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.

Belly Pics

Long update

Ok so I've been so busy I haven't had time to update, as usual lol.

I'll be 27 weeks on Thursday. Wow. I had a midwife appt last week, went well, I gained another 4 1/2 lbs for a total of 14 lbs so far. Had my glucose test and my thyroid levels checked, haven't received any calls so guessing they all turned out ok :) I go every 2 weeks now and my next appt is on 2/28. I'll get my lovely Rhogam shot and also start with the FFN tests (fetal fibronectin, basically predicts the liklihood of going into labor soon). We're hoping that I won't go any earlier this time than I did with Ashlyn (35 weeks). It wasn't premature labor that caused my last 2 to come early, but premature rupture of the membranes......i.e. my water broke. Not much to be done to prevent that so we'll have to just cross our fingers and wait and see.

Business is Booming :) I got my new sewing machine 2 weeks ago and it hasn't had a break lol. Between both businesses the orders just seem to be rolling in. I'm loving it though :) I've also started making Gavin's diapers, so much fun!! He'll have the cutest little covered butt around :)

Ok guess that's about it, this sure is One Active little boy i have in here!! Here's some pics of things I made recently.

24 weeks

Yep not keeping up with my updates, as usual lol. What else is new.

So I just got over the flu which really sucked. Baby is doing good, he's SUPER super active almost All the time. I think we've decided on Gavin Robert for the name :) We got a crib today and the nursery (which will be Zack & Gavin's room) is almost all painted. My sis in law ordered the cutest bedding for the crib :) and we're getting Zack's new bed probably next weekend. The room will have a cars/trucks theme, will post pics when it's all done. It's all set in now, we're havin a baby!!! And it's coming up fast too. Wow...........SIX kids. SIX!!!!!!!!! How did the happen? lol. Seriously if somone told me 10 years ago I'd have 6 kids I would have just laughed and told them they were nuts.

Not much else going on really, Feb. 6th is coming up real fast and it will be 5 years since we lost our Tristan :( It's gotten easier as the years have gone by, but this time of year is still rough and I don't think it will ever get easier getting through that date. Here I am all excited and getting things ready for the new baby, but at the same time feeling sad that I never got to do that for him.

Ahhhh, well anyway here's my newest belly pics, one from almost 2 weeks ago and the other from today. Don't mind the underwear lol, my lack of a butt makes it hard to keep the pants up LOL.

It's A Boy!

I can't believe I forgot to update this here lol. We had our ultrasound on January 15th and it's a boy! He was FAR from shy about showing off his parts too lol. Not only did we see Very clearly when she was looking for it, but then later as she was trying to measure his femur's he kept moving and there it was plain as day again lol. We got some great pics and it was so neat to see him opening and closing his mouth over and over through the ultrasound. Caught a couple yawns too, and him holding his hands together, then trying to suck his thumb.

He's an active little guy thats for sure!! There's very little time throughout the day where I don't feel him moving around. So far our name choices are Gavin Richard (middle name after dh) or Gavin Robert (middle name after father in law). I will be 23 weeks tomorrow and can't believe how fast time is flying!! I have NOTHING at all ready for this lil guy yet lol. And I mean NOTHING. I keep thinking........oh i have 17 weeks left.......plenty of time right? ha ha nope, especially considering in reality i'll be lucky to have 12 weeks left if this one plans to follow in his brother and sisters footsteps. Really the main things I HAVE to do is bring in the bassinet from the garage, buy or make some diapers (havent decided which yet), and get him some clothes lol. Oh yeah and make a new sling or 2 since most of the ones I use are pretty girly looking. Ahhhh so much to do so little time.

Feeling ok though. Had a bout with some contractions 2 days ago, pretty bad ones too, but nothing since so that's good. It's starting to get harder to get up from sitting though lol and my belly seems to grow a bit more each day. Oh yeah, I had a midwife appt on the 15th too and finally gained some weight!!! :) 7 lbs in 10 days bringing up to 10 lbs total. I go back on Feb 12th and will have my glucose test, thyroid levels checked, and possibly my Rhogam shot. She may wait on the shot til my following appt though, we'll see. Heartburn has kicked in full force now, doesn't matter what i eat drink or breathe and i get heartburn. Nothing compared to the reflux I had with Ashlyn though so for now I'll be grateful for that and just hope I don't get the reflux again. I think I got that at around 28-30 weeks with her.

I just hope things continue to go smoothly. With Ashlyn I was having NST's twice a week, FFN tests once a week, and lots of contrax from about 28 weeks on. With having 5 kids it makes it REALLY hard to get in for all those appt's so i'm really hoping my body and baby stay calm this time and I can stay pregnant a bit longer than I did with Ashlyn. I really don't see making it to May, but end of April would be ok :) Fingers crossed too that this time when my water breaks labor follows so I can avoid the pitocin. (last 2 kids water broke with no onset of labor). Still planning and looking Very forward to a water birth too :)