Monday, October 29, 2007

Opening My Own Bakery






Things are going well, baby is 17 days old today and I feel like this is my first chance to actually write something other than captions. Trouble is, I don't know where to start and my brain is mush. I'm basically living on nighttime 'naps' (you can't call it sleep) and coffee (but not too much or you'll keep the baby awake).

BabyGirl is doll, she's beautiful, she's perfect and she sleeps about 98% of the time! I've been having trouble getting her to latch on, it can take up to an hour sometimes then by the time she eats, poops, eats again, outfit change, it's about 2 hours to feed her. My friend is a co-leader with LLL so I got some good tips. It was encouraging to hear that everyone has trouble breastfeeding. She said all kids are different, even my body is different than with Butters. He had no trouble pointing this out as he lifted up my shirt today and told me about my belly button and how the baby grew in there, then he said, and I'm surprised I didn't start crying, "Mommy has rolls!" Hence, this post's title.

We are getting out a lot, we need to with a 2.5 year old! I was able to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans this weekend-a joy to actually zip a pair of pants! We've been having a lot of visitors and we had our coming out to the knitting group, E wore the Zimmerman sweater I knitted. I think she likes it. There's a pic at the top, she looks like she is saying, "I'm ready for my close up." I took photos of Butters all the time, but never because of his outfits, I had to get some of the baby today in her pink clothes.

T is looking at Ellie sleep right now and he just said, "Maybe we should have another one." Yeah, right.

C's Grandmother is an amazing seamstress; she made him a pirate costume for Halloween worthy of the stage. Trouble is, he won't put the thing on. "No, No, put it away." He screams. He said he wanted to be a pirate. I think we'll have to photoshop the thing on him. Take a pic of Butters by the door and a pic of the costume and morph them together! Butters has been amazing lately. He makes the most amazing comments and seems to have grown so much in the last few weeks. He's a great big brother, very gentle with the baby, unless he's trying to climb on my lap while I'm nursing her. He asked me to put the covers on him tonight and after I did he said, "That's great, mama."

I'm feeling the urge to knit a sweater for myself. Like it's the only thing that will get me through this time, I need to make something for me. I want to make the top Wicked with some purple Cascade yarn I was petting a few months ago at the shop. I need a quick, mindless knit and I need it to be all about ME. I've got so many other beings depending on me right now and crazy things happening. When I put my shoes on this morning, there were 5 raisins in the left shoe. We found a mouse in our basement. And Luna, our slightly morbidly obese cat, is sick. Mama needs some yarn and a new project.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

She's Hungry Again!

Open eyes, blue for now but it looks like they'll turn brown. She is past her birth weight-7.11 lbs as of Tuesday. Growing like a weed!
















Older brother likes to give her kisses and "touch her gentle on her head." She doesn't seem to be enjoying it in this photo, but usually tolerates it!











Amazing Fall day (T took this from our yard).











Giving birth at home was totally amazing. I mean, yes, it was painful and parts of it really sucked (like puking!), but I got to labor with my family around me, we didn't have to take a car ride anywhere, and I was in a comfortable welcoming place. My husband laid next to me in bed and I was on my side, hugging him to death and asking if it was okay to push. "Let your body do what it wants to," Ali, my midwife said. I did, and it did and the baby came easily. Her being 2 lbs lighter than her brother probably made a big difference also! I felt fantastic afterwards and when Butters woke up in the morning, he had a baby sister!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Thank You Grandma


We miss you already...

Thursday, October 18, 2007

One Hand

typing, holding baby in the other. Only photos for now!






































Sorry, no red hair, P. Mookie!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

"Baby Come Out,"

Those were the immortal words of Butters on Friday morning when he woke up to discover he has a baby sister!






























We are all doing well. More details to follow, here are her stats:

Born at home on October 12, at 3:06 am
Weight: 7.5 lbs
Length: 21 inches
Name: Eleanor Meredith

Thursday, October 11, 2007

I Am Still Pregnant

And feeling every inch of it! More contractions last night and then...nothing. My midwife said that's very typical with second labors, you get started and stop, start and stop and then you just keep going. I'm hoping tonight-we keep going!

Today is my husbands birthday! Will he have to share his cake for the rest of his life (and her)? Will we sing, "Happy Birthday, Baby WhatsHerName, and Daddy, too I guess....Happy Birthday to you!"

Will his cake next year look like this:

Happy Birthday
Baby WhatsHerName

(oh and Daddy, too)

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Santa Baby Dress

Still no baby here yet.... This is a dress I designed and knit for the holidaze. I'll be selling the pattern and teaching a class on the construction at Let It Rain in Mukilteo. More details soon.



















I had some contractions last night but nothing since. Won't be long now! I see Adelaide has jumped ahead in the (non-binding) name poll. We are going to wait and see what she looks like to decide the name.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Drandma is Here!

And she bought her silly glasses.












Look who decided they needed to nap again, the Seahawks game was boring but it wasn't that bad!







This was the drop off after falling asleep in the car. He looks huge, doesn't he. Didn't fall alseep until 10:30 pm on the days with naps, I think I like no nap better!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Honey Do

This is how the story ended: T at the table, reading the owners manual. The old hot water heater at the curb.
It started 12 hours earlier, with a comment from me that my shower wasn't very hot that morning. T went downstairs to check things, "swish swish swish," went the carpet. New hot water heaters aren't that expensive, we wanted to go with the energy efficient model or the instant heat models we read about online, but we had to go with what was in the store (which was shorter than the old one b/c they don't make them anymore...) We thought we'd save money on the installation ($1200), T said, "I think I can figure this out." It took 12 hours, 2 men (thanks for coming up, Grandpa!) and 4 trips to the hardware store. But, he did it.

I think I rely on my man's handiness too much, I don't even try to hammer a nail in the wall to hang a picture, I ask him to do it. But, I also remember the Plaster Incident of 2001, when the newly installed wall shelf came crashing down along with half the wall plaster, "We can't have shelves on these walls, we CAN NOT have shelves."

Bad things come in threes, about 36 hours after the Hot Water Incident of 2007, the windows started leaking when rain came from the north. Then, I discovered where all the installation is coming from that the dog gets into-we've got animals under the roof pulling it out and running all over the yard with it! Now we just need a dry day to fix all this...