Alphabet I-SPY Ticker tape Quilt

 For Christmas I made Nate an i-spy quilt of his very own.  I saw the Alphabet I-Spy Labels by Crafterhours and knew I had to design a quilt around them.  I decided on a tickertape style of quilting, though true tickertape quilts usually are made of small scraps of fabric instead of 4" squares.

 Has anyone else ever noticed how difficult it is to design with 26 of something?  Designing this quilt made my eyes twitch because nothing I came up with satisfied my obsessive compulsive tendencies when it comes to symmetry.  Poor "Y" got stuck in between "X" and "Z", and the eye twitching was resolved with marginal success.



If you would like to make this quilt, the printable pattern can be found here.  I wanted this quilt to be a little longer than it necessarily needed to be so that it would be a decent coverlet for Nate's bed. I originally came up with a 44"x44" quilt design that only used the alphabet i-spy blocks.  Pattern for the 44"x44" quilt is here.

 I know I really made this quilt for Nate, picking out the perfect set of alphabet i-spy squares that I knew he would love, and using every single transportation themed i-spy in my stash for the coordinating squares.

He loves all things that go and he loves this quilt.   He got to enjoy it for a whole month before I stole it to use with the twins, he he.

We love that is is big enough to put both of the babies on it and still have room to play ourselves.  Those babies are never alone if Natalie is conscious so we need plenty of space to share their sweetness and delight in their crazy expressions.

They LOVE tummy time on this quilt, it is colorful but not too busy, has plenty of contrast with the white background, and gives us lots to talk about while we play.

"Hmm... I bet if I giggled and squealed Nate would share his John Deere tractor with me."

And when we are all done with eating the i-spies, it is nice and cushy for a quick nap.

"Nice try, Mom.  Just kidding."

All in all, my favorite i-spy quilt to date, it is going to be well loved here for many years.

Tutorial: Customize your Ergo Baby Carrier

I've been wanting to pimp my ergobaby carrier for a while now, black is fine but I like to have fun!  I just bought a beautiful wrap to make into a ring sling and size 3 wrap.

The wrap came in a bag made out of the same material and I knew it was perfect for pumping up the volume on my carrier.  Also, this is another cell phone camera tutorial since I was squeezing this in between tandem nursing sessions.

I ripped it apart first,

Then I got out my plain back ergo and undid the hood webbing through the buckles on top of the pocket.  I  want to add that when you are customizing your carriers, it is important not to cut or alter major components of your carrier, I did not rip out any seams in this customization and stitched through all the layers of the carrier.  Function should not be affected by the additions you make whatsoever.

The fabric was the perfect width when I lined it up over the top of the carrier.

I started at the bottom seam just above the waistband.  I folded the fabric in at least 1/4" and pinned it down.  Then I cut out the pocket section. I made sure to cut it 1/4"in so that I could fold it down around the edge of the pocket.

Pin the fabric on the sides under and finish cutting the pocket. The top of the pocket was a little tricky, it is really tapered in so I cut in towards the taper for the inside, and then cut over to the edge of the pocket on the top so it just hugged around that seam.

The next step was to trim off the top and strap sections,

and then pin the fabric under.

Lastly I pinned the fabric under around the pocket area.

All ready to sew!  Sew around the edges of the outside of the carrier and around the pocket.

Looking good!  But that pocket....

The small pocket for the hood is sewn over the zipper pocket.  Which means that it can't be sewn on the machine without ripping up the zippered pocket.

I pinned the fabric over the pocket and then stitched it on by hand using a backstitch.

It took a while and was kind of a pain because you are sewing from inside the zippered pocket; however it really does complete the look of the carrier.

I am so so happy with how this turned out!  I am really looking forward to matchy tandem babywearing with the twins!

That is That: A birth story of twins

If you have been keeping up, I was very nervous about the possibility of giving birth to my twins via cesarean section.  I first wrote about it here, when I discussed all my fears of having another surgery, and then revisited here, when I had resolved to let go of the fears and need to control the outcome.  I had a c-section and that is that.  It is all in the past and there is nothing to change it now.  I wanted share how everything turned out with the birth of my twins and my feelings about having a c-section.

It was 9:00 at night, I had just sat down 20 minutes earlier after putting Natalie and Nathan to bed,  I'd had a busy day with running the daycare all day, heading to the hospital for a non stress test, coming home and hosting a sewing night, and seeing my hubby off to work for the ice/snow storm expected that night.  So I was finally sitting down, and felt what I thought was more Braxton Hicks contractions when my water broke.  I kind of freaked out to be honest. Firstly because I was only 35 weeks and 4 days along, secondly because at the non stress test earlier that day the nurse had confirmed that Brandon was still breech and still presenting first, so when my water broke it all sank in and I knew I would be having a c-section.  I called my hubby to come home and then started rushing around trying to pack a bag and arrange child care for Natalie and Nathan.  Somehow it all got done, and the contractions got really intense, really fast.

By the time we made it to the hospital, I was already 5 cm dilated so they rushed to get a team together to get me into an operating room.  Out of the entire experience, this is the part I am angry about.  There were at least 8 people running in and out of the room trying to get everything ready. Doctors shoving papers into face trying to get me to sign off on a surgery that was terrifying me, nurses botching my IV, an anesthesiologist explaining that I would be getting a spinal and if it didn't work for some reason that I would be put under general anesthesia, in which case my hubby would not be able to come into the operating room during the "procedure".  It felt so cold, sterile, distant, and foreign.  It did not feel like I was about to welcome two new little lives into the world.  I was very upset, in tears and was trying to calm down talking to the hubby during a short lull when we were actually alone in the room.  At that point a nurse walked in to check our vitals and saw that I was upset, while taking my blood pressure she told me that if I couldn't get myself together that they would put me under general anesthesia.  I was not hyperventilating or uncontrollably upset, I was crying and trying to calm myself.  Threats to put me under and make me miss the birth of my children completely because I was crying and scared was completely uncalled for and I felt bullied and threatened.

Despite the added stress and fears I made it into the operating room, and the spinal worked.   The room was so cold and so full.  Two OB's, two teams of nurses and pediatricians for the babies, the nurses and anesthesiologist assisting the OB's, quite overwhelming.  Eventually they let the hubby come in, and the anesthesiologist was great in talking to me and letting me know what was going on.  The hubby watched the babies being delivered, and left me to watch them as they were cleaned up and assessed.  I heard them both crying, they sounded strong.  I couldn't see them though, I had to wait for almost 10 minutes before they finally brought them over for me to see them.  That was the most painful part of the whole birth process, not being able to see or hold them when they were born.  Natalie and Nathan were put right onto my chest after their birth and assessed while I was holding them.  It felt so wrong and so painful not to be holding my babies when they were born, and I'm not sure that pain will ever really fade away.  I was very glad to finally see them but there was no skin to skin in the OR because it was too cold and I couldn't hold them properly on the operating table anyways.  

I was glad to finally get to the recovery area.  Then I was able to hold the babies and start nursing them.  I am very glad that they didn't have to leave my side, and that the surgery didn't impact our nursing relationship at all.  The recovery was quite different from my other deliveries, with a very extended hospital stay.  Ugh, I could not wait to be discharged, the longest. 3 days. ever. With my others I was out 24 hours after baby was born, I cannot sleep in hospitals.  The hubby had to help a lot when we got home with up and down with the babies and taking care of the other kids.  He is kind of allergic to being domestic, so the last two weeks have been pretty fun :)

All in all, this was not the birth experience that I wanted, nor was it an experience that I enjoyed.  It makes me so very sad that I cannot say that I enjoyed the birth of my twins.  I am thrilled and blessed that they are healthy and there have not been any complications.  At the same time I need to mourn the loss of the birth experience I could have had and wanted so desperately.  I am not sure that it is possible to truly heal emotionally from that loss.  For the last two weeks I have simply been trying  not to think about it very much because I don't want to wallow, but there has to be a point where I face it and try to accept it.  Which seems impossible at this moment in time.

And then there were FOUR!

I have FOUR children, two of which are brand new!
Brandon Heath

and Alice Grey

  The twins were born about 2 weeks ago, and we have been adjusting to being a family of six.  I've been lucky enough to have my husband home and helping with Natalie and Nathan and making sure that we are eating real food and aren't buried under a mountain of dirty laundry.  The babies were born about 4 weeks early, but are absolutely perfect despite their early arrival.

(Brandon above, Alice below)

No time in the NICU, breathing well on their own from minute 1, nice healthy 6 lb birth weights, and nursing champs from the get go.  Of course, there is a healthy amount of twin baby problems, like one of them trying to eat the other basically all the time.

There are also lots of peaceful tandem milk comas...

and plenty of baby snuggle time where I simply stare at their beautiful faces.

They like to sleep at night, but they like to be held while they sleep at night.  Which means the amount of sleep that I am getting is pretty minimal to be honest.  They will sleep on their own in the crib during daylight hours, but once the sun goes down all bets are off and into the arms they must go.

There they are at 2 weeks old, I think the identical poses are pretty great.  I actually find them in similar positions in the crib quite often.

All in all, we are pretty happy and enjoying the changes to our new, big family.  We love it when things are nice and peaceful....

Even though it doesn't last very long with two newborns in the house.  We love the crazy, chaotic times too :)

Quiet Book for the BOY!

I made my boy a quiet book for his second birthday, and I was so excited to finally be able to dig into "boy" pages since Nate is into trucks, tractors, trains, cars, and monsters.  I don't even want to count how many things with wheels entered our home between Christmas presents and his birthday presents....

I used my tutorial for a quiet book cover, covered with tractors and trucks, of course.

The first page is his name with snap on letters and a dump truck with button on wheels.  I used the dump truck template here.

The number page I did using train cars, inspired by this page.

I think the train cars turned out to be very cute.  I wanted to incorporate touchpoints from Touch Math in the same way that I did in my other quiet books. However, these numbers are smaller and the button touchpoints really distract from the numbers themselves.  I don't think I would do the buttons the same way again.  The train cars stick to the page using velcro.

I fell in love with these two pages from Imagine Our Life.  I HAD to make the forklift and the dump truck.

Her templates are so easy to use and they turn out so cute.

I mean, the forklift goes up and down.  Are you kidding me?

The dump truck dumps like a champ and has been Nate's favorite activity so far.

I liked the idea of adding a versatile pouch to a quiet book.  It can hold anything!  Busy bag games, puzzles, trains and tracks, etc....

Right now it is holding a popsicle stick building game from a busy bag we had.  The pouch has snaps attached so we can remove it from the book entirely if we feel like it.

The parking lot page is one of my favorite pages in the book and one of the only ones that is of my own inspiration and design.

The hot wheel size cars store in the zipper pocket and you drive them to their parking spots for a fun color matching activity just for boys like mine.

The last page is inspired by Nate's love for Monsters, Inc.  The closet door theme from the intro to the movie inspired me to create a fun door pocket, and inside the closet.....

MONSTERS!  Monster finger puppets to be exact.  I loved the monster templates that I found here, but they were a little large for finger puppets.

Easy solution!  I downloaded her pattern and opened it up in Adobe Reader then pushed print.  Once the print menu came up I went to the "Page Scaling" section and chose the option for multiple pages per sheet and chose 3 pages across by 3 pages down and printed.  When they printed out they were the perfect size for finger puppets :)

I think I am going to slow down on the quiet books now, perhaps until the twins are ready for them in a couple years ;)  Which could be slightly influenced by the fact that making this book sent me to an urgent care clinic to get stitches for the first time in my life....  Rotary cutters are deadly man!  The quiet book that literally cost me an arm, haha. Nate better treasure the blood, sweat, and stitches poured into this present!