WIP Wednesday

It's been awhile since I've done one of these- mostly because of Christmas. Those WIPs are downstairs in boxes still waiting to be shipped. I know you guys love me in spite of my inability to actually mail anything, right? Like even Christmas cards?

As you can probably guess we've got a lot going on these days. A lot of cleaning out, organizing and preparing in general. However, it's not the frantic excitement of pre-Christmas a few weeks ago, which is nice. I kind of love the few weeks after Christmas when everything gets put away. I mean I love getting it all out, too, but I was ready this year for John to put the Christmas bins downstairs. Sometimes it gets a little stark, but it just feels like everything is new. Which reminds me I still need to post some pics from our Christmas celebrations. As my daughter would say, maybe tomorrow.

Back to the actual works in progress.
I've got some sewing to do. This baby will have a lot more flannel given the cold winter we're having. Guthrie and I went to the fabric store and picked out a couple of yards of flannel for sheets for the baby's cradle.
We put the cradle downstairs in the living room for quiet time naps and relative ease. John's Grandpa Poppy made this cradle for Guthrie and she is pretty excited that she used to sleep in it and now the baby will sleep in it, although as long as we're being honest here the cats used it more than she did. However, it was nice to have and it's beautiful. I'm excited to have a few pieces of furniture that we can pass down. I think right now we're pretty sentimental about the cradle as John's Grandma Ruby passed away on Christmas Eve and it's nice to have a few reminders of her in the house. When I was pregnant with Guthrie I made a sheet out of one of Grandma's old tablecloths and while I haven't found it yet in the mass of boxes still upstairs I'll be happy to put it back in the cradle.

So, back to the sewing. I let Guthrie pick out one of the flannels and then I got to pick one. I bet you can guess which one is hers. And no, this is not some hint about the baby's gender so don't even get all excited. It's much more an assertion of Guthrie's preference for pink right now. Except she still wants to paint her bedroom orange but that's a WIP for another day! Or month.

And then I have all these fabrics to contend with. While they won't be baby sheets they will be a laundry bag to hang downstairs, a pillow cover for Guthrie, a mom's-in-labor bag for Guthrie, a bulletin board cover, a knitting bag, a crocheting bag and I'm not sure what else. I'm really enjoying making simple tote bags and I believe this proves it! The laundry bag pattern is from One Yard Wonders which I got for Christmas from my mom along with a gift certificate to JoAnn's. Perfect timing, no? Right now I'm hoping it will contain all the dirty socks that get taken off downstairs and dirty dishtowels that get piled on the stairs. Shortly I'm hoping it will contain spit-up laden onesies and explosive breastmilk poop stained outfits.
And then there's the yarn. John's mom got me a gift certificate for the local Yarn Shoppe and I went and spent it today. (do we sense a fantastic theme?) It was super fun! I did get one skein to complete a hat for Teagan because I made it extra thick and didn't even think about needing another ball to finish it! I hope she likes it. The other three skeins are for me. I haven't made anything for myself in a long time - possibly almost a year. I think the green and blue multi-color ones will be a set of long fingerless gloves. I may change my mind about that, but my real goal is to make something awesome for myself. My dad wrote a knitting book - cool huh? I'll link to it when it's for sale. And I'm working my way through it. Ever so slowly. I enjoy the quick I can concentrate on two things at the same time part of crocheting, but I'm really enjoying the knitting too. I feel like I gravitate aesthetically to knitted things quite a bit more than crocheted things. There's a possibility that I'll save the greeny yarns for my first knitted projects.
These little skeins I picked up awhile ago as a labor project. While I don't think I'll crochet much while I'm actually in labor I wanted to work on a project that would take up some time, be highly washable just in case, and that I could work on 1. when I get impatient for this baby and 2. if early labor lasts for awhile and I'm antsy.

As far as the work in progress in my belly goes, well,

I've got about 6 weeks to go. Can you tell? I'm making my clothes work pretty hard for me right now and I'm sure it'll get even bigger over the next few weeks. I think next week we're going to henna my belly which should be fun. Last time I didn't have the desire to do it with my particular pregnant belly because it wasn't so cute. This time I'm carrying differently and it's cuter. And I don't have any new stretch marks. Sweet!

There's a few things I want to remember about this pregnancy so I've been trying to take pictures and remember the sweet stuff Guthrie says - which will be a different post. The amount of supplements I'm on though is one thing I will never forget. I'm not sure which ones I'll let go of after the baby is born, I guess we'll see how my blood work is and how I'm feeling.

This is my current lineup. A small amount of magnesium for some uber-restless legs over the past couple weeks - it's worked wonders. I'd highly recommend it. The point where they became unbearable was on the car trip home from Ohio with restless legs, constant Braxton-Hicks and John listening to a football game on the radio it was my own little personal version of hell. No joke. I hate me some sports on the radio something fierce. So, one of the midwives recommended the magnesium but warned that it might slow down my Braxton-Hicks at the same time. It hasn't - at all - which I find kind of reassuring. Then there's the general PreNatal. They're pink. How sweet. Then the Omega-3 Fish Oil which is a ginormous pill and I do not enjoy it. The vitamin D, and I'm not even taking pills from the bottle anymore as I have a prescription for 10,000 mg a day through the end of my pregnancy - and then 10,000 mg a week for another month or so. Can I remind you the normal daily amount is 400 mg. Good times. Then the labetalol for my blood pressure which is working like a charm. Yay!! And Tums because gum doesn't always work for the acid reflux. And then chlorophyll, which I'll say out of everything except maybe the Tums is what I notice if I don't take. It keeps my energy level up and my mood pretty good. I will definitely keep taking this for awhile - at least until summer when I get more natural chlorophyll in my diet with seasonal greens. And then there's the pregnancy tea which my co-workers think looks like pot. I keep it in a jar on my desk. It does look a little sketchy and has sparked many a funny conversation wherein my co-workers get a little wistful look in their eye and talk about the good ol' days. In the next few weeks I'll start some evening primrose oil to start getting some prostaglandins going. We're getting down to the wire it seems.

Yeah, I've never, ever taken this many pills a day. Part of me feels like I'm sick somehow but the fact that there's really only one real 'drug' makes me feel better. I did finally break down and buy a pill organizer. I balked at it for a long time, but guess what? I never have to second guess myself and I can take all my stuff to work with me which means less nausea after the pills because I've already digested breakfast. So, it's working for me and I try not to feel 80.

We're doing some other preparations too. Getting supplies ready. Witch hazel? Check. Waterproof flannels for possible water breakage in bed whilst asleep? Check. I'm enjoying the gathering process. So much less stressful than last time and so much more mindful. Baby clothes washed? Check. Put away -- not so much. We've got to take the carpet out of Guthrie's closet first and deal with the wood floors below it.

ok time for dinner and the end of this very long post.
and then some sewing . . .