There’s an end in sight to what I should call my daughter’s never-ending pregnancy. The doctors had us convinced that she would deliver early due to risk factors in this pregnancy and early contractions that started back in January. So we’ve had false start after false start, only to be sent home and my daughter told to take a hot bath and relax. It’s been very frustrating not to mention that the contractions has caused my daughter’s fibro to flare too. (Yes, we both have fibro. Great, eh?)

However, the great news is that baby Laila has proven everyone wrong. She is strong and healthy, and the doctors are estimating (as of last Friday) that she’ll be a “chubby” 7 and a half pounds or so. (They admit their estimates based on her size can vary by 15% or so.)

My daughter is now scheduled to be induced on her due date at 40 weeks. That’s this next Tuesday, March 9th.  Ah, the luxury of knowing something, at last. My oldest daughter had scheduled C-sections so we just knew on X date, she was having her baby. I really enjoyed planning for those dates. Not knowing is killing us!

This is good for me because once the baby gets here, my job of caring for my own daughter is mostly done, and the focus will shift to my daughter caring for HER daughter. I can get my life back to a somewhat normal routine of work and play.

Until this next party is over, that is.

Partay???? PARTAY!! My mom is turning 90 on March 30th, and I’m organizing a big party for her on March 26th.

For that event, I’m going to need a pretty new dress. Every girl needs a pretty new party dress, right? And considering I’ve had no time what-so-evah to sew, and what time I did have to sew for myself ended up in a major FAIL, I’m buying. (This is good news too cuz now I have a body that I can fit more easily! Go me!)

So, I went to Kohls.com (my favorite store these days as they seem to have clothes that fit me pretty well) and picked out three new dresses. Gotta love free shipping and Kohls Cash. I purchased all three of these for $132 (including tax) and got $20 Kohl’s Cash to spend in a store – thinking I’ll be needing some cute shoes to go with these dresses.

Not sure which one I’ll pick to wear that night, but most likely the pink one. What thinketh you?

If it’s not Spring yet, it should be. It’s acting like it outside. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and not one electronic item broke yesterday, so all is good in the world.

My daughter is still pregnant but all is good there as well. As of right now, she is scheduled to be induced on Tuesday – her due date. We are all amazed she’s made it to her due date. All the doctors felt she would deliver early so this is great. That little granddaughter of mine is going to be so welcomed and loved.

Anyway, on to report about a little bit of sewing I did recently. I made these a while ago for my daughter. She didn’t want to have to wear the ugly hospital gowns when she has her baby and, like her mama, wants to look good in her pictures after she has her baby, so she found a free pattern online for maternity delivery gowns and I stitched them up. I used some pretty quilting cotton that my daughter picked out. I altered the pattern slightly by creating pleats in the front. This way the gown would spread out better across a very pregnant belly. I also left the back opening straight, not curved as the pattern suggests so that the overlap could later be stitched together leaving her with a regular cotton gown after she comes home. The snaps at each shoulder allow her to nurse with this gown as well. I thought about creating slits for openings to nurse, but I didn’t make the pleats large enough in the front to allow for any level of modesty if I did that.

Here’s the original pattern laid out. The pattern is the same for the front and the back, with the exception of the opening.

This the front after widening the pattern, and scooping out the neckline some. After the fact, the first one I made wider this way was just too darn wide. Another example of why you should tissue fit or make a muslin. Oh well.  This also shows how I made the back opening straight.

A closeup of the fabric choices

The finished white gown. I made the other gown with the reverse combination – that is, the pink is the main, and the silver is the contrast.

A closeup of the pleated front. I made one large pleat and then topstitched along both sides of the center to add interest.

One flaw – either with the altering I did (likely) or with the pattern itself – the front doesn’t match up with the back at the sleeves. Ugh.

I didn’t take a picture of the back, but the pattern calls for ties at the back. My daughter didn’t want these, she just wanted snaps at the top. There’s enough overlap in the gown to give her the modesty she needs at the back, so I just put about three snaps down the back at the top.

Oh, another note: I prewashed the fabric a few times before stitching so it would soften up, and over time, these will be very comfy. I can see her using them alot. We can eventually just stitch up the shoulder seams too, to eliminate the snaps. This will be easy by removing the snap tape (and reusing somewhere) and unfolding where I turned over the seam allowance. Brilliant, right?

Modeled pictures to show later, along with baby Laila, when she gets here.

The year of broken things.

Well, really since the end of last year things have been falling apart around me. Material things, not family or emotional things. Last October, my daughter’s car died and it’s still dead. It needs timing belts, crank sensor, spark plugs, and a valve gasket replaced. Yeah, it can wait as long as the dealer will let me keep it there.

Then, just before Christmas, my work laptop died – a laptop I have to provide for myself, not company provided. I had taken it in to work to have the Windows 7 operating system installed on it when the motherboard crashed. Luckily I was able to commandeer my daughter’s identical laptop and got that up and running. Now, two months later, that laptop died. Same problem.

(As an aside, I found it rather interesting that both HP Pavillion dv6500 computers died almost exactly 2 years from when I purchased  them. Coincidence?)

So this last Monday I had to go out and buy a new computer. My job is dependent on me having a working, reliable computer. If I don’t have a laptop, I can’t work. If I don’t work, I obviously don’t get paid. So this time I opted for a more powerful (read: also more expensive) laptop. This time, I veered away from the HP and landed with a Sony Vaio with an HD widescreen monitor and all the bells and whistles. I love it – all except for the slightly squeaky keyboard.

Then today, my cell phone, which was limping along just fine decided that all I would be able to do was text people with it. I couldn’t hear anyone when I placed or received a call. So off to Verizon Wireless I went. I had been avoiding this for a long time because a) my contract had expired and I didn’t want to get locked into another one and b) I hate paying my astronomical cell phone bill every month and had been considering getting rid of it altogether, and c) if I was going to have a phone, I really, really wanted to hold out until the new Windows Phone 7 is released and I’d get that.

Have I mentioned that I am a sucker for all things techy, shiny and geekified? Well, I saw the HTC Droid and played with it for a few minutes and it wooed me over. I forgot all my resolve of not renewing a contract, my temptation to chuck the whole cell phone addiction in the toilet, and I walked out with a new phone and all the accessory gadgets.

Did I mention the PINK cover I got for it?

That just makes everything better now.

Here’s a news flash for you: I’m an overachiever. That really surprised you, didn’t it? I’ve always been that way – it’s just who I am. This works out great for me in my career because I can do the work of three people in a third of the time and this keeps me employed, thank goodness. The downside of being an overachiever is that I think I can do way more than I have the energy to do.

I’m notorious for unfinished projects. Home improvements, sewing, gardening, scrapbooking, I’m not picky. I just have a gazillion brilliant ideas that I start at full steam and then somewhere I hit a snag and I stop, never to finish. For example, I still have the unrepaired patch of drywall from where I tore down a non-supporting half-wall in my family room nearly three years ago. I’m hoping that will get fixed this Spring, for sure.

Lately my work has been going hell bent for leather and that’s not really looking to slow down for a while. (Grateful, yes.) On top of that, if you’ve been here before, you know my daughter (who lives with me) is a few days away from full-term in her pregnancy, is sleeping a lot, and we’re waiting for the baby to arrive (and baby is taking her sweet time although daughter has been having a lot of practice contractions). So, on top of work, I’ve been taking her to twice-weekly doctor visits and all the other mandatory (read minimum cuz a lot is getting neglected) housework that needs doing.

So, it’s no surprise to me that I’m exhausted and my fibromyalgia is flaring something wicked. But remember I’m an overachiever, so what do I do? I sew some more. And two items (for my daughter) are finished, one (for me) is unfinished. I hit a snag on the one for me, so I hope to get back to it today and get it finished. I am too tired right now to take pictures, so stay tuned for another update soon.

Meanwhile, we got to see more in-utero really cool 4-D pictures of my granddaughter, Baby Laila. She’s too stinking cute and I wish she would hurry up and get here so I can smell her sweet baby skin.

Here are some parting pics to tide you over until I return with my finished project pics. (The first picture is my favorite. You can see her sweet little chubby baby hand that she loves to put up by her face in every picture.)

**Apologies to my Facebook friends who have already seen these photos ad-nauseum**

My oldest daughter, Cindy, is an amazing photographer. The word “amazing” is often overused these days, in my opinion, as the go-to adjective to describe anyone or anything with slightly more-than-mediocre or impressive skills, talent, or results. In fact, I heard it in abundance the other night to describe the average Joe bachelor, Jake, on this season’s “The Bachelor” reality TV show… but I digress…

Back to my daughter. She really is a talented photographer. It’s in her genes. Her great-uncle (my uncle – my father, Jim Conant’s oldest brother) was Howell Conant, renowned photographer of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier Grimaldi of Monaco. So, it’s not surprising that she picked up the talent. I have been encouraging her for years to start her own business, but it’s hard when you have little ones at home and no seed money to get started. (Benefactors, anyone? hint, hint…)

This last Sunday, my younger daughter Stacy, the preggy one, and I packed up a bunch of my fabrics and together with Cindy and her hubby, Cody, (primarily them) we set up making a makeshift studio and played around with lighting and backdrops so she could take Stacy’s pregnancy photos before baby gets here. Cindy caught some lovely photos, even if we didn’t have the best lighting or professional backdrops. We had a BLAST and laughed a LOT. I’ll do a separate shout-out to Cody once Cindy sends me the fun pictures she took of him.

Here are the pregnancy photos she took of Stacy. We’re really happy with how they turned out, and I think this weekend, if the weather holds, we’re going to try some outdoor shots.

This one is our all-time favorite:

The scar on her belly is from her gastric-bypass surgery she had several years ago.

I love this one. These are the hands of her two nephews and niece. Left to right, clockwise: Cayden, Elise, Evan.

Evan’s hands.

How precious is this? Evan adores his Auntie Stacy.

And the photos wouldn’t be complete without Stacy’s doggie, Trixie in them. She even had on her finest dress in honor of the occasion.

Phew… there’s been so much going on lately that I’ve been a neglectful blogger. Sometimes I don’t blog because the hugely disparate thoughts that go through my mind are hard to congeal into any sort of substance that might make sense to my peeps. So I stay quiet. That, and I’ve been swamped with work and family. I haven’t done any sewing in a couple weeks, haven’t done any activity in over a week, but I’ve stuck to my Weight Watchers program and have maintained my weight. So that area of my life is stable.

(The picture below is of Laila from last week – how adorable is she with that sweet button nose and chubby cheeks? I can’t wait to meet her in person.)

On the baby front – the major focus in my life lately – my daughter’s pregnancy is progressing quickly. Yesterday, the doctors finally verbalized what I suspected for a long time – that she is at high-risk for having a preterm delivery. She’s at 35 weeks as of yesterday, so we really just hope to have her make it a couple more weeks. Right now, she has too much amniotic fluid. This increases her risk of complications such as placenta abruption (where the placenta pulls away from the uterine wall) and her water breaking early. All along they’ve had subtle questions about her placenta so now I am guessing that they’ve been worried about this from the start. I could be reading more into it than is there, but usually my intuition is pretty accurate. She’s had contractions that have been stronger than your typical Braxton Hicks contractions and has been on modified bed rest (not strict, but take it easy and no excessive walking) for a couple weeks or so now. She goes twice a week now to the fetal medicine doctors for a biophysical profile ultrasound and fetal non-stress test where they check the baby’s breathing, swallowing, heart beat, and her contractions. At this point, if she were to start labor, they’d probably just deliver her. I’m very grateful that my daughter chose the hospital and doctors that she chose because they’ve watched her very closely from the beginning due to the extensive medications she’s on and has had to stay on during her pregnancy.

That means, then, that I’ve been a busy bee. Not only am I taking my daughter to her appointments, but my job is extremely busy right now. My team has a deadline of February 12th, so I’m hoping baby waits until after that to arrive. I have a LOT of work to do until then.

On the sewing front, my daughter wants me to make her some maternity delivery gowns, so we have purchased some pretty 100% cotton fabric for that, and I should be sewing those up this Sunday. I’ll do a separate blog post around all that.

Last Sunday, we went up to my oldest daughter’s house (the amazing photographer, Cindy) and she took Stacy’s pregnancy photos. Separate post coming up about that as well.

And finally, there’s all the normal stuff of taking care of a home and our three little Chihuahuas and two cats. Somewhere in all this, I’m trying to sleep as well. But that’s not happening much and the lack of sleep was evidenced Monday when I fell down the stairs! I slipped off the last three stairs and ended up on the hardwoods on my knees, complete with my doggie Lily in my arms. I laughed at first cuz I’m weird like that, but within a few hours my back had stiffened up considerably, and now a trip to the chiropractor is warranted. At least it was me who slipped, and not my daughter. My oldest fell down those stairs when she was pregnant though but the stairs were carpeted then, so it’s not a carpet vs. hardwood issue.

I’ll leave you now with a sneak peek of the pregnancy photos:

More in the next blog post!

Really. I did. Not that I was on any sort of self-imposed restriction or anything like that. But when I saw this in my inbox from Lucy’s Fabrics, I couldn’t resist.

What I love about this is that it’s chocolate brown and pink and has a border print. This fabric is also 58-60” wide, so you get even more for your money. Gotta love that. I bought 2 yards. I’ve been dying to try out a border print and I’m in the mood to sew up some yummy things for myself for this summer.

While I was there, I also found this. Same width as the one above. I love me some pink. I bought one yard of this one. I haven’t been sewing since last weekend but I decided that I need to insert some sewing for myself amidst all this sewing for everyone else. Plus, since I’m almost to my goal weight and size, I’m ready to try sewing clothes for me again. I can’t wait for UPS to get here next week.

Update on baby Laila: My daughter had to go to the maternity ER a couple days ago. (This is a special triage area of the hospital for their maternity patients.) It was determined that my daughter had some signs of preterm labor and they gave her a special shot to stop the contractions and prescribed modified bed rest. Essentially that means that she needs to take it easy, no extensive walking. We’re not too worried at this point if baby comes early as she’s being monitored for her breathing and heartbeat twice a week and baby is doing great. She’s already practicing how to breathe! And they estimate her weight to be currently about 4lbs 9 oz. We just want her to get more chubbiness on her little body before she joins us on this side of the womb.

…To quote a friend of mine.

I’ve been burning up the sewing machine trying to get rid of the stacks of projects (aka fabric) in my sewing loft. It’s been driving me nuts. In addition, baby Laila will be here in about 7 weeks and she needs receiving blankets. Lots of them. And burp cloths, and crib sheets. I also have projects pending for my other three grandkids from so long ago, it’s embarrassing. Not to mention a bunch of stuff I want to sew up for myself for this spring and summer. So, I have been focused and seem to have regained my sewing mojo.

Way back when… ok, well only about 10 days ago or so… I showed you the fabric my daughter picked out for her baby crib bedding. I wasn’t so sure about using the high loft batting, but as I mulled it over, I decided to go for it, even though I’d already purchased some other quilt batting. It took me 10 days of mulling this over to figure out how to actually quilt this stuff.

Totally flying by the seat of my pants (read: didn’t have a clue what I was doing, really) I sandwiched the batting between the top and the bottom of the quilt, pinned it in place, and then managed to get it into my sewing machine and I stitched along some of the design lines of the quilt. That was a total pain in the patootie as I just don’t have the kind of machine that supports stuffing large quantities of fabric and batting in between the needle and the main part of the machine. It was quite an adventure, but the effect is one my daughter doesn’t just like, she loves! (To quote her.)

Finally, after all that, I stitched on the ribbon blanket binding, and called it good. My perfectionist personality sees so much of this that could be improved, but my baby granddaughter won’t know the difference.

Next, after that, I stitched up two more crib sheets, and five receiving blankets, plus a fleece blanket for my littlest grandson that I meant to make him for Christmas.

Guess which receiving blanket is my favorite? 

Finally, I ended my day by cutting out the panels and bias strips to make the coordinating crib bumpers for Laila’s crib. Once this is done, I can move on to finishing the doggie beds for my brother (sorry, Chris!), which I think I’ve totally hosed up and have no idea how to stuff, but that’s another post. I also have to make some curtains for Cayden before he outgrows Lightening McQueen – if he hasn’t already.

At least I feel like I’m making progress and accomplishing things. Oh, and I did get a 2.5 mile run in yesterday, got my hair done, and went shopping for some pretty unmentionables.

Phew.

You’d think that after all the work and prep for my daughter’s baby shower, I’d be spending all of Sunday resting and sleeping, and doing absolutely nothing. Well, if you thought that, then you probably don’t know me that well. It’s nearly impossible for me to sit still for very long. I slept in, however, and had a good 10 hours of sleep, so I felt pretty rested. I did take my time cleaning up the house and the post-party clutter, getting trash taken out, oh, and popping balloons with the neighbor kids. That was too fun – actually, they did all the popping of about 15 balloons or so and asked when I’d have more for them to pop!

Next, my daughter and I hit Target to spend some of her gift cards. We came home with these two things:

I told my daughter it’s very considerate of her to choose things that coordinate with my decor! LOL.

When I finally settled down at the sewing machine, I whipped out three burp rags and two washcloths. I didn’t sew for long, but enough to feel like I accomplished something. I’m getting really good at trueing up the crookedly cut pieces of fabric. I really wish the cutting counters knew how to cut straight. I always lose about 1/8-1/4 yard of fabric because of that.

There’s a short story to the terry fabric. They are made with vintage terry cloth that is about circa 1968 or so. My mother made me a swimsuit cover-up with it. She doesn’t remember it, but I do. I had just a little bit of a remnant of it, probably half a yard or so, that I’ve carted everywhere with me wondering what to make with it, and finally I had a solution. I backed them with pale yellow baby flannel, serged the edges and turned them right side out, so that if the terry sheds some at the cut edge – which it was slightly – it will be hidden.

I have been on the hunt for this flannel (below). I bought it a couple years ago when my daughter’s dog, Trixie, was a puppy. I only bought a yard of it, and now I’m sorry I didn’t buy more. I can’t find it anywhere. I had just enough leftover to make a 13”x18” burp cloth. If anyone knows where to find this, please let me know!

If anyone knows where to find this, please let me know!

Next up on the agenda: finishing up all the quick sewing projects so I can start sewing for myself. I have a couple milestone birthday parties coming up this spring and a couple vacations this summer, not to mention needing some new work clothes (for on-site meetings) so time for ME!

We started by posting signs wrapped in plastic wrap (it’s called the low budget version) anticipating rain and wind all day, but the Baby Shower Gods smiled on my daughter and the clouds parted and sun poured forth. We still had some wind, but we’re not complaining.

We had a great turnout. I think there were about 22 people or so, not counting me, my daughters and my mother. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the four of us had these pins that said “Mommy to be”, “Future Grandma” (there were two of those and I altered one to say Great Grandma) and “Sister”, which we altered to also say “& Auntie”. And of course, the preggy one had a tiara perfectly suited for her.

We had some helium balloons, but we wanted more balloons everywhere, so we bought plain pink ones, plus these that said Baby Girl. I didn’t think ahead about the fact that the wording would be upside down when they were blown up and hanging everywhere. Oh well. That’s just me being a perfectionist – no one noticed or commented.

Even Lily (below), Trixie and Daisy got dressed up for the day, but we took them to a doggie sitter so they wouldn’t freak out and bark with all the visitors. It was a good decision.

Things staged for the Saturday morning prep time.

Two of my daughters friends came early to help my other daughter and I get ready on time. One quietly prepped all the veggies and did a superb job. The other put up all the signs and balloons for me, and by the time people started rolling in, we were ready! My oldest daughter did so much work getting the games ready, planning them, and getting all the party favors and shower gifts ready. I’ve come to believe that between the two of us, we throw a pretty great party.

Cake and drinks table:

Party favors table:

You might ask what all the pens are for. We had made up some scrapbook paper cards where we asked people to write down either how they know my daughter, a favorite memory of her, or some words of wisdom for the mommy-to-be. These will go in her baby book.

Some photos of the mommy to be.

And the baby cake.

And yes, I had a few bites of this, but I counted the points!

Some of the loot:

These are the cutest!

My favorites are the pink ones, my oldest loves the brown ones.

Baby Laila will look too darn cute in all of her new wardrobe.