Well, I really did disappear didn’t I?  Things have been hectic, I never thought I would not have time for the computer.  Let alone knitting.  I haven’t knit in so long I almost forgot how.  Very sad.

This was a few months ago.  She definitely has grown out of her ugly baby stage.  She is crawling and cruising and has no teeth as of yet.  Still nursing!  I’m so happy about that after all the problems we had been having.  She definitely has a personality.  Such a determined strong willed lil thing.  And very very smart.  I forsee lots of struggles with this one.  She’s also the fussiest child I ever met.

This was Father’s Day.  The boys just adore their sister.  They are great helpers, sometimes I don’t know what I would do if they weren’t here to entertain her.

My husband Sean and Zane playing ball.  Sean is such a great stepdad, after all his worrying, it turns out he needn’t have worried at all.  And his is amazingly gentle and careful with Evie.

Zane is incredibly smart.  He reads faster than I do.  He was in the chess club last year and reads at college level.  Not bad for a 9 year old.  He’s really into Star Wars and Doctor Who.  He wants to be a Dalek for Halloween.

Drew played baseball this year.  He’s a very very sensitive boy and still trying to figure out how to get out from under his brother’s shadow.  He’s a comedian and is always telling me random facts from history and animals.

I’d write more but Ms Fussypants is well… fussing.  Hope everyone is well!

Evie is a month old now!  I’d like to say it went fast but it didn’t.  It is however a big blur!

Two weeks ago I felt like something was wrong,  She screamed a lot and only ate for 5 mins at a time.  Clearly this wasn’t right.  I called her ped and they got me in right away.  She was losing weight!  She was down from 6.11 her birthweight to 6.3.  They gave her a bottle of formula, which she sucked right down.  I have to say this broke my heart,  I bawled my eyes out.  My 2 sons never had a bottle, let alone formula.  I felt like such a failure.

We scheldueled an appt with a lactation consultant for later that day.  Again, I felt like a failure.  I mean, I nursed the boys for over a year each.  Why couldn’t I do it this time?  We discovered her mouth and my nipple just weren’t lining up correctly.  What was easy for the boys now became a constant fight with Evie.   She also fell asleep almostimmediately.

The prescription was force her to stay awake and nurse for at least 20 mins on each side, then give her a bottle, then pump more milk.  Luckily I had something like 9  bags of milk in the freezer, not bad for a two week old baby.  Unfortunately the frozen milk ran out and I had lost a lot of my milk so we had to resort to formula for her bottle.  Again, it was hard.  Nothing against mothers who formula feed, I just feel that mommy milk is 100% better.

I felt like a cow.  My days turned into nursing, bottle feeding, pumping and keeping a log of everything, diapers and feedings.  Night and day.  I was burnt out, exhausted and crying a lot.  Luckily, last wed, her weight was up to 6.7!  It was working!  I could tell, she was a happier baby, cooing and awake much more often.  She has another appt this wed and I’m sure she will be at least her birthweight.

It’s been hard, especially when strangers come up to us and tell me how tiny my baby is.  “Yes, thanks, she’s slowly starving because nursing is so difficult, thanks for remining me.”

She’s doing great now, and at most we only have to give her 4oz of forumla a day.  Yesterday it was 2.

So obviously, I haven’t had time for knitting.  I only have one project on the needles, Branching Out.  I’m using a delicious Baby Twist Alpaca.  I’ve managed 6 repeats in… 3 weeks I think?  Sad.  I did get my invite to ravelry!  Haven’t had a chance to do more than sign up though, I’m prettyfbonnet if you want to add me!

Hope you’re all doing well, and thanks for reading, I didn’t mean to disappear!

I hope to post photos soon, I have some fun ones to share, Zane’s chess tourney, Mom’s belly dancing, Mom with her 4 grandkids, Andrew’s “yoga” and Sean’s baby feet tattoo… lots!

DH spent the weekend making bamboo flutes with the guys.  He deserved a break from diaper duty.

My mother, a lifelong flute plater, says his flute sounds wonderful.  He is so proud.

dear boku,

it’s not you, it’s me.

actually, i take that back, it’s totally you.  first you didn’t cooperate with a scarf pattern, then you messed up my “around the world bag”, then to insult me, you totally destroyed Knitty’s beautiful foilage.  I know I really shouldn’t but I’m going to give you one more chance, then I swear I’m kicking you to the curb.  I mean it this time! I just hope all this tension and strain doesn’t break you.

love, me.

We took evie on her first long walk this weekend.  We took her in the stroller since it was such a long one and Daddy wanted to push her.

evie had her 2 week well baby today.  homebirth = earlier appts evidently.  she  still hasn’t gained her birth weight back (6lbs4ozs today down from 6lbs11oz) but her reflexes were fantastic.  Dr is not at all worried and says she’s so strong and active she may be burning calories faster than she is eating.  He wants me to nurse her only every two hours, no sooner.  Seems counterintuitive to me.  I’ll try it out I guess, but i’d rather feed her when she wants to eat.

Sorry for the messy typing. sometimes it’s hard with a nursing baby on y0ur lap!

Andrew holds Evie while Zane helps support her head.  They love being big brothers and when they are at their daddy’s house they call to talk to her.

While it is true Daddy has big feet, Evie is so tiny!

Thanks to Daddy, Evie gets a head start at being a gamer girl.

Every little girl needs a Raggedy Ann.

Grandma Carrie holds Evie while Daddy fills out her baby book.

Overall things are going well, today is Daddy’s first day back at work and he sure looked sad to leave us.  15 minutes after he left Evie rolled over!  Not even two weeks old, what a strong baby!

I promise to have knitting pictures soon!

Only an hour old and already has daddy wrapped around her little pinkie.

Evie passes her first test, a hearing test.

Her footprints.

Little feet but long legs. She’s bright red cause she’s screaming her head off.

I don’t remember feeling this tired, just happy.

The boys came after school to meet their little sister.

In truth, this is just another chance to show of my Evie.

But since she came so early, everything I had made for her was way too big! I knit up a premie sized hat real fast. Even the store bought hats were too big.

Here’s the specs:

Pattern: Twinkle Premie Hat

Needles: size 4

Yarn: sorry, don’t know! A very thin soft yarn that matches one of the few NB outfits that fits her

Mods: Instead of 8 repeats, I only did 5 or 6, I know it says premie hat, but even with just these few repeats taken out it is still a little big.

She was a little camera shy today. Plus her skin is peeling and red still. Someday she will be pretty!

Sorry it’s taken me so long between posts, newborns do keep you busy!  I’m going to try to recount that OOPS! as best I can remember, it’s starting to get a little hazy!   But luckily, I’m pretty much the only ones who read this, though I know 2 or 3 of you out there comment regularly and I <3 you for it!

That said, on with the story.  Are you sitting comfortably?  Good.

September 6, 2007 6am

I wake up to contractions.  I had actually woken up to contractions at least twice in the night but went right back to sleep.  This time though I didn’t bother.  They weren’t any different than what I had been having for the last 2 weeks!  I laid in bed till 6:30 or so, trying not to wake up DH who had to work that day.  I thought, if I take a bath that will relax things and the pain will go away.  Evidently my water broke in the tub, since I never noticed it at all.  I took a nice warm bath and at one point I rolled over sideways to put my tummy in the water.  That didn’t help at all, which was a good clue this was the real thing.  But I was exhausted and the doctor said not to call till the contractions were 50-60 seconds apart.

7am, I thought that maybe we might have to get to the hospital and have things checked out.  I felt sure they would send me home so I wasn’t rushing.  I made DH some coffee and the contractions were getting harder, I have never taken lamaze or a birthing class, but I remembered to breath.  I spent a lot of time breathing.  I told DH with no sense of urgency that he might want to start waking up and that I had made him coffee.  The contractions were getting harder and 5 or 6 mins apart but still not as long as he said they should be.  Still, around 7:15 I thought I should call him and see what he said.  Left a message with his service and started getting dressed.  Got my bra and panties on and felt like I really had to push.  Doctor called back around 7:20 and I was writhing on the bed, feeling a lot of pressure.  I couldn’t even talk on the phone.

I went into the bathroom and OH MY GOD I could feel the head.  That has to be the strangest thing ever.  I think I was in denial all morning but that made it real.  I told DH to call 911 cause the baby was coming.  Strangely they didn’t stay on the line with him, I thought they might want to talk him through it?  It’s probably because he has the calmest demeanor. The operator probably thought they had some time.

Probably by now there was a bit of panic in my voice when I told DH the baby really is coming.  I laid down on the floor in the bathroom (and if I had been thinking clearer I might have made it to the bathtub)  I told him to get some towels, which of course, all our towels were dirty.  Evie was crowning and for some reason I didn’t believe it.  “What is that?!”  I asked DH.  I knew what it was, it just didn’t seem real.  Poor DH, who had never been to a birthing class, never read about labor, he was now the midwife.  Luckily, two pushes and she was out.

This was the scary part, I asked him if she was ok, he sounded like he was crying or at least a little shaken.  “I don’t know.”  She whimpered a little, the umbilical cord was around the back of her neck but thank God not the front.  I wrapped her in towels and pinched and prodded her till she was crying.  She was so tiny!  I told DH to call 911 back and say we had the baby and to hurry up, then for some reason I had him call my mom.

Suddenly there were 5 EMTs and Firemen in my tiny bathroom/bedroom.  I wished I had cleaned!  They gave her an apgar of 9, had DH cut the cord with a scalpel, brought a stretcher into the house as far as it would go, wrapped me in a blanket, walked me over to the stretcher and loaded me and Evie into the ambulance.  As I was rolling out the door I called to DH to grab the camera.  Of course I hadn’t finished packing!  I wasn’t supposed to be induced for 4 more days!

In the ambulance her apgar went down to 7 and they gave both of us oxygen.  One EMT just kept saying how awesome I was and how his wife would be screaming and miserable and here I was walking to the stretcher.  We get to the hospital and everyone was calling out “congratulations” and “wow you look great” and honestly?  I was so embarassed!

They put us in a labor room, put Evie under a heating bed, checked me out (no tearing, thank you very much!).  My mom showed up 10 minutes later, which was awesome, I love my mommy and I’m so glad she was there.  They did all the shots and eye stuff on Evie, gave me some pitocin to keep the cramping going cause there was a lot of blood I guess.  I almost punched the nurse who was doing the uterus massage, I know I needed it but omg that hurt.  I’ve heard the cramps are worse with every child but are they supposed to be worse than labor?  If labor had been like that I definitely would have gone to the hospital earlier!

At this point there are 4 nurses in the room doing various things, signing stuff, getting info, checking Evie.  Then the receptionist from my doctor’s office calls and they hand me the phone.  They give me a shot of pitocin while I’m talking!  Talk about overwhelmed.

Finally they let me have Evie and we nurse a bit.  DH gets to hold her and he told me afterward that he felt his life change right at that instant. “I knew I’d love her, but I never knew how much!”  Doesn’t that make you want to cry?  Less than an hour old and she’s already got him wrapped around her tiny pinkie finger.

She nursed for 2 hours straight after mom and DH got to hold her.  I don’t mean trying to pacify herself, she was trying to eat!  Eventually we got a room, I got a shower (which was the best shower of my entire life) and DH got some alone time with Evie.  He was sitting, holding her, singing to her when I came back.  The sweetest thing ever!

She’s awake so I will cut this very long story off here.  Suffice it to say, we are both healthy and happy.  Just a little surprised and confused about how it all happened.

I promise lots of photos soon!

Evangeline Quinn

9/6/07

6 pounds 11 ounces

730am

More info to come

36…37…38 weeks

Isn’t that amazing, I can actually see getting bigger in such a small amount of time. Wow! I knew I felt bigger but, neat!

BTW, that tattoo? DH and I got matching celtic cross tattoos on our shoulders instead of engagment rings.

I got 2 hours of sleep last night. I got 3 hours the night before that. I’m exhausted! Thanks to my idiot roommate who for some reason has to do laundry and dishes at 2am. I mean, cmon! He doesn’t work, he goes to school for like…. 4 hours a day twice a week. He has all freakin day to do all this crap! So tired and this isn’t helping my migraine one bit.

5 more days! Contractions haven’t been as often as yesterday, but they are 25 or 30 seconds instead of 10. So possibly we’re getting somewhere. I hope these are productive, if not it’s a lot of pain and lack of sleep for nothing. I do notice I have much less patience and snap at DH almost constantly. I dunno, it’s hard to stay positive and cheery under migraine/contraction/lack of sleep conditions.

Knitting Stuffs

My first project and what really got me started knitting again was this baby blanket. I usually knit in the winter, and it’s usually just one scarf. This year being put on modified bedrest seemed to spurn an intense interest in knitting. Until June I never knew how to do more than knit and purl on straight needles. Since then I’ve made socks, sweaters, toys… I’m a little impressed if I do say so myself.

So Evie’s baby blanket, I started in March and finished in June. At the time we didn’t know if she was a he or she. I love orange! This reminds me of creamscicle ice cream bars. It is just a simple 5×5 basketweave.

I have done so many baby things I wanted to do something for me! All the things I’ve made this year and absolutely nothing for me. I figure, I’m going to have a baby next week, lets treat myself! I’ve had some plymouth yarn Boku in #3 for a few months, I bought it because it was next to a beautiful hat the lys shop owner had made. Yesterday I decided I’d make a scarf. The pattern is Orca Tails and it is beautiful! However, that said, there is absolutely no way I could wear this scarf. My redheaded Irish skin just won’t handle that itch. My hands can barely stand it. I like the stripes and the fall colors but wow! I’ve also heard of people having problems with it breaking but I haven’t had that as of yet. I may be a loose knitter?

Instead I think I will take on my first felting pattern and make myself a “what goes around bag“. I admit that it’s possibly I was swayed by the Beatles posing next to the bag. But either way, it’s a pattern I think I can do, has little if any seaming and I have enough yardage for it.