A Home for Max & Miles.

It. Is. Done. After a lot of furniture moving, painting and discussing, the nursery is ready for baby boys. We've never actually had a nursery, so this is just the most thrilling thing in the world for yours truly. 

Andrew's mama painted the room -it's actually an icy turquoise and not the baby blue you see here. Maybe that will surface in the photos to come. Hm. 

Once the room was painted, we bought two very reasonably-priced cribs and got to work. My manly man spent an evening building them and they were together within a couple of hours. Squee! 

The element of danger adds something, I'm sure. 

Mom bought the babies these wicked cool sheets, which I am now completely in love with and with the breathable bumpers, they are a serious must. Those bumpers are a huge pain to put on, and changing the sheets was going to be a very rough event for this family! 

Here is Daddy after Crib #1.

Our able-bodied helpers!

Mama and Daddy at 32 weeks! 

Daddy was feeling super fun and gave the girls the big piece of styrofoam to play with while he built cribs. Fab. 

He also had a huge cleanup job. 

A week later, we're finally done with all the sewing and decorating! 

The wooden letters took huge amount of work, but they came out super cute. The mobile was also a very long project, as I had to fold 40 origami balloons before stringing them. 

The Roman shades were up before the girls moved out of this room, but I added a new finish to the top to really give it a little extra color and finish it off. 

The daybed will mostly be for nursing, but we have a trundle underneath that pops up and creates a kind bed, so that when we have company we can easily move out of our room and convert that into a guest room and sleep near the boys. Perfect setup for a big family that is constantly welcoming out-of-towners!

The skirts are a tad high for now, but will fit perfectly once we lower the mattresses when the boys start pulling up. The cribs are actually a black/espresso color - don't let the weird reddish tint throw you!

All in all, we're thrilled with the result - we've never had a room to welcome a new baby home to, so this is just the icing on the "We're having twins cake!" 

The Day After.

I don't know a lot of Obama voters. I feel like I wouldn't know what to say to one. I'd vacillate between hysterical laughter and a "Wait, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were serious" and something close to, "Oh really? Which part of the last four years really got you on your feet? Unemployment? The economy? Libya?" with a look of sincere puzzlement.

I don't have a lot of time to despair over the Presidency. Is it tragic? Pretty much. We live in declining nation, and I see that American strength just ebbing away. I do know that the only ethnic food in the great state of Texas is Mexican, so maybe not knowing gyros personally is why Texans are trying to stay away from that Greek effect. They also resist China pretty well, and I do know it's really, really hard to find good Chinese in Texas. So if you are what you eat....

I am in a constant state of prayer for our Nation. America was built on hope and possibility, and we do still have that. I have absolutely no hope in our President or his administration, but perhaps being hauled into an even deeper horror of government is what this country needs. If really does take reaching rock bottom for a person to change his ways, so I'd assume that our country will need to be on it's knees in desperation before they'll be on their knees in prayer and reparation.

In the meantime, I still have plenty of hope and possibility in my own home. Two brand new people on the way, a 3-year-old who says she's going to be a Mommy when she grows up, a very naughty 18-month-old who is running us ragged, a 5-year-old who is practically perfect in every way and a husband who is truly the peanut butter to my strawberry jam. Life is always good and always beautiful. You can't hide something this shiny under a bushel basket, now, can you?

Back to Blogger

Sometimes, change is not good. No more Tumblr... back go Blogger. Sorry for the interruption and welcome back to The Cooke Family Blog, plantedandblooming.com! Save it in your bookmarks and tell a friend! :-)

lol, Andrew

Breathable Baby Bumper, the custom way.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out formatting wise. All of these pictures are all over the place and I have no earthly idea how to fix them. Just search for the corresponding pictures as we go, okay then? 

So I spent a lot of time trying to find a pattern to sew bumpers for the boys' cribs. I'm talking weeks of googling, and it just felt like SO much fabric and so much measuring. I will do anything to avoid measuring. Seriously. So I was in the shower a few weeks ago thinking about bumpers, and I thought, "I'll just take one that's already made and make it custom!" And OH did my idea come to fruition. 

I went to Target looking for breathable bumpers, but only came up with very pricey, satin-trimmed bumpers. $30 a pop! Wha?! Highway robbery. So I went to Amazon, and found the exact same bumpers for $18 each. This week they're $28 apiece, so it looks like my timing was just heaven-sent! 

So I had to improvise as far as an ironing board, since I don't have one of those fancy free-standing jobs. Pack and play working FINE, thank you. I cut a three-inch-wide strip of fabric, and then kept CUTTING. Forever. Like 200 inches of fabric. Gahhhhh. Then I set to ironing. I hate ironing. If I had a real ironing board, people might expect me to iron. See the connection there? "Sorry babe, I couldn't  possibly iron that shirt...my ironing board is WAY below par..." 

I just folded the edges in and then folded it in half, and pressed it like CRAZY. The Breathable Baby Bumpers have a one-inch satin trim, so I figured cutting three inches, folding in a half-inch on each side and folding it in half would be perfect. I was right. Then I just folded that bad boy over the existing satin and zipped right on down the bumper! (I should mention, the BBB's have long strips of velcro on each end that need to be ripped out and then sewn OVER the fabric when you're done. Taking the velcro off will not hurt the existing satin. I thought they might be sewn on with the same thread, but the good Lord made a provision. Whew!) 

Add your velcro back....and do it all over again. There are two pieces to one breathable bumper, so just know that once you're all finished, you have to start over again. If you're having twins...you're doing that times three. Whee!

And with a little fabric and a lot of ironing, you have a custom bumper that ALSO makes you look super safety-conscious and incredibly awesome at the same time. 

I recommend guzzling Sonic drinks while you iron and sew. If you're in the family way like me and are avoiding hard liquor, Sonic is the only thing that may level your mood in the same way. 

So there you go! My genius all wrapped up in one blog post. 

32 Weeks, Easy Does It...

32 weeks, y'all. 2 weeks to "won't stop labor," 6 weeks to scalpel time. Nearly there.

 I'm trying to get a few things taken care of for Christmas, as I'll be spending a majority of December recovering and not "overdoing it." Doing some shopping on Amazon, bought Christmas dresses today, and on and on. I'd like to make up a plan for a few things to bake and give to friends around Thanksgiving. I think some would say that that is shooting for the moon, but I think you'd really have to be here to see how it's going. I'd like to get the girls into their dresses and outside for some Christmas card photos so that all I need to do is newborn photos when the boys make their appearance, but we'll see. It'll depend on my contractions!

Some days I have a decent amount of energy, but each day I'm getting a little closer to complete rest. In order to prepare for holiday fun, I'm trying to plan according to what I could realistically do from the couch or within a 20 minute span. Things like roll-out cookies are out of the question, but things like fudge and pumpkin bread are doable. Attending the Christmas parade downtown won't happen, but I could feasibly enjoy the light display at the Texas Motor Speedway. For instance, we did a large shopping trip at Target yesterday and I was able to come home and do a couple more things. This morning we had to venture out to a second Target store for the second baby crib, and I only did well because we stopped at the Church nursery to sit and visit for an hour before heading home. Sitting is nice.

I'm feeling pretty terrible, but that's not really a complaint, just an observation. I have no idea how you'd be feeling great at this point. I think it's a lot easier to handle now that we're in the home stretch. Feeling enormous and bummed out was tough at 26 weeks, but now it feels like we're really getting somewhere, so the pain and exhaustion feels like it's really paying off. We're really moving on the nursery now, and having the distraction of needing to finish things makes it easier to get through the days.

I'm having lots of contractions just this week, and since I've never really "gone into labor" on my own, I have no idea what I'm doing. Mostly they're Braxton-Hicks, and they're all under the "call your OB" limit, so I'm just sort of sucking it up and keeping an eye on things. Generally I have Braxton-Hicks all day and then painful, crampy contractions in the evening when I lie down. Since labor with each baby can be different and labor with multiples can be very different from singletons, I'm going with a 1st pregnancy approach and being cautious. The past few days have felt very different in terms of my physical condition, so I think it's really just my body asking me to rest more and slow down even more than I have. For instance, I've been sitting quietly for almost an hour and I'm in the middle of a massive contraction. I'm just adding it to my sticky note on my laptop and hoping I stay under 6 for the 8pm to 9pm hour. So help me, I'm not driving to Labor and Delivery on a Friday night so they can tell me I'm not having contractions!

I still don't really know what to do about sleeping. I'm not really sleeping well, but not losing enough to really do anything about it. The boys are active absolutely all night long, and they play off each other most of the day. It's neat, but seeing as I have to get up to use the bathroom 5 or 6 times a night, I wake up one or both babies 5 or 6 times a night, and then I have to wait for them to settle down enough to let me sleep. Their kicking and rolling is VERY powerful, and there have been several times that they've actually moved my whole body. I thought there was supposed to be a slowing down point, but I guess we're not there yet!

We start weekly appointments in three days, and I think all of us are dreading it and somehow excited at the same time. It's a long drive to the hospital district, and every trip is long and trying. I come home super tired and crabby, and it takes a lot out of the kids. There is a good chance I'll get to twice-weekly appointments before this circus is over, so I guess we just need to get through it as best we can!

Our November is going to be mildly busy, but we're trying to figure out how to have Thanksgiving and making a few contingency plans, should we end up delivering babies during the third and fourth weeks of the month. It's just FUN at this point of a pregnancy. I love the waiting and wondering and tension. I'm so cut out for third-trimesters.

The nursery is coming along, and I think we'll be building cribs by next weekend! FUN! Andrew's mom is painting like a mad woman every little break she gets, and the painting should be done by tomorrow night. We were going to wait until January to put things together and assemble the room, but our wise nurse said, "Well multiples often come home with apnea monitors and equipment. You're going to need bigger beds if there's a chance they're coming home wired to anything." Hmm....good point, there...so we are going to build the cribs ahead of time to make sure that the babies have a safe place just in case they need more room than we're currently prepared for. I have a crib bumper and a skirt to finish, and I'm working on fabric banners to put at the tops of the windows. If I have enough fabric I'm going to try to sew a diaper stacker, but sitting in front of the sewing machine is pretty rough these days, so I'm prioritizing! I've got one skirt and 90% of a bumper done, and they look super cute! I actually created a custom breathable bumper, and it's HOT. I can't wait to put up a "how I did it" post! I can't wait to get things together! I also have grand plans for a giant mobile, but that's going to be a whole family project as far as I can tell. The little origami balloons are all done, but I am still completely puzzled as far as how to string them up, and really, I'm still not sure what to hang them FROM anyway...but I want it done this weekend. It's going to be a rough weekend.