These days I'm making my lists, and I'm checking them twice. Kind of like Santa Claus.

Funny thing is that I'm about the size of Santa Claus, except, you know... I don't have a belly like a bowl full of jelly!

On my list last weekend was making sure that the baby's room was all set and ready to go. Final touch ups on the walls... check! Carpet vacuumed... check! Everything put in it's place... check! Artwork hung up on the wall... check!

So at this point it looks like all I need is a baby and the room will be complete.

The bedding is made by Cottontale Designs, and is part of the N. Selby line in a print called Garbo. When I originally saw this bedding online, I didn't think much of it because the colors looked so muted in the pictures that just about every baby bedding site showed. When I saw this bedding in person at a local baby store is was love at first site. I'm not a fan of baby bedding with lambs and butterflies on it. In fact, I'm really not a fan of anything that is made for a baby with annoying juvenile prints on it! Why can't a baby's bedding look good in your home and make your house look well put together? This bedding satisfied all of my needs, and I got a terrific deal on it over at Overstock.com.

The paint on the walls is Behr Premium Plus Ultra Flat Enamel in the color Pink Ginger. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would paint a room pink for a little girl, as I've always been so against doing pink for girls and blue for boys! But this pink didn't have that sea of bubblegum feel for me, and with the shade being more on the dusty side it will be easy for my little one to transition with the same paint color to a "big girl" room when she is old enough.

The Custom Flash-Card Style Wall Art is from sarah + abraham. I chose the 11x14 size, and had the print done in brown to balance out all of the pink going on with the walls. The site also sells other Personalized Art Prints, Birth Announcements, Invitations, Stickers... you name it! Very cute stuff, and with standard shipping I received my item within a few days. I visited Aaron Brothers during the 1 Cent Frame Sale and found a nice Frame and coordinating Matting and framed the item my self. In a perfect world this would have been custom framed, but I have to be more of a Frugal Frannie these days!

Things I haven't done yet that I would like to do is create some sort of Wall Art for the wall over the changing table (I'm thinking a framed ribbon/hair bow holder), new woven shade for the window (which will happen when we get around to doing the rest of the house), and side panel drapes. I might scrap the drapes for a while though, because all I can think about is the child safety aspect of having drapes and I would rather avoid injury at all costs. At some point this millennium when my handy man is available to work on my house, our windows will have casings added around them which is a total bonus when you have children because it eliminates the incidence of chipped plaster around the window edge.

For now I'll just have to dream about how it will eventually all look, but the room is pretty much complete and will stay the way it is for a long time.

Now, if I could just figure out how to make a slip cover for my Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper... or better yet, find someone that makes one...

I'm lucky in the fact that I've actually won a few things lately.

Totally out of character for me. I don't "win" things.

My friend Jen over at Tiny Oranges was running a giveaway for a Chic Mama Diaper Cake back two months ago. So what the heck, I entered... and I won!

How stinkin' cute is this diaper cake?

I'm sure for all of those Fans out there for Sex and the City we remember the episode of where Charlotte brings a Diaper Cake to a Baby Shower because it was the "hottest thing" to do. And why not? A diaper cake is full of diapers, which any Mom can use with a new baby. Cute and quite the utilitarian gift without looking so utilitarian!

For the giveaway I had the privilege of choosing which diaper cake I wanted. I chose the Disco Waves pattern, which is very cute. The diaper cakes range in price from $49.00 to $125.00, can even be made according to Custom Specifications. The more expensive diaper cakes include such things as Baby Shampoo, Receiving Blankets, and other baby care supplies and necessities. The standard sized diaper cake contains 35-40 Pampers Swaddlers Diapers in size 1, and if specified you can request a different sized diaper for the cake.

If you aren't exactly crafty when it comes to Baby Shower Gifts, but want to make a statement with your gift giving I highly recommend a Chic Mama Diaper Cake!

I hate giving ordinary gifts. But lets face it- whom has the time on a regular basis to make something unique to give someone?

Apparently I do.

Our friends are having a baby girl on just about the same day that we are (well, we'll see about that I guess!). This is their first baby, and they each have two sets of parents so by the time I got around to looking on her Registry to purchase her a baby gift there was nothing left to buy!

So, silly me... I decided to make her gift for the shower I can't make it to.

I'm not a quilter. At all. I make things for around the house, and Halloween costumes for my children. That's about it. Making blankets or anything that requires hand sewing, applique, or cross stitch is just not really in my vocabulary. But in my pregnant state I got it in my head that making a blanket for my friend's little girl would be so easy! I suppose all in all it wasn't that hard, but like I said... it's not my thing. Give me a pattern for an elephant costume and I'll do a much better job!

I started this project a few weeks ago, before the Breech Baby Drama was even on the radar. I'll be honest- I cheated a bit on this project. I used fusible quilt batting, and I bought solid colored quilt binding tape pre-done . The fusible quilt batting saved a lot of actual "quilting" that needed to be done, and instead of quilting I opted to secure the two layers together with decorative buttons.

With the leftover scraps of fabric I was able to make two coordinating burping cloths. I also decided to be extra fancy and monogram a baby shirt with her first initial, and also decided to monogram the solid-colored burping cloth while I was at it.

This gift isn't perfect. Well, the burping cloths and the shirt are pretty much darn near perfect... but the blanket isn't. I started to lose my patience at one point while doing the edge binding. It shows.

But alas, the gifts are finished and all wrapped up for my husband to drive up to Santa Monica today. Below are the finished products:

Lets just hope she isn't horrified when she sees the blanket (or at least doesn't look too closely at the edges).

To say this baby has been indecisive about her position in an understatement. She's been head up, then head down, then head up... then sideways... nothing ever consistently, and sometimes multiple positions in one day. It's been a pleasure (and I hope you can sense my sarcasm there).

For the last three weeks or so, she was head down (or in the vertex or cephalic) position like a good baby should be. This was even confirmed via ultrasound during my little jaunt to Maternal Fetal Testing a few weeks ago. Well, that is until this past Sunday when I woke up to little feet kicking me in the bladder.

Oh no you didn't, Scarlett!

Monday I had my appointment with my Doctor, whom is very experienced and has seen it all when it comes to babies. He confirmed that Little Miss Thing is now breech again... and she's in a complete breech to boot. We had yet another long discussion as to what we would do come next week when I'll be 37 weeks, which will be the time that this stubborn little one will be considered "full-term." Of course, this is all pending that she doesn't turn on her own (and there is an 80% chance that she won't budge). But "The Big Doc" said that she's gotten to the point size-wise that the likelihood that she'll turn on her own is pretty low, especially since I'm not a very big person. Now I'm part of that 3-5% statistic of mother's with breech babies. Yay.

So what happens if she is still breech next week? I get to go to the Hospital and have an External Cephalic Version (ECV) performed, which is the act of manually turning the baby from the outside. If the turn is successful, he may choose to induce me at that time so that I can avoid a c-section. He may decide to make me wait a few more days, but we shall see. There is basically a 50/50 chance that he'll be able to get the baby to turn, only because she's is getting bigger and her bum is becoming more and more wedged in to my pelvis. Joy.

To be honest, I'm not all that thrilled to have to have an ECV. From what I hear on message boards out there, it's a bit painful. But to me, it's worth the pain if it means that I could avoid a C-Section. Sure, if I really needed to have a C-Section that would be OK... but if I can avoid surgery I would rather. I'm sure if I asked my Doctor to allow me to try and do a breech delivery he would let me, but in all honesty I am so worried that my little body won't be able to squeeze out a baby butt first that I'll end up having an emergency C-Section instead.

Have any of you out there had issues with a baby being breech? Have any of you actually delivered a breech baby? Had an External Cephalic Version performed? I'm curious to know, because any insight any of you have on this special situation would be great!

What I'm doing in the meantime are things that have been suggested to me by my Doctor: Laying inverted for 10-20 minutes two or three times a day, pelvic tilts galore... and I have an appointment for Acupuncture on Friday! I'm willing to do what I can to see if she'll turn on her own, or come Wednesday... I will be having my Doctor try and turn her +/- having a baby.

In the meantime please think lots of happy thoughts for me, and lets hope this baby comes to her senses and goes back to where she is supposed to!

I needed a new baby carrier, big time. But I wasn't about to drop a grip of cash on a brand new one. What's the point. THIS IS my last child!

My old Bjorn didn't have Lumbar Support. I think when I initially purchased it, I didn't know that there was a model with Lumbar Support and therefore never knew that I could have a more comfortable time baby wearing. Slings just aren't my thing, because they create too much tension in my neck and shoulders. I need something that distributes weight a little more evenly.

I made the Pilgrimage Friday morning right at opening to the OC Kids Consignment sale in Anaheim. I wasn't really sure what to expect, as I've never been to one of these gigantic second-hand sales. Of course, I got there and right when I walked in was a bit overwhelmed with the shear amount of STUFF that this place had.

Some of the items were very used, while other things were brand new with the tags still on them. Section by section, I browsed through the items with my short list of things that I needed.

Then we got to the back, where there was a rounder with baby carriers. Jackpot.

It has yet to be washed (it's second had, after all... and a bit linty), but this is my new-ish Baby Bjorn Active Sport Carrier... complete with lumbar support. I'm so happy that I came across this at the sale! Normally this carrier retails for $129 brand new. Sure, it's been used once or twice... but this thing has hardly been used at all (I'm a Mom, I can tell). I managed to pick it up for $35, which is a whole heck of a lot better than $129.

I still have quite a few items that I need to get before her arrival, but at least this is one more thing I can cross off my list.