Month: July 2008

First Sit & Knit and Finished Sweater

Sarah Firsts

I didn’t think to get out the camera so there’s no photographic evidence, but Anna came to her first Sit & Knit tonight at the shop. I dressed her up in the cutest little green dress with a fuzzy sheep on the front. She pretty much slept the whole time, and I actually had (just) enough hands-free time to weave in the ends and sew the buttons on her sweater:

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Here’s the project page on Ravelry, but here are the vital stats for those not on Rav (yet).
Pattern: February Baby Sweater (Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac)
Yarn: No Two Snowflakes Bellini
Needles: US 3/3.25 mm
Size: There’s no sizing information in the pattern, because, as EZ states, “babies come in all sizes”. I’m thinking it’s around a 6-9 month size, which should work with sleeves rolled up starting when it gets cool next month all the way through spring.

I plan to make a matching hat and socks, and I should have plenty of yarn left for a pair of socks for Carolyn too! (I just have to actually find the time to knit them all…

2 week well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up

Vital stats:
17 days old
7 lbs, 11.5 oz

Well, I apparently make heavy cream instead of milk. Carolyn did this too, though, and weighed almost exactly the same at her two week visit, so I guess I just tend to grow small babies and then fatten ’em up quick after they’re born. :)

But really, I can’t complain about the cute little dimpled elbows or the chunky little thighs!

3.9 Years Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are 3 and 3/4 years old! To say that a lot has changed in your life this month would be a little bit of an understatement. You’ve gone from being an only child to being a great big sister – and while we haven’t gotten all the details sorted out about that, you’re adapting better than anyone could have predicted. But you haven’t only become a big sister this month, let’s see what else has happened…

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You amazed me the other day when I pulled out a deck of sight word flash cards for ages 6 and up, and you read all but maybe 15 of the 150+ words. You didn’t sound them out, you just read them. I don’t know why I found it so incredible, since you were practically reading all of “One Fish, Two Fish” a couple of weeks ago, but I guess I’d talked myself into believing you’d memorized the book after we read it to you a couple of times. Not so. You are officially reading, and acting like it’s the most normal thing in the world for you to be doing.

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Lately everything has been about you turning four. I think it’s because you’ve been to a couple of birthday parties over the past few weeks, but you’re obsessed with turning four. When we ask you if you want to try a new food, you say “no thank you, but when I’m four I will like it!” You somehow got it into your head that you have to be four before you start preschool in the fall – although you don’t, and won’t, but we’ll have to deal with that closer to when school starts. Oh, and at the moment, you want an alligator cake for your birthday. I’m kind of hoping you change your mind, since I’m not quite sure how to make an alligator cake, but if you insist we’ll figure it out!

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So about this big sister gig. I have to admit, when we first got home with Anna, your exuberance and energy was overwhelming to me. It took a few days for me to realize that you were just trying very hard to make sure you still had an important place in our family. It’s going to take us all a little while to figure out how to be a family of four instead of a family of three, but you will always be as special and important as you were before Anna joined us. I promise.

Love, Mommy

Feeling Adventurous

Sarah General

I took both girls to the farmer’s market and the library this afternoon. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but I am pretty tired. I decided to wear Anna instead of snap her seat into a stroller, and for a baby who weighs little more than a bag of flour she sure gets heavy after a while! Also, I think I might have sold at least two Hotslings based on the number of comments I got from people who loved my pouch and wanted to know where I got it.

Technically I’m not supposed to drive until Saturday, but this was literally five minutes down the hill from our house, and if I had to spend one more minute in the house I was going to go insane!

Due Date

Sarah Anna

Today was Anna’s official due date, but instead, she’s been here for nine whole days – most of which have passed by in a sleep-deprived blur. Good thing we’ve been taking pictures!

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What’s In A Name?

Sarah Anna, Carolyn

A word about Anna’s name. Anna is mostly just a name we liked, although it does have some family ties. Catherine is for my grandmother (my mom’s mom) who turned 80 the day Anna was born. Depending on which baby name dictionary you consult, Anna means “joy” or “gracious”, and Catherine pretty much universally means “pure”.

And since I never did write about how we chose Carolyn’s name, I’ll do that now too! Carolyn is also a name we liked, as well as being sort of a combination of my parents’ names, Carl and Karen, and my godmother’s name, Linda. Sylvia is Denis’ mother’s name. Carolyn means (again, depending on which dictionary) “song of joy” and Sylvia means “forest”.

Sleep is Overrated

Sarah Anna

It’s amazing how quickly I can adjust to not enough sleep – just last week I really needed 8-9 hours to feel rested (granted, those were not uninterrupted hours, what with baby pressing on my bladder!) but now that I’ve had two nights in a row where I got 6 hours with just one nursing session partway through, I nearly feel human again!

Besides, who needs sleep when there are tiny fingers to admire?

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First well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up

Vital stats:
4 days old
6 lbs. 3.5 oz.
(Discharge weight from hospital 2 days ago: 6 lbs. 2 oz.)

Anna got her first shot today – they start the hepatitis B vaccine series at birth now, but we wanted to discuss that with the pediatrician first instead of getting it done at the hospital. And everyone was pretty impressed that Anna was already gaining weight back. (Actually, me too, because she’s already pretty fast and efficient at nursing, so I wasn’t quite convinced she was getting enough!)

Welcome, Baby!

Sarah Anna

Introducing Anna Catherine

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July 12, 2008, 4:27 AM
6lbs, 5 oz
18.5 inches long

So I wasn’t too far off in saying that it would be good if she came after dance camp ended last Friday! I woke up at 12:50 AM on Saturday, and felt like I might be having “real” contractions, but I waffled a bit about whether to wake Denis up. After another couple, though, I woke him up and he started timing them…at 3 minutes apart lasting a minute each. The midwife thought we could probably think about heading in – although I was still half convinced they were going to send us home with a false alarm. So Denis threw some stuff in a bag (I never did get around to packing) and we called my mom to come over and stay with Carrie, and the doula to meet us at the hospital. We got to the hospital shortly before 3 (if I never repeat a car ride like that it will be too soon), and we were holding our baby an hour and a half later.

I managed to not only have my VBAC, but there was no time at all to even consider pain medications (I hadn’t quite made up my mind on that part) and so it was about as different from Carrie’s birth as it could have possibly been. I was up and showering not even two hours later, and we came home last night, after just spending 36 hours in the hospital. We could have stayed a second night, but we wanted to get back to Carrie, and get some rest – since hospitals are about the least restful places you can stay in.

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So far everyone’s doing great. We’re going to have to make some adjustments, but overall Carrie is beyond thrilled to have her little sister and just wants to hug and hold and kiss her all the time. I’m incredibly sleep deprived, so I’m going to go feed the small one again and try to get a little sleep before she wakes up and wants more!

Dance Camp

Sarah Carolyn

Dance camp is officially over, but Carrie loved it. They even had a little recital, and amazingly had managed to get the dozen or so 3 year olds in Carrie’s group to learn three (simple) dance routines – one tap, one ballet, and one…well, it was a large group dance with all 60 of the girls in the camp, I couldn’t really give the style a name.

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I’m impressed enough with the studio that I think I’m going to sign Carrie up to take lessons there in the fall. She really does love dancing, and while it might be nice to expose her to other activities, I also want to encourage her to do things she loves. So for now we’ll do dance, and if she stops liking it so much we’ll reevaluate then.