Canada's cheapest nightgown!

Not wanting to wear the embarrassingly revealing open-backed hospital gown during the walking-around stages of labour, I thought I'd need to find a decent and cheap nightgown - one that I wouldn't mind chucking if need be. It's been one of the last things on my list of stuff to pack for the hospital...

We were out today with friends shopping and stumbled into the bed clothes section of the Bay downtown and I am now the proud owner of a $12 nightgown! It's very old-school and I could kind of picture it on Mrs Roper, but it fits over the baby bump and I think it's perfect for the hospital! You know you're not buying high-fashion when you can try it on right over your clothes in the middle of the store. My friend Mi ae bought a different but similar one too (she'll be heading to the hospital a few weeks after we do, if the timing is right!). It was hilarious - kind of a competition to find the cheapest nightgown in the store...

The tragic part is that it's so comfortable that I'm wearing it right now... I also got a cutish pink & white polka dot robe to go over the ugly nightgown, so that helps a bit!

Check - another essential off the list!

Don't go thinking that Jamie and I are all about frog t-shirts and wall decals (ok, we're mostly about the silly stuff). We also realized that we had to get down to business and finally figure out which car seat to buy so they'll let us leave the hospital with PJs! It was kind of overwhelming every time we went looking, so eventually we resorted to the good old Internet for advice.

I am fine with not using the infant seat on the stroller frame, so we decided to go with a convertible model that will stay in the car and allow PJs to sit rear-facing for the full first year, regardless of his weight, and then switch around for forward-facing use. It also reduces the amount of stuff to buy (rather than an infant seat and a regular seat a year later). Of course, I'm also glad to reduce the amount of crap we have to chuck in a landfill, since you really can't share or sell a used car seat for safety reasons...

Consumer Reports rated the Britax Roundabout as the top choice in the smaller-sized convertible category. It's got a ton of safety features that go above & beyond, and it also doesn't look hideous (which helps, but on this one subject at least, I decided to go for function over form!). We chose the Onyx one shown above (not that heinous cow version!!).

The only trouble was that all the stores in our area have the seat on backorder! Luckily, Dave & Bonnie were still down traveling the California coast in their RV. We found a store that sold the seat in the area they were in, and they were so sweet to pop into the cutest kids store - Chicken Little in Santa Barbara, CA - and pick it up for us. Thank you!!!

Ahhh...

I went yesterday for a terrific pregnancy massage at Spa Utopia at the Pan Pacific. It was glorious! They offer special massages geared to each trimester, all with RMT's. I had April do mine, and she was lovely - really skilled and so nice. I started out lying on my left side, propped up with special pregnancy pillows, exposing my back. Then I was rotated onto my back with props to make me comfy and safe, and my arms, legs, feet, neck and head were massaged. SO GOOD! I wish I could buy one of those massage tables - it was the most comfortable I'd been in ages!

I don't know why I waited so long to do this... OK, I guess working all day and timing visits to the spa don't go hand-in-hand so easily. It was definitely worthwhile. I think I'll book another one for week 38 and go back for a few postpartum sessions too.

36 weeks!

Had another regularly scheduled visit to the doctor this morning, and as usual she listened to PJs heartbeat and measured his size. She also felt around to determine his position, as she has been doing since about week 30 or so. He's been head-down for a while now, but today she was having a hard time figuring out which pointy hard part was the head and which was his bum, so she's sending me for another ultrasound on Monday to check. I am glad to get another look at PJs anyway - I certainly hope he's still doing his breakdancing moves on his head and hasn't turned himself around!

What PJs is up to:
By 36 weeks pregnant your baby is now right about 6 pounds and is about 20.6 inches or more long! Your little one will soon enter the ranks of heavyweight champs as you continue pregnancy week by week and he approaches delivery!

Your baby is still working on putting on weight during pregnancy week 36. While that may not seem very exciting, keep in mind this is his primary job from now until delivery. Round babies are healthy babies. This is probably the one time in your baby's life they can put on pounds with wild abandon. If you were to peak inside your womb, you'd probably see your baby giddy with glee.

Did you know that some researchers believe your baby actually releases a signal to trigger labor? There are actually several different theories. Some believe that when your baby's brain is completely mature it sends a signal to the fetal adrenal glands. These glands then start to secrete the hormone cortisol, which may alter the metabolism of estrogen and progesterone, resulting in labor.

Other researchers have postulated that the fetal lungs secrete signals indicating they are mature, as well as enzymes that result in the release of prostaglandins, which help the cervix ripen and help the uterus to contract. This is highly likely as the body does release prostaglandins around the time of birth.

Stoller blanket

Finding new uses for more of my favourite fabrics! I just made this stoller-sized blankie (the one on top) for PJs. It's thicker upholstery-weight cotton on the patterned side and super soft plushy minky fabric on the back. It's the cuddliest, coziest thing ever!

Happy Easter (Peepsday)

Happy Easter everyone! Hope the Easter Bunny has been good to you all! He brought us some chocolate eggs and I might just have one!!

I didn't get any Peeps this year, what with them being made of 110% sugar (+ yellow food dye), but I do love them. More for the nostalgia factor than the taste - let's face it, they're not very delicious! Caught this hilarious diorama contest featuring Peeps in a variety of scenes - good for a laugh... And I thought I had a lot of time on my hands! I liked this one - the running of the Peeps...

Happy Spring!

Jamie and I went for a drive today way out to the country (Langley) and stopped by the Cedar Rim garden shop. They have a really great selection of plants year-round, and they've started to get lots of spring flowers in now.

I made up this planter for our balcony. I am thankful every year for Aunt Patti's great advice about having to really stuff the planters for good effect (hers are always beautiful!). My new blue pot managed to fit in:

1 lysimachia "goldilocks"
3 lobelia "laguna sky blue"
2 bacopa "giant snowflake"
1 4" heuchera "dolce key lime"
1 fuscia "gartenmeister"
1 fuscia "wilma versalot"
2 supertunia "mini bright pink"
1 Siberian iris "pristine blue"
1 giant unlabeled fern

Can't wait to watch it grow! When we moved from our last place I was so tired of moving stuff at the end that I left several large terracotta planters on the patio, as well as the Zen garden I'd planted in the built-in garden area. I brought a few things with us though, including two Japanese maples in pots -Charles II and Prince Harry (he has red leaves). I name my maples after figures in English history you see... I had to leave Oliver Cromwell because I'd already planted him into the Zen garden... He and Charles II didn't get along so well anyway... I also have a heavenly bamboo, a myrtle and a pot of ivy.

I will add some more lovely green things soon - I can't stay away from the garden shops this time of year. All things considered, I really restrained myself on this outing!

Week 35!

35 weeks have passed and there are 35 days to go, according to the ticker above. I have finally stopped working this week, which I think will really help with more time to exercise, make our healthy meals and take naps... And decorate too, apparently! Yesterday I hung some pictures in PJs room and a blank canvas that's just waiting for inspiration (and paint). We have to go and get our car seat, probably this weekend.

Jamie is now done with his work travel for now, by the way. He's staying in Vancouver and working in the office so he'll be ready when the time comes. I think I'll start packing a hospital bag just in case PJs decides to come early!

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby now weighs about 5.25 pounds/2.4 kilograms and measures approximately 18 inches/45 centimetres from head to toe. His elbow, foot or head may protrude from your stomach when he stretches and squirms about. Soon, as the wall of your uterus and your abdomen stretch thinner and let in more light, your baby will begin to develop daily activity cycles.

This week, your little one is now sporting fingernails and has a fully developed pair of kidneys. His liver can also process some waste products.

Hand made stuffed giraffe

I love the line of stuffed toys (and pretty much everything) by Dwell, but due to a combination of sometimes-thriftyness and the fact that I like to sew, I am always pondering whether to buy their stuff or just try to copy it...

Jamie helped me to draw out a similar giraffe and I used more of the blue dots fabric (four metres went a long way!) and another coordinating fabric that I happened to have on hand. And lots of fibre-fill stuffing. The Dwell version is a little boxier - I bet they use foam inside rather than stuffing. The back leg has a bit of a wonk, but I think it turned out pretty well!

Ready for a stroll...

We went on Sunday to pick up our stroller from Crocodile on 4th. I'm glad we went with the Bugaboo Frog - for us it felt like the most comfortable, maneuverable option, and suited our minimalist aesthetic. It's totally a cinch to collapse and expand too.

I totally recommend Crocodile, by the way - the store owner put our stroller together for us and was really nice, and they have a lot of other cute stuff that I'll be going back to peruse more closely... If you're in the market for a stroller, check them out, because the Bugaboo Frog was $100 less there than anywhere else, and a couple of our friends bought a Peg Perago there for a good deal as well. And a shout out to Kimmie & Shawn who we met there unexpectedly! Have fun decorating! :-)

Jamie thoroughly "enjoyed" posing for this quick photo on the store's doorstep... We pulled the sunshade up on the way back to the car so it wouldn't be quite so obvious that we were a couple of tools pushing a carriage full of instruction manuals down the street...

Week 34!

So, I was getting caught up on PJs development for this week's update on my favourite site, BabyCentre UK and I saw an interesting article on "what baby needs" during the first little while. What I thought was really hilarious is the differences in terminology - I am very up on my UK-lingo, but for someone who already finds baby items confusing enough, the difference was quite confounding!

Apparently, I need to stock up on vests, something called a babygro, nappies, prams or pushchairs, teats and poppers, among other things... Most of that is decipherable - translations: undershirts, onesies, diapers, carriage/stroller, bottle nipples - but what the heck is a popper!?

Oh, if only PJs could have a British accent... He could be all like, "Mummy, where are me poppers luv? Blimey, it's been nippy out this past fortnight!"

By the way - I totally want these Union Jack babylegs - don't they rock? Somehow I doubt that baby leg warmers were on the "essentials" list - unless that is what poppers are? :-) They have some other great styles at Crocodile on 4th, so I'll pick some up, but I might just have to order these British ones online for maximum hilarity.

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby now weighs more than 4.7 pounds / 2.2 kilograms and is 18 inches / over 45 centimetres from top to toe. He's filling out and getting rounder - he'll need his fat layers later to regulate his body temperature.

If you don't already talk to your baby, this is a good time to start -- at 35 weeks his hearing is fully developed. Don't feel ridiculous if you're already chatting in baby talk. Some evidence shows that newborns pay closer attention to high-pitched tones.

If you've been nervous about going into premature labour, you'll be happy to know that 99% of babies born at week 35 can survive outside the womb - and most have no major problems. Although your baby's central nervous system is still maturing, his lungs are nearly fully developed by now.

Blik-tastic!

Jamie and I decided to get some different Blik wall graphics after some serious consideration of the bare walls in PJs room and after getting bored of waiting for the ones we ordered originally to arrive... We are not super patient - lazy perhaps, but not patient!

I started thinking that something a little freestyle might be better than the alphabet Blik (which, in order not to hamper PJs ability to read someday would probably need to be arranged, you know, alphabetically). We saw my other favourite graphics - Critters by Dutch artist Zeptonn - at Inhabit in Yaletown (the best store in the whole area) last weekend, and we went for a terrific walk today to go pick them up.

They were so easy to install. Plan a little, peel & stick! Here you see Jamie tacking up the graphics in the high areas for our test layout.

And voila! Here you see one of the two walls that we applied them to. I left room on the short wall for some artwork (to be found/made) and we keep popping back in there to check the room out. It looks so great and like lots of fun. It's a great solution to walls that you can't paint - they peel off when you are ready to change your mind again.

We still have a bit of decorating to do of course - I'll upload a good 360 view soon when it's all together!

Ahh - comfort!!!

So, I am sure I've mentioned my lack of sleep... I have been feeling extremely tired lately and kind of like I haven't had a good night's sleep for about seven months! Well, Jamie suggested that I get some new fancy pillows to help, and yesterday we stumbled across a great one.

We stopped at Relax the Back in Burnaby, one of those weird stores that sells $4000 tempurepedic mattresses and zero-gravity chairs to chiropractic patients and the elderly. The store and staff are actually really nice and we found the most fantastic pillow there.

It's a memory-foam contoured wedge meant to help you sleep on your side or back comfortably, with a separate neck pillow. It is really, seriously amazing and so comfortable. Mainly I'm using it on my side but man alive on my back - the best thing ever! I have to find out from the doctor tomorrow if it's ok to sleep like that before I really do. I hope so! This morning was the first time I've woken up in the morning in a while not feeling like the bones in my hips and back were being rubbed with sandpaper all night!

I highly recommend the "lady ramp" as I'm calling it to any other pregnant ladies out there. Thank you Jamie - good idea and great pillow!

Week 33!

Still motoring along into week 33. PJs is approximately the size of a pineapple, according to one "information" source! I assume they mean the body is the size of a pineapple? Or do they mean the weight? Whatever the basis, I should mention that I let last week pass without my favourite reference from the first pregnancy magazine I bought way back in August - last week PJs was the size of a SMALL CAT! That is both so funny and so creepy.

Mr. Peej is kicking up a storm and I really love it. I think last night he was trying out some serious exercise routine in there - he was bouncing off the walls and keeping his mama awake for ages in the middle of the night. Maybe it was the delicious Japanese food I ate for dinner that excited him?

What PJs is up to this week:
The growth spurt continues: by the end of this week your baby now weighs about 4.2 pounds / 2 kilograms and could measure as much as 43.7cm/17.2in long from top to toe. By now, he's probably head down in your uterus - most babies are at this point - though he may continue to change position.

Your baby's skull is still quite pliable and not completely joined, in part so he can ease out of the relatively narrow birth canal. But the bones in the rest of his body are hardening. Your baby's skin is also gradually becoming less red and wrinkled.

Perfect for a messy baby!

These bibs were so easy and fun to make. The pattern is from the great book Bend the Rules Sewing. The book has lots of fun and easy projects - for around the house and tons of cute stuff for little girls especially (the author has three girls).

The most complicated part of making them was actually using the photocopier to enlarge the pattern by 175% as the instructions indicated. And the project included hammering to attach the snap buttons - fun! The fronts are cotton and they are reversible too - the back sides are flannel.

Crib bedding extravaganza!

Finally got the bedding finished for PJs crib! I don't know why, but I picked a finicky triangles pattern for the front side of the quilt, which took a long time, but I like how it turned out. About half of the fabric (in blues, greys, and limes on white) is actually from fabric I cut off of Jamie's old shirts!

And then I was stumped on what on earth to do to the reverse side. Maybe other people plan these things a little better, but I always do the one side and then sit around wondering what to do next... Then, Jamie and I were at the fabric store last weekend to get some flannel and I found a great blue & charcoal dot fabric from Amy Butler. Inspiration struck, you might say! Bought 4 metres of the stuff, and then realized on the way home that was a crazy amount of fabric to buy for a baby's crib... :-)

Sandwiching the quilt together is always where I screw things up somehow, so I took a few days to think about things... Even still, this time was no exception - I sewed the layers together only to realize I'd layered things wrong and then had to trim the edges all off and make the quilt a little smaller to fix things (kind of like how I'd give you a haircut, should you be so silly as to ask!). See, I rarely use a ruler, which results in some interesting disasters sometimes. The funny thing was, after trimming and fixing it, it turned out the perfect size, so maybe that's a better approach?! Check out the whole thing, together!

I machine-quilted the whole thing together, which resulted in a really cool zig-zag pattern on the reverse side. I usually mess up a bit at that stage too, but this time it went fine. And since I had so much extra blue dot fabric, I made some toss pillows and an entire bed skirt too! I did the top-stitching and all the rest in one big burst of energy last night - is that the nesting instinct? I felt like I just couldn't put it all down until it was finished!

Next up, I want to paint a canvas and we're eagerly awaiting our Blik wall decals. Oh, and I have an idea for a cool mobile... And I have a ton of bibs to finish and an idea for a cover for the change pad... Must be nesting, or else I'm starting my own sweatshop for real this time!

Bump watch

Thought I'd share some photos of us from last weekend so everyone can see the state of the baby bump!. That seemed popular last time! :-) Apparently I have one "pose" - hands in pockets.

We spent the day at Van Dusen gardens enjoying a great walk and some fresh air. The witch hazel trees were blossoming and they smelled great!

Sophie the giraffe

Imagine my surprise when I found something on my "cool items list" at Babies r Us the other day! I kid, I kid - it's a great store, but seriously, they never seem to have the weird stuff I'm looking for. Except in this case...

Sophie the Giraffe, aside from being immensely cute, was up there on my list under "chompy toy for PJs".

This French toy was first created in 1961 and is all kinds of great. She's soft and light, chewable, free from PVC and phthalates, and is perfectly sized for a baby's little hands. And she squeaks! She's made from soft, natural rubber and painted with food-grade paints, perfect so baby can chomp on her head and legs to relieve teething. She's designed to stimulate all of a baby's senses. Also cool, she's made in the French Alps! It's hard to find anything made anywhere interesting lately.

So, long story short, I scooped her up and am trying hard right now not to play with this toy myself. :-) I'm about 1/8th French, which Jamie teases me about whenever I am too fancy or making my own crepes, and since PJs will be about 1/16th French (what's that, about a tablespoon?), I am sure he'll love Sophie.

Feeding time

I was buying my Peanut Shell sling online this morning (from Peek-a-Baby in Edmonton - yay, no customs fees) and had to "top-up" and spend a few more bucks to get free shipping. Better to pay for stuff than shipping, I figured... I found some awesome items from Boon that will be fun to try out (in quite a while) for PJs mealtimes.

This sippy cup, catch bowl and interlocking compartment bowls set are all BPA-free and break-resistant. And cool-looking, non? The catch bowl actually suctions to the table and has that fun, dribble catching spout. Their whole line of feeding stuff is great - I think I will have to go back and buy the bendy spoons and the squirty feeding thingy too some time!

Also great, 10% of their profits are donated to various children's charities. Any company who wants to give some of their money away is good by me!