Clapotis is next

I'll be back to post more soon about Heather's first shopping trip, a friend's shower, my best friend's visit and possible improvements to Heather's sleep schedule that are likely to disappear next week when she hits her next growth spurt.

The reason I'm posting is that I know what my next knitting project is now that I have finished knitting baby shower presents. Heather and I need another Clapotis. The one I have is wool and it isn't washable. I found today that it is a nice wrap for discretely breastfeeding in public. But not only do I not want Heather to spit up on it...it's also too hot. If she's too hot while she's eating she just falls asleep and the feedings take longer.

I think I have some hand-painted cotton in the stash that will do nicely. We'll see how long it takes to knit...

Trust your instincts

I was thinking that the Newborn size diapers were looking small, but I was hoping to use as many of them as we could before switching to size 1. Especially since the Newborn size claim to fit up to 10lb and Heather can't even be up to 8 1/2lb yet.

Two stained t-shirts later and we have switched to Size 1.

Anyone need 160 newborn sized diapers?

Not as planned

I'm totally aware of the fact that my life can't really be "planned" right now. I can't even plan to do anything before 1pm and guarantee that I can be showered by that point in the day. So don't take the title to mean that I had unrealistic expectations. (I just saw a funny episode of Bringing Home Baby where Dad had expectations that he could go play hockey the night that baby came home from the hospital because she would be sleeping during the game according to her "schedule" - LOL!)

The only reason that I had any expectations for the weekend was because my parents were here for a visit. So I assumed that I'd be able to get a little extra sleep and a few small projects (and some knitting) accomplished while other people were holding Heather. The kink in the plan was my back. It kicked into severe pain on Thursday night, a few hours after my parents arrival. Thanks to the bottle of EBM in the fridge I was able to stay prone until Heather's 4:30am feeding and I felt better in the morning. Unfortunately, some of the pain returned on Friday night, so I took it easy on Saturday and barely left the couch all day Sunday. By Monday afternoon my back felt normal again. So none of the little projects I had hoped to work on got done. Oh well. Not the end of the world, it just wasn't as fun of a weekend as I had anticipated. Being in pain is not fun.

I was able to get in to see the doctor yesterday, and the diagnosis is that carrying Heather messed up my back. My lower spine is arched out and my posture has changed. There is no easy fix, just preventative measures to keep my back muscles loose and happy. Stretches, massage, lifting with my legs and core strengthening exercises once I'm up for exercise (birth ball becomes exercise ball). The doctor also described what R can do to mitigate the pain if it returns.

I did manage to get myself almost caught up on thank you notes, three to go until more presents arrive. Also, the pain was minimal on Saturday, so I got to use my tickets to see "Doubt" while Heather hung out with her grandparents.

And I should mention two other recent visits. Annie and Marcus came last week to see us. It's hard to believe that Marcus is almost a year old. (Heather has been invited to her first birthday party!) Today's visit was from Cara and Max. I can't believe how much Max has changed since I saw him less than 2 months ago! He is much more like a little boy than a baby and he's sitting up on his own like a pro. Considering how much he wants to be standing, I'm sure he will be as soon as his legs will cooperate.

The only milestone I can think of at the moment is that we'll probably be transitioning to bigger diapers soon. We haven't had any major problems yet, but the waistband looks stretched out when I go to change her, so I think we're getting there.

Milestones

Sunday I left the house without Heather. It's the furthest I've been from her...well...since she was conceived. :-) I went to the grocery store while R's parents were visiting us. It was strange to be out and in a strange way it was a reminder that I'm not pregnant anymore. I'm sure that sounds strange, but it was the first time I was out and about since she was born and I was surprised at how conscious I was of not being pregnant anymore.

It was also the first time I had driven the car since my little accident. I managed to back the car into the garage when I returned, but I admit that I did it very slowly and it made me a little nervous. No problems, but I was thinking about the accident the whole time I was parking.

A few milestones today, too. I managed to get a shower without anyone else here to watch Heather. She fell asleep in the sling while I was eating breakfast. I transitioned her to the bouncy seat in the bathroom and I showered while she slept. She woke up just as I finished getting dressed. :-)

I'm also one pound below my pre-pregnancy weight and I'm currently wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans! Gotta love breastfeeding.

I'm hoping for a milestone or two this weekend as well. The temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s!

A couple new photos

There are more at gallery.trovish.org as well.

Saturday night we had an excellent night. Heather slept 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours between feedings and only required about 20 minutes of rocking after a few feedings. Last night was less restful, but still not bad. She was never fussy, she was just very alert after her 1:30 meal. But since I was rested from the night before I was able to get a little reading done while I rocked her. :-)

I still need to photograph the log cabin blanket...

Sleep is a Wonderful Thing

I'm concerned that yesterday's post was a bit too negative. Being tired led me to focus only on the difficulties of the past week and not any of the nice changes that I've seen. My impression is that Heather had quite a few more "quiet, alert" periods throughout the week, which are enjoyable even during a period of sleep deprivation. We are anxious for her to be more responsive to outside stimuli, but she is still pretty cute to stare at even when you don't know what is causing her various facial expressions.

With R's help during Heather's "alert" periods overnight, I got a couple more hours of sleep than the past few nights and I feel better today. We also had a nice visit from three of my knitting friends, which improved my mood as well. :-) Tomorrow will include a possible visit from Heather's PA grandparents and a possible short trip for me to my knitting group. (It's only 5 minutes from home - so it will just depend on how things pan out around here.)

Long Week

My "Strange and Amazing" post seems even more amazing after the week we've had. All of a sudden, Heather seems uninterested in sleeping in either the crib or the pack'n'play. She can fall asleep on one of us and be in a deep sleep, and if we put her down she wakes up anywhere from 5-60 minutes after being put down. And that's even if she clearly needs sleep.

Not only is it difficult to deal with the sudden dearth of sleep, but the change also came at the point when R went back to work and night duty became all mine. The short term solution this week was for her and I to sleep together on the couch, but even last night that wasn't good enough as she was awake for 3 hours following her midnight feeding and I had difficulty settling her down for any significant naps this afternoon. The first time she fell asleep on me, I put her in the P'n'P after a bit because I needed food. She lasted about 30 minutes. The next time I let her sleep on me, but she still only slept for 2 hours and woke up in a foul mood.

We need to start trying to swaddle her for sleep in the hopes that if she can't move she'll have more difficulty waking herself up. The thing that makes it difficult is figuring out when to do the swaddling, because she really dislikes it when she's awake enough to know what's going on.

I'm hopeful that the recent changes are just the result of a growth spurt and it will pass soon. The other possibility (based on other observations and things I've read) is that she's having a mild case of reflux. As a pre-emptive measure, I've decided to stop eating the most likely foods that could cause her discomfort. It unfortunately means that some of the dairy products in the refrigerator will go bad unless the friends who are coming to visit tomorrow want to take some of them home...

The log cabin blanket is finished and blocking. I also finished the bib (a shower gift) except for the buttons and started a washcloth (another shower gift). I also need to see if the booties and mittens I started in January have any chance of fitting Heather. Though the only real goal for the weekend is to get caught up on thank you notes while R is around to help with Heather - because I can't get them done during the week when she isn't napping in the P'n'P.

There is a knitting GTG on Sunday and it is at a friend's house only 5 minutes from our house. I'd like to go for a little while (I haven't left the house since the 16th), and whether Heather comes with me depends on how much sleep we both get between now and then. Of course, if she doesn't come with me I won't be able to stay as long because I haven't pumped any milk yet.

Quiet weekend

Turns out that none of our projected weekend visitors are going to make it. One group had proposed coming at 10am...let me just say that we were barely ready for our Thursday guests who came at 1pm, so they're coming next weekend when they can come in the afternoon. The others won't be coming because of illness (boo) and work (boo).

I admit that I'm tempted to go to the neighborhood coffee shop with Heather this weekend. Firstly, because I want to try out the sling I made and secondly because I'm going just a tad stir crazy. The stir craziness has really only hit me once or twice, and it is brought into perspective quickly with a visit from friends. But starting Monday, Heather and I will be home alone during the day, and as long as the weather is cooperative, I'd like to feel confident at least walking to the coffee shop for adult interaction. Then again, without R around to make fun of my DVD choices, I might find a renewed enjoyment in staying inside. :-)

In knitting news, the squares of the log cabin blanket are seamed together and I've started a crochet edge all the way around. It may get finished sometime this weekend.

Visitors

(I tried to send this at 2:03pm, but it never showed up...)

We had our first round of visits from friends on Sunday.  Three of my
knitting friends and another couple came over in the afternoon.
Everyone loved Heather (of course) and she seemed to do really well.
Although later in the evening (when a coworker came for a quick visit),
Heather had one of her inconsolable crying periods.  Both the pacifier
and pinkie-pacifier were not good enough.  I fed her 3 times in 3 hours,
but it still took her quite a lot of crying time to finally settle down
and fall asleep.  Once she finally fell asleep on me, we didn't wake her
until it was absolutely necessary.   :-) 

I forgot to mention that Heather's Uncle Dustin (R's brother) came for a
visit on Thursday evening.  He was hesitant to hold her, but R was
able to persuade him.  In contrast, Heather's Aunt Tara (R's Sister)
barely put Heather down during her visit here yesterday.  Except when
Heather needed a diaper change and feeding!

We're expecting to receive more visits from friends on Thursday and
Saturday.  Though we are enjoying our quiet days, it is certainly nice
to see friends and share the new joy in our life.

Now I must go try to convince a cute sleeping baby that it is time to
eat. :-)

Strange and amazing

Heather only woke up twice last night. The second time, I woke up 5 minutes before she did - worried that something was wrong. It was surreal that she slept so much overnight, especially after sleeping so much of the evening.

Also, after she ate the second time, she was alert and uninterested in going back to sleep. R was kind enough to take her so I could go back to sleep once more. All told, I got 8 hours of sleep last night!

I have no illusions that this will happen on a regular basis (especially once R goes back to work), but it did feel good. And Stewart appreciated that I didn't disturb him every two hours. :-)

Heather slept quite a bit this afternoon but was pretty alert later in the evening. Who knows what tonight will bring. I don't think there are any discernible patterns yet, so every night is a surprise.

Tomorrow with have a visit with friends to look forward to in the afternoon. Maybe while Heather is being held by others I can grab a few minutes to work on her log cabin blanket!

Overdue

I've finally managed to caption the Heather photos and Nursery photos we've posted, mass email everyone I know, respond to emails received before today and post on a local message board. Now I just need to get "caught up" here. I was going to post a day by day description of the past week, but that's a bit much don't you think. :-)

My water broke at 2am on Friday and Heather was delivered by emergency c-section 5 1/2 hours later. Her birth was not really what we had envisioned, but we both came out healthy and we got great care, so I have no real complaints. These things can't be planned, right? :-)

The week has been going pretty well. Thankfully, my daughter knew how to latch on for breastfeeding from the beginning and except for a marathon overnight feeding a couple of nights ago, it has gone smoothly. She seems interested in sucking on something almost whenever she's awake (me, her fingers, her clothes, etc) so we were thankful to get the okay from the pediatrician yesterday to use a pacifier sparingly.

We had a good visit with the pediatrician yesterday. Everything looks good and she's back to gaining weight again. She's still a pretty tiny thing, though.

The three days in the hospital wasn't too bad. I admit that never having had surgery before, I was not looking forward to the stay. But all of the nurses were nice and helpful, and the ability to send Heather to the nursery for a couple of hours to ensure that we got *some* sleep was helpful as we were figuring out what we were doing. Especially since I didn't have much mobility until Sunday.

Initially, R and I both found that our instinct was to talk to Heather as we talk to the cats - saying "meow" and calling her "kitty". We are well trained. :-) A week later, this seems to have finally passed. Although i admit I've called the cats "kiddo" a few times, hoping to find a label that works for all of the little creatures in our house.

There is little knitting news. I haven't done any since we left the hospital. I did finish the main blocks of the last log cabin square. But it still need to have the ends woven in and the edge knitted before it can be attached to the rest of the blanket.

Heather is finally sleeping, after a long afternoon of eating, dozing, waking and fussiness. Time for me to try to grab a nap before she gets hungry again...

The three of us are well. We expect to leave the hospital by lunchtime. I look forward to being able to sleep when Heather does.

For those who haven't heard...Heather has arrived! Born on Friday at 7:38 am and weighing 6 lbs, 13 oz. We're all well. More soon

Many Photos

Some of these were taken last saturday while it was freezing outside, but there was lots of sun. Because of the sun and probably the presence of the camera I had kitty help...

R made sure that Nora got a close look at the camera.
Bib #1 from the Marcus and Max Party.
Bib #2 from the Marcus and Max Party.

Bib #3 from the Marcus and Max Party.
Bib #4 from the Marcus and Max Party.A purse I made over the summer. The body is a soy silk and wool blend. The flower is made with kidsilk haze.
Hats I made for Dulaan in January in the post-Christmas knitting release.


Here are the Cherry Hill socks. The upper one was the original attempt and the lower one is the attempt that actually fits my shins. :-)
Both finished...

A quiet birthday

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day, and I keep telling myself it's the last really quiet day I'm going to have all to myself for a long time. That might sound a little cynical, and I don't really mean it that way. I just realize that there is no way to truly prepare ourselves for the way out lives are going to change when Miss M arrives, especially for me since I plan to breastfeed. I'm sure that I'm going to love being a mother and that the benefits will far outweigh the challenges. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to miss the current "quietness" of our life from time to time. Even the women I know who love motherhood have days that they miss the pre-mommy days, so I just want to make sure I appreciate the few that I have left.

I slept in (after saying goodbye to R), I read my usual complement of websites, read email, responded to email, opened the door for the men who delivered the glider, made jello, worked on the log cabin blanket, watched "Hitch", watched some "Sound of Music" extras from my new birthday DVD, watched a few "Gilmore Girls" episodes, I talked to my mom and fed myself when appropriate. (I considered going to the coffee shop when the temperature was up to 20, but decided I didn't really feel like leaving the house. That's an urge I will have to fight when I'm on maternity leave...lets hope for a mild spring.) Once R got home, we watched the pilot episode of the original "Battlestar Galactica" series (he recently spent an amazon GC from christmas), I answered several birthday phone calls and we had breaded fish & mac'n cheese for dinner. (We're going out for the official birthday dinner on Friday night.)

If you pay attention to the description, I really didn't leave the couch too many times all day. Surprisingly, I didn't ever have a lap cat, despite a few investigations of what I was doing. Maybe I should have turned down the thermostat. ;-) I also didn't do any painting. I pondered it, but didn't feel like it. I was more in a knitting/watching TV mood. It will get done when it gets done.

Knitting - I finished the bands to go between the log cabin blocks and did a crochet seam between the pieces that are complete. On the bus this morning I started another block with the yellow yarn. Via comments and email, Option #2 was the unanimous winner - thanks for all of those who provided input.

Other Baby Stuff

First, the double-knitted washcloth inspired by the double-knitting episode of Knitty Gritty.

And second, a fair isle hat. The pattern and the yarn are Dale of Norway. The only colors I substituted are the darker green (for a different darker green) and the purple (for chocolate brown).

I've included a photo of the inside, for the knitters who care. :-) Lots of ends to weave in...

Log Cabin Opinion

Now that I go back and look at the picture, the square that is bothering me the most is the one with the navy accent.

Option #1 - Get another dark accent color so that there are two "dark" squares and two "bright" squares.

Option #2 - Replace the navy square with a yellow square (I have yellow cotton) and place it opposite the light green square.

Option #3 - Make a big blanket of 9 squares and use the navy in the center and bright squares all around.

Okay, #3 is really a much bigger blanket than I want, but color-wise, it is a viable option.

The advantage of option #2 is that I have the yarn here. Option #1 requires me to go out in the cold and depends on me being able to find an appropriate dark color - probably a dark green or a dark maroon.

I'm torn. Thoughts?

Cold

I'm not going to whine. The weather is what it is and considering how late the winter weather has come to us I'm not really complaining. We also had LOTS of sun this weekend, to the point that R and I were almost sweating during our Sunday brunch sitting in the bay window of our neighborhood coffee shop. The walk home didn't feel cold at all because we had stored so much warmth while we ate.

And, that was the only time I left the house all weekend. R did venture out on Saturday to retrieve the car from the shop (yay!), put gas in both cars and do the monthly grocery trip for cat litter and other things we can't/don't get at Whole Foods.

I'm still not sure about the pink square for the log cabin blanket. Except for the 2-row border, the square is done. I'm putting off the decision by knitting the solid purple bands that go between the squares. I took photos of the four squares together this weekend and I'll post them for comment tonight or tomorrow.

I also photographed the Dale of Norway hat, the double knitted washcloth and a few things I've made for myself that I've never bothered to document. (I'm much better about photographing things I'm giving away...) There are also some bib photos and pictures from the Meet Marcus and Max party that I need to post. I'm taking tomorrow off for my birthday and plan to deal with some or all of these photos then.

I did work on the baby's room quite a bit this weekend. R hung the pictures that were too high for me and I hung the IKEA shelves and a few smaller photos. I also worked on the mural, which is going well but slower than anticipated. I got the touch up done on the light and medium greens (the letters and the vines), but didn't finish the second coat of the dark green (background) or start the bugs. I was hoping to have it done by the time the glider is delivered tomorrow, but that doesn't seem likely. Oh well. I would prefer to be done painting before the baby comes, but it isn't the end of the world if I'm not and I don't want to push my back to the point that I'm miserable. I just have to take advantage of the time I have when I have it and continue to enjoy the creative process.

I plan to take nursery pictures tomorrow, even if the mural isn't finished. Mostly because the rest of the room will be and I want to make sure the progress gets documented before "the invasion".

Last, but not least, I still feel pretty good. The baby has dropped some, but I'm not having that "bowling ball between my legs" sensation that I've heard others describe and I'm not convinced that there is any significant progress toward labor going on. We shall see what progress the doctor finds on Friday, but I have been continuing to convince myself that she will be late to avoid disappointment. We could handle her arrival this week, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I also don't really need to start thinking about labor before it is absolutely necessary...

Nice to be appreciated

I just had a very good annual review for work. Got a nice raise and the sense that they're going to miss me while I'm on leave. The boss even joked about getting a crib to put by my desk so I could bring the baby in and come back sooner.

Yeah, I really want to breast feed in a cubicle. This is the same person who joked that they wished I could delay the birth for about 6 months. Men are so cute...

Motivation

The process of starting to pack last night made me realize that we only have two hats that aren't pink or lacy. (I'm not taking anything pink to the hospital, just in case something was missed on the ultrasound...) So I pulled the Dale of Norway hat back out and continued weaving in the many, many yarn ends. By bedtime I had only 5 left, so it should be blocking by the time I go to bed tonight.

I'm having second thoughts about the pink accent color I chose for the log cabin blanket. It's a very loud pink, and I'm having doubts. I plan to finish the block and lay it out with the others. If I decide not to use it, it will become the basis for a baby blanket for a little girl coming this summer who has a bright pink room with a purple border. And I'll go to Knit One and find another accent color. It would be nice to finish the blanket before our child comes, but I would rather have a finished project I love than to finish it when I'm not satisfied. Besides, I am taking Tuesday off for my birthday, so there will be lots of knitting time that day. :-)

We tried a new restaurant in our neighborhood last night. It has the potential to be the "family" restaurant that the neighbors say they want. They still seem a bit disorganized (they just opened on Tuesday) and the portions are really big, but my entree was very tasty and there seems to be an interesting variety of foods on the menu. Some neighbors are concerned that the menu is too eclectic, but I think they'll work that out in time and there are certainly enough "typical" options that it shouldn't turn anyone off. We'll see how they do.