DIY: T-shirt to Maternity Shirt

Many many moons ago, my parents came to visit and helped me with a couple of projects. One of the things my mom did was take over my sewing project: turning my VBS volunteer shirt into a maternity shirt. I had deliberately gotten the largest size they had, and planned to cut down the top but leave the bottom large. She did it for me, using my favorite maternity t-shirt as a pattern, and it turned out to fit really well, especially in the top! 

A few weeks later, I started volunteering in the church nursery during first service and I got a church volunteer shirt. It took me several weeks to get around to it, but finally I made time to cut it down like the other one. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong black t-shirt from my closet (I have two, one fits perfectly and the other I outgrew a month or two ago) so the top is a little too, um, fitted. But it works. Since maternity shirts are expensive and T-shirts and thread are relatively inexpensive, I thought I'd share what we did in case you'd like to make some of your own maternity shirts. Mom has since made and sent me several!

Start by laying your T-shirt out completely flat and even.

I kept getting my belly in my photos!

Then, lay your shirt that fits out on top of it. Make sure the necklines are centered and the shirts are both spread flat and evenly.

Using a sharp pair of sewing shears, or in my case use the pair that you ruined by cutting fleece, and cut along the outside edge of the shirt that fits, including the arm hole, and tapering out once you get past the bust to allow for belly growth. Don't forget your seam allowance! I actually didn't cut off all of the edge of the T-shirt, I left it connected after the point where I tapered it. (On the left of the picture, near the "m").

Fold the shirt in half, using the collar and bottom of the shirt to make sure it's even, and cut the other side off following your line. Then sew up each side. Don't sew your arm holes closed! When mom sewed mine she zig zagged along every seam she sewed, but I didn't bother.

Cut your sleeves down to size. I used the piece I cut off the armhole above to guide my inside line.

Sew the bottom of your sleeve (under your arms). I made mine really short, so I only sewed about an inch, and went back and forth a few times.

Line up your bottom seams and pin. Because I used my cut off piece to guide my new sleeve cut, the new sleeve fit perfectly. I'm not usually much of a pinner, but sleeves have some tricky curves!

Sew it up! Don't forget your seam allowance. I turned the shirt right side out and checked after I pinned and after I sewed, because I was nervous I'd done it wrong! Then I did the other sleeve and tried it on.

It might not get me on Project Runway, but it works for me! And it's better than wearing around a 3 X shirt with my sleeves down to my forearms! I wish I had take a before shot.

25 and 26 Weeks {and three days}

26 weeks marks the end of my second trimester...woohoo! I can't believe how much this second tri has draaaaaaagged by. I felt like this pregnancy was flying by before the summer--we were doing something every day, whether is was a pre-school swap day (three days a week), bible study, church, or finding a fun free activity. Once summer hit we were down to bible study and church and time has not been ticking by as quickly! Of course now we go swimming most days and there are still a lot of fun things to do in the area but it has just seemed slower.

Cauliflower sized at 25 weeks

My kids ditched me for last week's picture and I didn't realize I had dropped something on my stomach, so be forgiving. I spent that week slaving away over a dresser and nightstand that I wanted to refinish for the babies. They were both side of the road freebies and worked well, just needed a little sprucing up! I spent hours outside in the hot sun, wearing a mask, sanding and cleaning and priming and painting and sealing. Between trips outside I worked on a couple of things I wanted to organize, washed and stored some baby stuff, and cleaned the house top to bottom. That Friday (when I turned 25 weeks) my dad kicked me off the remainder of my project (the dresser drawers) and finished painting and sealing them for me. That sounds like it should have been a simple project but the drawers are ornate and detailed and had to be completely painted with a tiny paintbrush. I had primed them all and by the time I finish my hips were dying from sitting on a stool hunching over the drawers. It sounds like it shouldn't have been much work at all, but it was unbelievably exhausting! Then my parents spend the weekend with us, and this past week I volunteered at our church's vacation bible school all week. That also sounds like it should've been easy, and was also an exhausting week! Saturday we ran errands all day, and yesterday I started volunteering at church so I was there all morning. In the afternoon we packed a picnic supper and spent a few hours swimming. Ahhhh, water. Sweet rejuvenating pain relief! I so love the pool. So to recap, the last two weeks have been busy, although fun, and I'm tired!

So here we are, 26 weeks, and according to everyone I've talked to lately, "not looking very big". The camera doesn't lie, people. Some days I feel massive, and some days I feel small. But the camera captures how I look! Can I just put this out there...

Shane, left, 36 weeks. Azaria, middle, 35 weeks. Twins, right, 26 weeks.

Babies: The babies should be about 14 inches long and about 1 2/3 lbs now, around the size of a head of lettuce. Supposedly they can hear our voices now, and are practicing breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid.

Weight Gain: I don't know. Azaria used my scale as a stool and now it just blinks. I haven't put much effort into fixing it yet.

Stretch Marks: No new ones yet!

Belly Button: Bulgy. Unfortunately I have an umbilical hernia, which is when a small hole rips in the membrane that holds your guts in and a small piece of inside pokes out. That's a really simple explanation but thankfully mine is small for now and it's nothing I did, it's just my third pregnancy and I'm stretching out fast. It hurts a lot, sometimes I have to press on it for a while to sort of push it back in and I've hit it on the corner of a chair or the couch a few times and I almost passed out from the pain. 

Maternity clothes: I've outgrown a couple shirts. :( Mom made my volunteer shirt into a maternity shirt, so now that we know how to do that we'll probably just get some t-shirts and convert them instead of buying bigger maternity shirts. Those things are expensive, and if I buy a bigger size to accommodate the twin belly they'll be way big up top, where converting a t-shirt allows for tailoring the top half to suit.

Movement: Feeling the movement has always been my favorite part of pregnancy, and it's even cooler with twins. I think Dani is the one who is more active, usually on my far right side. Sometimes I'll feel her moving, and then I think Dean kicks her back and they play footsies and wiggle together. It's not uncomfortable for me yet, although I've gotten a few zinger hits to the cervix, but my ribs are intact for now!

Sleep: I need naps and hours and hours of sleep, but I get neither. That's life! Thankfully I'm not terribly uncomfortable while I am sleeping, but I do always end up on my back and that puts my hips out which is painful. I've also found myself doing a lot of grunting and pulling on things for leverage to help me roll over. Some days I feel so tired and like I can't go on that I just want to cry my eyes out, but God gives me strength to make it to another bedtime.

I have no particular cravings or aversions, just a to do list a mile long and a limited amount of time in which to finish it! I hear that a lot of twin moms just hit a wall around 30 weeks and can't do much after so I'm trying to get as much as I can done now. Even at this point I find myself trying to limit how many hours I'm walking around at events because I start to get regular and uncomfortable braxton hicks. We haven't done many of the festivals or things like that this summer because of that, and thankfully the kids aren't really old enough to know. We just spend extra time at the pool! Any time I think of how uncomfortable I am or that something hurts, I remind myself that I have a long way to go and I am certainly not the first woman pregnant with multiples! I also tell myself that my kids know I love them even if I'm not on the floor with them much anymore, and they really like cereal, oatmeal, and sandwiches, so they forgive me on the nights I don't feel up to cooking a healthy, balanced meal. Excuses? Maybe. I like to call them temporary modifications I can live with.

Weeks 14 and 15

 14 WEEKS

At 14 weeks, the twins have hit about 3.5 inches and 1.5 ounces. Their kidneys are working now, so they can pee, and they are also learning to squint, frown, and possibly even suck their thumbs! 

Isn't it incredible what God made our bodies to create?! And of course, here's a little outtake from my "helpers". Shane gets what we're doing and enjoys it, and Azaria is always like...huh? Chew on a lemon? Ok mom, sure thing.

This was a pretty uneventful week. I was still in D.C., and extremely exhausted. In a way it was nice that I was in DC, because I was much less busy. In fact, I often took the route of easy parenting and let the kids watch TV in the morning, then we went for walks and to the park in the afternoon. For some reason, the guest bed at my brother's house (which was my twin bed as a high schooler) is the most comfortable place I sleep. I took an amazing nap while I was there! Over the weekend my SIL had some houseguests from Germany. They spent most of the time out sightseeing, but we enjoyed talking to them in the mornings and evenings. One the last night there their family had a BBQ out by a volleyball court, and the kids played in the sand there for a couple hours. They are the family of one of my brothers friends, and several more of his friends were at the BBQ. It was a fun evening, and not awkward since these friends come over nearly every time I visit. One of them has been in love with Azaria since she was an infant. It's pretty cute. One of the guys got a new girlfriend, who seemed like a nice girl but she did ask me if I knew how babies were made, and said she'd go live in a psych ward if she had to deal with two older kids plus twins. So, maybe not as nice as she first seemed. I laughed it off instead of being a smart aleck, as I'm sure I'll get quite a lot of not so kind remarks throughout this pregnancy. My friend Tara told me early on that the way people react isn't a reaction to me but rather how they would feel if they were in my position. So I don't usually take people's comments personally. She also painted me a lovely word picture of the fun I'll have with the twins, which was such an encouragement then and I'm sure will be during sleepless nights to come!

15 WEEKS

At this point the babies are about the size of an apple, 4 inches long from crown to rump, and about 2.5 ounces. Unfortunately we don't have an apple picture for you, because my apples were teeny tiny! I buy them small so the littles don't waste them when they get full, but there was no point in taking a picture of something smaller than lemons!

This was an incredibly busy week for me. I went back home for a week to go to a bunch of appointments before we traveled to Ohio. We drove home on Wednesday, and on Wednesday evening I had scheduled a tour of the Labor and Delivery ward where the twins will be born. When I scheduled the tour online the webpage said children were welcome, which was great and Shane got excited to see where babies are born. Unfortunately Nathan ended up having to fly that night, which I didn't know when I scheduled the tour, so I was going to have to take both kids and go alone. So, that morning I traveled home (and had several rude interactions with strangers, which I won't go into but it didn't have me in the best mood). I had to go to the commissary before I went to the house, then Nathan called and asked me to bring him a late lunch before he flew. Finally we got home and tried to get ready to go, but we were running late and I was pretty worn out at that point already. I got to the tour about two minutes late, but it was fine because they hadn't started yet. What wasn't fine, however, was that I wasn't supposed to have my kids there! Apparently you are only supposed to take your kids the last week of the month! They were both packed into the stroller with snacks and toys to entertain them, so after some discussion the nurse kindly said that we could try taking them, and I said I'd just leave if they became disruptive. I had a lump in my throat already--I was embarassed, and being tired never does anything good for me. So the tour finally started, and we all went to the elevators. I didn't fit with everyone, since I had the big stroller, and I said I'd take the next elevator. Once they got in and the doors shut, I pressed the button. Wouldn't you know, it opened the door back up? The nurse poked her head out and told me I needed to wait until they left before I pushed the button. I swallowed another lump of embarrassment tears, smiled at her, and nodded my head. It was an honest mistake; there are three or four elevators and I just thought it would call another one. I instantly decided that if every little thing was going to make me want to cry then I needed to just go home. I asked a nurse going up to let the L&D nurse know I would just reschedule, and practically ran out of there. Once I got to the parking lot the tears hit. I put the kids in the car with Shane of course asking me why can't he see where the babies are born, why, why, why? Then I sat there and cried for about five minutes. Pathetic, I know--extremely so, but I'm cutting myself a little slack here with double the hormones and a large side of exhaustion. I passed out that night at nine o'clock.

Thursday as part of my housecleaning and preparing to go to Ohio I decided it was time to switch my closet from normal clothes to maternity clothes.

Nathan, of course, made some smart remark about how now I'm getting all my nice clothes out. He hates my wardrobe! If I'm being honest, I do too. But there's always other places our money needs to go, and since I was losing weight I didn't want to buy things that I would shrink out of anyway. Now I just get to do that all over again! 

Then on Friday I had an appointment at the endocrinologist to see what's going on with my thyroid. My levels are still off, but only slightly, so they are going to check my blood work again in two months and monitor me. The Dr. said she believes it's pregnancy related and should be normal again soon. Whew! Friday was also our sixth anniversary, which we celebrated by doing absolutely nothing.

Monday was my normal OB appointment. The twins look great, I look great, the kids acted great while we were there and Shane was excited to see babies. It was the cutest thing, we got to see one of the twins sucking its thumb!

We also saw that the twins are spooning each other, and got a picture of their heads all cuddled up close. One baby is lying down, and the other baby's head is on the left.

Monday evening we had a very special appointment, the kind of appointment where you get to see your babies and find out their genders! Happy anniversary to us!

Unfortunately for you all, you have to wait to find out until I get it confirmed at my next ultrasound. The tech said she was sure, but it was very early to find out so I want to double check!

Finally, Tuesday was our absolutely fruitless WIC appointment.  In the morning I rushed around, finishing laundry and packing, and finding all of our paperwork to take to the WIC appointment. I loaded the car and we headed out early. It was a good thing I was early, because I went to the wrong goverment building and had to go to a different one. Of course, by the time I got there I was five minutes late, but they didn't mind so I filled out some paperwork and we waited. The waiting room there has some fun toys and books and Shane was being such a social butterfly enjoying the other children. It was so sweet! Finally it was my turn and I took all my papers to the lady...who told me that my proof of income was not acceptable because Nathan is military and I'd have to reschedule (again!) and come back with a different paper. Now mind you, when I called to set up this appointment I asked specifically if this was what I needed, and I was told yes. Cue frustration and embarrassment, load the kids in the car, shed a couple tears, and make the long drive back to DC. Ugh.

So if you were keeping track, that's twice in one week I cried for no good reason, and I'm not a person who cries often. Apparently it's a nice cocktail of exhaustion and hormones. I wasn't like that in my other pregnancies, but I guess that second baby is sending me over the edge! 

Night on the town

Saturday night Nathan and I and friends went to Uno’s Chicago Pizza in downtown Fort Worth. It was SOOOOO excellently yummy. That’s my new favorite pizza. The crust is flaky and buttery goodness, the sauce was great, and it had lots of cheese. MMMmm. It was really fun to walk around downtown at night. It seems like the trendy thing to do and there are art galleries and street singers and it’s just a neat experience. There are carriage rides and people dressed up and, well, people not dressed much at all! When my brother was here we went to a comedy club downtown and took him. I won the tickets through a work thing. I wasn’t really impressed with the comedy, but then I’m not impressed with most comedy because of the crudity. It was, however, a neat experience and something that I’d never done before. Sunday after church we went to Nathan’s mom and dad’s so that he could work on his truck (76 chevy longbed-being-converted-to-shortbed) He worked on his truck, and I went inside and watched the Hallmark channel. They were doing a marathon event of the movies off Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series, which I read many moons ago.

I forgot to take pictures, but I did get some more clothes. My mom send me a package for my birthday. I got a shirt that is the same one as the one Aunt Nancy bought me (the teal one) but in one size up, and a pair of brown slacks. She also send me a couple of books. One of them is really special because all the preggo’s who have read it before me have written in it about their pregnancy. It’s kind of a devotional book with a little section for each day of pregnancy. It’s really neat, but I didn’t get far because I started seeing comments in my mom’s handwriting and then I started boo-hooing about how I want my mom. So I’ll return to that one on another day. Mom also enclosed a letter that she wrote for my baby, which is very special. Then Mom called and said she’d found me LOTS of things at goodwill. She sent me pictures but you know how phone pictures are. I want to see them in real life when they get here. My MIL, Daphne, bought the baby a Halloween costume for next year. I haven’t decided how I feel about Halloween yet. Nathan grew up trick or treating and celebrating Halloween, and I grew up NOT trick or treating. We carved pumpkins, and celebrated harvest time, but not Halloween. I guess I need to sit down and really think about how I feel from a perspective as a Christian. Many of the churches around here have a “Harvest Festival” on the night of Halloween and in my humble opinion that seems like a much better idea.

Maternity Clothes

My mom wants a post about the maternity clothes I have so far. I had bought myself a pair of pants and a sweater. I don't wear the pants yet because they are too big, but my normal pants don't button very comfortably any more either. I could go buy a pair of oh-so-fashionable low rise jeans like many pregnant women wear, since they go below the baby bump, but every time you sit down your butt sticks out of the pants. So they are out for me. What I'm currently doing is doubling a thick rubber band through the loop and hooking it on the button. Then I zip the zipper about halfway.

The thing is, I need extra long shirts to modestly cover the half unzipped pants. I have a few, but not enough for all week. So last weekend I was planning to go buy some longer shirts. But, Friday night I got home and found a package from my Aunt Nancy! As a "Congratulations on the Baby" gift, she sent me two pretty maternity shirts and a rockin' tote she had made for me in Niger. What an answer to prayer! Now I have five shirts that are appropriate for work that also cover the zipper and I have room for my belly to grow. I will shop the second hand baby stores for used maternity wear now. I found a really nice shirt for 5 dollars that was about 40 brand new!

This is one of the shirts from Aunt Nancy. It's a brown and white pattern with smocking on top and a tie in the back. Sorry the pictures on some of these aren't great...the lighting in my bedroom is bad for pictures.

This is the teal one

This is the sweater I got from Motherhood Maternity

This is Nathan modeling the sweater! Hahahahah! He didn't know I was going to put it up here. You can't really tell from the picture but he had a 9 month pillow belly and was waddling with his hands on the small of his back. It was hilarious!

Then there's me wearing the teal shirt (that's the real color) and the shirt with the sweater unbutttoned. These are from Sunday morning before church. It was my week to sing to I was trying to dress up. I ended up not wearing the sweater though because it was warm.

That's it! I will try to put up pictures when I get new stuff.