Wednesday 26 February 2014

Pregnancy Update

This will more than likely be my last pregnancy update before my daughter arrives. 
I had my growth scan and consultant appointment today at 11am. The scan went good. Macey is measuring two weeks ahead which is within the normal range. They said she's not a tiny baby but she's not as big as what Logan was. I was weighed as well and I still haven't gained anything which is great for my situation. I've actually lost .6 of a kg. 
After my scan I was taken in to speak to a midwife and then a consultant. I was in there for well over an hour. I told them of my fears for a normal delivery and going through labour again only to end up with an emergency c-section. I told them I wanted to just book in for a scheduled c-section. I was then given a huge list of all the negative things about my decision and everything that can go wrong. She asked me about 4 times what I wanted to do before she actually filled in the forms and booked me in for my section. She really made me feel like I've made the wrong decision. I can still change my mind if I want to. I just need to phone in before my c-section date and they can cancel it. It was the most horrible pressure I've ever been under in my life. If I go into labour by myself before my date I've agreed to try to give birth by myself. I really doubt that will happen as both my kids were late and I've had zero signs that labour is nearing. 
So, now instead of feeling at ease and relaxed about my situation I feel really bad. I just want it all to be over and done with now. They also asked if I wanted sterilised at the same time and I said no, but now I think I'm going to say yes. There is no way I will ever be doing this again. Besides the fact that a 3rd c-section would be really risky, I don't want to feel as scared as this ever again. Or put my children in this situation.

Anyways, on a positive note. I'm almost done with the baby shopping. I bought the moses basket yesterday and it arrived today. Not the one I had planned on but one just as cute! I don't have a picture of it yet. I haven't even taken it out of it's packaging because I've been down in the dumps. The only big thing I need to get now is the bouncy chair. I'll be ordering it next week. 
I also bought some cot sheets, 3 hooded towels, baby toiletries, more nappies and wipes, and flasks for holding boiled water. My mum and dad bought the frilly pants to go over nappies. =) I've started packing my hospital bag ready. But now that I know my date I can be a lot more prepared. I've only got a few things left to get for myself. It's mostly Macey's things I need to get sorted out. 


Monday 24 February 2014

Potty Training Success


I had planned on doing a whole big post on potty training and how I did it. A tips and tricks kind of thing. However, this little boy has pretty much potty trained himself. All I had to do was remind him a couple of times that if he needed a wee he was to use his potty. I honestly can't believe how quick and easy it was. I remember having trouble with Keira. She was 3 before we eventually got her off her nappies. Not through lack of trying and it was a completely strict rush job due to running out of time before nursery started. It just goes to show how different every child is.
It took Logan about a week in total to be completely nappy free. Even at bedtime! We have night time pull ups for him that I still put on him at bedtime just in case but they are totally dry every morning. He's even able to hold it in if we're out until we find a toilet. I'm completely amazed. For some reason I really expected it to be harder to potty train a boy.
He's not even using his potty anymore. He uses the big toilet and even stands at it like a big boy which makes my life so much easier when we are out. I had planned on going to buy one of those little toilet seats that fold up and come with a little bag for carrying around but I don't even need to do that.
As well as potty training he moved into his big boy bed in Keira's room. And he's done so well with that too. I'm so, so proud of him! Next job... get rid of the dummy!! I think this may be a harder one to tackle!

Sunday 23 February 2014

More Decorating

I've wanted to change my living room for a while now but until now I didn't really have the money to get it all done. I wanted to paper one wall. I had ordered paper ages ago but they were out of stock and refunded my money. It was black with huge grey flowers on it. I'm not sure if I still want to paper one wall or not. We'll see how I feel in a couple of weeks time!
I spent my Friday and Saturday painting the walls and skirting boards. I did it all on my own which was rough at 35 weeks pregnant! I think I forget how little time I have left sometimes. It took me twice as long as it normally would have! Haha. But it's done at least. Now I need to buy new cushions for my couch and we want a new TV unit and wall shelf. I hate the TV unit that we have because it's so huge. It just gets stuff dumped on it constantly and the clutter cracks me up. And because I'm obviously not a very neat painter,  I got some paint on the ceiling so I'm going to buy some coving to cover it up!


Here's Logan having a pop tart whilst watching a Dinosaur Story. Haha. But you can see the colour of the walls now. I still need to put the curtains back up and wash my blinds and window. That'll be my jobs for today!

Thursday 20 February 2014

Haul Time

This is all stuff that's been bought over the last week or so from all different places. I've been waiting on some deliveries coming so gradually built this post up over a few days.


First of all, Keira had her end of winter disco at school. This was her first school disco that was at night time and out of school hours! So, she requested a new dress. I hunted everywhere and just couldn't find something that was right. I eventually found this one on River Island's website the day before the disco! Had to get next day delivery! It was on sale for £10. I'm not sure if it's clear enough or not but the dress is purple. It's made from a lovely thick material. and is very nice on. I will definitely be doing more shopping with River Island in the future!


Next was H&M. They arrived at the weekend. All except two pairs of Keira's shoes which are being sent separately at the start of March. I forgot I had ordered Logan this t-shirt too. I absolutely love it on him! And it was only £2.99! I'm going to have to go and do a huge clothes shop for him after clearing out his wardrobe he barely has anything left!


I couldn't resist this dress! I saw it online a while back and I kept going back and looking at it! They also have Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and Minnie Mouse! I'm definitely going to be getting Cinderella too. Each dress comes with a head band! They are from Asda and cost £10 each. 


I also bought this cute little Disney Princess plush to match her dress! I'll be buying Cinderella too. =)


I ordered the bedding set and mobile from Amazon for Macey. They both arrived this morning. I'm so glad I was able to get this one! It's the one I loved from the start but it's a bit more expensive than the ones in the likes of Matalan. It's so cute!


I went out to Baby Land (local baby shop) yesterday with my mum and dad to get a look at the prams. They have literally hundreds on display. My original plan had been to get the Mutsy Evo in red. But after seeing it in the shop I wasn't so keen. The fabric on the pram is kind of shiny as well which is off putting (for me anyways). I saw a couple of prams that I liked but this was the stand out one. The one I saw was a half price ex-display model. We gave it a really good check over to make sure there were no dirty marks etc on it. It was perfect, so we went and asked if we could have it. Turns out they still had one brand new fully boxed one in the back. So we got a brand new one for an ex display price! £149.99! Complete bargain. It changed into a pushchair too. I'm in love with it! I feel like it's really girly!

The other things I got this week were some of my hospital bag items (pjs, jogging bottoms, vest top, slippers, maternity towels, underwear and toiletries). I'm not going to take a picture of that stuff though! I also bought a box of 72 newborn Pampers nappies. They only cost just over £8 from Amazon.



Tuesday 18 February 2014

Basic Boutique Style Hair Bow



Here is my second hair bow how to. This one is a boutique style bow. I made two. One in purple and one in pink. It's another super quick and easy bow to make. I also have alligator clips now so I added clips to the back instead of a bobble.

You will need:
Glue gun
Scissors
Lighter
Three pieces of ribbon (big piece for the bow, small piece for the center and a piece for the clip)
Tape measure
Alligator clip


First of all I cut my ribbon. My big piece is 18". It will make a bow roughly 4" big (this is a complete estimate as I forgot to measure it when it was done!). You can fold the bow up without gluing it together to make sure you have the size you want first! I'm not sure of the size of the smaller piece but make sure it's enough to tie a loose knot in the middle and then wrap around the center of the bow. The white piece is enough to wrap around the alligator clip. This will vary depending on the size of clip you choose. Run the edges of all the ribbons through the lighter to seal the edges and prevent fraying.



Take your long piece of ribbon and fold it in half and make a crease. Fold one half around (keeping it face down) to the center and add a small dot of glue. 



Do the same with the opposite side and glue it on top of the ribbon you glued down before. You should have an infinity.. or number 8. =)



Fold one of the loops in to roughly the center and glue it down.



Do the same with the opposite side and you should have something that looks like this. Kind of like a butterfly.



Turn the bow over so that the back is facing up and fold it in half. Hold in it place with a dot of glue.



Fold the sides up the best you can. They overlap so won't stay in place completely. Stick it with glue.



Tie a loose knot in the center of the smaller ribbon. You don't have to do this but I think it looks nicer. 



Put a bit of glue on the back of the knot and stick to the center of the bow.



Once it's set wrap one half tightly around the bow and glue down. Trim off excess if there is any.



Do the same with the other side. If there is any excess to trim off run the edge carefully through your lighter to seal it.



Put a line of glue on a small part on the ribbon for the clip.





Stick it to the inside of the top of the clip. (Hope that makes sense!) Work quickly. The glue dries quickly with clips. Also be careful as metal conducts heat. It might get a bit hot to touch.



Put another line of glue and wrap it tightly over the top of the clip right to the end.



Add more glue and push it inside the squeezy part of the clip. It would probably be handy to have a cocktail stick or something at the this stage to push the ribbon in and down properly. Saves getting sore fingers! Add another bit of glue and wrap it on the underside. Only to the end of the squeezy part. Not right to the end of the clip.



Turn it back over and add a generous line of glue to the top of the clip.



Stick it to the back and center of your bow! And you're done!!


I made the purple one to match Keira's dress that she got for her end of winter disco at school. 

I hope this was easy to follow! I'm not the best at giving instruction but I'll continue to try! Next bow will be the pinwheel with two simple ways to do it! 
Thanks for reading!

Monday 17 February 2014

Finished Kids Bedroom!

The kids' bedroom was finally completed over the last week. I added the last finishing touches today inside the cupboard. I'm so, so happy with the way it's turned out. All we have left to do is fix the blind (it has a winder thing that doesn't work properly, so we need to change the fittings) and put the wooden letters on the plaques. I seem to have misplaced my double sided sticky foam.

(I realise Logan's plaque is off center! I'll have to fix it!)


Logan is now on his third night in his new room and so far it's going well. The first night was terrible and I thought we were in for a rough ride but he was great last night. Keira is loving having someone in her room with her which is great. I always felt bad when she was stuck on her own.


I decided to use the little storage boxes for the kids Build A Bear clothes until I buy the special wardrobe for them. Even then they can be used for bear shoes and accessories.
I also just had a major clothes clear out (and some are in the wash) so the clothing rails are looking pretty pathetic! Just means more shopping soon!
Oh and the bottom rail was made from Keira's old curtain pole. We had the hanging rail fittings so instead of going out and spending money on a rail we cut the old curtain pole down to size. It would have just gone to waste otherwise. Plus it's pink! Haha! I think this is the best organised the wardrobe has ever been. =)

Saturday 15 February 2014

Hair Clip Holders


I got the idea for these from Lulu over at A Mumma's Time Out. I've made hair clip holders before but they were always sewn and took ages to make. These were so easy to do and I think the result are nicer!

I bought the MDF letters and ribbon from eBay. And sample paint pots from Homebase. I also used my clear glitter top coat that I used on the initial stars. I used my glue gun to attach the ribbon.

At the bottoms of each ribbon I made a loop so we have somewhere to hold all the Alice bands that we have in this house! I'm really pleased with the way they turned out and I can't wait to put them in their proper places and fill them up with bows and flowers!


Thursday 13 February 2014

Pregnancy Update.

I am now 33 weeks and 6 days pregnant! I was at the Midwife on Tuesday  for my check up and everything seems to be going great. Macey is back to be being head down and she's flipped sides. So instead of her back being on my right side, it's now on my left. I still haven't gained any weight at all which is brilliant. My bump is measuring at 32 weeks which is a week behind but on my last scan Macey was measuring one day ahead. 
I told her how I was feeling about my birth and I that I've decided I want an elective c-section. So,  I have a consultant appointment in 2 weeks time on 26th February. I was supposed to be going to this anyways for a growth scan to check Macey's size. But I've to tell them what I want and they'll book me in for a c-section at 39 weeks. So, it's exciting and scary at the same time. I have barely any time left to get the rest of my stuff in but I'm sure I'll manage it!
There probably won't be another update until after my consultant appointment. I may or may not share the date of my c-section! It'll depend on how I feel once I find out! 

I finally ordered somethings from my list! Macey's cot bedding set and a few things for my hospital bag. Next most important things I need to get are sheets for the cot and the bouncy chair. Plus a huge ton of clothes! Seen so much that I want to buy for her!

This is the bouncy chair I want. It's a Bright Starts one.




I found these things on the Disney Store website that I really like! I'm trying to stay away from too much stuff with characters on because it just seems to be everywhere. As much as I love Disney etc, it's sort of put me off. Obviously there will be some stuff though!



I think this may be the pram that I want. It's the Mutsy Evo and I want it in red! It's taken me my whole pregnancy to decide on a pram that I like!