Fabric, fabric, and more fabric!

I did something I wasn't supposed to yesterday. I cleaned. Not a LOT, I just cleaned out/reorganized our Harry Potter closet and one section of our garage, but I couldn't stand it anymore. I promised myself that I would rest all day today and not get up unless 100% necessary to make up for it.

The closet has unfortunately become our "dumping ground" for anything we don't have room for anywhere else. It is also our pantry, and before I cleaned it, you couldn't even walk into the closet to get something that wasn't on the shelf in the front. It was bad. It's still not perfect, and won't be until I can convince my hubby with hoarding tendencies that we don't NEED half of the stuff he refuses to let go of, but it's at least an improvement.

On to the fabric story. 2 years ago, I decided I wanted to learn to sew. I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, and I was convinced that I could teach myself. I was sadly mistaken. I got frustrated and gave up halfway through making a carrier for Little Man. My sewing machine now sits in the back of the HP closet, and next to it was a bag of fabric and what I thought was just other bags of miscellaneous craft supplies.

My mom has always been good at sewing, and made every single Halloween costume for my brother and I until we were too old, but if you know her, she is not shy about how much she hates it. My brother and I used to walk on eggshells the entire month of October because we knew how cranky she was going to be, but she did it out of love for us. I'm pretty sure there may have been some threats about "No Christmas" during those hell months over the years, but she must not have ever told Santa, and the threat was usually enough to make us stop fighting. But I digress. Even as much as she hates sewing, she has offered to teach me how to use my sewing machine so that I can finish all of the projects I posted about before. Have I mentioned lately how awesome my mom is?

Anyway, in true ADD fashion, here is what I found when I went through my craft supplies:

I also found some fleece for a sleep sack pinned to a pattern and cut out, but of course, never finished. I think there is a possibility I'm a fabric hoarder. Hopefully, I can change this with a little help from my mom in the next few weeks.

Anyone need any baby items????

Getting Crafty...oh look, squirrel!

Anyone who has known me for any length of time has probably figured out 2 things about me: A) When I say I have ADHD, I mean it, and B) As much I want to be Martha Stewart, my craft attempts typically wind up looking like my toddler made them. At the moment, I have at least 6 half-way finished projects stuck in various closets in my house that at one time, I had every intention of completing, but I gave up and waited for a chance to have someone help me, and then forgot I needed to ask anyone for help. It's a vicious cycle. So I've made it a goal that while I am stuck here at home, I'm going to complete those projects, plus a few more for gifts that I'm dying to give. I'm letting this blog serve as my accountability for that, and adding them to my "official" to-do list.

I'm going to try one project a week, and hopefully have them all completed well before my little Bug makes his debut.

• Mei-Tei Carrier(I actually started this when Little Man was a baby-maybe now I'll actually get to use it!)

• Shopping Cart Cover(I have the fabric for 3 of these, I would like to get them all made for myself and for gifts)

• Restaining this shadow box, thanks to instructions and supplies from my amazingly crafty friend Shana(see her handiwork over on The 3 Boy Home)

• Finishing up my surprise gifts for some good friends-I don't want to give away the details, I will be posting pics/tutorials once they have them though. :)

In the meantime, I'll try to let everyone in on what has(and hasn't) worked for me when it comes to being a mom with ADHD, even though it still feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back most days.

Don't forget to subscribe to my emails and check out my Facebook page for more!

Getting your Baby or Toddler to Sleep

A late-night status update from a friend desperate for her 16-month old to sleep through the night brought back memories of a very long and exhausting first year with Little Man. Until I had him, I thought what I imagine most new moms do: Of course newborns wake up a lot, but once you get through the first 2 or 3 months, baby is on a schedule, and you have your sleep back. I was in for a rude awakening.

I read books, scoured the internet, joined groups on BabyCenter, anything I thought could help me come up with a plan to get him to sleep more than a 2-3 hours at a time. I was exhausted, working full-time, getting up all night with him, and dealing with some pretty major health issues of my own that left me feeling even worse.
We lived in a townhouse, and the second bedroom was on the opposite floor as ours, so his crib was in our room, something that I realize now probably contributed to our issues, but we had no choice at the time. Everyone had their own advice. Cry It Out, someone said. I just couldn't do it. Even if he hadn't been in our room, the thought of letting him lay there and cry was just too much for me. I had resorted to putting him in bed with us when he cried, just so he would calm down and not disrupt my husband, who works shifts and has enough trouble sleeping already, and to keep from disturbing the neighbors we shared a wall with. That worked for everyone else, including him, but I got even less sleep. So co-sleeping was out. We had already weaned him from middle of the night feedings, and STILL he woke up. I would try offering him a bottle, and he would just throw it back at me and keep screaming. I was at the end of my rope, having almost-nightly meltdowns where I just cried along with him.

Around the time he was 11 months old, we moved to a 3-bedroom house and were finally able to put him in his own room, which solved a lot of the issues, and at 16 months, we converted his crib to a toddler bed, and apparently solved his claustrophobic tendencies and the last of the night wakings. There were still a lot of sleepless nights in there, but over time things got better. I did eventually use a modified version of Cry-It-Out, but I never let him cry for more than 5-10 minutes, and now at 26 months, I know if he is crying and doesn't put himself back to sleep within 5 minutes, he's either sick or scared and needs me, without fail.

So let's all help my friend out, what advice do you ladies have, especially for an older infant/toddler who is still waking up?

Good News!(For once)

I had my bi-weekly appointment with my regular OB this afternoon, and for once, he isn't worried! This week has been a good week as far as my contractions go, I haven't had anything major since my 3rd(or was it 4th?) trip to the hospital last Saturday. So for now, it's still just rest, rest, rest, and take the Procardia-yuck, that stuff is as evil as the Brethane I was on from 24 weeks on with Lane. Right now, the plan is to keep me on that until 36 weeks, as long as everything keeps going like this week, and then stop it and let my body do what it wants at that point. We'll have to see what my perinatologist says next week, when they will actually check my cervix length again, but for now, everything is looking good!

Even though Little Man was born at 37 weeks, he was tiny-only 5 lbs 6 oz, and we were scrambling for preemie clothes while he was in the NICU. We ended up with only a few short-sleeve onesies, as that was all we could find 2 years ago, but thankfully, Carters and Babies R Us seem to have gotten on the ball since then, because there is quite a bit more out there this time! I'm HOPING we don't need these, but I'm trying to make sure I'm prepared, since apparently I just make small babies. I was feeling pretty down yesterday, so my mom took me on a short shopping trip, and I found 3 TINY outfits that are SO cute:

Looking at them last night, I forgot how tiny preemie clothes are! I can't believe that just 2 years ago, those clothes were almost too big for Little Man. Not that he would ever listen to anyone tell him he's small, he totally thinks he's one of the Big Boys. He's growing up so fast, I can't wait to see how he is going to be as a big brother. We had to buy him firetruck pajamas last night because he was trying to put the preemie clothes on in the cart, and no amount of explaining that it's summer and HOT was deterring him. I just can't believe he's already gone from this:

To this:

I'm so anxious to get to know this little one, although I'm pretty sure he's going to be a carbon copy!

RIP Laptop

My computer is officially dead, and it couldn't have come at a worse time! I have a business to run, blogs to write, and I'm couch-locked.

Since we are in the process of buying a house, a new computer isn't in our budget right now. I have an iPad(my Christmas gift to myself last year) and while I love it for MOST things, there are some things that are just a pain to do on it. It took me 2 hours to submit the order from a friend's Thirty-One party Monday night, and only the first hour of that was spent fighting with my laptop before I finally surrendered. Blogging is also much more difficult on there, although if anyone has any tips for that, I am all ears! Thankfully, I have a wonderful mom who is letting me use her laptop for now so I can still get my work done from bed.

I want to apologize for the random nature of my posts right now. At the moment, I am still deciding on the direction I would like this blog to go, and given how my ADHD-crazed mind works, that changes on a daily basis! Add the stress of preterm labor, bedrest, and worrying about having a preemie, and worrying about how this all is affecting my Little Man, and well, you get some pretty random thoughts from time to time!

Off to hunt for a budget-friendly laptop, and some business and productivity hints for my iPad!