Uli's Creative Corner

I might just have a picture of some knitting to show tomorrow because I finished my hospital pair of socks.  I started them when I first went into the hospital on January 2nd and then have been plugging away at them whenever I had a chance.  I just have to finish up the toe and then they're done.  Yahoo.....

Jonathan needs to come home soon because in my daze and during my many hours at the hospital I made a promise that I would knit a preemie hat for each day that Jonathan is at the Special Care Nursery and donate those hats to them when I'm done.  The number of hats I have to knit is on the rise.  But, Mr. Jonathan is also doing better.  He is perking up and getting a little less tired.  Yesterday was an awesome day.  He ate well and had some really good feedings with me.  Today we tried to push a little harder and that pooped him out still so I know that even though he's getting better he still needs some time.  Back to the hospital in an hour.... my house is all asleep except for me...... and I'm the one that's supposed to be getting the rest but I fear that if I lie down as well, we'll all miss our visit at the hospital. 

Here's the latest picture of my little monkey:

Evan just bought Paint Shop Pro X so I'm hoping to be able to have some better edited images once I figure out how it all works.

Back to figuring out whether it's worth it to try and sleep for 1/2 hour.  Probably not!!!

I'll be back soon with a sock picture.

Posting a few pictures is about all the time I have right now.  I can't wait until I can take the little guy home.  He's just not quite getting enough food all on his own yet and so isn't really gaining weight yet.... but he's just so cute.  And Mom is allowed to say that.....

Mommy is tired........ baby is tired...... we're a tired family right now and he isn't even home yet.  Nonetheless, it's all worth it and I'm off for more feeding n less than half and hour.  I turned a heel in the hospital yesterday afternoon.

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful and encouraging comments and e-mails. It's kept me going through the trials of tribulations with having the little guy at the special care nursery. Just a quick update: Jonathan is still doing really well. He is a very cute little guy (I know I'm biased but all the nurses love him, too). His big sister has been wonderful but it's been tough on her and very tough on me to barely even have 5 minutes to cuddle with her. I go to the hospital a minimum of 4 times a day to nurse him and do other things with him like help take his temp, give him a bath, change his clothes etc. He is jaundiced so he'll definitely stay there until that's all resolved and he lost a bunch of weight after birth and hasn't really gained much back. Until he is consistent and gains weight consistently, he won't come home yet. The good news though is that it doesn't look he'll need a feeding tube or anything like that. He gets most of his milk directly from me or from what I have expressed especially for the night time feedings. I'm generally in good spirits but it's a bit emotional at times especially when I feel I'm almost force feeding him to get enough milk into his little tummy. The jaundice makes him a bit more sleepy than usual as well so it's hard to keep him completely awake for a full feeding. I'm sure I'm getting more sleep than if he was at home but I still do have to get up in the middle of the night to express milk so that I have more food for the next day and to make sure that I don't explode. Yesterday I did all the trips to the hospital by myself except the first one so that Evan could be home with Erika. My Mom and Dad came over and brought dinner (bless their hearts). When I come home between hospital visits, I have approximately an hour at home and then I leave again. The last feeding was at 8 pm last night and I came home just after 10 pm. That wasn't too bad as we switched his schedule a bit but I've been going to the hospital as late as 9 or 9:30 and then I wouldn't come home until closer to midnight. That part is tiring, especially on my own. But you know........ all that matters is that he's doing well. His big accomplishment yesterday and big time today was his higher state of alertness and opening his eyes and looking around. When he was trying to focus on my face, that was the coolest thing in the world. He did the same to Daddy and Erika.... zoomed right in on them. Erika drew him a picture that we stuck on his little white board and that made her feel very special. Knitting? Sewing? Not a chance........ of course. If Evan decides to go to work tomorrow (he might as well not use vacation days and use them once Jonathan is at home when I will really appreciate the help), then I might actually stick around the hospital with a sock project or something like that between feedings. The driving is starting to get to me and going shopping in between is even more tiring and also expensive. Well, I have 1/2 hour to get some lunch before I head off to the hospital again. Thanks for all your support. I really appreciate it. It keeps me going.

That's born on January 17, not February 17.

Please meet our very newest addition to the household:

Baby Jonathan

Born on January 17, 2006

4 1/2 weeks early

weighing 2704 grams (5 lbs 15 ounces)

50 cm (20") long

Welcome Jonathan!!!

I feel better because I can show you some knitting..... I hate it when I whine too much but I do thank you for all your supportive comments.  They do make me feel so much better.

I finished another cutie baby sweater tonight.  It's from a Sirdar pattern and I used the suggested yarn which was Sirdar Snuggly DK Fair Isle.  It's acrylic but it's baby soft and machine washes..... see where this is going?  I made a 3-6 month size because that's all the yarn I had and note in the picture the tiny little amount of leftover yarn I had.  Don't you just love it when you don't have tons of leftover yarn from a project.  I never end up using the leftovers and the accumulate.

 

I like it.  I think it will come in useful.  The V-neck will slip over the head easily and at the same time there will be no shoulder or back buttons to mess with or come undone.  It's easy care yarn and soft for baby.  It will probably fit as we move from winter into spring so it will be a perfect little sweater to put on instead of a light coat or whatever, depending on the weather.

And then, here's the first sock of my current sock WIP.  I started this sock in hospital.  I was inspired to take a ball of yarn that was gifted to me as a RAOK from Karen.  I was feeling pretty stressed about the hospital trip and taking something that was given to me in kindness just seemed to give me a bit of extra strength or positive vibes anyways.  So I knitted and knitted and have had the sock without the toe sitting around every since I came home from hospital.  I just finished up the toe shaping and cast on for sock #2.

The yarn is an Opal Crocodile.  I love how these are turning out.

Can you believe it????  I registered Erika for Kindergarten today.  Wow..... it's beyond me to even figure out where the time has gone.

 

Now that I'm home, I'm feeling like the most boring blogger ever...... I'm knitting less than before it seems and I'm kind of blah due to a lack of inspiration.  I haven't even taken the time to fix my blog template.  I just can't see the error as to why my right hand side bar has put itself way to the bottom of the left sidebar.  Technically I know it's probably a tag with a missing closing tag or another tag missing but I can't find it.  Been through the template a few times.  So I think I'm going to change templates but that will take more work than I usually invest at the computer these days.

Today I'm kind of hoping to finish a little knit though and then I'll have some pics.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment that didn't quite go as well as I had hoped for.  My OB certainly wasn't his cheery, humorous self and made me leave the office feeling very unsure about what's going on.  I was by myself (hate going by myself) and probably didn't ask enough questions.  He was certainly concerend about some things but baby still seems to be striving.  Back there next week again but I have the feeling he might make a decision to talk about induction soon.  It's just the feeling I get.  In the mean time I'm feeling worried and stressed again.  But as each day/week passes, I'm getting into the more and more safe zone for baby and that's all that matters to me at the time.  I'm actually going to try and take it really easy today but I always feel when I do that that I really should be doing something like washing baby clothes that I've resurrected from Erika's pile or sorting out more boxes or cleaning up this, that or the other.  I guess that's what they call nesting to some extent.

And what else is getting to me?  As I get ready to have this baby (whose name still remains undecided upon), I am also getting ready to register Erika for Kindergarten for September.  I just e-mailed the principal to let him know I'm coming in next week and this time on a personal matter and not a work related matter......  that's just so weird.  My daughter will be starting school before too long.  Hmmmmm, where did the time go?

As for names.......... I have on choice for a name - I'm happy with it.  Evan likes it but his mother doesn't and that's why Evan is hesitating.  Erika likes my choice, too.  Evan's Mom thinks that we're picking the name because my Dad's name has a similar/the same origin and we're not recognizing their family's names by picking that name.  My answer to that is that we will carry forward their family's last name whereas my maiden name has already stopped carrying on here in Canada the moment I took my husband's name when we got married.  So, everyone gets a something and we're even considering using Evan's Dad's name as a middle name.  Anyways..... we'll see how that develops.  We just can't seem to settle or let's say that when we explore other names we always come back to the same name. 

Have a great weekend and if my blog looks wonky for a while, you'll know that I'm experimenting with a new template.

So I've come across on a bunch of blogs that apparently it is

National De-Lurking Week

So, if you often come by and haven't said HI before, drop me a line to say HI.

A real post is brewing in my head but I need to go get Erika from daycare shortly.

Not exactly around here........ Erika came down with a fever on Thursday night with no other symptoms.  So we spent the day together on Friday and it turned into a pretty mellow day.  The fever went away with no other signs of anything and we had a busy weekend.  Sunday night, the ear infection started to rear its ugly head (haven't had one in this house in over 2 years) and Erika was refusing to take any sort of pain relief medicing.  Dang it..... her and I ended up being up all night long until about 5:30 am when we fell asleep on the couch for a bit and then I had Evan transfer her to her bed at around 7:30 and I slept until about 9 and let her sleep until almost 11.  Then I tried to convince her to go to the doctor.  Never had a struggle with that one before but this time it was a big struggle.  But I did convince her and now we're battling antibiotics.  Where did the kid go who used to come up to me and ask for medicing rather than having it almost forced down her throat with threats of consequences like not going to gymnastics class etc.

But anyways.... little one was in good spirits this morning so she is off to daycare and I'm spending my first day by myself in days.  Everyone tells me that now I'll be able to catch up on my knitting and I've been knitting less than I did before.  It seems criminal.  Today I am making that promised trip to the office that was already supposed to happen last Friday. 

Hopefully in a day or two, I'll have some more knitting pics to show.  I started working on the hem of Eris and in the middle of the night when I was staying up with Erika I started thinking about the instructions and realized that I am knitting the hem on the wrong sized needles.  I need to use the same needle size I was using for the collar but do you think I remember what that was?  Not a clue.  Ah well, rip first and then think later.  I guess I could swatch again.

Aside from Eris, I'm working on some awesome socks I started in the hospital and another cute little baby V-neck sweater.  Those are sort of the active things that are keeping me going.  Haven't worked on the Easy Lace Triangle I started on New Years Day since that day.

Have a good one.

It's nice to be home although I spent most of the day yesterday in pain.  Seems that lying in a hospital bed for two days aggravated my sciatic nerve and I could hardly walk yesterday.  Once I actually slid down the stairs on my bum because I couldn't see how I could walk down.  I'm still sore but I'm mobile today so I'm trying to do some things upstairs to get ready for the little guy's arrival.  In particular, I'm going through Erika's dresser (from her nursery furniture that has now been replaced with her big girl furniture) and sorting the last bits of clothes that never got sorted.  The dresser is now empty.  Now I have to sort through the closet.  There is much left to do yet......... a bit each day.  Except for the bit of sciatic nerve pain issues, I'm feeling quite well and I'm second guessing my trip to the hospital.  Did I overreact?  Could I still be at work if I hadn't got so scared by what was going on?  This is my second baby for goodness sake but I was induced so it was all different.  Well, the didn't seem to think I was overreacting at the hospital or I would have been in and out and not been there for 2 days or even 4 like they originally thought.  Actually, on the first day I was admitted both Evan and I looked at each other and got the vibe that I wasn't going to leave this hospital without having given birth.  It was nice to hear that it seemed like I might leave and be sent on on their ante-partum bedrest program.  Now to boot, I got sent home and not even on total bed rest.  So I feel pretty reassured but I'm still a bit jumpy.  You know, every little pain, every little tightening, every little thing seems to get me wondering.  One great thing....... today, my blood pressure has really normalized again and it had been climbing over Christmas for a bit and then wasn't the best at the hospital.  Today it was back down to where my blood pressure has been throughout most of my pregnancy.  And as this is the major concern for my doctor, I figure this is good.  He figures that issues with my blood pressure, possibly developing pre-ecclampsia will be the reason why he is pretty sure I will deliver early.  But who knows.... if that darn BP stays down... but then I haven't heard about the last test that they did and that will tell some more.

So, I miss work already......... I just wasn't ready to leave yet.  I spent at least an hour this morning working through phone messages, writing e-mails to my replacement to tell her the status of stuff and to just get things a bit more organized.  I'm going in tomorrow for a couple of hours to do a bit more work and to sort of clear out some of my personal stuff.  And I guess once I do that I'll be maybe more likely to cut the chord.  For now, I still feel like I'm working - just from home and only a few hours a day.  Even though I get a bit frustrated sometimes, I love my job and I'm very connected with it so it's hard to let go.

I haven't hardly knitted a thing.......... go figure.  And now I can't find a pattern.  It's on lime green paper and it's a little baby pattern I was working on.  I was referring to it yesterday afternoon and I have no idea what happened to it.  It should just be on the coffee table or the couch but it's gone.  My inlaws were over last night watching Erika while we had to go back to the hospital for my second shot and MIL tidied up a bit and Erika helped.  I sure hope they didn't manage to put it in the recycling pile of paper because the recycling truck is already gone.  I've looked everywhere so now I'll have to send in the troops to help me look.  It just means that I'll be working more on Eris tonight.  I'm only about 2 rounds away from starting the lower hem.

I had to delete my New Year's post (shouldn't have done it) because I'm having template issues.  The only thing I could relate to changing on the day those issues happened was that post and the setting up of my photo album for the socks.  I couldn't see an error or any missed tags in my template code so I went back to trying to take out what seemed to have caused the issue....... well, didn't seem to do anything.  But I have a thought now.... maybe check it out later or I'll be re-building my template.  Probably time for that anyways.

Have a great one.  I'm back to organizing children's and baby clothes.