Monday, June 22, 2015

Nesting, with a twist.

Welcome to week 18 friends! My new week starts each week on Thursday, so I'm right between 18 and 19 today. This screen shot is from an app called The Bump, and it's what I look at each week to see how we're all progressing.


Although this app is designed to track sizes for singleton pregnancies, it is still accurate for us at this point. Dr. J tells us that the babies will follow the same growth patterns as a singleton right up until about 24 weeks. At this point though, everything changes! At 24 weeks the growth of our babies little bodies will slow quite dramatically, however on the inside a whole different story is taking place. The development of the babies internal organs and their functions will then kick into overdrive in preparation for their early entry into the world. Their little lungs will be almost fully developed by 28 weeks, and reflexes like sucking, which develop in a singleton right up until nearly 40 weeks will be achieved much more quickly in our little peanuts.

With evidence like this of such a grand and purposeful design, I am amazed that anyone could still believe in the randomness of life. Personally, I have no doubt that the hand of our Loving Creator is behind this amazing development and I am grateful every day for His hand guiding the lives of these babies already.

And here's the soon to be momma at 18 weeks. A lot bigger than a sweet potato, no? Notice the belly button? I was a solid "innie" pre-pregnancy, but there's no doubt that things have turned inside out, so to speak.


Okay, on to the nest! We settled on soft and lovely neutral colors for the nursery, not knowing whether we'd be preparing the nest for boys, girls, or a combo pack. The colors are simple, soft grey and teal. These darling receiving blankets from Carters are the first thing I purchased for the wee ones, and we've built the rest of the room around them.


Mom will be sewing curtains for the room one we settle on a nice teal and white fabric and we'll  be painting only one wall in the nursery grey, leaving the rest bright white. Who knew grey could be such a tough color to choose!


We selected mini cribs made by Babyletto in a soft teal. Not only do we love the color, but these mini cribs will allow us to fit all four in the nursery, an impossibility with full size cribs.


Coming from a long tradition of knitters I decided that I would knit each baby a blanket in a different shade of grey. Sadly, though I inherited my Mom and Grandma Mouse's love of knitting, the talent for it seems to have skipped a generation. Therefore, always a realist, I knew my only chance for success would be in using only the simplest of patterns, thereby reducing the chances of my all to frequent errors. 

The super easy pattern I found came from Lion Brand, and has mostly been a success so far, with a few minor hiccups that all my loved ones will say are unnoticeable. It is the perfect pattern for the mediocre knitter who finds her already suspect skills further hampered by the dreaded Pregnancy Brain. Yes, it's a real thing. I'm klutzier than ever and can't hold a thought for ten consecutive seconds! The entire pattern is worked in stockinette stitch so it doesn't require a vast amount of concentration, obviously a must for any project I take on at this point.


So to this point, I suppose this all sounds like typical mom-to-be nesting patterns, with nothing at all out of the ordinary. Where, you might ask, is the aforementioned "twist". Well, the "twist", friends, is this guy, The Magnificent Andrew. Looks a bit like an Evil Genius, doesn't he?


He has been an absolute whirlwind of activity these last couple months, making small repairs and large, and spending a lot of time on baby preparations. I will show you the full scope of his work in another post, but it has been amazing!

Frankly, none of the work has been a surprise to me. He adores working with his hands and can learn how to master nearly any project in short order once he sets his mind to it.

What I was not expecting him to set his mind to, was knitting! Yes, that's right. Knitting. Tearing down a wall one minute, needles in hand the next. I caught him staring at me one day as I was knitting, and he made the comment "I bet I could do that". "I bet you could too", responded I, and thus began the adventure. He has been knitting a practice piece, and I have to admit it kind of cracks me up sitting side by side on the couch with our knitting. And don't tell Andy I said this, but his yarn tension after two lessons was better than mine after years and years of practice.


Doesn't he look pleased with himself? This guy never ceases to amaze me. He's going to be a super dad.


Whew! I guess that's all for now. I try to keep it short and sweet, but I guess there was a lot to cover today. Love and blessings to you all, and much gratitude for your continued prayers.

Love,
Jen








2 comments:

  1. Love your posts Jen! Praying for ALL of you.

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    1. Thanks Sarah. We appreciate the prayers more than I can express.

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