Category Archives: Baby

Buttons Buttons

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I also spent time this weekend sewing buttons on completed projects. I’m so bad about actually finishing projects! I love actually finishing the knitting part of it, but then I put it aside and forget to do the little things like sew buttons on and weave in the ends.

But, I got these all completely finished. I was hoping to have a baby to put them on, but hey, you know, no biggie, right?

I got some wooden buttons on the Cabled Hoodie, it looks a lot better with buttons, I think.

And I also got buttons sewn on the Pebbles vest!


Other than that… pretty much just been sitting on the couch. How exciting!

What I’ve Been Doing Instead Of Having This Baby

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So, no, there is no baby yet. He tricked me on Saturday… he got me good. I started having contractions that were 4 minutes apart. I got excited. These were painful contractions, so, you know, naturally I thought this was the beginning of labor. That paired with horrific back pain really got me thinking that this was it. I was going to have this baby SOON. So, around 7:30 we called the hospital and they told us to come in. They monitored me for an hour and by that time my contractions were coming almost every minute, but they weren’t lasting long enough to be as productive as they needed to be. So, when they checked me after laboring for 4 hours and I was only a centimeter dilated. WHAT? I couldn’t believe it. I was so frustrated. The nurse was really optimistic and told me all kinds of things like “It may take a while, but I really think you’re going to have this baby today or tomorrow” and I filled my silly little head with all these thoughts of having a baby that night. They let me labor there for another two painful hours before she checked me again, around 10:30pm. And I had only dilated half a centimeter. Which, in other words means “Go home.” So much for that full moon Saturday night…

So…we went home. I was pretty much heartbroken, but was trying not to think too negatively, because I was still having tons of contractions and was still laboring really hard. There was no way I could sleep through these, and my back was still aching really badly. We tried to watch some tv, but the pain was bad enough that it was just annoying me more than anything. I told Paul to go get some sleep, because I wanted him to be somewhat awake and sane if he had to drive me back to the hospital. So I stayed up and tried to distract myself on the computer. Around 1:30am my mom pulled into town, having driven straight from Tacoma, and we went on a walk around campus to see if that might speed things up, but it didn’t… (boo) so I decided that I should probably at least TRY to sleep, so around 2:30 or 3:00 I laid down in bed, but couldn’t get comfortable and could NOT sleep, so I got up around 6:00am to try to eat something, but immediately threw it up. And then I kept throwing up and wasn’t able to keep anything down at all, so around 9:30am we called the hospital again and they told me to come in and they’d monitor me for a bit and give me some fluids. So, they gave me some IV fluids and some anti-nausea drugs, after that I felt much better, but was still contracting pretty regularly, so she checked me again and I hadn’t dilated at all since the LAST time they checked me 13 hours earlier. By this point I was starting to finally think that this baby is definitely not coming today and he’s just teasing me. Mean little boy. So, I got home around 12:30pm yesterday and took some Unisom and actually managed to fall asleep for 3 1/2 hours, and felt a whole lot better. And since then I’ve still been contracting regularly, but just not super painful contractions. So that’s where we’re at. No baby, but still lots of contractions… which means he could come tomorrow, or he could wait another few weeks.

BUT, on the bright side, I got another project finished! Actually, it’s two projects, but they go together so nicely, so I will show you them both today!

It’s a new little sweater for my baby Togglebuttons! Paul picked out the colors and the yarn.

I’m not thrilled with my button choice. I am wishing now that I had found some wooden buttons. I think it would have looked nicer… but I am not going to worry about that now. These will do for the meantime.

But… I also made some booties to go with it!

I thought about making a hat also, but I thought that might be a bit too matchy-matchy and end up looking silly.

I really like this pattern for booties, (I didn’t like it the first time I made it, because it was a complicatedly written and not very clear) but now I think it’s the best. Also because it’s nice and stretchy around the ankle so they can’t slip off little baby feet.

And so there you go. That’s what I’ve been up to instead of popping out a baby. BUT it’s been blissfully cool today, and we even got a bit of rain yesterday, so if this is an indication that the hot weather is gone and fall is on its way, that is OK by me! I also don’t mind having my mom come out early because if the baby was here, she’d just want to play with him, but instead right now right now she’s mopping my floors (they’ve been sadly neglected during the pregnancy…) and cooking and cleaning and organizing my cabinets, so, you know, that’s awesome. She’s nesting for me, I guess! I pretty much just sat on a chair as she went through my cabinets and sorted items, and we got rid of a ton of things I never use anymore. I just had to sit there and say “keep” or “toss” and she took care of the rest. And now I have a clean and well organized house. And I didn’t have to do a thing (except for go into false labor).

So here we are. Still waiting for baby. If anyone wants to come hang out with me or distract me that is totally welcome, since my mom is leaving tomorrow morning (unless the baby decides to make an exit tonight? Not likely, but who knows!) And all of you who have offered your distraction services so far, I am definitely going to take you up on that this week. And don’t worry, I’ll let all of you out there in blog-land know when Togglebuttons decides to make his grand entrance!

Cherry Picking

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So yesterday we went cherry picking. I think I was a little over-zealous with my cherry picking, because now I have 10 pounds of cherries and I’m not entirely that I want to pit 10 pounds of cherries. Yeah.


And so they’re just sitting on my kitchen table. Giving me the stink-eye. Begging me to do something with them.


The good thing about all of this cherry picking was that it gave me a nice little workout yesterday (a lot of stretching and reaching, and also I think driving over crazy-bumpy roads helped too) because when I went to the doctor this morning she said that this little man is locked and ready to go.

And that I’ve gained 3/10ths of a pound!  Ok, so maybe this is a total TMI, but he’s definitely dropped and when she did my exam today she said she could feel his head wayyy down low in my pelvis (which makes my waddle-walk that much more hilarious, because it feels like I’ve got a bowling ball between my legs) and I’m dilating  (um, yay!) and things are looking good to have this baby pretty soon. She thinks it’ll be in the next two weeks. So let’s hope she’s right.

36 Weeks

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So I made it to the “safe zone”, as my doctor put it. Something magical happens at the 36 week mark where they decide that if you go into labor from here on out they’re not stopping it.

Something happened in my brain, too. Once I hit that magical “36 week mark” and I took my very last dose of Nifedipine there was this switch that went off in my head that was like “Ok- it’s go time!” even though it could very well be 4 more weeks until this baby comes for some reason I just all of the sudden got ridiculously impatient for him to arrive. Every little twinge, Braxton Hicks contraction, weird symptom has got me running to Google to find out if it’s a sign of labor. I should be banned from my computer for these last few weeks, seriously. But at least I am not on bed rest anymore, so I can at least feel like I can be productive and get things done while I am waiting on this little dude to arrive. Although, with all of that sitting around I did for the last few weeks I DID get a lot of knitting done, and that’s always good.

And now we play the waiting game. Since I stopped taking the medication (this is day two of no labor-stopping meds) will he decide to join us soon? Or since we went through all that work to stop labor early is he content to just sit around until 40 weeks? (Or 41, or 42?!)  I don’t wanna force him out early, but just so you know Togglebuttons, we’re all ready for you! We’ve got everything set up and ready to go. We’ve got the crib set up, we’ve got the car seat ready, we’ve got the hospital bag packed. But now that I’ve got everything all ready to go I just feel like I am sitting around waiting. Just… waiting. I know, everyone has said that the last month is the worst, getting impatient and just wanting to hold your baby already. I’m only two days into my ‘last month’ and I’m already getting stir crazy. Not to mention it’s just too darn hot to do anything outside, and I end up just sitting on the couch in front of the fan all day.

So, whenever you’re ready, baby, we are ready for you.

Penguin II

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So, I loved that little purple penguin so much that I decided that Togglebuttons needed his own penguin.

Little Penguin waves “hello!”

And now he’s joined the rest of the little zoo!

Also, while cleaning out the spare bedroom and making room for all of the baby stuff, I found that little blue and white bunny that I made a year and a half ago. He’s not my favorite, but hey, it’s another critter to add to the menagerie.

So, any ideas of what animals I should make next? I’ve got to keep myself busy until I am off bedrest, so I don’t go absolutely crazy. So, any suggestions would be appreciated! I know Autumn already suggested a green elephant (to match the bedding!) so I may start on that. But I’d love to hear what you guys think!

Another Friend for Togglebuttons

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I made another little friend for Togglebuttons! It’s a pattern I’ve used before, and thought he was kind of fun, so I thought I’d make him again.

Although, there is something not quite right about his face. I always struggle with the faces…

But I think I am done working on him, because I don’t feel like working on it anymore. And I’ve got other projects to attend to.


Although, his green color does coordinate nicely with the baby’s bedding.

Yep- I think he’ll fit in nicely with the locals.

Also, guys, I totally finished that tie I was working on. And it rules. Seriously, I’ll show you pictures on Thursday. It’s the best, ever. I am really pleased with it.

Ok- see you all tomorrow with your “You Knit What?!” Wednesday!

Nursery Bedding

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So, for my baby shower present we got the cutest bedding for Togglebuttons Nursery from my mom. I absolutely adore it.

Isn’t it the cutest, EVER?

 My sister Erika is actually the one that found it for me. And I instantly fell in love with it. And I think it’s gender neutral enough to use for other future children, girl or boy.

Togglebuttons little buddies are already in the crib waiting for him! Now all we need is a baby!

 It even has a cute little dust-ruffle, in my favorite color of green! Ok, now that I am looking at these pictures, I realized I probably should have ironed them before taking pictures and posting them all over the internet… (sorry mom)

Now I just need to get something to hang his cute new elephant mobile on! (If anyone has any great ideas on how to attach it to the crib, I’d love to hear them. You can see a picture of the mobile hanging to the right, just behind me (it’s hanging from the light fixture) in this picture.)

Hold On, Baby.

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We had a bit of a scare yesterday- and just so you know going into the story that everything is good and Togglebuttons is still baking away in my belly. So, on Tuesday night I had gone out with some girlfriends and stayed out way past my bedtime. I started having some pretty bad lower back pain, but didn’t think too much of it because, well, I’m almost 35 weeks pregnant, and because back pain has just sort of become a daily occurrence for me since my spinal fusion in 2002. So, I get home and take my concoction of vitamins and things that help me sleep, but by this point my back is hurting extremely bad, so I take a warm bath to see if that helps. It did get me nice and relaxed, but as soon as I got out of the water the pain started right back up again and wouldn’t lighten up – I tried icing, heating pads, elevating my feet, laying on my right side, laying on my left side, etc, etc, I just couldn’t get the pain to let up. And I wasn’t getting any sleep. At all.

I was feeling a lot of tightness in my belly, but it was about 4:00 am at this point and wasn’t exactly what you would call ‘with it’. (Not thinking enough about it at that point to time them or figure out how long they were lasting) I called the L&D ward at the hospital and the nurse said to drink three big glasses of water and see if the tightness lightens up, I drank all that water, and my belly did loosen up. Finally around 6:30 am on Wednesday morning I managed to find a somewhat comfortable position sleeping sitting up, propped up by pillows on all sides and I slept for about two hours. Paul left for work and I just sort of kept moving around all morning to try to get into a comfortable position, but I was feeling mighty grumpy at this point. Fast forward to around 1:00- Paul had just left to go back to work (he was home on his lunch break) and a few minutes after he left I started feeling really bad- like, really, really bad. I started timing the contractions and they were only 4 minutes apart and were lasting between 60-90 seconds each time. So, I called my doctor and they told me to come in and get on the monitor for a little bit to see what was going on. They had me monitored for about 15 minutes before they realized that this was, in fact, labor.

They gave me a shot of Terbutaline, which gave me the shakes awfully bad. They checked my cervix and I was starting to dilate, so it was good that I came in when I did. They watched me for a few hours and then sent me home, on modified bed rest, which basically means that I don’t really have to stay in bed, but I shouldn’t be running around doing too much, and that I just have to take it really easy for the next few weeks. No heavy lifting, no long walks, nothing that could potentially kick-start my labor again. I also get to take this fun medication that makes me all lightheaded and dizzy, and I get to take it every four hours for the next seven days. They’re not sure what caused me to go into pre-term labor, but I sure am glad that they’ve got ways of stopping it once it starts! The GOOD news is that he is still measuring bigger than average, so even if he does decide that he’s ready to come before he’s supposed to, things are looking pretty good. We’re hoping he decides to stay in there until at least 37 weeks, if not longer. Hopefully this was a one time deal and he won’t try to escape again until we’re good and ready for him!

Baby Shower!

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When I was in Tacoma my lovely cousin Sarah threw me a baby shower. For those of you who don’t know, Sarah is a master party planner. Seriously, she can throw a party like nobody’s business. She did an amazing job and we had such a good time!

She added just the cutest little details!

Notice the cute handsewn elephants hanging all over? She made them as party favors and everyone got to take one home and she made me a mobile with them as well! So adorable!

Me and my highschool besties! (R-L: Hilary, Me, Autumn, Charissa)

CUTE CUTE CUTE!

And yummy, yummy food!

Togglebuttons and I were supremely blessed by gifts. I can’t wait to decorate the nursery with all of my new presents!

Cute Little Boy in his Sweater

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Wow. I don’t usually leave the blog completely unattended for a week! I hope I still have some readers left after my long vacation! I will be sharing more pictures throughout the week, but I wanted to show you this little cutie, who belongs to my bestie Autumn, wearing the hoodie I made for him before he was born.

Now, it’s still a little big for him, but that’s ok, so it’ll fit him all the way through the fall and the winter.

Isn’t he just the cutest EVER? I just want to squeeze him and eat him up! And he’s a happy little thing, too. Oh, I can’t wait to have my own little boy to dress up in handknits! Six more weeks!