6.18.2010

ringer around the ultrasound

today's the day. the day baby #2 stops being "the baby" and becomes "he" or "she." the ultrasound technician will know around 11 am today. if we stick to our game plan, WE will know a few hours later. followed swiftly by you (on monday probably).
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maybe it's just because i have a child already, but i am being so 100% honest right now when i say i don't care either way what the gender is. this time, i am just focusing on all the anatomy and measurements and health stuff looking good. i took that so for granted with judah while i was busy rooting for a boy, and so my gratitude for his lifelong health has really mellowed me out about the sex of the baby and made me see what's important. *end inspirational public service announcement.*
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continuing on my merry making trend, i wanted to make something for judah. see, if he is having a sister i probably won't be making anything for him for awhile since there is SO much more cute girl stuff out there that is easy to make. i decided that i would try my hand at something super challenging.
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during my interwebial travels the other day when crafty inspiration struck, i found the making blog, MADE. holy cow, this chick is a baddie bad bad. she can sew like none other. i saw an awesome tutorial on her blog that shows how to take a ratty old men's t-shirt and turn it into a super adorable vintage-looking ringer shirt for baby. i can't get enough of colorful ringers on little boys and i loved the onesie-style detailing on the shoulders, so even though i was a bit out of my depth and way nervous, i went for it.
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here's what i started with: an old t-shirt of jesse's that i had worn to bed a few times and therefore had gotten discolored a little bit from my medicated face lotion (problem skin at age 30, here i come!). for some reason this stuff only bleaches the GBIV portion of the color spectrum. even though it looked rough on jesse, there was still enough good fabric to make a judah sized shirt and i loved the bold color

the tutorial is called "the 90 minute shirt" but it took me 2 hours because i was watching the NBA finals (snooze) and i had to make my pattern from scratch (yeah, no pattern included, people! tres DIY). i am so so so shocked and proud of how it came out:

to make my pattern i deconstructed an old 9 month onesie and then measured up by guesswork using a 18-24 month shirt that we have for judah, so the dimensions are a little funny. but seriously, i MADE that!

when we woke up this morning we had to have the little guy model it:

the fit isn't too bad, though it was intended to be big enough for the fall/winter and it fits him pretty snug right now.


stone faced strutting the catwalk. he's an ambi-turner
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so this little project was time consuming, but had just the right mix of mindless cutting/pinning paired with challenging problem solving, sewing and measuring. just my kind of task. enough to keep me on my toes and fulfilled, but not enough to overwhelm me. i can say that if i saw this style of shirt at old navy i would probably expect it to cost (and i might consider paying) $12.50. mine was free thanks to having a ton of the ribbed yellow knit already (but that would have cost about 80 cents if i had to go buy it). i will be making more of these. count on it. they maybe purple and pink, but they will BE.
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and here's the final weekly belly picture before the fruits and veggies get a gender! 18 weeks (last saturday) and a nice bell pepper is what we're working with. (week 17 got skipped because the turnip at publix that i found was the size of a kiwi and made no sense.)
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those are maternity jeans. i test drove them a few days ago because i finally found them and determined i am not pregnant enough for them yet. not that they are too big (oh no), but my stomach is still too soft to overpower the elastic and not just look like a floppy gut busting biscuit over the waistband

i can really feel this baby all of a sudden. with judah, i had a few weeks of little bubble-type flutters and, "was that him?" moments. but this one really just started with the swoops and squiggles that are undeniably baby. it awesome. i forgot how fun and freaking weird it is to feel a bell pepper sized human gamboling around my uterus.
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i feel awesome. no more malaise or nausea of extreme fatigue. i do have some weird second trimester symptoms going on, the most annoying of which is violently itchy legs. like, "jesse, go get me the belt-sander" itchy. also the bladder capacity is on the way out. 5 out of 7 nights a week i have to get up once or twice in the night to pee. by the time i deliver i won't be able to go longer than 3 hours with out squeaking out a thimbleful.
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see y'all on the other side of some tiny little sex organs.

10 comments:

  1. I have been preoccupied with Levi that I completely forgot your little pepper gets genderfied today!!! It's a good thing you're having another baby- that picture of Judah walking around in his green shirt really makes him look like a grown toddler. I'm now panicked our little guy is going to grow up that fast.

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  2. I am still amazingly impressed with your skillz! :) You are my roll model of what I want to do - maybe soon if Chris gets this job I can get a machine!

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  3. OH - I nearly forgot - I AM TOTALLY rooting for you to NOT find out the sex AT ALL! Go ahead and make girls clothes! If you do have another boy - chances of a friend having a girl some time soon are HIGH so you would be set for shower gifts for the next few years! Think about how AWESOME that moment will be- after you work SO hard to naturally deliver baby #2 - and the anticipation of finding out the sex after 9 months! You only have a few more months K8! You can totally do it!

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  4. I cannot wait to find out if the next beautiful Dukes baby will be wearing pink or blue!!

    I am way impressed at the ringer shirt! adorabale!

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  5. An ambi-turner! Yes! Congrats on finding out the gender today. I got my jewelry roll in the mail - thanks! I love it.

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  6. You are seriously talented; I wouldn't even know how to deconstruct a garment to make a pattern out of it! You continue to amaze me with your creativity. By the way-I love my burp cloth so much that I couldn't subject it to Isaac's baby secretions, so instead it's going in a shadow box as a decoration in the boys' room. ;-)

    Can't wait to find out the gender of your little one. I don't think I can wait until Monday though.

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  7. I'm almost 30 and I use face medicine too... and I wake up every night to pee 1 or 2 times :-/ Hugs from NY!!

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  8. That shirt is awesome! I want one in Justin's size. BTW I am rooting for a girl. Can't wait to find out. Also I fixed my spelling error.

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  9. omg. you go girl. i am SO impressed. i LOVE the MADE blog, but since it's 99% girl stuff, i've never tried to make anything...that and the fact that it all looks so amazingly intimidating. i am so impressed that you even had the biz-allz to try. maybe i need to go rummage thru some of phil's old stuff.....now stop reading my comment and go open that envelope PUH-LEASE!!!!!!

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  10. i'm totally annoyed. i think my comment was just deleted or something. it basically said that the shirt rocks, as do your skillz, now go open that envelope....but was longer and nicer. oh well.

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