Cabled Cardi

I've managed to keep knitting away on the Cabled Cardi. I've gotthe back and fronts complete. I knit the neck band and I'm about to pick up and knit the the button and buttonhole bands. I still have to do the sleeves, but I'm not sure if I have enough yarn, so I'm going to do the bands first, then get more yarn jic I can't get the same dye lot.

New pics!!!

I've got some knitting update pics to post, but you've GOT to see these first!!!! These were taken by our friend Jerry.

Ryan trying to hide from the camera:


Andy having a snack:


And of course, 2 day old Colin:

A Couple of FOs

My sripey suprise is complete and gift given. Initially I wasn't going for the bucket hat look, but I really like it. I may try to put an actual brim on the next one! This is worked up in LB fisherman's wool that I hand dyed a while back.

Cargo is complete! as usual I modified the pattern! in addition to the wool & gauge changes I discussed previously, I added some short row shaping to the back to fit over teh diaper better. thanks to the knitters at the wool soakers group for the suggestion!! at first I was thinking that these things are going to be WAY to big for Colin.. but then he gained 12 oz and grew a 1/2 inch in 6 days! I hope they won't be too small!!!

I also started the pixie cable sweater, but it doesn't look very "pixie" in this color. I'm only on the second pattern repeat, so there isn't much to see just yet. so far, my first attempt at cables is going well. I did cross them all the wrong way, but since it is consistant, I'm just going to keep going with it.

Back to School!!!

Believe it or not.. Andy is in kindergarten and Ryan is in Pre-school again.

A couple of Andy's best friends from preschool are in his class this year! as is our friends son. that will make partes a lot easier now that we already know half the parents!!

Ryan is in the same class as last year - just in the afternoon instead of morning. We had to walk him to his class and he was a bit hesitant at first, but he found his name on his cubby and then found his way to the toys and could care less about us being there, so we left! we did get to show Colin off to Ryan's teacher and Andy's teacher from last year.

Quick Update

Took Colin in for a follow up with the pediatrician. hedsoing GREAT! gaining weight back already and nursing like a champ! He goes back for a weight check on Tuesday.

we got home and found the report from Ryan's sleep study in the mailbox! good news: no Narcolepsy!! (not out of the woods until puberty on that one tho) Bad news: he has "obstructive sleep apnea syndrome" he havereaged 10.8 episodes PER HOUR> looks like he may need his tonsils out! Todd will meet with the Sleep Dr tomorrow and it looks like he'll be referred to an ENT dr and probably have his tonsils out. as much as I hate the thought of someone operating on my 3yo, it would mean a great improvement to his quality of life for the rest of his life.

as if that wasn't enough.. Andy started Kindergarten today!!! Ryans first day of shcool is tomorrow, so I'll do a full back to school recap tomorrow.

Colin Scott Berger

was born Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 3:32am. He weighed 9 pounds even and measured 21". Tho he was not my biggest, he was by far the hardest delivery! After a bit of a bumpy begining, he is doing terrific now!

Short Version (according to Ryan): "Mommy poopied him out!"

Long version (according to Mommy): Like the others, my labor strarted out slow and easy. Thursday and Friday I was having contractions 20minutes apart and increasing in pressure after my visit with my wonderful midwife, Katy. Friday night we decided on the name. Saturday morning they got as close as 10 minutes apart- Still increasing in pressure, but still not at all painful, so we decided that we really should go to the mall for the car seat safety inspections and have the new seat installed ( talk about timing!). Knowing we still had a long road ahead, we thought we'd walk the mall a bit and get things moving. Todd found the now infamous Iron Maiden onesie and I picked up a copy of one of the Yarn Harlot's books. We went home and and Todd napped while I went for a walk. I came back and when contractions were 3-5 miuntes apart adn getting a lot more pressure, but still not painful. I decided to give Katy a call and give her a hads up. We decided to meet her at the hospital in an hour. We wandered in at about 10:30pm and I had gone from 3 to 4 cm and thinned out a bit more. she had me walk a bit more before she could officaially admit me. After our walk, she broke my water and put in a hep lock b/c of my history of big babies (higher risk of hemmorage). I got comfy on the ball and was even able to rest between contractions. they even let me stay there while I was on the monitors.....until transition hit. NOW it was painful!! We knew he'd be there soon. the contractions were on top of one another and I could'nt stop shaking! it was only a few minutes before I neede to push. Appearantly, he decided that he needed to turn face up during my labor, wrapping his cord around his neck in the process! even tho he was comming quickly, his heart rate started to drop. I found out later that was when she cut the episiotomy, then cut more when she realized he was completely face up. but, just a couple more puses and his head was out and the cord untangled. one more and he was in my arms!! he was not cryibg and pretty limp. the nurse rubbed him with the towel and he started to cry and pink up. he was still pretty lethargic and not intrested in nursing. the pedi nurse took him to the warmer and suctioned him well and brought him back to me. he latched right on and has been nursing like a champ ever since! because of his size, they've kept a close eye on his blood sugar. he had a few low ones and we need to follow up at the pediatrician's tomorrow, but we're home and we're doing fine now. definately a MUCH slower recovery for me, but it could have been SO much worse. the L&D nurse (a midwife "back home" ) said that it was great that I went natural b/c the delivery would have been FAR more complicated had I not been able to know how/when to push.

Despite his rough entry, he's been a textbook baby ever since! eating every 2 hours, napping in between. and he's SO cute!!! we came home last night and spent the day getting settled in. Andy starts Kindergarten tomorrow and Ryan's first day of school is the next day! they are SO excited about being big brothers! Does Colin look just like Ryan or what???

sorry about the typos- NAK! get used to it!

S is for Sunday!

Still pregnant.... his head is way down and getting lower and there is a LOT more pressure with the BH.. but no labor yet.. I'm hoping he waits until Friday. I'm scheduled for induction on the 29th, but I still don't know if I'll need or if I'll go... the boys start school on the 30th and I don't want to miss Andy's first day of kindergarten. esp if I have a choice.. and at this point I do!

Sewing update:
finally, pics of my PJs! I REALLY like how my lettuce leaf hems came out! I'll certainly use this technique again.. tho I'm not sure where... maybe a nursing top! I came accross my Elizabeth Lee patterns! AND bonus! there were 2 ultimate mother covers already cut out with them!!! so I sewed them up (in the dryer.. picture later....)

Finally a pic of the shirt/jacket Mom made to go with these...

Spiderman Shorts - OK so these thechnicaly fall under sewing as well.. I made Andy and Ryan each a pair a Spiderman Shorts. they match their curtains and the diapers I made for the squirt...



SO Sad, Scared, and Stressed.. You'll notice in the picture above that Ryan's got quite a shiner... he's also got 5 stitches in his chin and 3 of his front teeth are missing. he took a header off of a kitchen stool and landed face-first. he also had a split lip and a HUGE egg on his head. the egg is reduced to a bruise and his lip is healed. the teeth can't be reimplanted w/o MAJOR oral surgury and further trauma.. SO not worth it ! he'll have his adult teeth soon enough.. in the mean time I'm haveing him reevaluated fot ST... and he's learning how to chew again. it was quite the ordeal and I'm still traumatized by it. Todd was here when it happened.. he saw it happening, but could not react in time. he's really quite shaken.. he doesn't handle blood well to begin with..

Stripey Surprise:

and that's all I have to say about that....

so now you know why I haven't blogged in a week..

Loose ends...

I finished the 2 pairs of baby socks that I had OTN (at the SAME time!) I ended up tuckign the little balls of yarn into the socks and that eliminated the tangled strands and made knitting a lot quicker! these are the leftovers from Todds socks with Todd's socks. I didn't bother with a heel so that there is some growing room. I'm calling these "Tiny Todd".

Next is the set for donation made with the leftovers from my Phish socks. I decided to call this the "mermaid" set. I decided to continue with the feather and fan pattern and the crochet picot edge on both the hat and socks - also tube socks for growing room. As you can see, the socks are quite fraternal, but I didn't have enough yarn left to even attempt to try to match them up. I actually only had a couple of inches left.

And here is a picture (finally!) of Cargo's legs. I tried taking a close up of the hem detail, but it came out blury, so I'll have to re-take that one as well as one of the PJs I made. as for this pattern, the only changes that I made were to the gage. I didn't use the specified yarn b/c it was cotton and I plan to use these as soakers, so I needed wool. I fell in LOVE with this wool and tho I didn't get gage with the specified needle size, I really liked the fabric I was getting with it. so I adjusted the # of stitches so that the measurements worked out. the designer has a measured diagram included with the pattern. (you can find it at Knitty.com BTW). I also picked out a cabled cardi pattern to go with it. I haven't tried cables yet, and I figured I'd start small. It should be a nice fall set...

Now that I got the knitting out of the way.... Ryan had his sleep study on Friday night. I was SOOOO proud of him! he just sat in the chair and let the tech attach all of hte leads! and there were a LOT! it took about a half hour to get it all hooked up! once he was plugged in and in bed, he was afraid to move, but then we snuggled up and he fell right asleep! he had 4 on his scalp (to read the sleep state), one on each temple (I think those were sleep state as well) , one onhis upper lip, two on the cheeks and the canula in the nose (those were all to read mouth/nose breathing - the canula was to pick up CO2 levels), and 2 on his chest (heart monitoring I think). he also had a snoring mike on his throat, a pulse O2 meter on his finger and 2 belts around the abdomen to measure chest & diaphram breathing adn a third belt that held the little box that a bunch of the wires hooked into. he had soem pretty active REM cycles and he kept rubbing his nose and takign the canula out. the tech said that he did really well. a lot of people (incl adults) will rip them off in their sleep involuntarily. she waited unitl the REM cycle was over and came in to put it back on. he only fully woke once as far as I know... I warned the tech that he is pretty unbearable when he wakes up, and he is downright EVIL if you have to wake him up (tho I have discovered that food wards off this evil!) so she tried to get most off of him before he woke. he - of course- woke as she was taking them off, but he was only a little fussy. oh- and for the first time in a blue moon, he actually woke up dry!!! so anyway.. now we wait for the report.. should be done by thursday and then Todd will go to a f/u with the Dr.

My Big ol' Baby Belly!

I had some professional belly shots done! Not sure what I'll do with them.. but since this is our last, I thought we should have somehting to remember thse days by.

ok- off to elevate my swolen ankles and contemplate my unpainted toenails.... If only I could reach them...

Today's Special: Leftovers

After finishing the Phish socks, I wanted to use up the leftovers, so I made this baby hat. I really like the hat, but it is a bit giry for any baby I know.. so it will go into the dontation pile.

Then there is this from the "What was I thinking??" department!

yeah.... I got the brillinat ieda to use up scrap from both Phish and Todd's socks to make baby socks.. AT THE SAME TIME!!!!yeah.. 2 pairs at once! it is getting easier now, but it was CRAZY trying to keep all the strands straight. the ones form Todd's socks will be for the squirt, and the others will get donated along with the hat. I made todds from 2 seperate skeins, so they are probably going to match. The Phish ones will be quite fraternal b/c there wasn't enough left to match up the repeat.

on the sewing front... I'm still waiting for more por-care to finish the last 3 small diapers and I'm making Andy & Ryan shorts in the Spiderman print I have left from their curtains and the diapers. Mom made a really nice jacket to go along with the hat and booties that match the airplane diapers. AND she made me a really pretty and comfortable maternity sundress. I mant to take pictures of the dress adn the PJs I made last week, but I forgot and now the camera is put away... you;ll have to wait for hte next photoshoot...

Phish Phinished!

So I finally phinished my phish socks. didn't take too long once I picked it up again. I did the "tail" in pattern in GS and I bound off with a SC picot. I'm really happy about how they came out! I really like working toe-up.. perfect fit! I'm making a premie hat/socks set to donate with the leftover yarn. I've also been chugging away at Cargo but that St St gets old fast... and it isnt' very exciting to watch.. I'll post pics when I've got more progress.

I also got a bit of sewing done too. I finished my nursing PJs. I did a lettuce leaf edge on the hem of the top and shorts and I did a decorative stitching on the bodice. I was SO excited to find the wooly nylon! they only had it in 1 color and it was the one I happened to need! I made a "snakeskin" HH for Ryan too. He wore it last night - as soon as I finished it! and I washed them all today. Guess which one he HAD to wear tonight???? I also sewed the velcro for a bunch more diapers - the last 3 smalls and 5 of the next size up. Now I just need to wait for my Procare and buttonhole elastic to come in and assemble them. I'm going to try using the buttonhole elastic in the leg so that I can cinch them up getting longer wear out of them. I may use it in the back too..

As for me & the squirt.. he still has no name.. we need to put the carseat in... I only want to sit on my ball...and I bought my new pump today (the old one was more than a little "tired" and the new one has the 2-phase let-down cycle so it will be more efficient).

Elves will fix your lawn mower

I've been too busy, hot, tired and pregnant to keep up with the weeds. The mower broke weeks ago.. we thought it was just water in the gas..nope. changed the air filter..nope. then Todd gave up and tried to hack back the overgrown hedges. First, he cuts the cord, then he gets a near fatal case of poison ivy.... and there our yard sits... no more trailer or demolition debris in my driveway... but the jungle was swallowing up the kids pool and sandbox..

I was whining to mom about my redneck yard yesterday and I was telling her about Todd's frustrating attempts at yard work. I told her how he said "...and the lawnmower is still broken..." and then I told her "does he think elves are comming to fix the stupid thing?"

so, today Todd calls me at work to tell me that my dad just dropped off the lawnmower. I didn't know he took it.. neither did Todd. hmmm I told my Mom that I was just whining and that I wasn't asking dad to fix it. she had no idea what I was talking about..... gotta love my dad!

I also had a MW appt tonight! I'm down to every week now! I have the GBS test next week.. not bringing the boys to that one! and I scheduled the rest of my appts! oh- he's head down and she won't try to stop my labor at this point! and appearantly having BH contrax every time I move is a "third baby thing."

It's official!

somebody hand me the keys to the minivan b/c I'm officially a soccer mom!!! we signed Andy up last week, but it wont start until school starts. He's SO excited!

Hmmm.. what else... I've started knitting on Cargo in a green "Galway Highland Heather" which is actually made in Peru! go figure.... I LOVE the hem technique she uses in this pattern! I'm enjoying the yarn so much that I may go get more and make a matching sweater.

I've also sewn a few diapers. I made the snakeskin ones and a couple more fitteds out of some old flannels and t-shirts. I'll take some pics when they are all done. oh- I also made a hat for Andy out of the Pumpkin colored LB wool-ease T&Q that I bought last fall.. better late than never! He really doesn't need a thick wool hat in the summer BUT he needed to feel like mommy loves him too (and I do!) I need to cut out the fabric for my shorts for my PJs tonight.

exciting life, huh? it's not easy to get a whole lot done when you're feeling like a wishbone...

Stripey Goodness!!!

So I finished my suprise project! My prototype ribbed knit soaker shorts! It is SO hard to find nice boy things... even a lot of the soaker patterns are quite girly. Cute- but girly! my next project is going to be a pair of cargo pants or "longies" from Knitty.com! How cute are they????

Mom has recouperated enought to get to her sewing machine! it still hurts for her to sit there for more than a few minutes at a time, but she managed to make some ADORABLE booties and hat with some fabric I had leftover after making the airplane diapers. I'm tempted to get more fabric for a shirt to match too!



she also made this really sweet swaddling blanket. Don't you just LOVE that fleece????

It's a KOI!

the squirt was squirming this morning and of course he settles right on my bladder. this sends me running for the restroom. I headed directlyfor my ususal stall (why are we such creatures of habbit??) and relieved the pressure! when I get up to flush, I notice a HUGE dead KOI floating there!!!! so for a brief moment I'm thinking.. did I just have a fish????

I think I'd have been less grossed out by a turd....

See the Squirt

This was at 8 weeks to confirm that this baby actually made it all the way to the uterus and get a head count. one baby safe in the uterus! what a relief!


the rest of these were done at about 18 weeks. I'll be 32 weeks tomorrow! I can't freaking believe it! 8 weeks left. well.. more like 6 to 10 weeks left... never know!

I've been Dye-ing to try this!

What will it be? wait and see!