Introducing Our Newest Family Member...

Oscar, 6 days old...

Mr Oscar James Edward was born 11 days early on Tuesday 19th May at 5.13pm weighing 3.59kg.

We've spent the past week rugged up at home (today it snowed!) getting to know each other and settling in. Everybody is happy, healthy and well and I'll be back with my last Me Made Maternity outfit soon... In the mean time, you can find me over on Instagram.

Stay warm!

xx
J

Me Made Maternity: Week 36 - Tired and All That Jazz...

Wearing - Vogue 8728 & vintage cardigan

Wow, week 36 already huh?

I'm not going to lie, I'm not entirely sure I'll be looking like the Duchess just hours after I give birth. But then again, I'm not planning on inviting my hairdresser to the Maternity Ward afterwards either, so, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Speaking of hair dressers though, I'm in pretty desperate need of a wee chop this week me thinks...

Thank you so much to everyone who chimed in with maternity bra advice in my last post! It seems you all have pretty much the same advice, which is to buy some soft maternity sleeping bras and then just wait and see. So, I have my marching orders - soft sleeping bras, here I come.

In other news, I feel like all I do is complain lately, but I am so-tired all-of-the-time. And I know it's not going to get any better, but hey, just like grunting like an old man helps, so does complaining, hehe. And it's really not all bad, promise.

If you're Felicity Sewing Along, er, you may have noticed a slight lapse in posts (see above paragraph). Apologies for that, I'm in the process of getting everything photographed, written up and scheduled so that I then don't have to think or stress about it too much any more. I anticipate being back on schedule early next week. I'm slowly ticking things off my long 'To Do' list. Slowly but surely.

Anyway, I'm rambling - I have absolutely no written cohesiveness today, and I honestly don't really mind.

Talk soon,

xx
J

Me Made Maternity: Week 35 - Hello? Is it Me You're Looking For?

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these, and as you can see, the bump has most definitely grown in the past five weeks. He's very active, wriggly and is not a huge fan of my ribs (I, personally, am rather attached to them. Ha ha, geddit? I haven't lost my (bad) sense of humour just yet...).

Wearing - Green wool 40's Vogue and Victorious Miette Cardigan. 

My slippers are knitted, but not by me AND I'm hanging out on our new deck to take these!!

I haven't meant to leave it this long between bump shots, but we've been so busy around here that we tend to forget about them until it's too dark to take any photos. 

To be fair, you haven't been missing any new 'Me Made' clothing action, considering I'm still wearing essentially the same things I have been for the past few weeks. These dresses have been on pretty much constant rotation - I'm way too tired and round now to care if I'm wearing the same thing day in and day out. If it fits and is comfortable, I'll wear it.

Other 'baby' related things over the past 5 weeks that I meant to talk about:

1) Maternity bra shopping - my head is about to explode on this one. How am I supposed to know what sizes to buy when I have no idea how big they're going to get? Any tips? Bras are expensive and I don't want to end up with a draw full that never see the light of day.

2) We've been attending regular antenatal classes, and no, you don't sit around in a circle and learn to breathe (they assume you know how to do that, considering you've been doing it quite successfully for a few years now). David and I were both kind of disappointed...

3) As I learnt on Saturday, don't scoff your cereal in the morning, because when your stomach has limited space and is squashed somewhere where your lungs should be, and there is a small foot using it as a kick boxing bag, your cereal will want to make a reappearance if it's gone down too quickly. Slow and steady wins the 'food staying in your stomach' race.

4) Heart burn, please-go-away, I'm trying to sleep.

There are still quite a few things David and I need to do before the Bebe arrives, mostly house related things (but also lots of loose ends for my business so that it keeps running at least semi-smoothly while I take some time out), but I'm trying to give myself a bit of a break from this (long) self-imposed list.

Do you remember me talking about the not-so-great March stuff bubbling on into April? Well, as it turns out, it's decided to stay for the whole month (well, pretty much, considering it's May this week!!). It's not the same annoying stuff, it's more of it in different forms, that seem to be compounding and growing and just being, well, poo-ey. I do tend to err on the half-full side of the glass, but, I am ready for a little break...

Luckily, David is home for most of the week, so we're going to tackle as much as possible and then, we'll just take it as it comes. And eat cookies. Mmmmmm...cookies. And admire the autumn leaves before it gets really cold. Though, we've already had a small amount of snow, so, I guess that doesn't bode well for a mild winter...

How are you lot?

xx
J

*I can't believe I wrote 'poo-ey' on my blog. I suppose you might need to get used to it, considering I've heard babies have a lot of it!

Me Made Maternity - Week 30: Missing! One Brain. Reward offered for its safe return.

Last week was a funny old week. With 10 weeks to go, my brain has officially upped and left the building. With no notice.

Wearing - my first Vogue 8728 of course!

It was definitely a comedy of errors where any sewing was involved - stitching things upside down, back to front, wrong sides together. It was so bad that all I could so was shake my head, have a little chuckle and wonder what on earth I'd do next.

I was making a simple gathered curtain for the wardrobe we built into our bedroom, carefully measuring and working out all of my seam allowances. I found a lovely fabric in my stash and proceeded to cut it out and sew it up. As we were hanging it, I was telling David about how I had made it quite long, so it would nearly touch the floor. Then, we stood back -

Me: "Erm, that doesn't look right... "
David: "Hmmmm..."
Me: "It's about 40cm too short!!! But....I measured and everything!"

Turns out that yes I did indeed measure, and then instead of using the panel that was measured and cut for the curtain, I used the smaller left over bit... Oh dear.

It works for now though. I'll change it later (maybe...).

I've also had to start taking extra iron supplements because my levels are on a downward curve. And can I just say, having less iron makes it really quite hard to do a lot of the simple things you take for granted, like walking.

I had to sit down the other day after 20 minutes of very light walking because I was so breathless and lightheaded. A combination of less lung room and less iron.

At least my hair is amazing. Seriously, amazing.

xx

J

Me Made Maternity: Week 26 - Thinking Twice

Hello everyone!

Ahhh, week 26 - only two more weeks and I'll be in my third trimester. Gulp.

Wearing - The Felicity Dress, View 1

I've been wearing my Felicity dresses quite a bit over these past few weeks, trying to get as much wear out of them as I can until I can't fit into them anymore. I wore the pink version to a wedding and the green version out to lunch on Valentines day (we went back to the place we got married - we hadn't actually been there since) and I thought it'd be fun to take bump photos wearing it this week, compared to the ones we took a few weeks back for the release post (and thank you so much for your lovely comments on the Felicity Dress Pattern by the way!).

I'm actually a little bit amazed at how many of my pre-pregnancy me-mades still fit me. There are also a tonne that don't, but most of my tops and blouses fit, as well as (obviously) my knit Vogue dresses and Bronte tops (watch out for a maternity Bronte hack in the near future!). And Felicity of course. I may have cheated a tiny bit there though, because when I made my samples, I did end up shortening the bodice by 5mm and grading out at the waist to not-quite the next size up, just to make sure I'd still fit the dresses for a few more weeks - I knew I'd still want to wear them with all of the gorgeous weather we've been having lately and Felicity really is such a quick wee summer dress to stitch up that is pretty and comfortable (if I may say so myself...*blush*).

I've been busy working out the dates for the Felicity sew along and all the posts that will go into it - the dress, while quick to make up, really does lend itself to so many sewing techniques that can be translated into other patterns. So, I'm excited to share them all with you, and I'm planning to do that in an ever so slightly unconventional way.

Ha! I'm making it sound way more exciting than it is, but, nothing like a bit of suspense right?

Also, apologies that this post is a wee bit late, that is mostly due to a headache. Yes, a headache. When you're pregnant, you should generally try to avoid taking any medication other than what you need to take (like, you know, if you're taking heart medication or something, you should probably keep taking that I'm guessing...). While my midwife has said paracetamol is okay to be taken occasionally, it's best to try to get rid of headaches in other ways first, like drinking water and laying down in a dark place.

We took these photos, as we do all Me Made Maternity photos, on Sunday. I didn't quite get around to editing and writing a post on Sunday afternoon because I was finishing some non-selfish sewing, thinking I'd get around to the bloggy stuff after dinner that evening. Well, my head had other ideas, and suffice to say, I ended up going to bed really early. On Monday, I tried to avoid screens as much as possible since the headache, while not as bad, was definitely still lingering in the background.

Being pregnant really makes you think twice about things you would normally just do - if you have a headache, you take a nurofen. If you want something heavy moved, you move it etc, and while I actually generally do still move heavy-ish things around (sometimes you want it moved and there's no one else around to move it!) I do try to wait until David is here to do the big things. 

But there are just so many little things you shouldn't do when you're pregnant - it makes you feel ever so slightly incapable I have to admit. Depending on others for silly little things like moving a box can get a little tiresome. Though, I suppose I should milk it while I can - I am enjoying not having to change the cat litter, let's be honest :)

xx
Jen

Me Made Maternity - Week 25: The Conversation...

Wearing - 40's Knit Vogue, Number 1

So, it went something like this...

"Hey Hun? Can we take bump photos before you leave your pregnant wife to go and play video games with your friend?"

David, looking up from having just finished the vacuuming, "Oh, yes, of course..."

Click, click, clickety-click

"Okay, I think we have enough Head to Toe's, can we do the close up's now?"

"Mmmm hmmm."

Pregnant lady turns to the side and puts hands over and under belly.

David "Oh, I forgot you were pregnant. It looks like you just shoved a pillow up there..."

That, my friends, ain't no pillow. No lovely, soft pillow that I know of could kick you from the inside, cause sleepless nights from heartburn, not let you sleep on your back, give you achy-restless legs...

I can, thankfully, control the heartburn since after a little experiment, I discovered that it's probably a teeny little bit too much sugar causing it (with my small passenger being the initial catalyst). But it's such a cruel cruel thing, especially when I just wanna eat all the chocolate...

Other than those few annoyances, the pregnancy seems to be going a long just fine. He's very very wriggly, and will let me know when I'm in a position that he doesn't approve of. We also have the name. We've actually had it for a while, and I have to be honest, I do have to stop myself blurting it out to people accidentally since David and I call him his name when we're alone.

The other conversation went something like this...

"Hey Hun! Did you know that the baby is now the size of a cabbage this week, and my uterus is the size of a soccer ball?'

David, staring at my stomach, "But....where does everything go?"

My point exactly!!

xx
J

Me Made Maternity: Week 23 - But Where do your insides go?

Wearing - The Cressida Skirt, View 2

I can't quite seem to find the words today. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my insides are slowly being pushed out of the way for an ever expanding baby. I've noticed this past week that I can't eat the usual amount of food I normally would at each meal due to my stomach being slowly evicted of more and more space. This leads to a really full stomach much sooner AND I find it harder to breath as my fuller sooner-than-usual stomach needs somewhere to go, so it in turn squishes my lungs out of the way.

Sort of reminds me of a kid's tune "There were lots of (important) organs in the body and the little baby said, roll over, roll over..." or something like that.

Having to determinedly breathe my way through 2 pieces of toast (or a bowl of cereal and yoghurt) and a small coffee each morning, is not my usual, relaxing, breakfast routine. And it's not exactly the biggest breakfast ever - especially when you'd actually prefer a large cup of coffee...

And yes, having smaller meals at a more regular interval sounds like a great idea in theory. But in practice, when you have pregnant-lady appetite, even after you've breathed your way through breakfast and are full to exploding and pretty much can't breathe any more, you still feel the never ending need eat MOAR!

Quite the turn around from the first trimester, I must admit. And I still have roughly 17 weeks of expanding left to do (yikes, when you look at it that way.... man the panic stations please!!).

This week I am wearing my trusty denim-bought-from-Paris Cressida skirt. It still fits. It might be straining slightly at the waist band, but by golly, it still fits. And if you were worried about the inseam-pockets gaping on the pattern, I did design the curve at the waist very carefully and specifically not to no do that, but also, photographic proof that a pregnant lady can wear it and still not have gaping pockets.

Just in case you were wondering :)

Right, where are the snacks...

xx
J

Me Made Maternity: Week 22 - Kicked from the Inside...

Wearing - 40's Vogue dress

It's a strange feeling, being kicked from the inside. I've been feeling definite movements since about mid-week 19, and before that, possibly. Probably.

Every time I call David to come and feel the baby though, it turns into one of those bad comedy routines - the wee lad will always stop kicking as soon as David has his hand on my stomach. We hold our breaths and wait. Inevitably, we feel nothing and so David goes back to whatever it was he was doing, and BAM! I get kicked again.

David has managed to catch the baby a few times though, and this past week, we've actually seen the little kicks through my stomach. So weird. So.... much like a scene out of Aliens. In an oddly good and reassuring way.

Anyway, onto the dress!  I loved this Vogue pattern when I first made it - so much so I made three different versions of the dress (Number 1, 2 & 3). And to be honest, I think I officially love it even more now. They've started getting a pretty good work out over the past few weeks, and I'm sure their work load will continue to grow as I do. They're all made from knits, they're stretchy and comfortable, and although my waist line is creeping slowly northwards, they're still super flattering on.

By the time I'm due, I may hate them. But for now, we can't get enough of each other, and I expect you'll be seeing them a lot more during this series in the months to follow.

xx
J