30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Hi. I'm Amber. I'm 28 years old, married for 3 years this month, have two dogs, 1 cat, and our first baby on the way.

I don't really have that much of a recent picture. I'd say this is most recent, and it's from before the pregnancy. No one needs to see the amount of chins I have going on right now... haha



"Interesting" Facts:

1. I don't find myself to be interesting at all.

2. My BFF Dayna and I have been friends since the 2nd grade. That's 7 years old, so we've been friends for 21 years. Wow! Love her, she's like a sister to me.

3. I was a cheerleader. Shocking, I know. Well actually it was the Spirit Team. Which meant that we were cheerleaders and pom dancers all in one. I cheered starting 8th grade, and all the way up the middle of senior year, when I was actually kicked off the team because the new coach did not like me. It was my life. I loved it, and dammit I was good at it! I was doing both JV and Varsity my freshman year! Being kicked off was devastating to me. I had invested so much time in that damn squad, and when we got a new coach, she decided she didn't like me, so she came up with this demerit system. If you get x amount of demerits you'd be kicked off. She would give me a demerit for not having my freaking hair bow in right! Seriously! She didn't give ANYONE else demerits. She didn't enforce any of her stupid rules to anyone else. She had it out for me. Yep. I'm still bitter and hate that evil bitch. haha I also danced starting freshman year, so after getting kicked off cheer, I put all my focus into dance. I was actually a choreographer for my class.

4. I have this irrational fear of ghosts, or being possessed by the devil or something. I always think my house is haunted at every single little crack it has at night. I think this started when I watched the Exorcist at a way young age.

5. Even though I have said irrational fear, I LOVE scary movies. Bloody gory are my favorite. Love cheesy, old, vampires, ghosts, zombies etc. Any scary movie! Love.

6.I have a tween obsession with Twilight and Robert Pattinson. I'd probably leave my husband for RP. ;)

7. I am an Arizona Native. One of the few. I would LOVE to experience living in a different state. I hate it here. I'm sick of the ugly, dry desert. I'll probably never leave though. Husband likes it here, we have a house, and we are starting our family. I couldn't take my kids away from their family. Oh well.

8. Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. I'd take it over Christmas any day.

9. I am always late. ALWAYS. I usually run about 10 minutes behind. Don't ever expect me early. I'm sorry in advance. I don't do it on purpose, I promise! I'm also assuming I'll be even later once I have a kid to get out the door. Sorry!

10. I am a daddy's girl. He still calls me "Princess".

11. I have 6 tattoos

12. I love Taco Bell. It's really the only fast food I will eat. Maybe Wendy's but I have to really be in the mood for that.

13. I would love to be a stay at home mom. It's my dream job. Unfortunately, that's all it is, a dream. We can't afford to have me stay home. Stupid bills.

14. I'm very unorganized. I can tell you where something is hidden underneath a pile though. If Husband cleans and moves it where it should belong, it gets lost.

15. I have an eyebrow obsession. I always notice when someone's eyebrows are overplucked, bushy, shaped weird. Just get them waxed people! It's the best way to keep them nice and shaped well. It will make your face look so much better.

30 Day Blog Challenge anyone?

So I was looking at random blogs, and I came across a blog called Katie's Journey. I never have much to say on this blog, and so if I updated it as much as I wanted to, it'd be even more boring. So I thought I'd spice it up with Katie's 30 Day Blog Challenge. Seems easy enough. Here's what it entails:

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3-Your first love
Day 4-Your parents
Day 5-Your siblings
Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7-Favorite movies
Day 8-A place you've traveled to
Day 9-A picture of your friends
Day 10-Something you're afraid of
Day 11-Favorite tv shows
Day 12-What you believe
Day 13-Goals
Day 14-A picture you love
Day 15-Bible verse
Day 16-Dream house
Day 17-Something you're looking forward to
Day 18-Something you regret
Day 19-Something you miss
Day 20-Nicknames
Day 21-Picture of yourself
Day 22-Favorite city
Day 23-Favorite vacation
Day 24-Something you've learned
Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26-Picture of your family
Day 27-Pets
Day 28-Something that stresses you out
Day 29-3 Wishes
Day 30-a picture

Wanna join me? go go!

Third Trimester Update

Well, I'm a good two weeks into my third trimester! Woopie! She'll be here before I know it! I'm at the end of my 29th week. Finally going to be out of the 20's and into the 30's. It's starting to feel real. Like, OMG I'm going to have a baby in two months! I'm going to be called Mom from now on. Crazy! I'm super excited though. I cannot wait to see my little girl and hold her in my arms.

We had a doctor's appointment this week. She's weighing in a 3lbs 2oz in my 29th week. Doctor said that's in the 75-85 percentile. Yikes! He said that if i go full term she'll be close to 9lbs. As of now, the plan is to induce on December 13/14th (he said come in the evening of the 13th and i should have her the 14th). I'll be 38 weeks that week, so she'll be considered full term.

Now inducing was not my first choice. I would really love to experience the whole going into labor, rushing to the hospital, yelling at my husband to drive faster thing. I'm on the fence about inducing. On one hand I want to listen to my doctor. I trust him, and hell I would be lying if I said having her here before Christmas does not sound super duper appealing. That would be awesome. On the other hand, I've been getting all these opinions that are confusing me to no end. Especially from my femi-nazi mother. But i won't even go there... Nothing is set in stone at this point anyway. We will reevaluate in a month. They'll measure her again and see where she is, and we'll go from there. Either way I'll do what I think is best for me and my baby. I do not have gestational diabetes, however, I do have a glucose intolerance. Basically that means I'm pre-diabetic, which is why she is running big. Kinda like how GD babies are big. So we'll see.

We did the 3D ultrasounds this week as well. Unfortunately girlfriend was not cooperating. She was facing backwards (her face was to my back), and wouldn't turn around. Here's what we got, but she's all squished so it's hard to tell what she really looks like.


How far along? 29 wks

Total Weight Gain? up 27lbs total.

Maternity Clothes? yep

Stretch Marks? the same ones I've had for a while now. No new ones on my tummy. They are getting thicker though and they itch like a bitch!

Sleep? I think I'm near the end of my great sleep. I wake up every 2 hours to pee. Then around the 3AM potty break, Lily needs to potty too, so I let her out, pee, get water, and then let her back in. By that time I'm WIDE awake! Then I lay in bed tossing and turning for 2 to 3 hours. It happens at least twice a week. Moving from side to side is getting harder too.

Best Moment This Week? Seeing my baby girl on the 3D ultrasound, even though we couldn't see her well.

Movement? Same ol. I'm getting less kicks and more just moving around. She's probably getting cramped.

Food Cravings? nothing healthy and everything that's going to make me fatter.

Gender? GIRL!!!!

Labor signs? no effing thank you!

Belly Button? I think it may be on it's way out...

What I Miss? Sex. Not knowing what heartburn is.

What I Am Looking Forward To? my baby shower next Sunday! Getting everything ready (nursery, hospital and diaper bag, etc).


Milestones? Third Trimester!

Update

I had a doctor appointment this week. Too much weight gained this month. :( Nurse thinks I'm retaining water. I failed my 1 hr glucose test and had to go back for the 3 hr. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And Cailin is measuring a week ahead right now. She's a big girl. I don't know the exact measurements cause it was just a quick u/s by my doctor, but he didn't seem too concerned. I go back for an ultrasound to take all her weight/height measurements in a month (and get 3D pics!). Can't wait.

I finally found a diaper bag. It's a Carters brand. Matches our pink and brown polka dot "theme".


Husband started painting the nursery. I'll keep the blog updated with that.

Um... We went to see Paramore in concert this week. It was okay. I say that because it's what I expected it to be. Tons of little girls screaming. Sucked because I couldn't really hear the band over the sea of 15 year olds. But it was to be expected. At least the venue had seats and I could sit. haha



How far along? 26 wks

Total Weight Gain? Ugh. I had a spike in weight gain this month. 8lbs in one month! Yikes! So that brings me to a total of 19lbs... Nurse says she thinks some of it is water weight though cause I look "puffy" like i'm retaining water. Maybe she's just trying to be nice. haha

Maternity Clothes? yep

Stretch Marks? 6 itchy thick ones that continue to grow.

Sleep? sleep is pretty good. I wake up in the middle of the night completely awake at times and then can't fall back asleep for hours. Don't know what's causing that, but she's not keeping me awake at night yet.

Best Moment This Week? Paramore concert with my friends. Womens expo with my mom.

Movement? Feeling new stuff like rolling, and for the first time she hurt me a little today. It felt like she stretched her leg or butt or something out and it felt like she was pinching a nerve or something. My belly was protruding a bit, and was hard on the one side. She responds to my voice now too! I love that. I say good morning to her when I wake up in the morning and she kicks back. LOVE!

Food Cravings? nothing in paticular

Gender? GIRL!!!!

Labor signs? no effing thank you!

Belly Button? still in but shallow

What I Miss?

What I Am Looking Forward To? my third (THIRD!) trimester starts next week!

Weekly Wisdom? um...... i don't like this question.

Milestones? we're in the double digits! 99 days to go!

Gah! I HAVE to have this!

I saw these at Gymboree this weekend and I was SO close to buy it. But even at 60% off it was still over $15! For the shirt. The dress was like $20. So I passed on it. Cause that just seems way too much for a shirt. And we were on our way to the Carters sale, so I knew I was going to be spending money on her.

But how cute?! I picture a day at the dog park, Cailin on my lap, Lily running around doing her thing and Gizzy laying there like the big fat lump he is. Maybe Lily wearing a red polka dot matching collar? Ugh. I have to have it.



Or this.


Or both...?

Not so weekly, update.

We had a little bit of a scare this weekend. Here I am hanging out with my friend, running errands etc, and I noticed my hand has been a bit tingley all day, but not much of a problem. Then we're walking through Target and I notice that my hand is feeling completely numb, so I say, "Wow, my hand feels really weird" and I look at it and it's like totally swollen and red and hard. And my friend was like, "Um.. that is NOT normal. You need to call the doctor." So we go sit down in their little cafe area and I call my doc. I felt completely fine other than my monster hand, and it was only the right hand. So he tells me to go into the ER to check for a blood clot.

I call Husband and tell him what's going on, and drive home to pick him up, then off to the hospital we go. Since I'm past 20 weeks ER won't see me so they send me to L&D Triage, which I'd prefer anyway to be honest. I go up and they admit me, and nurse comes in and asks me a bunch of questions. Did I get bit by something, etc. Of course by this time the swelling is starting to go down. They put the heartbeat monitor on and check on the baby and she's fine, they take my blood pressure which is fine, and I pee in a cup. You know, routine shit. Then they order an ultrasound on my arm, which we wait for for like an hour. Turns out everything is fine. They said probably just the walking around with my arm hanging down and swinging probably just swelled it up, and to make sure and watch it, drink lots of water, blah blah. Keep my arm elevated when walking around, and if it happens again sit down and keep it elevated and if the swelling doesn't go down come in again.

How far along? 23 weeks tomorrow

Total Weight Gain? Up 8lbs per my last doctor visit. Seems to be about a pound a week at this point, but i haven't weighed myself since.

Maternity Clothes? yep

Stretch Marks? 5 total on my lower belly that are getting bigger and darker.

Sleep? same as it's been.

Best Moment This Week? I don't know... nothing really new going on.

Movement? Lots. I'm trying to figure out her patterns but she's seems to do what she wants, when she wants.

Food Cravings? hmmm this week i was craving Sweet Tomatoes.

Gender? GIRL!!!!

Labor signs? no effing thank you!

Belly Button? Innie but getting pretty shallow. I wonder if it'll pop out.

What I Miss? Sex. It's just not the same. :( I hope it returns to normal after and my labido isn't shot for life.

What I Am Looking Forward To? Everything that's to come in the next four months, and I'll admit, I'm already getting anxious to meet our baby girl. :) Is it December yet? I'll tell you what I'm NOT looking forward to - swelling. My feet and hands are already swelling. Blech!

Weekly Wisdom? ......?

Milestones? um... nothing new. Same ol', which is why I only update this every two or three weeks.

Baby Headbands: My First Tutorial

I made some baby headbands last weekend and thought I'd do a tutorial. They're super easy and came out pretty cute! Take it easy on me though. Like I said, it is my first tutorial.

Here's what you'll need:

- Panty hose. You can use childrens or adult. I used children because I wanted different colors and some had patterns. I thought that was cuter than the adults, because you can only find white and black in adults.

- flowers. Go to Michaels or Joannes and pick out any silk flowers you like.

- Hot glue gun.

- Iron

- Thread and needle for hand sewing. You don't really need your sewing machine for this.

- Bling for the middle of your flower.

- Ribbon


1. First start with your flower. Any kind you like. Here's a BIG one.


2. Take it apart. Start by removing it from the stem then removing the bottom part. Then (not pictured)take apart all the petals from each other, but keep them in order, until you get the top middle part of the flower removed.



3. Next you're going to glue your flower back together. You're going to hot glue each petal together. Just put a small amount of hot glue around the petal's center and put the next petal on top.


4. Once you have it all glued back together, put some bling, or a button, or anything you'd like to decorate the middle in. Go ahead and prep all your flowers. Have fun, decorate them with different colored jewels or like I said, regular buttons, decorative buttons, etc. Be creative.


5. Now on to the panty hose. For a newborn you'll want the measurements about 12 inches. From what I googled, 13 inches will fit up to a year. The panty hose stretch, so seems about right. If you already have a baby, measure her head.

You'll want to start by cutting your measurements, then ironing out all the wrinkles. Make sure you iron the hose on a LOW heating. Trust me. THey will melt. Go ahead and iron them all at one time and put them in a pile to get started.



6. Ok. Now that you have everything prepped, start by folding your panty hose in half and then sew the two ends together. Pull the thread so it scrunches it. That's what you're going for.


It should look like this when you're done.

Inside out

Right side out.


7. Glue ribbon round the sewed area. The best is if you use a silk ribbon. It will be the most comfortable for your baby's head. YOu'll end up with this:


7. Glue your flower onto the ribbon piece, and you'll end up with this!


Next. And this is very important. Make sure you test them out on your dogs.



Oh, and make sure you put the panty hose scraps on their bottoms to complete the outfit.




Just kidding. Here's a few pictures of all of the ones I made.