The answer to life, the universe, and everything is NOT 42!� It’s wool.

Yesterday, GiGi wore wool as a diaper cover for the first time.� The interweb, and my few cloth-diapering friends assured me that wool makes an effective diaper cover (in the form of soakers and longies).� I trusted enough to knit a pair of each, and to collect them from generous friends and family, but I did not truly believe.� Then GiGi turned out to be a super duper wetter and I was afraid to even try.� But I waited and now, I believe!

My mom knit these longies from a Little Turtle Knits pattern, and GiGi wore them all day yesterday.� Even when her diaper was wet inside them, the pants were dry to the touch on the outside.� For serious!� Wool.� It’s the answer.

In other news, yesterday was my 30th birthday.� I’m 30, a wife, a mother, a homeowner… I suppose I’m officially an adult now!� So I celebrated in an adult way, with one spectacular cocktail:

A Manhattan made (by me) with Rittenhouse 21-year-old straight rye whiskey.

My last pre-pregnancy cocktail was a crappy restaurant Manhattan made with Jim Beam.� Ugh, it was gross and I didn’t even finish it.� My first post-pregnancy cocktail was this lovely drink, and ohhh, it was divine.� I had some roasted pistachios (50% less salt from Trader Joes) and a glass of water on the side.� Matt went to the ends of the earth (well…all over Baltimore) to get me a bottle of Rittenhouse, and it was worth it!� Thanks, honey!

Hey there!  A long, long, long time ago, I planned to how you a week’s worth of items I’d made for the baby.  I had things all ready and photographed, made it to Wednesday, and then I just forgot to finish.  We were busy, Toaster was sick, I was pregnant, yadda, yadda, yadda…

Here’s one thing:

Why spend $10 on completely unnecessary padding for your precious child when you can make completely unnecessary padding for the cost of some scraps from your sewing stash?  Skull and crossbones flannel from Joanns, reverses to cotton chenille.  I imagine they’ll be better at soaking up drool than those fancy store-bought ones!

Then we have these little guys:

Two gnomes out of a possible five (I haven’t knit the rest yet) from a nice little kit from Green Mountain Wee Woolies at Etsy.  While the kit is very nice, I do have one minor quibble: all of the pictures (including the one that came with the kit) show the gnomes wearing cross-body handbags (European carryalls?), yet the pattern does not provide handbag instructions.  Boo!

In other news, baby girl is huge!  At her first pediatrician appointment, she weighed 7 lbs 2 oz.  Twelve days later, she weighed 8 lbs 9 oz!  Also, she had grown almost two inches in height since birth.  Damn, that’s crazy.  And it can’t feel good to grow that quickly.  Matt went back to work today, and we all missed him tons.  Luckily, it’s only two weeks until his company shuts down for Christmas and New Years, when we’ll all get to be together again.

About 12 days ago, I had me a baby:

Her internet alias shall be GiGi.� She was 7 lbs 6 oz at birth, and has wavy blonde hair.� That’s us at home, tired as I don’t know what, about seven hours after she was born.� That’s a glass of Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc 2002, in case you were wondering.� It was delicious!� Here she is a few days later with her daddy:

And then a few days after that, we celebrated Thanksgiving:

She’s now about twelve whole days old, and Matt and I are slowly figuring out this parenting thing.� She’s a pretty chill baby, which is great, given that Toaster is such a lunatic.� Nursing is going well, if you ignore the extreme engorgement (which is now over) and the yeast infection (Thrush, which is not over).� No supply or latch issues, at least.

Her birth was spontaneous and unmedicated, like we hoped and planned for, but I did have to push for four hours.� That sucked.� We can all thank my pointy pubic arch, apparently.� In the end, she came out red and healthy and squealing.� She is still healthy, but less red and less squeally.� Instead of red, she’s doing that newborn molt thing, and is very flaky.

WordPress has a new photo system that makes it much easier for me to share photos, so that means (I hope) that I’ll be posting more frequently… Usually, I avoid posting if I don’t have pics, and the gallery system I’ve been using has been acting up lately.

Okay, so that’s all the news for today.� I’m sure I’ll be posting again soon, because these photos aren’t nearly worthy of GiGi’s extreme awesomeness and good looks.� Despite some minor sleep deprivation, we are both entirely smitten!

Here’s a little distraction from election day excitement. 

For a boy:

• Hagrid Chewbacca (as a talisman against MPB)
• Bran
• Carl Agathon
• Refrigerator
• Dude
• Booberry
• George Foreman

Some names we’ve come up with for a girl:

• Hermione Myfannwy
• Starbuck
• Athena
• Blender
• Leeloo Dallas Multipass
• Booberry
• George Foreman

As you might be able to tell, we’re fond of lite science fiction and fantasy, historical mythology, kitchen appliances, and the absurd.  What do you think?  Any suggestions for a really cool name that did not make our list?

So, here’s my belly at 37 weeks:

That was only five days ago, and things have already changed… Think lower and droopier.

The baby can come any time now, as baby’s considered full term and I can deliver at the birth center between 37 and 42 weeks. Outside of that, it’d definitely be the hospital for us. Baby’s head is engaged now, and my acupuncturist and midwives are all very pleased, as are we. Baby was transverse for quite a while, and that would have been very, very bad at this point. It’s getting tight in there. I feel the baby move a lot now, which is usually exciting, sometimes only annoying. Seriously baby, you can wake me up once you’re here. I’m still feeling really good, just a little bit tired. Also, I have mega bloated sausage hands. They hurt. I have managed to knit most of another baby hat (soft flexible yarn, reasonable gauge) but I think that will be it until after the baby’s arrived. My mom used a 30% off coupon at Kohl’s and we now have a full complement of newborn and 3 month outfits (including FOUR Christmas outfits and one Thanksgiving outfit). She has also provided some lovely handknit baby socks, and I hear there are more on the way.

In less crafty news, nesting continues. The Jetta has been picked up and we are back down to two cars in the driveway. We voted. Matt and I made three lasagnas. We have curtains in the dining room, curtains ready to be hung in the living room, a kitchen that is still tidy a month after the cleaners came, a de-cluttered laundry room, 3 dozen pre-washed prefold diapers, and a fully furnished room for the baby (thanks, IKEA!):

We’re all custom decorated too, thanks to Joanna:

and her Mother-in-Law Cathy:

and Matt’s Aunt Diane:

Since the knitting is mostly over, I have some sewing plans instead. My goal is to cut out all the pieces this week, and then I can assemble (wee flannel overalls, two pairs of soft shoes, and a changing pad) whenever.

And now, onto more thank you notes. Holding a pen is harder than knitting, so I may have to resort to some typed notes. My sweet co-workers (and several nice people from my old office) threw a shower for me the week before last. It was a complete surprise and they were so generous! I have a few more notes to finish up from the other showers and then I can get cracking on the 25+ I need to write for the office.

So the day after my last post, I crossed nettle tea off the list. It’s a pleasant enough beverage, and is supposed to help with the hay fever. Now that the hay fever has settled down and I’ve dropped the Flonase, here is my current daily menu of medications and supplements:

• Amoxicillin (twice daily, for a stupid UTI, after the first antibiotic didn’t work)
• Cranberry standardized capsules (thrice daily, also for UTI)
• Acidophilus & Probiotic Complex (2 tablets, once daily)
• Prenatal Vitamin (once daily)
• Fish Oil capsule (an odorless version, thank god, once daily)
• Nettle tea (once daily)
• Red Rasberry Leaf tea (once daily)
• Patanol eyedrops (once daily)

If all goes well, next week I’ll drop the anitbiotics and then in another week, the probiotics.  Will probably keep up the cranberry for a while, though, just as a preventative measure.  The contractions brought on by the UTI was no picnic, but since nothing terrible happened, I can view it as a useful preview for real labor.

In other news, I was able cancel my work trip to glorious Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and now I get don’t have to spend any more nights away from Matt.  Yay!

Doggy Update:  Toaster is still at the hospital.  No more runs, but a few more pukies.

Now back to our regular programing:

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These socks are from a pattern by Miriam Felton I found for free on her website. I don’t expect you to recognize the yarn, but it’s left over from the first pair of socks I ever knit. Matt and the baby will have matching feet!  Well, sorta matching.

These aren’t for warm-keeping, but for mess-containing.

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“Kitchen cotton” bibs (a mix of Peaches & Creme and Sugar’n Cream…I feel so rebellious!), pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. They still need buttons, but, eh, there’s no hurry. I have a plastic snowman full of navy blue buttons that I got for, like, 50 cents at some time in the past. That should work.

Judging by the state of our many cotton dishrags, these will not age well. Since I made’em, I have stumbled up on a pattern suggesting super wash wool for baby bibs. Less likely to fade, more water resistant (won’t wick moisture through to baby’s clothes), and just as machine-washable. That’s some smart thinking, right there!

Soooo, last weekend we went to Ocean City with some friends. Here’s proof:

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No, no one was on the other end of the line. Yes, we had fun. Until we got stuck in traffic on the way home. Yes, we saw the truck that went of the bridge. Now, on with the shizz-ow…

Woooo, a whole WEEK of baby crap, coming your way! Like I said, I’ve been knitting for the little baby who currently has no purpose other than to pummel my internal organs for twenty minutes, every hour and a half or so. We have just entered the third trimester here, folks! Nesting instinct kicking in, in 3, 2, …

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Yes, that is my belly.

This cute little sweater is made out of some Reynolds Blossom that I got at All About Yarn. It’s a Reynolds pattern, too. The size is 3-6 months, but it’s roomy and the sleeves roll up, so I figure on a longer period of wear than that. But it was simple to knit, inexpensive, and machine washable. What more could I ask for?

Twitter’s been about all I can handle lately.  Within the last two weeks (in order of occurence), we had the living room, dining room, and hallway painted, the front door lock broke, my step-grandfather passed away, Toaster had to spend the day at the vet in case he had a reaction to his rabies shot (as he has in the past) while I spent the day with my Gramma, we attended the viewing, we missed Matt’s Aunt and Uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary, we started attending birth classes, our AC stopped working so we had to pack up Toaster and spend the night next door, we attended the funeral, I flew to Minneapolis for work for 5 days, the replacement front door lock broke, the AC got fixed, I flew home, we swapped cars because I can’t get in and out of the MINI anymore, we had a prenatal appointment with the practice’s new midwife (she’s cool, even if she does crochet), and last night hosted a committee meeting that ended up going until 11 pm.

Despite all that, we seem to be doing fine.  A little tired, but fine.  Also, there was plenty of coping-through-yarn, so maybe later this week I’ll manage to show you what got finished.