Prodromal Labor?

Relaxing today with DH and my dad. We've been to soccer practice and played some cards. We've also been cheering the Tigers on two days in a row now!

I read a post on babycenter while vegging and found a link to a blog about Prodromal Labor. It was written very well and really describes what I've been experiencing. I feel a little better knowing that all these contractions can count for something and may just be how my body progresses instead of chalking it all up to "false labor". I hate that term. It makes me angry. I don't think I am self diagnosing but I'll ask my doc about it this week. I don't think it matters one way or another what it is called but after reading the article I think I can be a little more patient.

Bella Dolce Births: Prodromal Labor

Pumpkin Bread

Last weekend we went to a U-pick farm here in Maryland and got some great pumpkins. Logan became very posessive of his one but we baked it today while he was at school:)

I'm planning on making some bread and muffins out of this one. I found the recipe here but I have tweaked the recipe according to posters to this blog and included my own modified recipe below. Instead of canned pumpkin puree I used the pumpkin in the picture. We cut it in half, cleaned it out and laid it face down in a baking pan with about an inch of water. We then baked it at 350 for 45 minutes.

Recipe:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger (an added ingredient)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (Original called for 3 cups white sugar, no brown)
• 1 cup butter, really soft
• 3 large eggs
• 1 16 oz can of pure pumpkin or measure 16 oz of pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and spray two medium loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray or muffin pans. (I use liners)
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the wire whisk attached, dump in the sugar. Take the butter and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, so that it is half melted. Dump it into the sugar. Add the eggs. Cream these three ingredients together on medium speed for about 2 minutes or until fluffy. Add the pumpkin and combine well.
4. In three batches, add the dry ingredients and mix gently until each batch is just incorporated. Scrape the sides between each batch.
5. Pour half of the batter into a one of the prepared pans. Fold the pecans into the remaining batter and then pour it into the other prepared pan. Bake side-by-side for about one hour or until an inserted knife comes out clean the top is golden. (I didn't have any pecans)

So step 5 for me went something like this: Fill the loaf pan. Put liners in muffin tin. Move muffin tin to a different counter. Pick muffin liners up off the floor and put them back in the muffin tin. Fill a muffin liner. Sit. Fill 2 more muffin liners. Sit. Fill 3 more muffin liners, make a mess and get frustrated. Sit. Ask Dad for help filling the rest of the muffin liners. The liners were flattish from a 2 year olds prying fingers and the batter was pretty sticky so I was having a hard time. I was alternately having a hard time breathing from this baby still being so high up into my lungs. Super annoying! We got the job done though.

In step 3 I realized I had no nutmeg, so we have no nutmeg in our bread. I also accidently switched to a different measuring spoon for some of the ingredients and I think I fixed my mistake.

The end result was fantastic. Very smooth, moist muffin with a slight crunch to the top. I think pecans and brown sugar on top would make for a really fun addition. It only took 42 minutes for my muffins to be done. I let the bread loaf go longer.

 

36 week update

I am still pregnant despite all pregnancy forcasts. I have been contracting for a solid week off and on. Most nights I experience very painful ones that last almost an hour 2-3 minutes apart but then they fade away. At the doctors today I am still a loose 3. Doctor said I will know when I am in labor because the pains will increase in intensity - I am skeptical, my water will break, or I will experience bleeding. He doesn't think I will cook much longer but said it's hard to say. He's seen women in my situation go full term. He doesn't think they will make me go to my due date though because the baby would be huge at that point.

I am off all medicine and all restrictions. All lights are green and we're just waiting for baby. Emotionally I am drained. The anxiety of going to bed every night for the last 7 weeks wondering if tonight will be the night is taking a toll. My abs are killing me. My dad is being very helpful in reorganizing my house and cleaning.

Car seat cover: phase 2

Oh my! This is the hardest project I have ever tried to put together. I am sure it's because I don't like following directions and constantly improvise. Regardless, I am not giving my directions because I don't even know in hindsight how I pulled it together other than I did a LOT of tweaking. There is a reason these are expensive to buy. So worth it. Just go buy one.

 There is elastic for the edging across the bottom, 2 loops on the side, and 2 loops in the back. I just copied what the original car seat cover has on it. The original is actually under this one because it has the padding needed.

No worries, baby girl won't have the canopy on her seat in the car. I know that's a potential safety concern. AND with the black newborn insert (original to the car seat) you can't see any of my horrible buttonholes!

The car seat canopy wasn't too bad. I started contracting something fierce in the middle of it though and had to enlist my husband for his cutting, folding and ironing skills. He made the straps and bow pieces. I did the sewing in between really strong contractions. I seriously thought this might be it but I knew to wait and see and sure enough, the contractions backed off after about an hour. I followed the directions from this blog page.

I am beyond thrilled with how the bows turned out! I am keeping this template for next time I want to make big girl bows.

Car seat cover: phase one

When my son was just 5 months old we moved north to Maryland. I found myself as a stay at home mom and I hated it. I was lonely. I had no local friends and no real hobbies that I could do with an infant. I decided to pick up sewing to have something to accomplish each day. I remember my first week with the sewing machine. I wanted to consistantly throw it out of the window. I couldn't even get the thing threaded.

Hours and hours of youtube instruction later combined with a new needle (mine was bent) and some old swaddle blankets I started experimenting. I can tell you I did a LOT of seem ripping. Turns out I like sewing when it doesn't involve some type of pattern to have to follow and I don't need anything fancy like zippers or elastic. Well, today I tried something a little over my head: a new car seat cover.

You see, I found this really cute car seat on the internet with some directions on how to make it. I've been sewing squares for almost 2 years now so I decided to give it a go. Wow, so hard! I think there are many different ways I could have tried this project but here is what I did:

1. I chose my material and began pinning the fabric down to the original car seat cover starting with the middle panel. This was my first mistake I think. I think I should have done the sides first so that pinning the middle panel would have also pinned that pannel directly to the side fabric. When pinning I folded the edge of the fabric over  before pinning it down.

 Note my cute for a boy but not as cute for a girl car seat.

 These are the first pins I put in along the seem with the edges folded over

 One side pinned, ready for the other side. I cut the fabric on the other side before pinning it.

Finally adding the sides. This was really hard to do without deconstructing the whole thing. You can see how maybe doing the sides first, laying the edge of the fabric over the seem that would get the middle panel pinned to would be a little easier, maybe.

Thin I traced my holes through the back with a crayon and repinned everything as I peeled off my soon-to-be cover. Sewing the pieces together was a nightmare! Too many seems coming together in some places and not knowing what to sew first. Also the flannel ironed nicely to show me where to stitch, but the minky did not so I kind of had to guess where to stitch. Even with the pins it didn't help me much. I'm not sure how it's turned out yet because I got stuck on the next part...

BUTTONHOLES!
It is very reminiscent of wanting to throw the machine out of the window like my first week sewing. I tried watching youtube videos with not much help. Apparently there are three ways to make button holes depending on your machine: 4 step process on the machine, 1 step process on the machine and hand stitched. I have a 1 step machine but it will not make the holes as big as I need them. The 1 step process uses a special buttonhole foot attachement that guides the machine to exactly how big you need your hole.  Not working!

What I am now trying to do is use an alternative foot and act as the guide myself. I am meeting with very mixed, sloppy results. At this point I can get a good hole on the scrap and then move to my cover and make some really crappy ones. Here are my current attempts:

You'll have to come back and see the final product tomorrow. I don't think I have the patience to finish today!

35 weeks and dress rehersal

Today we took a "quick trip" into the docs office for contractions. I woke up at 2 am with very regular strong contractions. With IU I know this can happen so I made sure to wait a while to see if it continued. Every time I woke up through the night I still experienced contractions but they seemed to space out further and further. That's a good clue it's not the real thing yet. Despite this I decided to call into the docs in the morning to just check in. It's been a while since I had strong regular contractions. They had me come in for a check up and of course the contractions got fewer and fewer. They were still strong enough they were hard to talk through though.

I got to speak with Dr. B, whom you recall I love. I am 3 cm dilated, 70% effaced. Baby is 5 lbs 12 oz on the ultrasound. We didn't get any good pictures of it this time. I am to stay on the medicine until next week. He says it won't stop the contractions if I am really going into labor. It could still be tomorrow or in 2 weeks. Dilation doesn't mean a whole lot except we know the contractions are doing their job.

On another note I made another needed project for the baby room. It looked so easy to make a changing pad cover that I decided to do that instead of buy one. I have to say that it was pretty easy. In fact, the hardest part was measuring the fabric. It was one of those nice projects where you could make a million mistakes and it would still look good. I used the DIY Changing Pad Cover tutorial.

35 weeks!

Quick update: Big milestone today. I am off most of my restrictions today. I am still on the meds until next Monday but I very much want to quit them to get the ball rolling. I am being good though. My dad is here and ready to help with whatever we need help with. Mainly though he is here to watch Logan when it's go time. Yay!

Here's a little project I finished up over the weekend:)