A Long "what i've been up to" post lol

Let's see, we'll start with the pregnant stuff lol. I am now 31 weeks.......WHOA!!! It's recently hit me that I'm gonna have another baby!! Sure........I've known for quite some time now that I'm pregnant, the big beach ball belly...........the heartburn........the kicking and flipping and turning I feel all day.........kind of gives that away lol, but I've been so busy these past months that I never really had time to sit and think about what the end result would be. Fact is......in just a short few weeks I am going to have SIX kids! SIX!!!!!!!! Hard to believe! Am I ready for this? haha guess i better GET ready huh? Let's see, he has tons and tons of clothes thanks to my buddy Natasha :) So at least he won't be naked. I have boobs......lol......so he won't be starving. And well........that's about it! lol. I still need to bring the bassinet in and get that washed. But more importantly I have lots more diapers to make!!! Here's 2 diaper covers I just made him recently:
I think this one will be my favorite lol.

This past Saturday night I couldn't sleep.......well and every night since then too lol. My hips and.........well........other things down there were just in so much pain. So Sunday I had my daughter take a new belly pic because I had a feeling that baby had "dropped". Well here's what I saw:

Guess that explains things!! A bit nervous now though as my last 3 kids all came exactly 4 weeks after I dropped. So if this one follows suit, that would make his arrival to be expected on April 13th at which point I will be 34 weeks 3 days. A bit too early. A full week earlier than my last one. Plus it's my nieces birthday. I'm not due til May 22nd but I am pretty sure I won't make it into May at all. So now fingers are crossed that I make it as long as possible in April and that he gets a healthy start!!

Been keeping busy sewing and getting orders out. I'll be taking my "maternity leave" on March 31st so I have time to finish getting things ready for Gavin and also work on some projects to stock in my stores when I come back =) All of my orders lately have been custom orders and as much as I love doing customs, it doesn't leave much time to get things in stock. Here's a Mei Tai I did a few days ago though that I can't resist showing off =)

She's for sale too over at www.crunchycongo.com ! Oh and check out the Awesome easter egg hunt we have going on over there too! It ends March 26th and there's some great prizes to be won :)

Guess that's about it for now. I don't expect things to slow down any time soon. Kids are off school tomorrow, we have easter at the in-laws Sunday, next week I have 3 chiropractor appointments, one midwife appointment, 1 school concert........and who knows what else lol. Then in 2 weeks the kids have spring break......hope they're ready cuz we have some major Spring Cleaning/Getting ready for baby stuff to do that week! Speaking of which........I need to start cramming those hypnobirthing cd's into my head!! lol time is running out fast!

Granola Chicks? Them girls are Nuts!!

lol. So I'm part of this Awesome online community called Granola Chicks. ( www.granolachicks.com ) I've been there almost a year now and the ladies there have taught me so much. The other day I was looking for advice on how to relieve this horrible heartburn/reflux I've been dealing with, and several of them had suggested Apple Cider Vinegar. Well I finally broke down and bought some today because lately the Tums are just making my heartburn worse. After dinner it was bad, felt like I was breathing fire, so I got up the courage to take a swig of the vinegar. That stuff was THE Nastiest Grossest stuff I've ever drank!!! As I'm shivering from the nasty taste I'm muttering things under my breath and wondering Why oh Why would these ladies do this to me lol. But once I finally quit twitching from the taste I was amazed to find that my heartburn was gone!!! haha those nutty granola chicks were right once again. That was over an hour ago and the heartburn is Still gone!!!

There's so much more to the Granola Chicks. As nutty as they are (and I mean nutty in the most loving way :) Nutty is fun!!) they are some of the most loving caring women I've ever met. I was in a car accident back in January, I was ok, sore but ok, but at barely 20 weeks pregnant I was very concerned about he baby and if he was ok. Since it was a car accident, my pregnancy only insurance wouldn't cover a visit to the midwife to check on the baby. I still had 2 weeks before my next appointment and just couldln't shake the fears I had on if he was ok or not. Well, some very very special Granola Chicks came together and thanks to their donations I was able to fully pay for an office visit to go in and make sure baby was ok :) Had it not been for them, I would have been a nervous wreck for the next 2 weeks wondering and waiting. These ladies there would give the shirt off their back to help another mama out and I am very blessed to be a part of such a great community.

There is such a variety of women there, different styles, different personalities, etc, but one thing they all have in common is their hearts, and passion. I've never seen any drama there, and was even able to share with them a very very difficult part of my past and in return got only love and support, not criticism and guilt. It doesn't matter there if you're black/white, rich/poor, all out 'crunchy' or just a lil bit crunchy, everyone is welcomed with open arms and That's why I love Granola Chicks so much.

In addition to all the great ladies there, you'll find loads of great information on things like cloth diapering, breastfeeding, natural health remedies, special needs, wahm raves, and so on and so on. So if you want to be part of a great community, come on over to http://www.granolachicks.com/community and tell them mama2five sent you :)

Update

As usual I'm slacking on the updates lol. But the past weeks have just been crazy busy. Between orders and stores I'm working working working :) It's great though! I plan to start my "maternity leave" March 31st so trying to cram everything I can in now then will spend my time off doing some much needed maintenance on my website and work on getting a good stock built up to cut down on customs.

Pregnancy - Can you believe I'll be 30 weeks in just a few hours!!!! Time has just flown by so fast. I still have a ton of diapers to make, and need to wash the bassinet, but thanks to a great friend Natasha Gavin is far from a clothing shortage lol. I don't think the boy will ever wear the same outfit twice!!

Now to the blah parts.........the discomforts are really setting in, I can barely get my shoes on, getting up off the floor after changing Ashlyn is quite the adventure, it's getting harder to pick her up, and just walking from one end of the room to other leaves me feeling as if I just ran a marathon. My back hurts, other parts of me hurt lol, and Gavin is just having a field day beating on my hips. He seems to prefer the left hip. Oh yes and the ribs, he gets his feet into those really good.

Trying to take it easy as much as I can, but 'easy' doesn't come easy when you have 5 kids. I've had FFN tests come back positive 2 weeks in a row now, which doesn't guarantee that he will come early but does indicate a chance of it happening. REALLLLLY really hoping I have at Least another 5 weeks left. I go back to the midwife again tomorrow. The good news is the contractions are minimal, I have bouts of them here n there that will last an hour or so then subside. Let's hope they stay at a minimum.

Will update after my midwife appt.