Diaper Cake!

I had one of my best friend's baby shower this weekend, and I hate doing plain old shower gifts, so I decided to try my hand at a diaper cake. My coworkers made me one when I was pregnant and it was the best gift ever. I didn't get to take pictures as I was making it because, well, I have my own baby to take care of while making it :) Here's a step by step.

I used 60 size 2 Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive diapers. The great thing about the sensitive ones is they have a line that turns from yellow to blue/green when the baby pees so you know to change their diaper! It was a great tool for my husband (and me!) when our son was first born.

Step 1: Roll each diaper and secure with a rubber band.

Step 2: Cut out a cardboard cake platter and wrap it with wrapping paper and get a paper towel tube and tape to the center. NOTE: I did not do this because I didn't have a paper towel tube. I did cut out the base, but it's not pictured because I did it last minute.

Step 3: gather diapers and fill in and secure with a large rubber band. Do this for each tier. I made 3 tiers. Top tier was about 8-10 diapers, 2nd tier was about 20 diapers, and bottom tier was about 30 diapers.

Step 4: Wrap receiving blankets around each tier, then cut ribbon to tie around to secure.

Step 5: Fill in each tier with a variety of baby items. I used onsies, bibs, burp cloths, rattles, gowns, and I put a lovie on the top as the "topper"

Now, for the finished product! I will appologize for the quality, I took the picture on my phone.

Baby's new room!

Yes, Gabriel is only 5.5 months and I already redecorated the room. In my defense, we painted it almost 3 years ago when it was just our office and quite frankly I HATED the color, even more so when it became a boy room. I always wanted a Vintage Football themed room for my baby boy and well....the way I did it was NOT what I wanted. So....here we are today. I found some fantastic finds at my local Hobby Lobby. I added those in the room along with the clock and scoreboard I already had from The Land of Nod. A few months ago I found a fantastic football lamp at Pottery Barn Kids and snagged it. Then I redid the letters on the wall and repainted the shelves blue. New paint (Soft Chamois from Behr) and BAM! Here it is!!!

Working mom's cleaning guide

Since I've gone back to work, my house has taken a turn for the worst. There have been days where I've had to use a vacation day just to clean up a bit and do some laundry. Obviously I cannot continue to do this, so I had to come up with a solution. Between pumping, washing bottles, preparing bottles for the next day, making dinner, freezing milk, feeding and playing with Gabriel, etc. I was EXHAUSTED. I'm very lucky that Gabriel takes a 45min nap around 6:30pm. So last night, I decided to get off my butt and take care of some housework. Here's what I did:

Cleaned the family room
Washed bottles & prepared for the next day
Froze milk
Loaded dishwasher
Vacuumed first floor
Put away laundry
Folded Gabriel's clothes
Ironed 2 shirts and 4 pairs of pants
Threw in a load of laundry

I'm very lucky that my family room only takes about 10 min to clean, thank goodness :) My suggestion to the working mom's out there is to tackle small jobs (i.e. pick up some clutter) that don't take long at all. I've decided that when I do laundry I am going to immediately fold and put away, and my goal is to iron 5 items a week. Hopefully, by tackling these small jobs a little at a time my house will get back into order and more organized! Now...just need to figure out where to store all the baby toys :)

Gabriel: Month 2

Gabriel has grown sooo much over the past 2 months! He went in for his 2 month appt with the pediatrician and he weighed in at 14lbs 8oz and 25 inches long! What a big boy he is! He got his 2 month shots as well and did great. He cried a bit, but after about a minute he was happy as can be again! Month 2 has also brought on one of the best moments: his baptism. He was baptized on August 22 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. It was a beautiful ceremony attended by both of our families. We had a huge party afterwards at our house and it was a huge success!

Oh how life has changed!

It has been FOREVER since I've posted, and a lot has happened since my last post. So..here goes! I gave birth to my beautiful son, Gabriel Joseph, on June 13, 2010. He was a whopping 8lbs 9oz and 21 1/4 inches long. After 10 hrs of labor and 26 minutes of pushing, a failed epidural, and the worst pitocin contractions he was here in my arms FINALLY! The last week of my pregnancy was pure hell. I was contracting, but not regularly. Got sent home from the hospital. Finally, on my due date of June 12, my doctor gave me the option to break my water. Thank goodness she was on call and was able to deliver me!

Gabriel is now 2 months old, and let me tell you time just keeps flying by. I'm going to try and update this more regularly to help document his growth and development, but no promises from this busy mommy! Things have changed so much with him, he is sleeping through the night, eating about 30oz of breastmilk/day, smiles all the time, is just an overall happy baby. He's in 6 month clothes already! Now, here's a few pictures because I know that's what you all are looking for!

Nursery Post Shower & More!

On April 17th, my mother threw me the most wonderful shower :) We received more than I could even imagine! On top of finding a place to put everything, we also finally finished the nursery 100% :) We got the mirror hung above the dresser and my co-worker's high school aged daughter made us some of the most amazing football sketches! I bought some frames at Michael's and hung them on the wall to complete our theme. I love that they are one of a kind and there is no possible way for anyone else to have them!

Closet filled with all sorts of goodies for Gabriel!

New mirror hung above the dresser

Gabriel's crib with his new mattress...just waiting for his arrival!

The amazing artwork! I know it's hard to see, but trust me, it's awesome. I almost cried when I saw them!

New shower door!

Our new master bath shower door got installed! I'm so happy about this, it has been 2 years in the making. We always put it off and since I'm pregnant I said it had to be replaced before the baby was born. I'll post some before pics later on of the gross old shower door, but here is my new one in all it's glory!