Happy Due Date, Miss Kelly Lynn!

Yup - today is my estimated due date.  I know the ticker over there says 8 days to go, but that's the countdown to my c-section date.  You know, the date she'll probably actually get here because she is showing no sign at all of wanting to "come on down," so to speak.  

Many people have expressed surprise that my OB would schedule my surgery for over a week after my due date.  She actually did this at my request.  See, it's the fiscal year end where my husband works this week.  This is the week where EVERYONE on his team works late every day, trying to get everything done and wrapped up so the correct numbers can be submitted.  They've had a few people get promoted up and off their team in the past couple of years, but they never really added anyone to replace them, so they're slightly understaffed.  Also, they switched their computer software and my husband is a trainer. Since this is the first year end since the change in February, this means that in addition to doing his regular job, he also needs to be available to help people with any problems they may encounter at this important time.

Yeah.  Not the best time to be taking paternity leave.  I mean, if the baby comes, the baby comes and there's nothing we can do about it.  I know he'd spend the whole time at home worried about what's going on at work though.  There's also the bit about his coworkers, who are already short staffed and going to have to work late. Him being gone will be one person less on the team so they'll have to miss even more time with their families and have to work even later than they would normally this week, which is already pretty substantial.

So, while I have no power over when this baby comes if she decides to come on her own, I do have a little bit of power over a procedure that is scheduled.  I explained all this to my OB and she agreed with me that it would be best to wait a little longer.  After all, technically you're not really overdue until AFTER 42 weeks.  I explain this to people when they ask why the c-section is so far from my estimated due date, and they're always surprised I opted to wait.  After all, the more common thing to hear is women at 38 weeks whining for an induction.  

DUDE.  I took that route last time, and Pitocin SUCKS.  Also, I know two truths about being pregnant:

1.  It's better for the baby to stay in there and develop as much as possible before being born.  37 weeks may be enough to be considered "full term", but 41 is better in terms of brain and lung development.

2.  A baby inside the belly is relatively quiet.  There is no worrying about why she is crying, or not sleeping.  Also, while a baby on the inside is uncomfortable, recovering from surgery is MORE uncomfortable, especially when you are dealing with a newborn.

There was one woman with whom I had a discussion about this, and she literally laughed in my face.  She said "YEAH RIGHT.  I bet you when you get to 38 weeks you'll be singing a different tune and BEGGING your doctor to do it earlier."  Well, IN YOUR FACE.  Pregnancy is not a disease.  It's something I chose to do knowing full well what was involved, and I made my choices in the matter, including my surgery date, as well informed and thought out decisions.  I'm mature enough to realize that my decisions do affect others, and not everything is all about me.

I don't speak to her anymore, btw.  :)

To get through these last few days, I've saved all the "fun" girly projects for this week.  I've got some meals in the freezer (not as many as I'd like, but some), we made the last of our baby related needs purchases Friday (glass baby bottles!!!  nursing tanks!!!), and we have a detailed list of all the things that need to be done, room by room, so the house will be deep cleaned by the time my mother in law arrives on Thursday.  As a treat, we went to check out this store that pretty much sells just little girl specialty items yesterday.

OH.  MY.  WORD.

Can I just tell you how many times I've chanted "BABY SHOES ARE A WASTE OF MONEY" in the past few weeks?  They were really hard to resist here, because they were SO CHEAP!  I was especially smitten with the brown leopard print pair with the pink flower on the toes on the second shelf.  Price?  $7.  WHOA. If you buy them plain on their website, they're only about three bucks.  Shoot - I can hot glue a flower!

I also picked up my absolute favorite baby purchase to date:

There will be newborn photos taken in this, oh yes.  Mark my words!!!  Best part?  Only $17.  I've never seen one this inexpensive before, and trust me, I've been looking. They also have the cutest little swimsuits, a whole wall of hair bows, flowers, and supplies to make your own hair accessories, and the sizes range from newborn to age 12!!!  They even have cute little rhinestone doo hickeys to put in the centers of flowers for the best price I've seen.  The prices are more than reasonable on pretty much everything in the store and everything is cute cute cute.

Thank you Facebook, for putting the ad in my sidebar.  That's how I found them, no joke.  Check out the website and buy stuff because I need them to not go out of business any time soon, okay?  (And no, they didn't pay me to say any of these things.  I'm just way excited for cute girl stuff I can afford!)

After we left there, we swung by Hobby Lobby and JoAnn because I haven't made a single hair bow.  I plan on using the same tactic with the headbands/bows as we used with the hats for the boy - if he's always worn them, he'll always be used to having one on his head.  He's still wearing his signature newsboy caps at 3 1/2 (first one purchased when he was about two or three months) so it worked for him!

I came home with a bag full of stuff that looked like this!  I set it on the sofa next to me and just admired all the girliness that radiated from my selections.  After dinner, I put everything on the kitchen table, plus some stuff I already had, and got to work.

Some of the bows I made were smallish.  Some were massive, and will probably only be used for pictures.  I had a few medium sized ones in there as well.  It felt so good to just sit there and be crafty for fun!  I haven't done that in a long time.

I was reading someone's blog last week and she referred to these as BFBs - Big Effin' Bows. That made me laugh because really, isn't that what they are? I've been unable to think of them as anything but since. I know some people think they're ridiculous, but hey - if I want to make my child look ridiculous I suppose that's my prerogative as a mother, right? ;)

Here's what I ended up with.  I used the bow tutorial from here because I felt that sewing the ribbon would not only be more secure than using wire, but then I wouldn't have to worry about the wire coming undone and scratching the baby's head.  Also, I didn't BUY any wire, haha!

The first bow I made was pretty crooked so I tossed it, but after that they were all pretty even. The yellow, hot pink, and patriotic bows were straight from the tutorial.  They're about six or seven inches in diameter, and are apparently considered "average" or even "small" in the south.  Crazy! Instead of covering the centers with knotted ribbon as instructed in the tutorial, I glued on little embellishments that I picked up on our outing.  Since there was no ribbon to cover the clip in the back, I hot glued a little scrap of felt over it instead.

After I got used to the basic technique, I tweaked the measurements to make smaller bows with narrower ribbon.  I did a few with the basic knotted centers, one with an embellished center, and one where I got crazy and layered TWO bows, one slightly smaller than the other, and then added the rhinestone center.

Then there were the flowers. One I layered over a big bow and added a rhinestone center. One, I layered over a scrap of felt with a rhinestone center. Since this is white, it can be clipped onto any color headband and go with any outfit! Finally, there was my Big Honking Flower. I paid six bucks for this thing at JoAnn and it seriously looks like one of those heads of Boston Lettuce they sell at the grocery store in plastic boxes. It's HUGE, and will only be for photos. Seriously - this thing is huge on my head! I love it!


Today - binkie clips and a banner for over the crib with her name on it. Time to bust out ye olde sewing machine!