Ten Tiny Toes

I couldn't help it...I had to copy and capture my own longie-clad babe with bare feet.

I am here, still settling in, getting used to being a mama of two. We've had some challenges (mainly a very unhappy and colicky girl), but overall things have gone smoothly and our days are happy.

I'm feeling uncertain about the future of this blog...whether or not I desire to continue blogging or if I want to take it in a new direction. I love the connection to others that blogging has provided for me, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to blog anymore. For now I'll let her sit here and rest, and when I feel the inspiration you'll hear from me. Thank you so much to all you who stop to visit me here in my little space.

One Week Old

It's hard to believe that our little lady is already a week old. The past week has just flown by. I want so badly to slow down time so I can enjoy and relish in every little detail of this sweet girl. Since her birth she has already established her little personality. She's not afraid to let us know when something upsets her. She'll go from peaceful sleep to screaming fury in seconds flat. And whereas her brother would have happily kept sleeping instead of waking to nurse, Sarah Jane demands constant nursing. In the end this is a good thing, because it forces me to sit down and rest. And if Sarah's not nursing, Sean's clamoring into my lap to get his fill of sweet milk as well.

I can't stop thinking about her birth. It was simply the most awesome and powerful experience of my life. After Sean's birth (which was long, induced and full of interventions) I felt like my body failed me. Sarah's birth restored my faith in my body. I feel so proud of what I did that early morning one week ago and I swear am still on an endorphin high. My doula put it best when she said that "this is how birth is supposed to be."

Big brother is adjusting surprisingly well to his new sister. It took a day and a half of tears and tantrums, but once he saw that there was still enough milk and mama love to go around, he slowly warmed up to his sister. Two nights ago he asked to hold Sarah for the first time. Just about melted my heart! Every night when my husband and I take him up to bed he says "bring da bay-bee?". I can't wait to watch their relationship grow.


P.S.
I am so touched by all of your comments! Thank you so much!

More Baby Love

I don't think I could ever get tired of just sitting and staring at this little face.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments! I hope to have a birth story to share with you all soon.

She's here!

Our Sarah Jane arrived on March 19th, 2009 at 1:18 in the morning after an intense but perfect labor and birth. She's 7 lb 7 oz. and 19 inches long with lots of sandy brownish blond hair. She looks a lot like her Daddy. Big brother is pretending that she doesn't exist :). We are home resting and enjoying our new little one. More details to come soon!

A few more woolies for the babe

I've gone a bit nuts with knitting longies and soakers for this new baby! They are so small and only take a few evenings of knitting to finish, and thus are irresistible. Plus I'm busting through my yarn stash! This is another pair of Picky Pants in 100purewool, this time in a girly color for once (I usually stray away from pink for some reason, but I really liked this colorway).

And yet more Picky Pants in 100purewool!

Something a bit different, a Mini Everlasting Wondersoaker. This is supposed to fit a baby up to 20 lbs, so I thought it would be great choice especially for night time bulky diapers. Grafting the ribbing together at the crotch was bit tricky and didn't quilt turn out, but it's functional and that is what counts. I used some hand-dyed merino yarn from Mama Zelly's Etsy shop. Lovely spring colors perfect for our spring baby.

Well would you look at that, two posts in one week! I can't guarantee that again for the time being, but if anything you'll definitely hear from me when baby comes!

As an after thought, in case you are unfamiliar with how cool wool is for cloth diapering, here is a link for you with more info!

A quilt for baby

This past weekend I finally finished the baby quilt that I mentioned way back when. It only took me over seven months! I pieced it last summer, quilted it last fall, and bound it just in time for baby to arrive within the next month.

I used two charm packs, one 'Look and Learn' and one 'Wee Play' by American Jane, which made piecing it go really quickly since there was minimal cutting involved. This was my first time doing free-motion machine quilting on a whole quilt (albeit small). I don't know why, but I found it to be kind of stressful. Maybe I was trying to go too fast, I don't know.

Overall I'm really happy with how this turned out and can't wait to wrap our new baby up in it! In hindsight I wish I had added a border to it, but oh well.

Off topic, but in this shot you can see our crib that my husband rigged up to the side of our bed. We co-sleep and this method turns an otherwise unused crib (which Sean only slept in a few times, sorry Mom!) into more sleeping space for all of us, which is a good thing!

Warm Baby Fuzzies

I can't stop knitting baby stuff. It's just too fun, quick and satisfying. And since you usually don't need a lot of yarn to knit a baby item you can feel free to experiment with all sorts of yummy yarns that would make the project much more expensive if it was adult sized. So alas here are a few knits that I've finished in the last month or so. I've got a few more things on the needles and will have more knitty baby posts in the future :).

This is a Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap. I'd had this pattern in my Ravelry queue for quite some time now just waiting for the time when I felt comfortable that my pregnancy was going to stick to cast on. I just love this style of baby cap. I wanted to make it in teeny-tiny newborn size but the smallest pattern size was 6 months. I ended up just using a really skinny yarn (Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk Solid, which says it's fingering weight but it's a really skinny fingering weight in my opinion) and smaller needles and it came out teeny-tiny! I'm actually a bit afraid it might be too teeny-tiny. Sean had a very large head for a newborn so this babe may have one as well!

Oh, and yes, I don't think I ever mentioned it...we are having a girl! We weren't going to find out but decided to at the last minute. I thought finding out would help me feel more connected to this pregnancy (something I had been holding myself back from out of fear of another miscarriage) and it really did. I'm so glad we found out and am so excited to meet our baby girl!

I love wool diaper covers and of course have been knitting them like crazy. These have been up on my Flickr page for a while now, so they are kind of old news, but I'll share them anyways. The two soakers were knit using the Warm Heart Woolies Trim Soaker pattern. I really like this pattern as it involves no grafting like most soaker patterns do. Yay! I don't think they'll work for bulky over-night diapers, but I'm hoping they'll make nice daytime covers that will fit underneath pants (hopefully). The two longies are knit with the Picky Pants pattern, an excellent pattern that is simple and clear. All four woolies are knit with 100purewool which is so incrediably soft and perfect for newborn skin.

I've got another soaker and a pair of longies on the needles right now. I love knitting these newborn and small sizes...so quick!

Lastly, here is a Sheepy Sack soaker sack. I'm hoping this will work nicely for quick middle of the night changes. I knit it with some handyed BFL that I got from MamaZelly on Etsy. If this works well with our new little one then I'll probably knit up another one. The concept seems so convenient, but I've never used this style of diaper soaker so I'm wary to knit up another one until I've actually tried it out.

That's it for now! Thanks for letting me share, and I'll try not to be such a sporadic blogger from now on :)