Waiting for Baby - Project Lampshade

I'm still at home, waiting for Elizabeth to give us some signs (of labor) that she's ready to make her debut!

It's been a weird day for me, because last night and early this morning, I was having contractions anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half apart. Haven't had any since about 12:30pm today, though. We did call into Triage at the Pavillion just to make sure I was still good to be at home, and they said absolutely, and that I'm doing just fine. They did tell me to try to drink 20oz. more water today than I normally do, so I'm working on that. (It's pretty hot out, so that makes perfect sense). I'm trying to drink about 2-3 of my Eddie Bauer water bottles full (that's 32oz. each).

This morning I woke up earlier than I wanted to, but I slept soundly all the way through the night, so I felt like that's good! I had a really hard contraction around 7:45 this morning when I was just getting up, but other than that it's just been a little bit uncomfortable today. At Robert's request to pamper myself a little bit, I made an appointment to get a pedicure at 11am this morning (we called last night to schedule that). But when this morning rolled around, I wasn't so sure I should go do it. I was having more signs that labor was imminent, and I almost canceled the appointment. Instead, Robert decided that he would go and drive me himself. I'm so glad I did it, because it really did help me relax, and it felt amazing!

After the pedicure, I suggested we take the TrailBlazer through the car wash, so that Robert didn't have to deal with it. (He'd already mowed the front yard last night, and had more yard work planned for today). He happily agreed, so we did that, and then he took me to get a vegetarian gyro for lunch (the only thing that sounded good).

We got home and had been planning on going to Robert's parents' house to watch the Kentucky Derby. But I was feeling funny. I drank a bunch of water and tried to shake it off, but I decided I needed to be at home this afternoon. I went outside where Robert was weeding the front flower beds, and asked if he instead wanted to invite his parents and sister over here, or if he wanted to just go by himself. He thought about it, and decided he was staying with me regardless, but in the end our plans ended up changing completely and we all just stayed at our houses. Just too much gardening and such going on with all of us today.

So, while the Derby was on, I made time for a project that I'd been putting off - Elizabeth's lampshade!

I actually made two different covers, but the first one was nothing short of epic failure. No joke. It looked terrible, and I knew it wouldn't work as soon as I started pinning it on the lampshade. Sigh.

Here's what I did:

1) Cut pattern.

 After seeing how awful the first attempt went, I tried to figure out a simple way to cut a pattern. (Yes; me - the one who rarely uses patterns!) It was necessary. So, I just asked Robert for a paper grocery bag, and cut out the bottom and the length of one side so that it would lay flat. Then, I took the actual lampshade, and laid it on the paper bag with the seam down and marked on both ends of the lampshade onto the paper where the seam was. From there, I just rolled the lampshade starting at my marks from where the seam was, following first along the top and then along the bottom with my pencil until I got to the seam again.

2) Use pattern to cut fabric (leave 1/2" to 1"
along edges).

Then, I laid out the pattern on my fabric (I didn't pin it down, because I knew I needed to leave some room along the edges), and traced it with my pencil on the underside of the fabric. Using that as my guide, I cut around the lines I had traced with my pencil, being careful to leave about 1/2" to 1" extra room for ironing down and sewing the seams. Then I ironed the long edges down.

3) Pin fabric and ribbon to lampshade.

 The next step was the trickiest. I pinned the fabric down to the lampshade to make sure that my seams were measured correctly before I sewed them down. Good thing I did this, because I found that even after careful measurement and planning, there were still some parts that had to be straightened out. Here's my disclaimer on this next part: Don't try this at home. I realized that I'd never get "perfect" seams ironed for the lampshade if I tried to do it flat again. So, having the fabric pinned down to the lampshade, I adjusted the seam (where it was ironed) along the top and the bottom to fit the lampshade exactly, with no extra fabric. Once I did that, I ironed it down, right against the shade. (Again, probably not the best way to do it). Leaving the fabric pinned, I picked out, measured and cut some cute ribbon from my craft area in my office, and cut a top and bottom border for the lampshade. I pinned that down also. Once I had it all pinned, I carefully took it off and ironed the seams of the fabric (long sides first). I used a 1/4" seam, but you could go longer if you wanted to.

This is what it looked like all pinned down.

4) Glue fabric to lampshade along side seam.

Next in my process was the fastest part: gluing! I just used my hot glue gun, and started with the top of the seam on the lampshade cover, and worked my way down to the bottom. I used sporadic dots of glue about 3/4" apart all along the seam to make sure that it wouldn't pucker or get pulled up.

5) Glue top & bottom seams to lampshade.

I used pretty much the same process for the top and bottom seams. The key here is to glue each side as you go. So, I found that 3-4 dots of glue about 1" apart along the top followed by 3-4 dots of glue about 1" apart on the bottom kept the fabric laying nice and flat, and it made it easy to keep straight and taught along the edges of the lampshade, too.

6) Glue ribbon to lampshade.

From there, I let my glue dry for a few minutes before I started attaching the ribbon. I used much bigger dots to glue the ribbon down to the fabric on the lampshade using the same process as step 5.

7) Finished lampshade!

Ta-da! Looks great, I think! I had a thought that I should have glued some pink buttons along the ribbon, but I couldn't find any, and I wanted to keep it simple, too.

Here's the seams - they turned out great!

Here's how it looks in Elizabeth's nursery!

I really like it :)

Good Night's Rest

I slept soundly through the night. That has not happened in months. I had inconsistent contractions all evening, and I took my shower last night - just in case I go into "active" labor and I don't get to take one.

Supposedly, most women are writhing in pain when they reach the point I'm at. Hmm. I'm just a little bit uncomfortable, and I don't like the contractions (who does?!)

Anyway, Robert had me schedule a pedicure for 11am today, because he knew I might not have a chance to get one again in the near future. He is planning on driving me, though.

My experience so far with driving and having contractions is a little stressful, lol. Even just those Braxton-Hicks contractions can really be tough. Also, since I have the most pain from whatever contractions I DO have when I'm sitting down, driving is probably a bad idea at this point.

Robert mowed the front yard yesterday, and the plan (tentative, of course!) today is to work in the flower beds out front, and then work on the back and side yard. I rely want to tell him to just forget it right now, because I want him inside with me, in case Elizabeth decides to make her debut today. Right now, he's sleeping soundly next to me. :)

Well, that's all I have to report for now! I will update the blog again if there are any changes, so stay tuned!

Who's Ready To Meet Elizabeth Johannah Crombie?!

Here I am at 38 weeks with Ellie Jo!

At my appointment this morning, my doctor told me I'm 4 1/2 (almost 5!) centimeters dilated and 80% effaced! He said Elizabeth will probably come this weekend! AND he's the on-call doctor this weekend, too. :)

I was really, really excited to hear this news, because I've felt really odd this past week. When the nurse asked me how I was doing, I told her that I've been feeling strange. Not bad; just strange.

I've had some contractions, but it's nothing we can time or anything consistent. They go away as quickly as they start, and only happen sporadically. As far as discomfort goes, there are many times that I'm about a 9 on a scale of 1-10. It's like nothing feels comfortable, nothing helps soothe my body, and Elizabeth just kicks and kicks away. Robert has had to do a lot for me around the house these last couple of weeks, because I get little bursts of energy, and then they're gone with the snap of my fingers. It's crazy. I'm trying to use the energy to my advantage, but it's hard.

I lost another 1/2 lb., but the doctor confirmed that Elizabeth definitely gained 1/2 lb. He said, "If you can figure out how to write a book about this net gain/loss game your body has been playing, I bet you'd make millions!" Haha. It's NOT intentional. I absolutely hate throwing up. But it happens every single day. I can't help it. The truth is that I lose a lot of food; this is not traditional "morning sickness." But as long as the baby is okay and healthy, I'll endure it. My doctor also expects that I'll probably lose about 10-20lbs. right after she's born, so I need to make sure I'm taking care of myself because I've already lost a lot of muscle. Poor Robert is going to have to get me some new clothes after the baby is born, because a lot of my regular clothes don't even fit (not talking about my preggo belly here; it's my shirts and pants). 

My mom was at the appointment this morning with me, and when the nurse took my blood pressure and announced that it was 114 over 72, we were both a little surprised. It's really, really good, but it was not what I expected! 

As for being ready, I'm pretty sure we've got everything we possibly can in order! We don't really believe anyone is ever 100% ready for a baby, but we feel like we've done our best. :) The nursery is set up, her beautiful cradle glider is all ready in our bedroom, and we've got diapers, wipes, bottles, clothes, and blankets. Everything else is just going to fall into place as it happens, we think. No need to be freaking out about it all, because we simply cannot predict how things will be with a newborn!

I did make some changes to my work station:

 

I got an exercise ball to sit on while I work, which made things much more comfortable! Sadly, I'm probably not going back to work pregnant, since baby is on her way any time now!

My department at work chose dates they think baby is coming!

This is NOT a bet or a pool; it's just for fun. :)

Today, I plan to finish up the house cleaning I started yesterday and just sort of lounge. I'll probably try to get my gardening out back finished up when Robert comes home so he can help move stuff for me.

Make sure you bookmark our blog, www.crombiechronicles.com , because we probably won't be updating Facebook as much as we update here. (Plus, we can share more details here without blowing up your newsfeed, lol!)