See? Told ya.

And just because I can . . . here are 2 images of my baby boy that make me melt inside.

A post about knitting. Yes, Knitting!

Remember back in the good old days? I'm talking 3, maybe even 4 years ago -- before I had kids? Oh yeah, ancient history. Well, back in those days this was a knitting blog. No dolls, no parenting, no adorable babies ... just knitting. And yarn. Yummy yarn. Well today I'm going back to my roots.

Fisherman Fred:

Made for Shall We Knit? as a store sample. I really enjoyed this knit. Quick, straight forward, but not dull. In reviewing knits for baby boys (and indeed grown-ass boys as well) I see a plethora of stripes worked in boring stockinette. The purl ridge chevron pattern seen here keeps things interesting without being overwhelming. The yarn I was given to work with was heavenly. Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK. Don't know how it will wear, but it was lovely to work with.

Textured Rufus Cardi:

This one is almost done -- you'll see it on Boober soon. Just working on the button bands now. This one is from a book called Vintage Baby Knits. I really do love most of the patterns in this book - they're lovely. The author seems to be a pretty great woman as well - answers questions without being a douche, etc. There is a definite difference in the way her mind and my mind work. Understanding the way some of the instructions are phrased can take several readings and sometimes I have to sketch out a diagram or two. That said, I have made 3 of the designs from this book and have definitely not been disappointed in the least.
I see a great deal of criticism for this particular pattern on Ravelry. Why so much seaming? Why so many pieces? Easy. 1) seams provide structure. Bones, if you will. 2) the button bands are worked on smaller needles in a different stitch pattern. Working them at the same time is just asking for puckers and pulling. Take the time, do the seaming ... you won't regret it.
I'm using some Sublime Soya Cotton from my stash for this one. I can say from experience that the yarn washes and dries beautifully by machine, wears like nobody's business, and has fabulous drape. It's the perfect yarn for textured garments.

And now this:

What? There's a sweater in there!!

Take three: Twinkle Vintage Cardi

Awww! So cute!




This is my third go at this pattern. I made 2 previously for expecting friends. Out of delicious cashmere.
Bub's Twinkle is made with Dalegarn Baby Ull - not quite as delectable . . . but still functional. I started this sweater before we knew the boy was a boy, WAY back in July. Lost my steam due to tiny stitches and black yarn. Just finished it on Monday. It looks great on him!

I love him, fun and games, and the plague of 2011

Sweet Pea is still very much enamoured of her little brother. I'm glad she doesn't hate him, but I wish she didn't love him so violently!
She simply doesn't understand that 1 month old babies are 1) easily overwhelmed, 2) incapable of playing with their adoring big sisters.
For example, I put him out on his quilt for some 'play time' last week. This is what I wanted play time to look like:

This is what it looked like when Sweet Pea was done with him:

Life is not completely devoid of play time, mind you. There are still couch forts a-plenty

And shoveling is apparently a good time . . . .

And she loves to read stories to her little brother at bedtime.

As is tradition for the month of January, our household has been struck once again with the plague. Wonderful got it first, then I came down with it. We suspect Sweet Pea is next as she has the warning cough and has been sneezing a fair bit. I sincerely hope she skips it - while we're fairly certain it's just a cold, it's the worst cold I've ever had. I had to call in reinforcements to take care of the kids yesterday so I could just lie in bed and fight off a fever of 39.5 (Celsius - that's 103.1F). If our little man gets it, I'm pretty sure he's screwed and will need admission to the hospital. I'm crossing everything I have that he's getting adequate anti-bodies from my milk and he'll skip it. So far, so good. He doesn't have a cough, and he sneezes infrequently. We seem to be on the right track! If Sweet Pea does, in fact, contract the plague . . . I don't know. It's a terribly high fever, and a lot of dehydration. Here's hoping both of the kids come through no worse for wear.

Time flies?

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Almost a month since the birth of my son. There have been a lot of surprises, a lot of sweet moments, and a smidge of regret.

I'll be honest. There have been times when I have looked at my small son, and my not-so-small daughter and thought to myself 'I made a mistake. What was I thinking, having another child?'. These moments were largely in the first 2 weeks, when my hormones were unstable and I was struggling with Boy-zooka's weight-gain. I certainly don't feel that way anymore, or most of the time.

At first, Boy-zooka appeared to be doing just fine. He was lazy, he was a little jaundiced, but otherwise he seemed just fine. He wasn't fine. At his three day check up, the midwife noted that he was losing weight. This was the start of a 3 week battle to turn our son's nose-dive around. It was exhausting, disheartening, and it just about broke me. Every other day a midwife would be at our home to weigh our small son. Every other day, he lost a few more ounces. We supplemented his nursing sessions with expressed breast milk, he lost weight. We fed him more frequently, he lost weight. He would fight the breast so forcefully that I would give up after 45 minutes of attempting to get him latched - often I would be in tears, every time I felt rejected. Finally, we gave him breast milk in a bottle. He loved it. I cried through every bottle feeding, and finally decided to cut him off the bottle altogether since it was making his already poor nursing skills even more lax - but he got what he needed from those bottles. He started nursing better and better. On Christmas Eve we saw his first weight gain - just as I was about to give up on nursing altogether. In the end, Boy-zooka needed to nurse every hour or hour and a half and he required a top-up of 1 ounce of expressed milk in order to gain weight. On his three week birthday, he finally surpassed his birth weight by a whole 2 ounces. Tomorrow he will be weighed again. I'm both interested and wholly worried to find out what the scale says. This boy would rather sleep than eat. He would rather sleep than anything. This would be fantastic if 1) his weight gain were acceptable and 2) he didn't abandon this ideology every night around 3am.

The fight to nurse my baby certainly came as a surprise to me. When Sweet Pea was born, she took right to nursing - there was no fight, no learning curve . . . nothing. Just a hungry baby and an eager new mom. Boy-zooka, however . . . he feels differently.
Other surprises:
Boys pee A LOT. A LOT! Every time he pees in his own face, Boy-zooka gets really pissed off (Pissed! Ha!). He once peed in his own ear. It was rather amusing.
Sweet Pea loves her brother an awful lot. More than I thought she would. She loves him so much that I fear for his safety. She has no idea how destructive and rough she is!
Laundry for 4 is infinitely more voluminous than laundry for 3. It helps that one of us pees or pukes on everything. It's shocking. Absolutely shocking.
Days with 2 kids go by so fast. I'm always changing, feeding, or snuggling someone. There is so much to do that adding anything (like making dinner or doing the dishes) just seems ill-advised at this juncture. I'm trying to get out more, so we're going to have to figure this out and fast. I've been able to figure out some knitting time, and I get a shower almost every day now . . . so that's progress.
Recovery for baby #2 has been a complete nightmare. I didn't expect that. It seems that due to the speed of Boy-zooka's delivery, some stuff was really messed up. I still feel bruised and tender in places - and it was almost a month ago now. Apparently firing a baby down the birth canal is less of a good idea than easing said baby down the birth canal. Duly noted.

Sweet moments are primarily on Sweet Pea. She says and does the most charming things. She gives Boy-zooka the most tender, loving kisses I have ever seen. She desperately wants to play with him.

Some of the sweet moments are just between my Boy-zooka and I.

With one month of living in the big world just a few days away for my wee boy, I finally finished his blanket. When I gave it to him, he immediately pulled it up to his mouth for tasting. Apparently it passed the test.

It passes my test as well. It's a hand-knit I can be proud of. The FO is lovely, although I don't look forward to blocking it with each washing. The lace chart just about made me lose my mind - the symbols and legend just never really came together for me.

It's remarkably tiny, and if I were to do it again, I'd likely buy a third skein of the yarn and go for a full sized blanket. That said, it's a great size for car seat cuddling or snuggling in the swing. The smaller size also makes it great for carting around. I hope he likes it!

Progress: 100%

Ah, but it's not what you think!
The blanket is about 70% done - I need to get 2 more lace panels completed and one of those is about 20% done already.

So what is it that's no longer a WIP?

We went from this:



to this:



in just 2 hours. On Friday morning. It was a complete whirlwind.

I woke up at 2:56 am on Friday with some pretty intense contractions. Didn't think much of it. I'd had 8 bouts of false or prodromal labour in the preceding 3 weeks, and the baby wasn't due for another 11 days. I tried to go back to sleep, but no dice. At 3:15 I got out of bed, drank a litre or so of water, and did some rocking to cope with the pain. It didn't get better, so I filled a tub with warm water and just sat for about an hour. The water made the contractions so manageable that I actually thought they had stopped. I went back to bed, thoroughly annoyed at the loss of sleep and glad I hadn't woken and inconvenienced anyone.
Within minutes, I had woken Mr. Wonderful with moaning and heavy breathing - and not the good kind either. The contractions were back in full force. We laid there and discussed my state for a few minutes. He convinced me that we should call the midwife, and I asked him to take care of it. I was in no state to talk on the phone. In retrospect, all signs point to active labour. Why didn't I see it then?
Suddenly I was hit by an unending contraction - it just kept building and peaking, it never dissipated. Even then, it only lasted a few minutes . . . 3 peaks. And then, I HAD to get on the toilet. In spite of the intensity of the contraction, I got up and ran for the bathroom. Mr. Wonderful was finally able to go get the midwife's number. As he ran down the stairs, my water broke. And then I had to push. 3 pushes. And then the baby was crowning, although I didn't know it at the time.
I sat there and listened to Wonderful leave a message for the midwife. He turned to me and said 'and now we wait 15 minutes'. I remember thinking 'we don't have 15 minutes'. And I was right.
Our son was born minutes before the midwife arrived. And she lives just up the street from us. When I realized the burning was due to crowning, I felt like I had to push his head out. I sat and considered what to do for a few minutes - then decided to get him out. The what ifs were overwhelming - what if he's got a prolapsed cord and waiting is dangerous? What if the cord is around his neck and waiting will kill him? What if there are complications and giving birth to him here and now hurts or kills one or both of us? But the midwife was on her way, and I knew she'd come prepared for resuscitation if needed. It was risky, but so was sitting there with a baby's head birthed. So I stood up, and pushed. And then he was here, and wet and slimy . . . and in my hands. I caught my own baby.
At first he didn't breathe. He didn't cry. His face and extremities were purple. Turns out Wonderful and I both thought the worst, but neither of us had the strength to say it. It seemed like several minutes passed before he started snorting and several minutes more before his first wail - but I'm sure it was much quicker than that.
The midwife arrived shortly behind our wee son. She took care of the two of us, checked us out, made sure we were in good health. It wasn't the birth I had in mind - and I wouldn't recommend it as it was fully unplanned and we had no training 'just in case' . . . but all said, we're in good shape.

Our baby boy was born at 5:17am, weighing 7lbs, 6ozs and measuring 21". He's still looking for his blog name - he's no longer a son-thingy, he's now a son. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Sweet Pea is adjusting well, with a few rough spots. She's absolutely enamoured of her 'baby butter' and kisses him all the time. I can't lay him down for even 2 minutes without a kiss. I'm glad she's so in love.





Currently, we're all doing well. The baby is thriving and has learned how to nurse finally. Shy of a little sleep deprivation, it's business as usual chez nous . . . in spite of a really exciting Friday morning.

Progress: 30%

At least, I estimate the progress to be at 30%.
Thus far, the blanket is shockingly small. The centre bit is only 14 inches wide, and will be roughly the same height. I'm planning on blocking the ever-loving crap out of it to make it a reasonable size. Because to me, right now, it looks like a slightly larger than normal hankie.
I have most of the middle done. I haven't even used half the yarn yet. This bodes well.

Progress indeed!