Archive for September, 2007
Belly Pics!
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Here are a couple of pics from last weekend. We went up to Albuquerque for a wedding, and these are some shots at 23 weeks:
Posted in just chit chat, Trips, baby | 7 Comments »
Sunday!
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
A few more diapers…these are all size “small.” Some are considered “all in ones”, some are just “fitteds.” The fabrics are “Minky” chenille, polar fleece, PUL, bamboo velour, and all have terry cloth for the inners.
I didn’t use the serger on these, because I can’t quite figure it out. The sewing shop offers some free classes that I need to take. THEN I’ll get serging!
Yesterday, Nate, Mom, and I totally cleaned out the garage. We’re getting a new washer/dryer (for all the baby clothes) and the dryer has to go in the garage. So we took EVERYTHING out and reorganized and put it all back in. We can actually walk in there now! And there’s plenty of room for the dryer. We did it all in under 3 hours! It still amazes me. It was a total sitcom garage, where you open the door and all the boxes fall out.
It feels great to get rid of half a garage full of junk! The next thing is to get the baby’s room organized. I’m planning to start that next weekend.
—-
Being behind in everything is an awful feeling, so deadlines have been moved and things rearranged to make (almost) everyone happy. And I am SO relieved. It’s weird how sometimes when you’re in it, you can’t see the easiest solution!
Posted in just chit chat | 6 Comments »
it’s my birthday!
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Happy birthday to me!
I got a SERGER!!
My mom’s over at my house today, and we’re going to run some errands and then work on diaper-sewing.
Thanks for the encouraging comments…I was especially down yesterday because I missed a big deadline and let a lot of really great people down and was/am totally beating myself up for it.
All in all, life is good, but there are a few glitches here and there…
Posted in just chit chat | 19 Comments »
Still here…
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
Just TIRED. (This post is a total rant, so feel free to skip it.)
I’m happy to be pregnant, I LOVE that I’m pregnant, but I AM SO TIRED!!
I’m starting to think that the people who say the 2nd trimester gets easier are just lying.
I’m either behind in or have completely effed up every single thing that’s going on in my life right now. It’s all I can do to get out of bed and find clothes that still fit, get to the office, and try to do the very basic daily things.
This morning as I was preparing for class, I spilled a whole drink right down the front of my white shirt. Yesterday it was a whole cup of decaf in the lap.
If you see me, cross the street…I’m like a whirlwind of bad luck, clumsiness, irritability, and, (I hate to admit it, but it’s true…) B.O.. No matter how much deodorant, or how many showers, these hormones are noxious. Sad. But true.
Where I used to be able to work an 8-5 day, come home and work another good 4 or 5 hours…I’m lucky if I even make it to 5 without a nap. Then when I get home, I take a nap, get up to eat, and go back to bed.
For someone who had a full-time job, wrote a book, moved across the country, started another job without missing a beat…this is incredibly humiliating!
It really makes me feel like crap to start every conversation with, “I’m SO SORRY!”
SO…my book’s being pushed back, I went from full time down to 1/3 time, and hopefully that’ll help. Now, I just need my family to agree to a “no more illness” policy, I need to get over this morning sickness (yes, at 23 weeks I’m still throwing up every morning!), and I somehow need to get MORE sleep.
Tomorrow I have a WHOLE DAY OFF. Well, a whole day to catch up on email, mail packages, and generally start about 100 conversations with, “I’m SO SORRY!”
Posted in just chit chat | 19 Comments »
Is it fall where you live?
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
Here in Southern NM, it’s starting to cool down. I think it was about 68 last night, but it was still in the high 80s all day.
I’m ready for it to be fall. Every year when school starts, it feels like it should be sweater weather already. Growing up in Iowa, we’d have to wait a few weeks for REAL fall weather, but by the time mid-September rolled around, it was usually sweater-weather in the evenings. And then living in the Northeast NY, MD, same thing, except fall lasted a LOT longer and the winters were milder.
Here in the waaaaaaay Southwest, though…we have LooooooooOOOooOooong summers. I LOVE the sunshine, and I really do even enjoy the heat. For about 3-4 months…and now I’m ready for it to cool the f*** down already! I’m getting BIG, I’m walking funny (the waddle) and I’m TOO HOT.
In preparation for cooler weather, I started working on this shrug-sweater-thing out of some gorgeous Neighborhood Fiber Co. Merino. It’s gonna have long sleeves, super-extendo-ribbing, and actually close in the front. This is what I work on at SnB on Wednesdays, so I get a few inches done every week. My rate of project-completion has gone waaaaaaay down since this pregnancy has set in. I’m so tired. In a good way, but tired.
The ultrasound yesterday was really neat.
This clinic we went to has a much more high-tech machine than they do at our reglar clinic. (This was a level-2 ultrasound that they do on high-risk people.) We saw her little arms and legs, hands and feet, head, heart, stomach, kidneys, brain, ribs, spine…everything.
She was wiggling around and moving her legs and arms a LOT. When we first saw her, she was lying with her arms in the same position that I was lying in on the table!
Both the technician and the attending physician remarked on how much she was moving and called her a “wiggle worm.” (And said again that all that movement is great to see and is a great sign.)
She just woke up and I can feel her moving around now, too. She’s not doing the big Karate (or Kar-a-tay) kicks yet, but I can feel her moving and dancing around. So, we got some of the ultrasound photos, and I put them in her scrapbook…but except for the first one, they’re kind of a mystery. The one that says “face” is the one that I’m particularly ignoring.
It’s really cute to compare the first batch where she was like a gummi bear with a tail to the second batch where we can see her long legs and even a foot! She’s sure growing and I’m so relieved to have gotten to see her and know that she’s doing well.
We go back in 4 weeks for another of these, because her position in my belly was such that they weren’t able to see the outflow “tubes,” for lack of better word, from her heart well enough. Her back was facing forward, head down. So we’ll see her again soon!
(I’ll add pics today, but wanted to post the update to the quickie from yesterday!)
Posted in just chit chat, Patterns, events, baby | 13 Comments »
It’s a GIRL
Friday, September 7th, 2007
…and she’s PERFECT!
Posted in baby | 28 Comments »
Quick update…
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
This week is already a lot better than last week.
The need to make diapers seems to have tapered off some…which is a relief. I feel like I might be OK, even if I’m not sewing! (If you’ve ever had an OCD moment, you know what I’m talking about.)
Some great things…Jodi’s doing me a custom maternity tee!! I can’t WAIT to see this!! I’ve admired her work for so long. These textiles she’s doing are just out of this world beautiful. I LOVE handmade things.
The next really nice thing is that an old friend (Hi Chad!) went and found our Amazon baby registry and ordered us a stroller!! It’s not just any stroller, this thing KICKS ASS. I’ve never been the person to get excited over strollers…but it’s my dream stroller. 
AND…the end of the week is that ultrasound. I just have to get through tomorrow and we KNOW.
So this week has felt a lot more at ease and peaceful and so far so good.
Thanks for all your kind pats on the back these last few days. Lack of sleep + baby hormones = INSANITY.
Posted in just chit chat | 8 Comments »
Maybe next week will be different…
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
…but last week SUCKED.
So many things just spiraled out of control to STRESS OVBRLOAD.
The main thing was that I was told I’d have my 20-week ultrasound on Friday, but it was canceled due to the planning of a level-2 for THIS Friday. But nobody told us and Nate had taken the afternoon off work (in the middle of a HUGE install at the museum) and I was looking really forward to knowing the baby’s ok. All of our family was calling us all day to find out “how’s the baby” and we didn’t KNOW.
OK, so one week might not seem like a big deal, but I’ve literally been LIVING for that day. I can’t sleep at night, so I lie there thinking about the baby and wondering about it, and I’ve been getting through those long nights by counting down the days till I get to see the little one and find 2 arms, 2 legs, little organs, etc. And NOW…it’s postponed. The real shock was that nobody called us to tell us. SO disappointing and makes me really question the care there.
We did hear the heartbeat and bloodflow and LOTS of movement. She said that lots of movement = healthy happy baby…so that’s good. I’ve only gained 3 lbs, rather than the 4-10 they like to see by 20 weeks, but she said since I lost so much at the beginning, it’s not a worry. (I’m having food aversion issues, since I”m basically morning sick all day.)
Lots of other drama went on, too…that I just don’t want to go into. Not really bloggable or really worth it. Some of it’s my own fault for being so hormonal and sleep-deprived.
Maybe today I’ll take some photos of a few things I’ve been knitting. This IS a knitting blog. But when everything I’m knitting is Top Secret…the photos are few and far between. It seems like two of the people who agreed to test knit the Petal pattern are actually close to finishing their sweaters…so hopefully that’ll be ready in a little while. A community college class is knitting it as an assignment…so that should be GREAT feedback!
On a sewing note: I’ve turned into a diaper-making factory.
Doing repetitive yet constructive things like knitting and sewing seems to be my method of burning off angst. I’m looking at fabrics now the way I was looking at yarns a few months ago. Colors, prints, various absorbing, water-repelling or wicking properties, price per yard versus by the bolt…velcro, snaps, buttons, thread…it’s so easy to get really sucked into all these crafts.
These are made from the free “Rita’s Rump Pocket” diaper pattern. They’re supposed to be “one size fits all” so I’m not sure they’ll work on a newborn…the gals at SnB on Wednesday thought they looked too big.
Sewn using:
Outer = woven cotton
Inner = flannel or cotton loop terry
Soaker/stuffer = folded cotton prefold diaper
The fabrics are “space/planets,” “Vans-style checkerboard,” “sharks,” and “dinosaurs.”
(There are more of my newly sewn diapers in that flickr set if you’re interested.)
So anyway, this weekend has been nice in terms of getting to do baby-prep stuff, sleeping, not working, and just calming down some after the suckfest of last week…but I still feel overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions.