Baby Blankie Project

I was on Fabric.com (such a dangerous store for me! lol) and found a must do project for when I get pregnant (who am I kidding? If it wasn't so expensive I'd be doing it by this weekend!)

As obvious, my next pregnancy is elephant themed and the gender will be a surprise at birth.

So I'm going to be getting these cuddly minky fabrics and making a baby blanket. One side will be blue and I'll be machine embroidering his name on a corner.
The other side will be all pink and have her name embroidered on a corner.

Then the first picture of our little surprise will be our baby wrapped in the blanket, with whichever color and name that's correct on the outside.

Just another special thing to do for our surprise baby!

Here are the two cuddly fabrics I'll be using:




https://www.fabric.com/buy/0284072/minky-snuggle-fleece-elephant-light-blue?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-social-_-product-_-0284072

https://www.fabric.com/buy/0284073/minky-snuggle-fleece-elephant-pink?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-social-_-product-_-0284073

Cycles Returned!

One step closer to TTC - I now have my cycles! I got them back on 2/9, 13.5 months PP. A new record! I got it back at 10 months with Katie.

Now I'll have four months to wait it out and have my cycles regulate before starting TTC.

Before getting my cycle, I knew I was either getting my period or pregnant. While I was rooting for my period, I did realize that if I was pregnant, I could probably handle it. It would still be early and not ideal, but it wouldn't be bad. It's a big mental step, possibly just as big as getting my cycle back. Last time we had a pregnancy scare, I was straight out panicked.

Bill liked the idea though of my being pregnant now, so he was a bit disappointed. But now we know we'll definitely be ready to start trying by June!

Warming up

This whole time I've been enjoying the idea of a baby, but NOT wanting a pregnancy. Or the baby...yet. Having baby fever and actually wanting to get pregnant are two VERY different things!

However, I can feel myself getting into the mindset as the weeks fall away. I decided to TTC in June, but when we decided it, I wasn't 100% sure I'd be ready even though it was MY idea. As much as I want another baby, my pregnancies are rough! And labor...ugh, I'm still not over that one yet. Will's was just pure hell.

We had a slip up when Will was 6 months old and I was hugely paranoid. There weren't many happy feelings, I was pretty concerned! I was definitely sweating it out. Nothing came of it though, luckily.

This week we had our second slip up. This time I'm not horrified, I'm not panicking. Do I want to be pregnant right now? No, ideally I'd like to wait until June. But I realize now I'm in that "if it happens, it happens" type of mind set. There's no longer fear about getting pregnant. If it happens before June, it will be met with excitement, not worry.

That's not to say I'm ready to move into TTC or even NTNP yet, but I definitely think by June I'll be in a TTC state!

(For the record, I would love to say I don't think there's a chance of pregnancy with Will still breastfeeding and my cycles yet to return. However, if I actually say that, I KNOW my body will prove me wrong, so I'll just say it after the two weeks are up. lol)

My little Beast

Found out something funny the other day when I was looking up Beauty and the Beast pictures on google. Not only were there the Disney versions, but also the tv series (both old and the remake). I always loved the old show, so much that my naming choices have been influenced by it. I've loved the name Vincent since I was 16 (as well as Catherine, but that's already well known!) We've been planning on using Vincent for years for our second son and the Beast is definitely what inspired it.

I haven't watched the remake though. I couldn't get over not having the romantic pairing of classy Linda Hamilton and amazingly voiced Ron Perlman in it. It's now an edgier show, where the Beast is some military experiment and Catherine is an edgy badass. However, I now need to see it because in the pictures I was looking at, I saw that they gave Vincent/Beast a last name.

One of my favorite ever characters that has ever been on tv, whom we're already naming our next boy after, was given the last name Keller on the new series.

The Beast's official full name is Vincent Keller! How cool and completely perfect is that? (Not to mention that means one day Catherine will become Catherine Keller - I have one of those too!)

I took their name, so they then took mine!

Does this help with my bi-weekly baby fever? Nope.

EDIT: I'm now watching the show. What's funnier than already having a Katherine and then doing the name Vincent? Vincent apparently had a big brother named William!

Disney Store's new line of....Elephants!

The Disney Store just released a new line of elephant/Dumbo things! The good part is that it's mostly gender neutral and adorable, the bad part is it's a bit too early! They have a tendancy to only hold things for a few months before they're sold out and taken off their site. I'll have to remember to look for these when I get pregnant!

TTC date in place

Last month, the house that Bill has been looking at every single day, twice a day on his way to and from work, went on the market. Just because it's been his dream for 7 years, we went to go look at it. Turns out, it's not quite our dream house, or at least not for anywhere close to the asking price.

However, going to see that house has done great things! We're totally redoing our finances as we're now looking to move within the next five years. Originally, we wanted to stay here for much longer, but we're running out of space in our home and the town isn't what it used to be. I ran through the numbers and figured out that we could get our forever home in a few years if we play our cards right. Now we're set on working hard to get all the student loans paid off this year, to get all the money for a family car (which we'll need for the next baby, and that way Bill and I will both have a car), and start growing our savings fund. This means that next year, we can start using our taxes, bonuses, and all overtime to start saving for a down payment on a new home.

We're also crossing our fingers that this is the year that Bill will get promoted to Foreman (he's a supervisor right now), which will be an automatic $200 extra a month, plus an extra guarantee for overtime. It also means paid family leave - so when we have the next baby, he'd still be getting paid a 40 hour week instead of getting paid nothing.

We figure that in this house, we can fit up to 4 kids. After that, we won't have enough room to even fit enough beds in their rooms. Our pattern is aimed for having a kid every 2-3 years, and for the first year of life baby stays in our room, so that gives us about 5-6 years before fitting here becomes a total impossibility, though hopefully we won't need all of them.

With finances going this new way, we've decided that it would be optimal to start TTC the next baby in June. Not only does that work well for finances, it works well for having a spring/summer baby that I want as well, so I'm doubly happy about the plan.

Obviously things don't always work out the way we plan, but it's nice to have some set goals to look forward to! (And I'm 100% addicted to looking at houses all the time! Zillow and realtor.com are my best friends at the moment!)

2015

It's now 2015! That means I finally went one full calendar year of not being pregnant since getting married!

Now that it's 2015, of course we're wondering if we should start making plans, or have ideas, about our next addition. Bill asked me a few days ago when we're going to start trying. While I suffer from baby fever on a weekly basis, I'm not ready yet to try. While I'd love another baby, I wouldn't love a difficult pregnancy. I'm not ready for Will to be pushed out of the role of "baby" and into "big brother". Not yet!

My goal right now is waiting until late spring or early summer to try. Maybe we're start NTNP after Easter. Right now it's a bit of a moot point - so far I've been lucky to not have my cycles return! With Katie they came back at 10 months PP, but they were also wonky and  lasted about 35-45 days. I'm now 12 months PP and am excited to not have it back yet. Last time it took me about 10 months to get pregnant, so who knows - I may get pregnant in 2015, or I may not. I feel like it'll probably happen, but I was caught off guard last time.

While I"m not ready for pregnancy yet, I feel like I may die of baby fever if I don't get pregnant at all in 2015. Not something I'm overly concerned with now though!