November Recap 1

I'm taking a break from the pre-decorating house cleaning to recap some of the fun we had this past month. I'm not sure what is making the time get away from me so much, although I have been posting past pictures to flickr and checking out facebook, so maybe that explains it.

Maine Wedding and New England trip

We took our first plane flight with Heather up to Boston and then drove up to Maine for the wedding of a special friend who I've known since kindergarten. Heather loved the plane rides and did really well considering that most of her naps were during long car rides from place to place. (She refused to nap on the plane because it was just too interesting.)

Heather got to wear her Halloween costume to the rehearsal dinner.

The view from our hotel room.


The wedding was lovely. Daddy and mommy chose a seat at the back of the crowd and each took a turn letting Heather stretch her legs. She did well but didn't really understand why we needed to stay seated.

Between the ceremony and the reception, the wedding party went to the beach for group pictures, so our family took the opportunity to walk on the sand. Yes, the sand was cold. But the breeze was mild and the sun was out.

Beautiful shawls made by the bride herself.

The flower girls thought that Heather was adorable. Who can blame them?

Once she finished eating, all Heather wanted to do was dance!



Happy ladies!


The next day we traveled to visit friends in western Massachusetts. We didn't take too many pictures while we were visiting, but we did get one with Keeno the bunny.


Before heading back to Boston to fly home, I got a little over an hour to shop at mecca...

While mommy was shopping, Heather and daddy were browsing at a toy store. Cookie Monster came home with them since fire trucks aren't very cuddly.

Waiting to fly home...
Babies

The following week had two notable occurances. First, R and Heather and I went to my first pre-natal appointment. :-) That's right. Heather will be a big sister in May 2009. We're just at the end of the first trimester, and other than being tired mommy is feeling well.

Also, I went to a baby shower for a friend. She's due in december and I was delighted by how much she liked the baby sweater, bib and washcloth I made for her little one. :-)

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...

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.

Started packing

There is a pile of things to take with us to the hospital. The next
challenge is figuring out what bag it will all fit in. It really isn't
a ton of stuff, but the robe is very bulky. Plus, R will need to bring
the birthing ball, too, I don't want to make it all too awkward for
him. Though I assume he'll leave the ball in the car until I move from
triage to L&D.

The car seat is still a small issue, since we don't have our car back
yet. But I assume, worst case scenerio, R and my dad can install the
seat in whatever car we have during my 48 hour stay in the hospital. We
just hope it doesn't have to come to that. Last time R talked to the
dealer it sounded like the needed parts would be in soon...so let's all
cross our fingers that we get the car back before we have to go to the
hospital.

One Week

I didn't intend to go a week without posting. I think last week was just pretty uneventful (when I could have made time to post) and the weekend didn't involve a lot of time spent at the computer.

But the real reason for the title of the post is because my birthday is in one week. Normally, I would start counting down to the big day about a month before. (And I did take notice of January 6th, both because of it's proximity to my birthday and because I know 3 people whose birthdays fall on that day.) But for fairly obvious reasons I haven't been very focused on my birthday this year. :-) There is a part of me that would like her to come early. I wouldn't mind giving up a relaxing birthday in order to share it with her. But, I also wouldn't mind her being a little late so we can have a few more quiet weekends to prepare and I could get more done at work before going on leave.

It helps that I am not miserable physically. I moan and groan here and there, and changing position in bed and getting out of bed are growing more noticeably difficult. But I am not so unhappy that I am dying for her to show up. Which I think is pretty good for 37 weeks, 3 days. And the knowledge that her arrival is going to change our lives forever makes it that much easier to enjoy a quiet night watching TV and knitting while it lasts... (I also like the fact that there is no guilt associated with eating. I'm going to miss that!)

My next appointment is Friday morning. We shall see if there is any progress. Last week, the doctor was pretty positive that the baby is facing the right way and I don't have any signs of pre-eclampsia, so we don't expect another ultrasound or any interventions, other than the weekly check-ups.

On the knitting front, the first three log cabin squares of the blanket are done and I've started the fourth. I'm still going through options in my head of how to attach them and what to put between them. I did a garter row of accent color around each block and I definitely want some purple between the blocks. I just have to figure out what the "in between" stitch pattern is and what direction it runs.

I haven't done any more weaving in or sewing on the hat or the booties I started. I've been pretty focused on the blanket. Although I did take a quick break from it this weekend to make a double knitted washcloth. I watched an episode of knitty gritty that demonstrated double knitting, and I wanted to give it a try before forgetting what I had learned. I put the first letter of our last name on the washcloth, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I don't think it is a technique I'll use a lot, since it is a little awkward and slow, but it is a nice tool in the arsenal. I could see where it would make REALLY cozy gloves or a reversible hat. Maybe I'll try that when I get back to Dulaan knitting.

Lastly, I had my first ever pedicure on Saturday. Very lovely. And I managed not laugh or flinch - impressive with my ticklish feet. :-)

Less than a month to go (probably) - My back, a party and TV catch-up

I hit 36 weeks this weekend. On Saturday, this pregnancy will be full term.

Our child will likely be born 2-6 weeks from now.

The most popular question at the moment is whether we are ready. Honestly, I don't know that anyone is really ever ready, so I just keep saying that we're about as ready as we're going to be. There are a few more chapters of a couple more books that I would like to read. There is a little more painting and knitting I'd like to get done. There are a few more things we plan to buy during the next credit card period. But really, if she arrived tomorrow we wouldn't be caught totally off guard.

(Okay, I haven't packed my hospital bag yet, and I have tickets to a show tomorrow night that I'd like to see...but otherwise we wouldn't be caught off guard. ;-)

I had a back relapse on Thursday afternoon. It never got quite as bad as it did Thanksgiving weekend, but it lasted longer and required tylenol and heat to totally go away. In this case I blame vacuuming and mopping from Wednesday night - so those are off-limits tasks for a while. Hopefully the house won't get too bad...or if it does I will be able to convince R to deal with it.

In order to continue using the heating pad and to take multiple breaks, I worked a half day from home on Friday. I completed the task I had intended and got a little straightening up done in preparation for Saturday. I had considered going into work in the afternoon if I was feeling okay, but I took a surprising 1 1/2 hour nap at 10:30 (I didn't think I was that tired...) and the possibility of going in went out the window. Especially as I sat in the cozy house watching the snow fall outside...

Saturday was the "Meet Marcus and Max Party" at our house. It was a lovely time and we actually had four small children in attendance - Finn @ 8 weeks, Max @ 5 months, Marcus @ 9 months and Vivian @ 1 year. They were all well-behaved and fun to watch. It was great to spend the afternoon with some of my favorite ladies and get to see their little ones in action. I was a little worried that it would be overwhelming and put some fear in to me about what we have to expect, but it was actually pretty reassuring. I realize that our newborn might not sleep as much as Finn seemed to or be as content being held by others as Marcus is...but even the occasional crying and fussiness didn't freak me out too much, especially since they all seemed to be so "easily" calmed by their mothers. (I put that in quotes because it might not seem so easy to all of the mothers, but it seemed like it to me!) All I had to do was straighten up the house (which has the added bonus of leaving us with a mostly clean house afterward), make the Stouffer's lasagna and clean-up afterward. Very easy, even at 8 months pregnant. ;-)

Between my recovery time on Thursday evening and last night, R and I got "caught up" on LOST and Battlestar Galactica. We finished watching Season 2 of LOST and rewatched all but one of the Season 3 episodes from the DVR (finally, we have space again!). For BSG, we had recorded the Season 3.0 marathon from 1/15, although somehow it didn't record the first three. :-( We read the episode synopses and I'll be on the lookout for them. The Season 3.5 premiere of BSG was last night, and we finished the last episode of 3.0 20 minutes before it aired. Timing is everything. :-) I didn't stay up to watch it, though I did watch the opening sequence before going up to get ready for bed just to make sure that Adama wasn't going to nuke the planet.

Both for the sake of the DVR and our sanity, it is nice to be caught up on both series. It wasn't even too confusing when we were watching alternate episodes of each one. :-) I realize I am not a "typical" female for enjoying Science Fiction, but I think it is really the genre that R and I enjoy the most together. We're each willing to watch other things that the other enjoys (TV and movies), but I think Science Fiction (a over the top comedies by Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, etc) are where we have the most interest in common. Although I'm a bit more dis-interested by series I haven't seen from the beginning. I really didn't get into BSG until we watched from the beginning, and I had a similar reaction to Firefly and LOST (though not really science fiction, I think it has elements in common).

I also think the DVR is going to be a savior when we have an infant in the house!

Lots of Shopping

We're getting there.

Two hours in IKEA resulted in:
lunch
A 42" high Billy bookcase + an extension (baby's room)
A RAST drawer unit (for the bathroom for the baby's bathtub)
Four Ekarp lamps, two with Arden Bloom shades (our bedroom) and two with Alfhild Fagel shades (baby's room)
Four Jarpen shelves with Eight Hall brackets (2 sets for baby's room, 2 sets for my room)
And a cutting board for the kitchen (I don't remember the name)

Then we went to Target:
We returned the car seat that just failed Consumer Reports' tests

They didn't have the seat we wanted in stock, so we used the gift card to get:
3 hooded towels
A Boppy and 2 Boppy slipcovers
A thermometer
A baby grooming kit
Lanisoh cream
2 nursing bras and 2 nursing camisoles (you probably don't really need to know that, but I mention it for completeness :-)

At Home Depot we bought:
A new cordless drill (mine stopped recharging)
batteries
Green paint and roller covers for Rudy's room
drywall screws for hanging the shelves

After some time spent putting together and installing some of our purchases, we settled down to watch some episodes of LOST. During which time I browsed the internet for the car seat we want. I found the one I wanted at sears.com, and I ordered it to pick it up at the store. Which saves me from going from store to store to find the one we want. Plus, I was able to look at all of the fabrics available from Graco, and choose the one I like the best. Having been prepared to take whatever I could get, this makes me happy.

It might not be totally finished, but i think the baby's room will be in great shape by the time people come next Saturday and we have almost everything on the "must purchase before the baby's born" list.

Tomorrow - completion of shelf construction, painting, knitting with friends and more painting

Photos, and lots of 'em

Okay, so Stewart curled up in my lap and the R put in Season 2 episodes of LOST that we didn't finish watching before Season 3 began. (The goal is to finish watching them and rewatch the Season 3 fall episodes before the rest of Season 3 begins.)

With one arm trapped under Stewart for much of the time (so no knitting), I finally installed Photoshop Elements on my new laptop and uploaded a bunch of photos to our online gallery. Making it easy for me to post them here.

First, the baby's room:















Then, knitting:

A very belated picture of a catnip mouse made in 2006 and Effie being the first to test it out.





Fingerless gloves for my cousin, Christmas 2006 - Fiesta yarn - Wool/Mohair blend



Here is the secret Christmas knitting. The snowdrop shawl (designed by The Yarn Harlot) made for Mom. Here it is blocking.


Here is a close-up.



A belated picture of the blanket I made for Marcus - finished this summer and gifted at his mom's shower this fall. The design was made up by me.



Close-up of Marcus' blanket



Cabled Vest for Grandma for Christmas 2006. I made up the cable pattern.



Close-up of Cabled Vest



Cabled mittens for my other Grandma for Christmas 2006. My first project made with Koigu PPPM - lovely. I started with a vogue pattern for gloves and turned them into mittens since I knitted much of the first one in the dark on the way to Ohio. :-)



Felted slippers for my cousin for Christmas 2006. The base pattern is Fuzzy Feet from Knitty. I added the Bengal Stripes (improvised).



The myriad of Fetching gloves made for Christmas 2006. The only pair made exactly as the pattern calls for are the ones in the upper right. Upper left are two color and longer at the beginning and end. Lower left are longer and I added beads between the cables. Lower right is a different cable pattern and is the longest pair.



Close-up of the Fetching pair that has beads.



Corazon mittens for our niece for Christmas 2006. The pattern was shortened because I wasn't really knitting to the gauge the pattern called for.

Rewind to 30 weeks

This picture is mostly to show you the sweater I mentioned in my previous post, but also so that you can see that this pregnancy really hasn't resulted in a huge belly. I'm more obviously pregnant not, but several "belly pictures" I've seen of other women at 34 weeks look much bigger than I do. Maybe I'll post another picture before this is over. We'll see.

(I'm also posting because I know I owe lots of knitting photos, and that probably won't be happening until the baby's room is done...)



I should also mention that the cute purple bunny was knitted by Katie and the cake was made by my MIL.

34 weeks

That means that the due date is less than 6 weeks away. Describing how I feel about that with one word is impossible. It's the end of 9 months of waiting, but the beginning of the rest of our life as a family and the beginning of lots of work and joy and challenges and learning and dirty diapers. :-)

I'm wearing my ribbed maternity sweater today. I think it might be one of the best sweaters I've made for myself. After the first blocking, the sleeves were a little long, but today they seem to be just right. Today is the coldest day we've had this year (there was snow in the air this morning and the temp isn't supposed to leave the 30s), so it was a good day for wool. I'm not convinced that this more-convincing winter weather is going to stick around, but it feels appropriate while it lasts.

I didn't work on the mural in the baby's room over the weekend. Instead I worked on the overhaul of my office. Though this might seem like it could wait, I realized that it was important to get that work done in order to have the ability to put my stuff away that has been littering other parts of the house. There is still more to do, but the room is much less scary and most importantly the extra table can come back up there and be removed from the dining room where it will soon be in the way of space needed for baby stuff like the pack'n'play.

I'm working on a Dale of Norway designed fair isle baby hat, and I love it. The ends to weave it will be annoying, but it is so adorable (and warm) that it will be worth it. I think there will be enough Baby Ull left over for more DoN projects, though I think the next will be limited to 2 or 3 colors...instead of 7. :-)

Redecorating

I've finally explored the new template and editing options in the new version of Blogger. The new color scheme is closer to what I wanted all along, but I didn't want to spend the time editing the HTML before. My changes still required a little HTML work to get the image I wanted at the top and not the standard template header. I will probably do some more work on the image at some point and maybe even figure out how to do a continuous band of color behind it. But it's not bad for someone who got her main HTML "training" in 1994...

My back bothered me almost all day yesterday, and therefore I spent the evening on the couch. I began sewing up the sheep bootees (I think it is taking longer to sew up the pieces than it took to knit them - ugh) and we watched more Battlestar Galactica. We're now into Season 2.5 and the ruthlessness and cruelty of Admiral Kane has me astounded. It makes me somewhat glad that we've seen bits and pieces of Season 3, so I know that Commander Adama has to survive somehow...

For the bus this week, I've picked up an old pair of socks that were "finished" but need reworking. I had the yardage to make pretty tall socks (toe-up) and I waited too long to add calf shaping the first time around. So I frogged back to the ankle and am working up the first leg again. It's nice to be making something for me that I don't have to worry whether or not it will fit post-pregnancy. (I don't have the impression that my feet have gotten bigger as a result of the pregnancy, although I should probably put on an old pair of shoes to see for sure.

Tonight is our infant care class. I am surpriseingly excited about it. I think because it is the last big thing we need to "learn" before Baby M joins us, and because I am anxious to see how R responds to it. I'm sure he will be a great Dad, but I'm glad he was interested in going to the class, too. I'm not going to be the only one changing diapers around here!

Progress

I didn't get quite as much done over the week off as I had wanted to, but given my lack of physical stamina I probably shouldn't be surprised. I also did things like watching TV while writing thank you notes, which slows down the process considerably.

Accomplished:
I finished writing all of the thank you notes for baby-related items. This includes everything that Miss M got for the shower and for christmas. This, in itself, is a big accomplishment...it just isn't one that is visible in the house...

I finished all of the non-mural painting in the baby's room. The closet door, closet shelf, window sill and door to my office are all now painted.

Most of the things that don't belong on the first floor have been moved to their proper locations. The "clutter" began to develop the weekend of the shower and only got worse after christmas. There are still some empty boxes, old laptops and miscellaneous items that don't belong where they are, but the situation is under much better control than it was on December 26th. :-)

Two knitted hats to donate to "Caps to the Capitol". They'll be in the mail as of lunchtime today - which is the submission deadline.

The watching of many episodes of Battlestar Gallactica. We watched all of Season One and I think we're nearing the midpoint of Season Two. I'm enjoying it much more now that we've started from the beginning. Watching random Season Two and Season Three episodes wasn't doing much for me. The show is too serialized and there are too many characters for me to get into it later on.

Lastly, some errands were run. I got a few more baby items with a coupon that expired at the end of the year and some christmas money. We still have more needs, but we will at least wait until the next credit card period to make another dent. And some things can wait until February, too. I don't think we'll need the stroller from day one...especially in winter. Although when you consider the warm winter we've been having, it certainly doesn't seem impossible that Miss M and I could go out for walks before spring.

One more thing

Since this seems to be a popular question, I'll answer it for anyone who hasn't asked yet.

We won't be sharing our daughter's name until she's born. :-)

Baby Stuff

Let's see:

My back hurts. Not constantly all day, but enough that it was hard to stay focused this morning. This afternoon has been better, but I've had more things to do up and about.

Must take photos of the baby's room tonight to show family this weekend. It's not done, but it is far enough along to show our progress.

Next week I hope to make more progress - finish the painting (including the "mural"), get the doors installed (with help from R) and probably buy some of the things that we haven't received yet.

We had our hospital tour on Tuesday night. Fewer unknowns are a good thing. The Labor and Delivery Rooms are pretty big and aren't too far from the main waiting room for when R needs to visit anyone who is waiting. The post-partum rooms seem nice, too, though they are not large. But I guess that keeps us from being overwhelmed with too many visitors at once.

Last night we took a private childbirth class. I'm confident that this was the right decision for us. Though I admit at being intrigued at the contents of a "regular" lamaze class and how it might differ, especially since it wouldn't have been tailored to our needs. The woman we took the class from has been a doula for over 20 years and was a wealth of knowledge. Even though I know there will be much of the process that is unexpected and unpredictable, having an understanding of an "average" labor is comforting. So is understanding out options and choices that we can make.

She had a very quiet day on Monday which was kind of freaky. There hasn't been a day when I've felt her moving all the time, but there have always been "active" periods. Monday, I had to sit with my hand pressed against my belly in order to have the reassurance of feeling her move. It was an unpleasant day and I'm glad she's back to her "normal" now.

We're taking an infant care class the first week of January and I have a book on the shelf to read about breastfeeding. I'm hoping that those two things will help us feel "ready". (I don't think we'll ever really be prepared for how things are going to happen or change, but a little understanding of the parameters should make us both feel better.)

I'm totally in maternity clothes now, with the exception of a few shirts I can wear under longer things. I'm happy that all of the maternity stuff still fits for the time being.

Shower

I feel like I don't have the time or the writing stamina at the moment to do the post that the weekend deserves.

Let me just say that my shower on Saturday was awesome. It was everything I wanted it to be and everyone who came was exceedingly generous. I feel a little more confident now that we have some of the things we need to have for Miss M's arrival, and more and more it is sinking in that this is really happening.

It was also fabulous to get to spend time with two of my friends that I have known the longest (it seems wrong to say oldest friends, since they are both younger than me). Rebecca (sadly blogless) came in on Friday night and Katie (Shades of K) drove in on Saturday a couple of hours before the shower. We do a reasonable job of keeping in touch via email, phone and blogs, but there is nothing like an in-person visit. I'm very grateful that they could come. The only thing that would have made the weekend better would have been more time to spend together, but R and I were so pooped yesterday that I don't know that we could have enjoyed their presence if they would have stayed longer. :-)

Now, the question is where do we put the things that don't belong in her room? Shall we just leave the car seat in the foyer until February...?

Confessions

1 - My iPod has been playing holiday music all week. Love those Carols for a Cure CDs. (www.broadwaycares.org)

2 - I'm fighting a very strong urge to peek at the baby registries. I know I shouldn't, and I haven't really wanted to...until I thought about it yesterday. Maybe I could just delete internet explorer from my computer for the day to diffuse temptation. :-)

3 - I frogged the fetching gloves and started over on the bus this morning. The cables in pattern aren't the right size and length for what I was going for. I started again and I'm getting the look I want now. I expect I will make more cable changes on future pairs.

4 - I have stopped caring about disturbing the cats when they are sleeping in the bed at night. When I'm feeling generous, I pet them before turning over. But it is hard enough for me to turn myself over without worrying about the comfort of two furry creatures that can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

5 - I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend and I'm ready for the workday to be over now.