Falling asleep in my cheerios...

I'd forgotten how intermittent snatches of broken sleep do not equal a good night's rest. We're in that weird newborn limbo where everyone is really tired, but equally wired...so it's like living with a pack of rather sedate zombies who are constantly muttering about supporting the Columbian bean economy. (If I could, I would totally take my coffee intravenously at this point.)

'Tis a bit of a wonder that I'm typing at all, as (TMI alert) I'm retaining fluid to the point where carpal tunnel syndrome has kicked in, big time. I can't close my right hand into a fist. The best I can do is this wretched claw type thingy, which is not earning me many brownie points with Mr. Munchkin, to say the least. (He calls it Mommy's witchy hand.) Which also means no knitting. No spinning. No sewing. *frowny face* On the plus side, I am being forced to take up other ways of occupying time. I've started teaching Mr. Munchkin how to play the piano, and I've been reading. I didn't realise how much I'd missed the feel of the ivories...and since Miss E is (miraculously) able to sleep through the very loud plonking of unharmonious keys, we shall play on.

I've been asked if I'll be posting Miss E's birth story...I'm not sure. Honestly, it was a very positive experience. I'm just a bit squicky about putting something so intimate in such a public arena. We'll see. Maybe I'll feel different when she's a teenager and I need some leverage.

Hope to have some crafty news eventually. Also need to post some cute baby modelling photos. I received the BEST baby presents, and they need to be displayed to the world. For now, you get this.

Sleepy baby. I love how she sleeps with her arms above her head.

Doesn't it look like Miss E is saying "Holy crap! DUDE, you just got smoked by Darth Vader. Maybe if you hit the X button a few more times to get some combo points, you can take him out this time..." They're playing Lego Star Wars on the PS2, fyi.

Aren't my boys handsome? Even 12 years later, I'm still all swoony about Mr. Ninja. (Those of you who know about my thing for hunky viking men may now chime in with a chorus of "Oh, well THAT explains that.") Also, there's your obligatory hand knit photo. Mr. Munchkin is wearing the second pair of Monkey socks that I've knit for myself...and then unceremoniously felted. They're his socks now. *sigh*

Introducing...

The divine Miss E.



Finally home from hospital. Short blog post. Baby had medical issues, but all resolved now. Is good baby. Sleeps a lot. Eats a lot. (Was labelled an "aggressive" feeder. Poor breasts.) Poops a lot. Ninja is exhausted. Will post more later when brain reboots.

Hi ho, hi ho...

It's off to induced labour I go.

Tomorrow, that is. Went to the hospital today for my 40 week checkup, and they took one look at me and my chart...and decided that this baby has to come out, pronto. I'm ok with it, as I figure that it can only go better than the first time with Mr. Munchkin. (Don't ask - seriously, it was definitely on the horrific side of things.) So, I'm doing laundry and cleaning the house like a madwoman. After all, who knows when I'll next get to do those mundane tasks without a small critter strapped to lord knows what body parts?

Uh...sorry about the visuals, I may be freaking out a bit about actually having a newborn again. We used to call Mr. Munchkin "velcro baby" because he would put up quite the hissy fit if he was not constantly cuddled and able to see what Mummy was doing. Funny how I'm just remembering these things now that the baby's arrival is becoming all too real.

Anyway. Am also knitting on a pair of knee high socks for the baby made out of handspun scraps. If I'd been smarter about it, the socks would match and be all cute and stripey. As it is, they're composed of two very different textured yarns and they look awful. But they will be warm, and that's what I'm going for. Or so I tell myself.

Also finished up some medium sized diapers:


The top three are from my own pattern, and the bottom ones are from the Fattycakes pattern. They're wonderfully squishy and soft...and ever so girly. I am LOVING the idea that I get to sew girl stuff. I've become quite the Ottobre worshipper, plotting cute wee dresses for the distant future.

But for now...I have more laundry to do. Send easy labour vibes please, would you?

More teeny tiny pants...

So, I finished another pair of LTK Longies. Knit from some handspun BFL that I finished early in this pregnancy... Using the drop spindle, I made it into a deliberately thick and thin slubby worsted weight which made for an interesting effect. The plied yarn was very energized, and it definitely has that "homemade" look. Not really sure if I like it or not, but meh - the colours are very pretty. In case you're wondering why there's some tiny tufts of yarn next to the pants - that is all that was left of the entire skein of yarn. I was so desperate for yarn to finish the drawstring that I was scrounging the cast-on and cast-off tails and using them to finish up. Yeesh. That'll teach me to start planning ahead when choosing yarn for projects.


Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day - I got the BEST homemade Valentine's card from my boys and I made them Valentine Day brownies for dessert last night.

Today in the mail, I got another Valentine - my copy of the Emmeline apron. I think it's the prettiest apron pattern I've ever seen. And as I fully intend to bake more as soon as little Miss Munchkin is born (hooray for GESTATIONAL diabetes - it should go away as soon as the hormones settle down)...I need a couple of new aprons, non?

Still hanging in there...

Still alive, still breathing (mostly through my mouth), and still pregnant. For those of you counting, I'm 39 weeks in. Yes, that's nearly full term. And boy oh boy, when I go down the aisles of the supermarket, it's like a cruise liner in full sail.

Since I posted last, here's how things have been stacking up:

1 - the number of times we've been to the ER at the children's hospital at midnight. Mr. Munchkin wasn't just sick with a cold/cough...it turned into full on croup, with a good helping of not being able to breathe. So, Superbowl Sunday was spent at the ER, with a very unhappy little boy. He's on the mend now with just the occasional hacking cough.

2 - the number of people still recovering: me and Mr. Munchkin. Of course, croup is viral in nature. And of course...when you have a little one coughing in your face when you're trying to calm him down, nasty viruses take advantage of a pregancy weakened immune system. I have the head cold/cough from hell...and not even a hunky John Constantine type around to exorcise it. (Mr. Ninja is working 12 hours days lately. He says that it's the masculine nesting instinct kicking in, as he wants to clear his schedule so that he can take paternity leave when the time comes.)

3 - the number of Little Comet Tail yoga pants that I finished. I'm displeased with myself, as I managed to botch them up with icky kool-aid dye jobs. But that being said, they're still done and ready. However, as I'm trying to take this as a learning experience, I got copies of the Three Irish Girls yarn dyeing tutorials (fabulous, btw - a definite recommend for anyone wanting to try dyeing) and will apply lessons within to next time I try dyeing.



11 - the number of prefold diapers that I dyed yesterday. I was SO underwhelmed by the beige...that I grabbed some Procion MX and did a couple of low water immersion dye jobs on them.

1 - the number of newborn diapers completed while Mr. Munchkin was spending some time in his room "thinking about what he did". The poor kid has been beside himself lately - and he's been acting up. My sister-in-law sent me some jawdropping pics of what they all did in Texas. And let's just say that he got away with bloody blue murder. Add that to the fact that he's not been well since getting home, and you have a recipe for disaster. Yesterday, things came to a head...and he cooled his heels in his room for a few hours while I calmed myself down and talked myself out of throttling him, Homer-style. Believe it or not, sewing can be very therapeutic. I think that it has something to do with all the cutting and piercing and smashing of snaps into position and well, you get the idea.



You know, I totally made a resolution this year to be more responsive to comments on my blog...only to be foiled by blasted Blogger. Since most of the comments come through the anonymous comment feeder, I can't respond to half of them. Anyone have any advice on circumventing this problem?

Am sick. Send pie.

Blargh. I have a cough/cold. So does everyone in the house except for the clever cat who has been finding new spots to hide from the plague zombies. (Us.) This means that there has been much tv watching (boy), video game playing (man), and knitting that is accompanied by passionate wishes to curl up into a fetal ball (me).

Voila.
Little Turtle Knits Longies in handspun BFL. Roving is from The Sweet Sheep, handspun by me. I've been getting a sick sinking feeling that they'll be too small (they're knit in the small size), but we'll have to see what the princess makes of them.

As heard at KOL when I was working on these:
"You mean, you put these on the kid and let them POOP in them?!!??"
"... yeah. But there's a diaper underneath, eh?"
"Still! Poop!"
"..."

It's amazing how your perspective changes on baby stuff (poop included) once you've had to deal with it for prolonged periods of time.



I love Scrubs.

Where's the pause button?

For my life, that is.

So, Mr. Ninja and Mr. Munchkin are finally home. Their return trip took two days longer than expected. They were supposed to be back on Monday, but ended up finally getting home yesterday afternoon. (In total, it was 52 hours of travelling to get home from Texas.) According to Mr. Ninja, it's very liberating travelling with a four year old who speaks his mind. My little guy is apparently very good at launching virulent tirades against "stupid fricking airplanes".

As a result of spending entirely too much time in the wretched environment of modern aircraft, my poor little guy's immune system is in total crash mode - he's got a fever, cough and cold and is currently voluntarily laying down on the couch and watching DVDs. If you've ever met Mr. Munchkin...you know that this is bad. I'm worried - he's usually never in one spot for more than 20 minutes at a time.

(Side note: I just asked him if he wanted more to drink - I'm slipping him a mickey of pedialyte and apple juice - and he said all he wanted was hugs and a nap on the couch.)

Wish us all luck getting through this...relatively unscathed.

I'm starting to freak out a little bit - I'm trying to convince myself that we're ready for the new baby...and yet, somehow failing miserably. Everything's in place, the linens and new clothes are washed, and the bags are packed. However, there is this looming shadow in the back of my mind that says "YOU NEED MORE KNITS". And dang it all if the spectre ain't bang on.

Of course, it's the nesting instinct that's driving me mad...while the boys were away, I kept myself quite busy trying to soothe the savage beast.



I hemmed three pairs of pants for Mr. Ninja, sewed seven pairs of pants for Mr. Munchkin (but I need to add pockets now - thank you *so* much for reminding me, Steph), sewed a tiny pair of footed overalls (Ottobre pattern), knit a pair of Little Turtle Knits longies (when I finish the second leg I'll post a pic of the FO), a pair of the ubiquitous Saartje's Booties, and then schemed, planned and shopped online for fabrics to make sweet girly dresses.

Also sewed up some wool and velour newborn pants from the Little Comet Tails Crescent Yoga Pants pattern - I'd show them to you, but they're in a strawberry kool-aid bath right now. LOVE this pattern. Once I had it figured out, I made a pair of these pants in less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

What I'm panicking about is newborn sized soakers. I've only knit one (the Curly Purly pattern in BFL) and I'm not terribly enthused about it. So, I'm trying to decide if I should sew up some or if I should knit...and I'm torn. Send help please? I think that I need at least three more to be safe. I have no more brain cells to spare on debating this subject with myself. The baby is going to be very smart, because she's sucked out all of my neurons.

Got some lovely surprises in the mail this week:



Stitch markers from Purly Whirly and a knitted new baby set from some friends in Germany! The stitch markers are lovely, and a totally unexpected thank-you for the Advent giveaway. Thanks so much, Amanda! As for the baby set - I hope that someday, somehow...my knitting will look this perfect. My stitch tension has always been off-kilter, and I long for the mad knitting skillz that would let me produce such perfect stitches. Oh well...everyone's gotta have their little goals in life.