GIRL IN GEORGIA

I feel like I have so much I’d love to write about but it’s really hard to find a chunk of time to sit down and do so. Here are some glimpses (finally!) into what’s been going on…

• Took the kids to the doctor on 6/26.  T’s 3 year check up (about 3 months late!) and baby Q’s one month check up (about a week late).  T was 33 lbs, 39″ and Q was 9lbs3oz, 21.75″.
• Q is a great sleeper. Only waking up once a night to feed and usually goes right back to sleep.  This is really a treat and makes up for T who still woke up every two hours at the same age.  After her last feeding at bedtime, I hold her and she gets drowsy/sleepy but when I put her down, she usually wakes up a bit, but is able to soothe herself to sleep.
• My milk supply still has not increased.  It’s kind of depressing and disappointing but I try not to think about it too much. Some is better than none.  At least she doesn’t have a problem going back and forth between nursing and bottles/formula so I am thankful for that.
• We are getting smiles and babbling.  There are few things in life sweeter than that.
• T had “forgotten” about Cars (the movie) for a long time but recently he is back into it again.  He loves the movie and playing with his toy car characters, and especially loves the music and dancing to the song “Real Gone” about a gazillion times a day.
• Cloth diapers - going swell!  I’m surprised to find I prefer prefolds to the all-in-ones.  Occasionally I use a snappi and do the “Flying Angel Fold” especially when I suspect there may be a poop coming (extra poop protection!), but most of the time I just do a trifold inside of a cover.  I “save” the all-in-ones for dad and my mom has been using those too.   Cloth wipes going well too.  It makes me happy to know how much money I’ve saving, and the number of disposables that aren’t going into landfills.  Also, so far no rashes!

Here are some pics…

Striking a pose

He’s already really good with using the computer/mouse.

Big brotherly love.

An idea of how my Monday morning went.

As you can imagine, my free time is limited these days. Here’s a teaser for you until I can make a real post…

Her hair cracks me up. It stands straight up on the top of her head.

The baby girl in Georgia is 4 weeks old today.  It’s definitely been an adjustment getting used to having a newborn (again), and it’s much different the second time around.  The first time around there aren’t so many distractions (mainly in the form a three year old boy).  We’ve had some issues.  Last week EVERYONE was sick and it was miserable.  Also, as of three weeks old she hadn’t gained weight and had actually lost over a pound.  I’m having milk supply issues so we are supplementing with some formula and in the last week she’s started gaining weight and is looking a lot better, and is much happier now that she isn’t hungry all the time.  I realize this all sounds really negative, but things have gotten better this past week.  We are healthier and baby is getting the food she needs and on her way to getting back to birth weight.  She is actually a pretty good sleeper which has made things easier on me. 

T seems to have adjusted well to his new baby sister.  He told people at school, “She cries a lot, but I still love her.”  He’s gentle with her and sometimes will come and rub her back or her head, but most of the time he just ignores her and plays as usual.

I can’t believe she’s four weeks.  It still feels like a dream that I actually have a boy and a girl and am now a mom of TWO!

Our baby girl is here! She was born Tuesday morning and weighed 8 lbs, 14 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches.  We are so thrilled!  Thanks for all your thoughts and good wishes!

Here’s our little buckaroo on the John Deere tractor.  He loves his tractors.  Most little boys only get to play with their toy tractors but he’s pretty lucky that he gets to “help daddy” on the real tractor.

I’m still here. Still pregnant.  I’ve definitely slowed down a lot and every little movement seems to take a gigantic amount of effort.  As you can see, I’ve spent a lot of my recent free time knitting but I’ve even gotten too lazy for that the past few days.  I’m very thankful my husband has a flexible schedule and has been doing a lot more around here so I can sit/lay around to rest and sleep.  I’m totally taking advantage because in a matter of days it will probably be a long time before I can get a full night’s sleep again.

Here are some knits I finished in the last week:

Wool Shorties: Sheepy Pants Pattern

Another WHW Trim Soaker

These are the soakers I knitted to trade with a mama of twins for some prefold cloth diapers.   I was nervous about whether she would like them because she didn’t give me a lot of direction but she loved them!  And I got two dozen cloth diapers that I didn’t have to “pay” for!

Well, you probably won’t be hearing much from me until the baby comes because I’ll be spending most of my time on the couch.  I’ll be sure to check in and let you know when our baby girl is here!

WHW Trim Soaker: Wool yarn died with grape and pink lemonade flavors. Okay, I’m kind of in love with this one. It seemed to take longer than the other patterns I’ve tried to knit, but I love how the leg cuffs are knit as part of the pattern rather than having to pick up stitches later on. I got the pattern that knits in the round - less seaming!

WHW Plain Wraps: You’ve already seen the “grape” one, but I also knitted an “orange” one and finally sewed on the velcro.

Be warned. My diaper “model” will be arriving soon and you’ll probably be bombarded with pictures of her in all her fancy new dipes!

I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday from Stephanie!  This is so beautiful and I love the colors!

I’m not even sure how long I’ve “known” Stephanie online.  Probably since 2000?  We even had a chance to meet up when I was visiting Florida one time.  In addition to this gorgeous crocheted blankie, she sent me some of her handmade body butter and lip balm!  Thank you Stephanie! (She also makes scrumptious handmade soaps that you must check out!)

One of my SILs, Traci, knitted this pink and green delight:

You wouldn’t believe how soft and cuddly this yarn is.   Thank you Traci!

I like to think I’m at least partially responsible for getting Traci into knitting! Hehe.  Payback. She got me hooked on scrapbooking! 

I like to think that everyone appreciates a hand made gift, but I think that people who craft themselves might be able to appreciate even more the time, effort, and love that goes into making things like these.  Thanks so much ladies!  All the other babies are going to have blanket envy!

So I’ve been a little mildly obsessed about this whole cloth diapering thing.  Damn the internet. I’m sure I’ve spent way too much time online visiting sites about it.  It was very overwhelming (and still is a bit).  There are several different types of cloth diapers and then there are a gazillion different brands for each of these types.  I took a leap of faith and ordered a dozen Bum Genius 3.0 pocket diapers (got a great deal on them).  They are a little pricey but I figured they’d be the easiest to use (especially for hubby, other family members, and when we’re out and about). 

There are only eight in this picture. I only took out four to wash and try before I wash them all. This way if for any reason they don’t work for us, I’m sure I can re-sell them and make my money back. In addition to these, I was able to get some gently used cloth diapers from other mamas to try out. Pocket diapers seem the easiest but I am also going to try prefolds and wraps/soakers. Want to know what all this mumbo jumbo is? Check out MJ’s Cloth Diaper Manifesto.  She explains a bit about the different types of diapers and actually has some links to explore which I’m too lazy to link to here. 

Since I’m going to be laundering diapers, I figured I might as well try using cloth wipes instead of disposables.  That way everything “dirty” goes in the same place.  My mom is going to make me some out of cotton jersey material, but I also thought I’d cut up some old flannel receiving blankets and make some for myself:

I don’t have a fancy machine that does a serger/overlock stitch so I started out sewing them right sides together, turning them inside out and topstitching. After doing about four of those, I said screw it and gave up on the topstitching. If needed, I can always go back and topstitch later. I got myself a wipes warmer and can keep a bunch wet and handy for cleaning up baby’s bum.

Lastly, here is a wetbag I made:

 
This is for collecting dirty diapers for the diaper bag on outings. I had this print material on hand and it is lined with waterproof fabric (PUL). Now, the process of sewing what is basically just a zippered bag together was not difficult, but it was really tricky because the waterproof side was sticky and hard to work through the machine. I placed a layer of wax paper over the sticky side (thought I read that tip somewhere) but it really didn’t help much. Also, I think I was supposed to use a special type of needle with this fabric, but I didn’t. We’ll see how well this works!

My mild obsession with cloth diapering is probably a good distraction from the “ahhhhhhhhhhh! we’re having a (another) baby!!!”

Getting closer and closer!  Getting readier and readier.  I should probably pack a hospital bag soon, huh?

This weekend my SILs (THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!) generously helped me get some things around the house in order.  Lifesavers!  There is so much I want to do but at 36 weeks pregnant, by body gets worn out pretty fast.  They organized and cleaned my laundry room and pantry and moved an SUV full of “stuff” that was taking up valuable space in our house to our storage shed.  On one hand I felt pretty guilty about having them do this “work” for me, but on the other hand I thought it would be silly to turn down help when I could most use it.  The baby’s room is now in pretty good shape!

This past weekend was also T’s first overnight away from home without one of us.  My parents are flying in and should be here before the baby arrives, but if the baby comes early, T may need to stay with my in-laws.  We thought we’d do a trial run.  Of course, it was harder for us than for him.  He behaved “perfectly” (so they said) and didn’t cry or miss us.  [Why do kids always behave better for others?]  I was way too tired to take advantage of our alone time to go out and do anything, so we had a nice, strangely quiet evening alone at home. 

I finished a few wool soakers:

My friend MJ commented on how she liked these “autumnal colors” which made me realize that if I had knit the waist in green, this would look just like a pumpkin!

I still need to sew on some velcro for these ones. I have a feeling I might like this one better than the other because it will be easier to put on a wrap then to pull on the other kind. I can’t wait to see baby’s tiny heiny in these!

In case you haven’t figured it out, we are going to try cloth diapering!  I was hesitant to say anything.  What if it doesn’t work? What if I hate it?  I’m optimistic it will work out.  I’m not going to be hard core about it.  There may be times when we decide to use disposables and that’s okay.  I figure everyone does what they can, when they can. 

I’m feeling this odd (and perhaps false) sense of mommy zen.  The first time around is so scary and you have no idea what you are doing.  I stressed out and overthought everything.  I remember tediously keeping track and writing down feedings and changing times for the first several weeks (okay, part of this was due to the fact that we had a hard time getting nursing going and we were concerned he wasn’t eating enough).  I remember crying in the middle of the night while nursing, feeling so exhausted and like I couldn’t survive it one minute longer and like it would never end.  I remember reading a breastfeeding book and a passage saying something about cherishing those middle of the night feedings because you will soon miss them, and I remember thinking, “what the *&$^$* are you talking about!?!?!”  But they were right.  I know it won’t be easy but at least this time, I have a point of reference.  It does go by fast.  I do miss those middle of the night feedings just me and the little baby.  I will survive. 

[Thumbnails are clickable] How about a crafty update?  But first, a picture of my little dude playing dress up:

I had some fun dying wool with Kool-Aid:

Here’s what the yarn looks like before dyeing. I used Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool.

Kool-Aid flavors: Grape and Orange. They have been heated in the microwave and are cooling.

Post dyeing.

Ready to knit! I can’t wait to knit this yarn! There are tons of tutorials online how to do this. Just do a search that includes “wool kool aid dye.”

My sister-in-law asked me to convert this skirt she no longer wore into a…

…purse/tote.

And finally, my first knit wool soaker! Not crazy about the colorway but it was yarn I had in my stash.