot to post this little project a while ago. I found the pattern on pinterest and thought it was brilliant. Just a quick, afternoon project. So far I have only made one for the master bath, but I need to find some fabric to make one for the guest bath as well. Behold the awesome toilet paper holder: 

I used the exact fabric from the shower curtain my mom made for TJ's birthday. We are going with a "space" theme for the master bath. So far all we have are the shower curtain and now this, but we'll get around to decorating this house eventually....I plan on making a teal/purple/pink one for the guest bath, which is decorated in flamingos.

Next Blog

My next blog will likely feature all of the awesome baby quilts and baby gear my mom and I have made (so far). It is so much fun sewing cute baby things! I am also on the last block of TJ's double-sided T-Shirt Quilt. I took a hiatus on it while working on other things, mostly because it is huge and the T-shirt fabric has been a pain to hand quilt. Just have the last block and then the binding and I will finally be finished with it. Still have enough T-Shirts for two more quilts, but I may make one of them my first "rag" quilt so I won't be hand quilting the entire thing - which takes time from more important projects ;) 

My parents will be visiting in November and my mother-in-law and possibly sister-in-law will be coming Dec-Jan. I plan on working on the baby book I received at the baby shower and the family tree book while they are all visiting. I love those types of things!

Baby Registries
For those who have asked, we are registered at Target and Amazon. Just look up my name "Stephanie Dalen" and due date of "November 24, 2015" and they should pop right up.
 Our Target registry
Our Amazon Registry