DIY Belly Band

Homemade belly bands.   When I first found out I was pregnant with baby O, I was worried at how quickly I would need a solution for my pants.  I didn't want to go out and buy a whole bunch of new clothes, so I came up with the idea of making some belly bands out of jersey knit cotton and off we went.  I made three belly bands and was able to postpone maternity pants until close to 5 months.  The bands were super stretchy but still able to hold my pants up as my baby bump grew.

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DIY Puree Baby Food

When my daughter was first ready to begin eating solids, I thought it was going to be a horrible transition.  I had heard many different opinions on what the proper way was to introduce solids but needed to figure out what was right for us.  I started my research and after a few searches, I began to realize that this task I thought I was going to be so daunting, wasn't looking so bad after all.

I made two batches of purée fruits and vegetables which lasted my daughter about 3 months.  The first batch was 100% purée of each; sweet potato, carrots, peas, butternut squash and acorn squash.  The second batch was made 75% purée and 25% small chunks and included carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, strawberry and banana and apple medley.  As my daughter transitioned from purées to chunky food I would add a little bit of organic whole grain cereal to thicken the consistency.

All the fruits except the bananas got steamed and then puréed in the magic bullet... No, I didn't buy the baby bullet, just 16 small glad containers and used what I had.  For the veggies I chopped/cubed and steamed the sweet potatoes, peas and carrots.  The squash was baked in the oven (350°F for 30 to 40 mins) on a pan with about 1/2 inch of water.  I let everything cool on the counter before freezing. 

And Voilà!  In total  it took about 3 hours spread over a day.  Not bad for almost 3 month's worth of food!

DIY Father's Day Gift

Fun, easy and cheap photo gift.  I purchased the frame from Ikea ($12.99) and laid out a crochet baby blanket on the couch (so baby O could be somewhat propped up) for a cute photo shoot.  The letters came from Michaels ($5 I think) originally but I already had them hanging on the wall.

DIY Diaper Cake

I like to make things and am often inspired by things I see online.  My diaper cake project started out as a simple two tier cake and before I knew it, the simplicity went out the door.  This cake includes 96 newborn diapers, swaddle blanket, nursing pillow, carseat cover, carseat canopy, 10 facecloths, 5 bodysuits, nursing cover and a couple of toys.

So many babies! What to do next!?

To make the two tiers of the diaper cake I used a piece of yarn to hold the diapers together and continued to stuff more in until the tier was solid.  I wanted to be able to use the diapers afterwards, so I didn't individually roll them but instead used a round baking pan to help place the diapers before I wrapped all of them with the yarn.  I put a layer of thin cardboard between the 4 legs of the cake and the bottom tier to make sure that over time it didn't begin to sag.  To secure the layers together I used fake plastic clothespins around which went between the layers.  Once the "cake" was assembled I put it in a shallow box (used the diapers box and cut it short) and began stuffing all the goodies inside.  I finished it up with some cellophane wrapping.