Wrapped in a quilt

15 August 2013, 4:33 pm by Giggles
Categories: Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

I’m the quilt lady. So of course my children will have personalized quilts from me. Back in March I designed this quilt for our little Iddo.

She likes turtles (at least we’re hoping she does). So it had to have turtles on it. The kite seemed like a fun idea. Flying geese is one of the three or four blocks that Brett can identify, so those seemed like a good idea. And then I like pinwheel blocks.

The Thursday before she was born I spent a good chunk of the day finishing all the quilting on her quilt and got the binding basted down. The morning before she was born I was up at 4am with contractions sitting on the couch watching “Chuck” and working on the hand appliqué of the flowers and bow and keeping my fingers crossed labor would hold off long enough to finish the quilt (it didn’t). And today, now that she’s 2 months old, I finally finished hand stitching the binding and got it washed.

Iddo's turtle quilt

I’ve never really made a quilt quite like this one before. I hope she loves it.

And don’t worry. I had a flannel blanket I made a while back I was saving for my some-day baby. It just happened to have turtles on it. So she’s had a “mommy blanket” from the start.

6 Shared thoughts

What are you up to?

8 August 2013, 3:31 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things

A few weeks ago I stopped by the university to return some books I borrowed from some people. It’s summer so there weren’t a whole lot of people actually there. But everyone I saw asked me what I was up to these days. Iddo was nestled in her wrap on my chest peacefully dozing. Each time I was asked I pointed to her and said she’s what I’m up to.

Today is the third day in a row she’s decided to nap only when we are cuddling. I’ve gotten the laundry done this week (I can do that one handed now, except for the folding part). And I’ve squeaked in a shower every day. But otherwise it might look like not a whole lot is getting accomplished at our place.

Except it is.

I’m getting a whole lot of mothering done right now. I’m helping her feel secure. I’m being there when the reflux hurts. I’m noticing all the tiny little changes as she grows.

She won’t always need me to mother her like this. So for now I’m going to just lean back and enjoy this little swaddled up bundle of life gently breathing on my chest, grateful for Brett making it possible for this to be my job.

Because she is what I’m up to right now.

5 Shared thoughts

Slow, but forward

7 August 2013, 3:46 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise

Running is my thing. It keeps me in shape and sane. Brett really encourages me to run (and do yoga) regularly because he knows what a difference they make in my life.

Yet I just went one day shy of 51 weeks without running. My last run, until yesterday, was a 4-miler on August 14th last year. A week later I had surgery. And then I was doing shots for IVF and they like you to take it easy while your ovaries are that big. And then I took it easy because I was newly pregnant and had a small subchorionic hematoma we were keeping an eye on. By the time that cleared up in January I tried a jog down the street and thought I would die because of the pain in my hips as they’d already started to spread.

But yesterday, at 7.5 weeks postpartum, with Brett having been asking me when I was going to start running again since before Iddo got here, and unexpected cool weather, I went for a two mile run in the evening.

It took 27:21 to go those two miles, my slowest ever. But I ran every step. And then took one of my quickest showers ever because Iddo had decided she was hungry shortly after I’d left. We’re going to work on our timing for that next time.

I’m looking forward to when she can come with me in a few months. 🙂 :run:

9 Shared thoughts

You’ve had a birthday!

6 August 2013, 4:55 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Life

It was my birthday two weeks ago. :party: :woot:

We were up in Utah and my father-in-law bought me some lovely flowers that morning. And Iddo smiled at me after breakfast.

Then I fed Iddo and Brett and I went to the Salt Lake Temple together before rushing back just in time to feed her again.

Then we met my parents at Tucanos for a delicious lunch. I’m still just as excited about it this year as I was last year. After eating more than our fill we took Iddo and walked around Temple Square a bit. She was super excited about the whole thing and slept through it all. Or maybe she was just embarrassed by it all as we took her to our traditional photo spots commemorating our first date.


The night of my birthday Bountiful had a fireworks show for me so we watched that with family.

It was a great day. 🙂

For a birthday cake back home we’ll be making “cakes in a mug” tonight since we really don’t need that much cake. I made them last year with the youth and they are really quite good, as long as you keep in mind it was cooked in the microwave.

5 Shared thoughts

Physical & cognitive development for $3.22

5 August 2013, 12:55 pm by Giggles
Categories: Featured, How To, Old Jeans, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

I spent the first half of this year substituting in the high schools around our house and one thing I really hope for Iddo is that she’s in the honors classes in high school because the regular classes are a bit scary. So I’ve wanted to make sure that she gets plenty of cognitive stimulation, especially now that she’s starting to be awake more rather than just eating and sleeping.

We have some toys that are designed to hang from stuff for her to interact with, but nothing to hang them from. I wanted to get an activity gym for her, one like this one – Kushies Shangrila. But they are a bit out of our budget right now. So I looked online to see if anyone had figured out how to make one. I found a few good ideas, but there were things I didn’t like about each of them and places where I saw they could improve their ideas.

For starters, anything we put under Iddo needs to be washable because she spits up a lot. So the tutorial where the polls were sewn permanently to the blanket wouldn’t work. Plus, I’m still finishing the first quilt I’m making for her (two more sides of binding to stitch down). So I didn’t want to have to make another blanket right now. I wanted more flexibility in design than using hula hoops like I saw in one tutorial, so I was glad to read about PEX piping on another one. Then I let it all percolate in my brain while we traveled.

I bought a ten foot length of 1/2 inch PEX piping for $3.22 and pulled out a pair of Brett’s old jeans (yup, this is another “I made it with my husband’s pants” post). And made this, an infant activity gym:

MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial

Which doesn’t look like much. We cut the pipe so one piece is the diameter of the pipe longer than the other. I removed the back pockets and the belt loops from the pants and then cut the legs into 18 strips all 1.75 inches wide. And then I sewed them back together with 1/4 inch seams. Because it is denim and I didn’t want to turn roughly 20 feet of fabric tubing, I left the seams on the outside and then frayed them. I like the fuzzy look.

It looks a lot better when it’s all put together.

MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial

I put the elastic at the top to hold the pipes together, but because I also sewed the straps together up there it isn’t really necessary. I used the belt loops for the loops to hang the toys from. I’m planning on making a bag to put the whole thing in out of the pockets. The pipes slide in through a slit at the bottom. So the whole thing can come apart for storage/washing.

MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial

And I can put any blanket I want on the bottom for her to lay on. Which is great because she’s already spit up on the two we’ve used.

MissGiggles.com - Infant Activity Gym Tutorial

The diagonal on the bottom is about 42 inches across. So a small baby sized blanket fits corner to corner in there while a normal lap sized blanket fits edge to edge (like in the photo above).

And now my child can work on her physical and cognitive development and we only spent $3.22 (not counting the cost of the toys Grandma G got her). We’re working on her budgeting skills real early.

She has seemed to enjoy it when she’s been awake and full enough to play with it as well.

6 Shared thoughts

Natural, not automatic

3 August 2013, 6:57 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Health

It’s International Breastfeeding Week this week. Seems like a good time to blog about breastfeeding. In fact, there’s a whole “Blog About Breastfeeding” event at Mothering.com.

I went in to breastfeeding knowing that it is a very natural process. Babies are born with a sucking reflex. The hormone changes after birth make a woman lactate. But I also knew that a sucking reflex does not equal a good latch, and hormone changes do not equal a good supply.

Breastfeeding may be natural, but it is by no means automatic.

And that was certainly true for us. It took us a month before we really got the hang of it. Which was very frustrating since after health benefits for her (like increased IQ and health) and myself from it, my main reason for breastfeeding was the convenience of having the food always ready and available without any mixing of formulas or washing of bottles or going to the store and spending money. And breastfeeding was anything but convenient to start.

The first month was supplemental nursing systems, pumps & bottles, engorgement, lactation consultants, breastfeeding support groups, infant reflux, and a LOT of support and encouragement from Brett. Without his support we wouldn’t have made it through that first month.

We’re still working through some bumps on the road. We aren’t over the reflux yet. And some times in the middle of the night I’m too drowsy to get a good latch the whole time and pay for it later. But it’s starting to become as convenient as feeding a baby every 1 to 4 hours can be.

Now if she’d just pick a schedule and stick with it I’d probably squirt her in the face a little less.

6 Shared thoughts

To see the stars!

29 July 2013, 5:11 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life, Questions

I love the stars. And Brett knows it. That’s why he picked when to propose to me based on the solar calendar. That’s why he bought me solar system and constellation socks for Mother’s Day.

I think he should take me to Hawaii so I can see sights like this one – Milky Way Panorama from Mauna Kea. And the northern lights are definitely on our list of things to see at some point.

I cannot look up at the sky without awe and wonder. What gives you a sense of awe and wonder?

6 Shared thoughts