Nearly one month in and boy are my wings tired!

Hello, gentle readers!  I have a moment's reprieve from the chaos and wanted to let you know that we are all doing just fine.  Baby is growing, knitting is happening, Maegwin is crazy and fun, Josh is enjoying me being home.  I've no idea the state that my house might be in when I go back to work but I think the children and husband will all survive.  hehe  I warn those who are not knitters that this might be a knit heavy post because I haven't put up anything I've made in a while.  First, I shall dispense with the cuteness and those who choose to head off after that can do so with a lighter heart.

Maegwin is absolutely smitten with her little brother.  The problem is more keeping her off of him than getting her to like him.  A good problem to have and I think he will make it.  Humans have survived this long with older boisterous siblings after all.  She does often want to do things with me and always seems to time it when I'm nursing and can't get up.  Then she will say "Just put him on the couch.  He'll be fine."  Yeah, not if I take his milk away, sweetheart.  Now that I am feeling mostly physically recovered (I had a bout of mastitis that knocked me for a loop but thanks to modern medicine and antibiotics I'm fine), I am hoping to start doing walks with everyone each day.  The weather is still gorgeous and not yet super humid so now is the time.

Nearly everyday Maegwin goes out and picks some sort of bouquet of wildflowers from our yard.  We don't spray anything on our yard and we try not to mow the backyard too low.  As a result we have a profusion of wildflowers, bees, and butterflies as well as a host of other creatures.  We even have a hawk who frequents our yard which is pretty fun to see.  Here is just a sampling of the bouquets I've received:

Some other floral goodness in our house-my miltonia orchid has bloomed!  I bought it last year at the orchid sale at the conservatory and had no idea what color it was.  I only knew its type.  It turned out to be my favorite color...yellow!  and it has a pink center!

If you will pardon the sad selfie with lighting behind me (bad Nina, bad!), I am so stinking proud of getting two blooms on this thing at the proper time of year.  I nursed this guy all year and apparently got it back to health.

Also, my African violet is going crazy in the same window.  I repotted it not too long ago and it seems pleased with its new environment.

As mentioned previously, the wee man is doing well.  He has received some additional gifts from my Itty Bitty Knits group and is making use of them all.

He has helped me clean the kitchen.

And even supervised my sock knitting.

It's hard work being a baby in this house!  Oh and he reprised the role of a wizard from Final Fantasy.

I had my first beer in almost a year and it was everything I thought it could be.  Of course it was from the brewery we lived down the street from in Hayward.  Accept no substitute for summer beer-ing!  Note the crazy amount of crafting going on in the background.  Cross stitch, four yarn bowls with projects in them...I call this my nursing anti-boredom station.

Now for the segue to knitting items, I give you Maegwin as an alien.  Pay no attention to the mess behind me and take me to your leader.

If you are still with me, I can only assume that you enjoy a good hand knit and I have some for you!  First off I completed a second pair of socks for Maegwin.  I seem to have discovered the secret sauce for getting them to fit her and she's actually wearing them and asking for more.  I'm trying to make them in colors that also would work for baby Joshua once he is older so that we get more use out of them.  I mean, toddler feet do grow and fast.

These were made with my leftover Chroma from my cardigan that I made just before I got pregnant.  The colorway is Guppy and she really loves them.  They have felted a little bit on the bottom already but I expected that since it is a single ply yarn.  Still, I think they will be warm for winter and they fit well into her hiking boots.

Next up, a pair of vanilla socks for me.  These were done in Blueberry Pie Studios yarn-Cupcake with Sprinkles colorway.  It was my first time using this yarn and I will definitely use it again.  I have enough leftover for socks for Maegwin and maybe a hat for Joshua or mittens for either of them.

Not a great photo, but I had just finished nursing him and couldn't get up.

Finally I just finished a pair of Lilybet socks out of some mystery yarn I bought at Knitters Connection in 2009 on clearance.  It has gold sparkles in it too.  I tried to knit this into no less than four pair of socks and ended up ripping them all out.  Apparently it was waiting to become these beauties.

I love everything about them although I forgot how much longer knitting a patterned sock takes!  I actually knit them in about two weeks but this is the most knitting time that I've had in ages.  I'm glad I finally found a use for this beautiful yarn and the leftovers will probably go into hexipuffs for my Beekeepers Quilt.  Still making those also.  Still a few years from a blanket I think but I'm enjoying making them here and there.

Whew!  So that's it of things that I have finished but for me that is quite a bit.  I'm also working on my Once Upon a Time cross stitch and I'm about to finish up April's square.  I've got May partially done and June's comes out tomorrow.  Can't wait to see what story it is.  Maegwin was looking at it with me last night and naming all of the stories.  As long as somewhere in there we get Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast we will be all good.  Those are her favorites besides Snow White which we already have as January's block.

Hope you all are having a lovely spring so far!

The Storkman Cometh

The big day finally arrived!  On Sunday, May 4th I woke up at about 5 am with some contractions...nothing too out of the ordinary and about 30 minutes apart.  By about 6 am they were 15 minutes apart and getting stronger.  I woke up Josh and he started prepping the house for heading to the hospital, just in case.  We called Mom and put her on the alert at about 7 am.  By 8:30 they were five minutes apart and quite strong so we got in the car with Maegwin and told Mom to just meet us at the hospital because there was no way she was getting here in time.  Maegwin was a little scared that we were going to leave her so I was trying to reassure her between contractions I could barely breathe through.  We managed the hand off and the limp inside (thank goodness for pre-registration!  I feel like even with it there were an inordinate amount of people asking me questions while I was trying to focus on breathing).  We headed up to labor and delivery and were the only patients on the floor.  They checked me and even though my contractions were regular and four minutes apart, I was only dilated 2.5 cm said the nurse so we were sent off to walk.  That was agonizing!  Seriously I played the most horrid game of musical chairs that one could possibly imagine.  It was shamble, sit, contract, repeat.  After about three contraction cycles of that (she had told us an hour...seriously) I said screw this, I'm going back.  We did and I was already dilated enough to admit me.

Once we were back in the room, we told them to numb my hand prior to putting the IV in.  Luckily this time we had a really great set of nurses that agreed to it.  They gave me lidocaine then proceeded to take both of them poking around in my hand three times before calling the anesthesiologist.  He had to lidocaine and stick me twice before finding a vein, but he did in my right wrist.  Not a fun place to have an IV, but hey it worked.  They got me started on saline right away-again lesson learned from last time-and antibiotics since I had a positive strep B test.  I labored for a little bit til the OB on call came in.  He was awesome and good humored by the way and totally our style.  If I ever had another baby I would love to have him deliver it.  He broke my water and then I got my epidural.  Same anesthesiologist came in and seriously, this dude deserves a medal or candy or something.  I told him last time that I had a hot spot in my left leg and he said he was going to try to get me all the way numb.  I leaned over and he got into the space and I felt a shooting pain down my left leg.  Knowing from last time to give feedback I told him and he kept shifting right until I didn't feel it.  Apparently I have a HUGE nerve bundle that he had to get past and he said most likely the last doctor didn't know that and didn't do it.  That epidural was AMAZING!!!  After that, labor was comfortable and we just let things take their natural course as little Joshua moved down.  They gave me some oxygen since his heart rate dropped just a bit briefly but afterwards was fine.  At about 4 pm I started pushing.  I had allergies acting up and kept coughing and apparently that was pushing him out too.  LOL  I shall henceforth not hate the cottonwood so much.  (tell this to me in a month when it looks like it snowed in my yard)  The doctor knew that Maegwin had shoulder dystocia so we tried a different position with this little guy and it worked out well.

At 4:42 pm, baby Joshua entered the world!

Weight: 9 lbs 8.5 oz
Length: 21.5 inches

He beat his sister by 5 ounces!  The baby hats they had wouldn't fit on his head but I was prepared, although this stripey hat barely fit him.  What is better than instant wrapping in hand knits, I ask you?  They put him on my chest after getting his airway cleaned out and all the checks and within 30 minutes I got him to latch and nurse a bit.

We stayed for two days in the hospital.

On the second day, Maegwin came out to meet him.  She was smitten but was so excited that we had to keep reminding her of his delicateness (she wants to tickle and poke him-I love her enthusiasm).

We are all adjusting to the new addition but I think it is going well.  Josh and I are making an effort to spend special time with Maegwin whenever the baby is sleeping.  She really loves her brother and desperately wants to give him a bottle.  I ordered some new nipples for ours and they should be here Sunday.  Yesterday I pumped a few ounces so the freezer stashing has begun.  As with Maegwin, I seem to already be over producing on the milk.

We just love our little guy!  Maegwin said "I love that we are a family now!" which I thought was so cute since we were a family before.

Love to all and to the mothers and grandmothers in my life-your Mothers' Day gifts/cards may be a bit late but no less filled with love.  We're just a bit busy. hehehe