General

Carolyn Sylvia October 24, 2004, 1:59 PM 6 lbs. 13 oz. 19.5 inches

She’s here! We just got home today, and we’re all doing well. Her birth did not go quite as “planned” – someday I might write about it, but not tonight. Suffice it to say that despite everyone’s best efforts things ended in a c-section…which is why we just got home today. Actually, we were afraid we’d never get home, because we’d planned to leave at 2, and we didn’t get out of there until long after 3. I fed her at 12:30 (a 45 minute process because she tends to fall asleep eating). And then I fed her at 1:30. And then I fed her again at 2:30. Finally, at 3:15, she finally calmed down enough to put her in her carseat, which promptly made her scream again. We decided we could handle a little screaming and practically ran down to the car, stuck her in, and prayed that the car would work it’s baby sleepy magic, which it thankfully did. Otherwise, I’m sure we’d still be there, feeding her.

Her eyes are somewhat more slate grey or brown-grey than the normal newborn blue, and her hair is brownish, although in some lighting it looks a little reddish – the nurses called it auburn, but I’m not sure I believe them. Of course, the nurses also told me that she’s the cutest baby ever, and I do believe that. :) She has incredibly long fingers, so I’m holding out hope that she’ll be able to play piano way better than I can!

We haven’t decided if we’re sticking with Carolyn, or using Carrie, or any of the other pet names we’ve used so far: Carrie Bear (actually, we never called her that – Denis misheard something I said), Hobbit Child (her hair was a mass of curls before her first bath, and she eats a lot), Froggie (those skinny little legs!), Pumpkin, Angel, Troublemaker…um, yeah, the list is endless.

The doggies are thrilled that we’re home, and seem to be adapting to life with a baby pretty well. After an initial barking fiesta (which didn’t bother Carolyn at all) everything has calmed down and the doggies seem to know that this particular baby is staying. That could be the result of all the baby stuff that has been invading the house for the past several weeks! Denis really never got the chance to bring home a blanket for them to sniff, so, that didn’t go as planned either.

I think what we’re learning here is that things with a baby just can’t be planned! But despite that, we’re totally thrilled, and having fun getting to know our beautiful daughter. And now I need to go, because – guess what? – she’s hungry again…

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant, and Denis and I are celebrating our 11th anniversary. (Of dating, not marriage.) We were kind of sort of hoping the baby would come today, but that’s increasingly unlikely…

Things I love about being pregnant that I’m going to miss soon:

• seeing her little butt stick out when she moves around
• feeling her little hiccups (although I do feel a teeny bit bad that she has them in the first place)
• evening baby belly rubs (not that the lotion has done a bit to minimize stretch marks…)
• Denis pretending my belly button is a microphone to talk to the baby

There’s so much more than that, but it’s hard to put into words…

There are things I won’t miss, but nothing too serious. Well, besides the bedrest. I won’t miss that one bit! (Ask me again, though, when I’ve gotten 3 hours sleep in the past 48 and the baby’s still crying…)

Chances are, by this time next week she’ll be here – and I’m excited and terrified all at the same time. I’m not thrilled with the idea of being induced, but I am thrilled with meeting this little person. And finally being able to call her by her name rather than “the baby”, “the pumpkin baby” or “little bean”! (Yes, Grandma, we’ve picked out her name, and no, we’re still not telling!)

She’s not even born yet and she has a deadline! Today at my doctor’s appointment, they told me I’m not allowed to go past my due date – next Saturday – and that they’ll be inducing by the end of next week if the baby doesn’t come early. This is something of a relief, I’ll admit, because I’m starting to feel very achy and tired, and I’m totally sick of bedrest – tomorrow will be six weeks. However…I still feel like she should be allowed to “choose” her own birthday. Oh, well, I’m not going to worry too much about it. After all, she has a week more, and anything can happen, right? My next appointment is Wednesday, so I imagine we’ll be actually scheduling something then.

But this means she’ll definitely be here in time for Halloween, and maybe even home by then. Yay for little orange pumpkin outfits and hats! (We’ve got at least three at this point, we’ll just have to take lots of pictures!)

The nursery is so close to being done – the chair rail still needs to be cut and installed (it’s painted already), the curtains need to be hung, we need to buy and install a closet organizer (we gutted the single rod & shelf that was in there before we painted), and the vents and outlet covers need to be painted and put up. Other than that, we’re just (still) waiting on the glider and we have to set up the crib. And then, maybe, we can reclaim most of the living and dining rooms from the mountain of baby stuff that’s on every flat surface.

I packed the diaper bag last night. My goodness, those newborn-sized diapers are teeny! And they’re really soft, and kind of smell like baby powder…yes, I sniffed the diapers. I’m strange. And then I had to do some research, because it really wasn’t obvious to me what might go in a diaper bag besides diapers, wipes, receiving blankets and a change of clothes. I guess there’s a heck of a lot more that can be considered essential, though, and I did manage to find enough to almost fill the bag – thankfully it’s still pretty light. I also ordered an adjustable fleece pouch because I’d like to try using that for short trips in and out of stores or for walking rather than relying solely on the stroller. We’ll see if it or the baby arrives first…

Tonight, I’m packing my own bag. Just in case!

Thursday afternoon I was sitting here, feeling all sorry for myself, when the DHL delivery truck rolls up. And what did the nice delivery guy hand me? A box which contained these:

Cindy, who organized the Sampler Afghan-along (SAL for short) – that I’ve been guiltily ignoring for the past few months – got a bunch of SAL-ies together to make a baby afghan for the pumpkin child. How neat!

There are blocks from Siow Chin in Hong Kong, Sylvie in France, and Amy, Carrie, Cindy and Laura, all from the US. You can’t see it in the picture, but the pillow has French horn fabric on the back – too cool! And Cindy sewed the adorable doll.

Thanks, ladies! What a wonderful thing to do. I can’t wait to explain to the baby all about her international afghan!

I figured out part of the reason I’ve been so bummed these past couple of days. The Rhinebeck festival is this weekend. Now, I knew months ago that there was really no way I’d be able to go this year, but still…it’s a little depressing to read about all the other knitting bloggers headed off to play with the sheepies while I’m stuck at home. Never mind that I still have a mountain of wool I haven’t spun that I bought last year – it’s all because Murphy chewed one of my drop spindles and the other one is cracked, and I need a new drive band for my spinning wheel, honest! (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

Ah, well. Next year, right? The pumpkin baby can come along – she’ll need to start her fiber education early, after all! Maybe by next year I’ll have put a dent in my fiber stash, even, so I can justify buying more!

Yet another doctor’s appointment, and everything’s still status quo. I have to admit, I am getting just the teeniest bit tired of the bed rest thing…but I know it’s important, and it’s finite, so I’ll deal with it. It’s kind of pathetic that my weekly doctor’s appointment and lunch out beforehand is something to look forward to.

I’m still plugging away at the ladybug sweater and the poncho (although not so much on the poncho – colorwork is more exciting right now than cables.) At this point the question isn’t so much which will get done first, but will either be done before the baby arrives?

Today this baby is considered full-term, which means that my doctor will be very happy if I go into labor any minute! I had to have another appointment today because my blood pressure was high again on Wednesday – thankfully it was back down a bit and my blood work came back normal, so there was no talk of inducing yet. I’ll be shocked if they let me go all the way to my due date, though…

I was going to get pictures of Anouk this afternoon, but by the time we got home there wasn’t good light left on the deck. On the way home from the doctor’s office, the window in the car fell off its motorized track and plummeted into the door, so we drove right to the mechanic. Apparently, this is a known problem with the 2000 model year Jettas, because there’s an extended warranty to cover it, but it’s still a pain in the tush. I’m just glad we have two cars and I’m not allowed to drive right now! Oh, and I’m very glad that the window didn’t shatter when it fell inside the door, because that’s a much more complicated thing to fix.

Thanks for all the comments yesterday. Let’s see – to answer a couple of questions… No, we don’t have a name yet, but even when we make a final decision (it’s a pretty short list) we’re not planning on telling until she’s born – to be honest, we probably won’t make a final decision until then anyway. And the car seat base is being installed first thing tomorrow morning – we read through the manual last night, and realized that it is pretty complicated! I’m not annoyed by unsolicited advice – I just hate the “oh, wow, you look like you’re about to pop!” type comments. (Although I will admit – sorry Tina – that my belly button is an outie more often than an innie now. Does that mean the baby’s done and ready to come out of the oven?)

OK, so tomorrow I’ll get those pictures. I promise!

My life seems so boring right now. Tomorrow will be officially 4 weeks home on bedrest. It really doesn’t make for interesting blog material…

Of course, I could make an effort to actually take pictures of Anouk, which is done, and of the new project I’ve started. That would be something to blog about. One thing I have to say about being home is that I really have been getting lots of stuff done. It’s just that there’s only so much TV watching and book-on-tape listening that I can stand in one day, and that threshold seems to get shorter every day. I’m starting to worry that I’ll go nuts doing the stay-at-home-mom thing, but then I remind myself that at least I’ll have the baby to talk to and play with. The dogs are really mostly into sleeping all day. Plus, if I talk to them too much, I’m worried that they’ll start talking back. And if I could actually do some chores, like laundry or vacuuming, that would be something, too. (Amazing how much I hated doing those things before, and now I’m really wishing I could do them!) Oh, and I’ll be able to leave the house, too! Just in time to start working on Christmas shopping…

The nursery is getting there. I finally decided to go ahead and stick with the lavender and green, and now “all” that’s left is to do the trim and closet doors in white. (Two windows and two door frames, plus all the baseboard, is still a lot!) Denis will also get to play with his electrical engineering degree by wiring a ceiling light/fan into the room. We have no ceiling lights in any of the bedrooms, so this is not a small task.

Oh, and after my doctor’s appointment yesterday we stopped at Starbucks. Did you know that they have a pumpkin spice latté? I didn’t until yesterday! Actually, it’s probably a good thing that I’m stuck home – there are way too many “seasonal treats” that I’d get a lot more often if I wasn’t… Between the pumpkin ice cream at Papa Jack’s and the caramel apple cider and pumpkin spice lattés at Starbucks, I’d be in big trouble.

Our second baby shower was yesterday, and once again I crashed hard when I got home. It was really good to see everyone though – being stuck at home on bedrest makes it hard to get together with friends. We got lots of neat toys and clothes and bath stuff! Once again, thank you everyone!!

Just a few more things we really need to go get – like the diaper pail, and the changing pad and covers. Oh, and diapers and wipes would probably be a good thing to pick up. I’m hoping by next weekend I can be washing baby things and putting them in the dresser – but that means the painting all needs to get done and I’m being indecisive about whether I like the green with the lavender or if I just want the walls to be entirely lavender. (Poor Denis, he’s being an absolute saint about all of this…) I guess I’ll sleep on it for another night.

I can hardly believe it’s October finally – or is it October already? Assuming she doesn’t decide to make herself too comfy in there, the pumpkin baby will arrive sometime this month! (Knock wood, please, that she arrives this month, because I really want to meet her!)

Denis is just starting the second color of paint in the nursery tonight. It’s so pretty! Jenny and Aaron came over to help us with the top color Wednesday, so hopefully we’ll be to the trim-painting part by Sunday, when my cousins are coming to help out. (I really, truly appreciate all the help everyone is giving us, since I’m not allowed to do these things myself!) This means that by next weekend we should be able to set up the crib and dresser and start washing and putting away baby clothes.

Can I just ask, though: how on earth do those teeny tiny socks a) fit a human being and b) not get lost in the washer or dryer? I can barely reach to the bottom of the washer to fish out my own socks – I’m going to have to get a pair of tongs or something to get to these itty bitty things. Or maybe I’ll go buy a lingerie bag for them. (This is one of those practical things they don’t tell you about in baby books.)