Step Into My Thimble

Here’s the thing about having a baby: It becomes so very hard to concentrate on anything for more than 30 minutes at a time. For example I’m making decent progress on the Ballet Wrap cardigan (IK cover design, Winter 2005/2006) for myself, but I keep having to end in the middle of a row and attend to wet pants, or hunger, or someone at the door with dinner or flowers. None of it is bad, but I was quite used to long stretches of being able to contemplate whatever I wanted before.

However, there is so much bliss involved over here. Each day I seem to discover a new precious body part that I hadn’t thought of before. Shoulder blades! Little ribs! Knees! And that tiny wrinkle in the forearm that goes away after a while. It’s the best when she’s peacefully sleeping, but not so deeply that she can’t make what Rodney refers to as Meeps. Little meeping noises, so cute.

Finally the birth story is written, typed, and ready for you to read. Hope you like it! It’s here.

All is well here… An “aggressive nurser” they called her at the hospital. And they all loved that hat, thanks Monica! It was perfect for an Easter baby.

I’m still trying to find the time to finish writing out the birth story; it’s half done, right up to the point where I started pushing.

Stay tuned and thanks for all the well wishes! All that stuff about being overwhelmed is totally true, and mostly in a good way.

Guess what? Contractions hurt. I’ve been having them for the past two hours…the nurse I talked to an hour ago (at 2:30 a.m.) said it sounds like the real thing, and the bonus is my regular midwife is on call now! I was really hoping to get her instead of one of the others I don’t know as well.

So it’s gonna be an Easter baby if I labor “like a champ” as my midwife predicts I will.

We spent our Saturday in Saugatuck, hoping that Lake Michigan might do something to help things along. Here are two pics of us, our final pictures probably, as pre-baby people!

Think good things for us, okay? And in case we don’t get to post anytime in the next few days, you can watch for us at the virtual nursery here.

UPDATE! We found the GPS thing in the trunk. However, it was obvious that someone had been through the car and had left one of the doors slightly open. So far, we don’t think anything else was taken, so maybe that annoying security light on our garage is good for something after all.

Rodney and I have the worst luck with being robbed. Robbed! Last night someone went into our car and took our handheld GPS, which we use for Geocaching. I am aware that our neighbor never locks anything so I felt pretty safe here, but just like everywhere else we’ve lived in the past several years, some jerk has to come and spoil our comfort level. At least they didn’t come inside the house (which happened to us in Kansas, and to Rodney in Washington DC), or break windows and rip out stereo components or try to steal the whole car (Kansas; Chicago). But still!

Anyway I have a lot of new bibs on my Etsy shop as of this morning. I found another box of fabric in my stash, so there are lots of interesting prints in this group. I also made a new style which is more for the toddlers, a little bit bigger, but would work for a baby as well.

The above are just a few samples. I think all together there are about 20 different bibs to choose from at the moment. Whichever kid wears these bibs is sure to be the hottest one at the dinner party. Go shop and maybe buy one…it will give me something else to do as I pace around waiting for the baby to get here!

Spring is here, but the baby is not. Her official due date is the 18th… but we have storms coming tonight (inconvenient weather might make it happen) and there’s a full moon in a day or two… so stay tuned.

To occupy myself, I got the Step Into My Thimble sweatshop up and running again today, and in addition to a bunch of new bibs in the works for the Etsy shop, there is even a new style of bib, this time a little bit larger for the toddlers out there who are like me and insist on interesting textiles. Mostly I have just been cutting out stacks and stacks of the fabric, and then maybe there will be another day where I sew them together by machine, and then one at a time I’ll do the edge embroidery and put the snaps on. That last part will probably be post-baby, but I do want to have one or two of the toddler-size bibs online before then.

Here’s a peek at the stack of new bibs in the works. Sorry the depth of the stack isn’t quite captured, I guess my fabulous Gingher shears wanted to hog the glory. Anyway there’s enough cut out for probably 20 or more new bibs. I hope some people will buy these! I’m kind of thinking about renting a table for one weekend at the farmer’s market this summer, if I have enough merch to make it worthwhile.

And a little score from the great local antique mall: a vintage tablecloth just begging to be cut up for bibs, a purse lining, and some other things.