Car Seat Cover {Tutorial}

Okay. Here's the deal. I have no idea if this baby is a boy or a girl. It's killing me! But I know in the end it will be a fun surprise and adventure to have waited. However, it is making preparing for the baby a little tough. For example, I've been wanting to make a car seat cover (a.k.a. tent or canopy) for the baby but I wasn't thrilled with the idea of making a generic one. So what do I do? I make twice as much work for myself by deciding to make two! A boy and a girl. Why do I do this to myself?! I don't know. I've only made the boy one so far but it was fairly easy and I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it's worth sharing this little tutorial.

What you will need:

1 yd fabric

1 yd coordinating fabric

thread

scissors

ruler

buttons (optional)

 1. The goal is to end up with a rectangle approximately 30"x40". MEASURE YOUR CAR SEAT FIRST. Make sure this size will work for your seat and adjust it if necessary. You need a strip cut off of one side at least 2 1/2" wide for the straps so plan accordingly. I also placed my fabric one on top of the other and then cut my strips off to make my rectangle. You can do them one at a time if you like.

 2. Once I had my rectangle I used this hoop as a guide to cut my corners to be rounded. You can free hand it if you want but I wanted mine exact.

 3. You should have something like this: A big rectangle with rounded corners.

4. With both of your pieces right side together sew a straight stitch around the edges leaving an opening to turn the fabric right side out!!

 5. Turn your fabric right side out. Iron the edges flat. Sew a straight stitch around the edges being sure to catch the opening you left. As a side note, for some reason I made my stitches really wide, but a 1/4" stitch would probably be great.

 6. For your straps: cut two pieces of each fabric approximately 2 1/2" x 8". I wish I had made mine wider, but only because I like that look. You can make them whatever width you like. Also, be sure to measure your car seat handles to see if 8" is long enough, or maybe too long, and adjust accordingly.

7. Place one strip of each fabric right sides together. Sew a straight stitch along 3 sides. Turn right side out and iron the edges flat. Sew a straight stitch along the side you left open. You can sew along all four edges if you want but I chose not to.

 8. Sew your velcro on by putting the rough side on one piece of fabric and the smooth side on the opposite end on the other fabric. (see picture, I know I didn't explain that very well.)

 9. Measure your car seat handle to determine where you want to sew your handles on. Mine were about 10" apart. Also, they were not in the center length wise. I needed more length towards the front of my car seat than the back so be sure to keep all of that in mind.

10. Finally, you can add detail to the straps by sewing on buttons or ribbons if you want to dress it up a bit. And then you are done! I did this whole project in a couple of evenings. Probably less than 4 hours.

 It would totally be possible to make this reversible simple by sewing straps onto both sides but I wasn't ambitious enough to try that. Maybe with the girl version!

I guess if I end up having a girl the next person I know to have a boy can pretty much assume this cover will be their gift. :)

What Would You Do?

I have so many things that I have wanted to post over the last couple of weeks, but if I even had five minutes to myself it seems like there have always been twenty other things more important to be done.

Two weeks ago Laila woke up. She went from sleepy peaceful newborn to gassy crying baby. This isn't the first time I've had this happen, so I knew right away that she probably had a hard time digesting milk protein. My other two girls were the exact same and both of them ended up on soy formula pretty quickly. I really want to keep nursing her though, which is surprising because I don't actually love nursing, so I've given up any food that contains milk, cheese, butter, or chocolate. As it turns out, that eliminates about 90% of what I eat every day. It has been pretty hard to adjust my apparently awful eating habits, but this new healthier diet has helped me to loose weight faster so that is one plus.

So the problem is, while cutting out dairy has certainly helped, it hasn't completely solved all the gas/crying/not sleeping. Laila is serious about eating and when she does eat she sucks hard and swallows a ton of air with it. I've tried nursing her in different positions, I only feed her on one side at a time, I burp her constantly, given her gas drops, and most recently tried Gripe Water. All of it combined helps a little, but she still has so much air in her stomach that I could burp her ten times and she would still wake up crying because there was one more bubble.

Are you sensing the real problem yet? She won't stay asleep! She lasts for all of 15 seconds after I lay her day, screams in her car seat and I've given up hope for the swing, which means that I spend all day nursing, then burping, then bouncing her in my arms while she tries to squirm herself awake.

If I had no other children and a cleaning lady, then maybe I could just sit and hold my baby all day long and not feel like life has been sucked out of me, but I have a three year old who still demands a huge portion of my attention each day and my house looks like the kids have taken over. I'm not only exhausted physically from lack of sleep, but mentally as well. And I've started to really cherish the moments when she is not in my arms instead of the other way around.

I'm sure you can guess from the picture what I ended up doing. In desperation I laid her on her stomach to sleep. She still squirms and grunts constantly, but she doesn't wake herself up anymore.

Then, I left the pediatritions office yesterday with a paper saying "Babies should ALWAYS sleep on their backs. Yes, we know they sleep better on their stomachs, but there is absolutely no exception."

I've been worrying all day and checking on her every five minutes to make sure she is still breathing, and the whole time one side of my head is saying "This is bad. Very bad!" And the other side is saying "This is the only way."

What would you do?

In a Word...

Tired!

That's what four kids, sleepless nights, and a brush with Mastitis will do to you.

Thank goodness for back to school, a three year old who is more than happy to watch cartoons so I can nap, and modern medicine.

Right now survival is the name of the game! Dramatic? OK, maybe just a little. I mean I haven't brushed my hair in two days or even dared to venture out of the house without back up, but we are happy.

As for my little bug,

She is filling out nicely and refusing to sleep anywhere other than her bouncy chair or in bed with me, and since I am not a fan of co-sleeping, the bouncy chair it is.

Now Macy* wants to see her name on the screen, and insists that her name have a star next to it since that is how it is spelled on the outside of the mall. And I will happily oblige to defuse a melt down

Survival.

Laila Kristina Rollins

My sweet baby is already one week old! We are all adjusting fairly well to life as a family of six. My ex youngest is having a few more melt downs than normal, but I know it will pass. All we need are a few more hugs and kisses and a little more story time together on the rocking chair.

I'm doing my best to rest and recover. Sitting at home and taking it easy is hard for me to do, but my mom is here to make sure I don't over do it, so I should be back to full speed pretty soon. In the mean time, please forgive my scarcity in blogging. 

Isn't she cute!!! 

So...

I'm having a baby today!

Which means I am two parts excited and one part terrified. Don't get me wrong, I am more than ready, it's just that there is something about walking into a hospital knowing that I'm about to get cut open that is unsettling.



I'm trying not to think about it too much though, instead I'm thinking about a soft squishy baby. Oh that baby, I'm sooo excited! 

I will try and post pictures as soon as I'm feeling up to it, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of the room.

I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly where I found the tutorial for this changing pad cover, but I know there are several of them out there. And it was easy. Really. I'm not so in love with how pink it is, but my choices of minky at Jo Ann's was limited. 

And do you remember the pom poms? Well, they ended up being the only decorations I made but that's what happens sometimes and I'm just trying to be OK with everything I did get done instead of dwelling on what I didn't. I can still finish later, right? I mean some day I will have a semi organized life again...I hope.

And this is the bedding I made. There was actually supposed to be a crib skirt that went with it, but I ended up buying this crib from IKEA for 50 bucks on a whim and you can't do a skirt with it, but I felt a little relieved not having one more thing to make. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out. 

So that's it! Send some good calming vibes my way at 12:15 would ya!



My Little Mommies

When my oldest daughter was born I kind of assumed that having a girl meant our house would one day be overrun by barbies and dolls just like my house was growing up.

Today, we have zero barbies and only one doll that occasionally gets pulled out by my youngest daughter. Instead of playing house, they play cats. This morning they played super spies, and yesterday they played wizard school.

Usually I love diverse creative play that happens in our house, but there are still times when I mourn that dream I once had. My girls in their room surrounded by barbies and clothes and tiny shoes that will get lost.

Then, last week I begged my husband to help me find the rest of our baby gear that was stashed away in a box somewhere that I was unable to find. He found the box of course and several other things that I had completely forgotten about, and without any prompting from me the girl's inner mommy instincts came out in full force.

It was so fun to watch! I probably won't move the doll until we need to make room for a different occupant.

And speaking of baby gear that I had forgotten about...

This thing was not looking so hot. Stains and holes that I'm pretty sure were the result of a crazed kitten. It was either throw it out or make a slip cover for it, and I do remember using it a lot with my other kids so I got online last night and found a simple tutorial from A Load of Craft. It didn't quite take me less than an hour like some commenter's claimed, but it wasn't too bad either.

 And that pretty much finished up the projects I need to get done before this baby comes. Now I'm just working hard on this...

And it is really hard work! But so worth it once I hear that first little cry!