W.I.P. Wednesday

This week was very productive. I completed several projects. The first and largest project being the 12 fitted diapers for Ember that have been haunting me for the past few months. I am so very glad to have these done. I think from here on out I need to do smaller batches at a time. Sewing 12 at once was hard because it took so long to see results. I need quicker gratification than that.

My goal for the next eight weeks is to sew four diapers a week. By the end of the two months I should have enough diapers to last me for a long time. Here is the catch, of course there is one right? I can’t make anything easy for myself. I bought a one-size diaper from Dilley Dally and loved it. The one-size design is super clever and I highly recommend these diapers if you are in the market. It is a turned and topstitched (T&T) diaper instead of a serged one. Sorry if that makes no sense at all to those of you that don’t sew or cloth diaper. Anyhow, I want sew the rest of these diapers in the T&T style. I tried this way once before and couldn’t figure out how to do the elastic in the legs. All it means is that I have to spend some time learning how to sew them before I can actually start making some.  I hope that process doesn’t take me long.

Next completed project, the Fairy Petal shorties for Ember. Talk about cutting it close. I only had about 1.5 yards of yarn left when these were done. Wow, that was lucky. I love how fast these smaller sizes knit up.

I am unsure of what to knit next. I can’t remember knitting anything other than bottoms for the kids. In the past six months I have made five pairs of shorties and two skirties. Before that, a four pair of longies for Kage. I feel like I need to knit something else just for the sake of change even though I would be happy making another pair of shorties for Ember. I have some projects saved in my Ravelry account that I am going to look through. Maybe I can try a dress or top this time. You know, add some variety to the mix. Crazy.

And finally, two more head scarves for me! I have worn the first one I made every single day. Serious. I love it! I wanted a little variety, so I bought some fabric and these two set me back a whole $.50 each plus about 30 minutes of sewing time. Fantastic.

Playroom Update

I am so excited. The playroom is coming along, finally! We got the playstands last week and Bruce put them together. I need to glue the canopy frame still and put that up, but at least the majority of the work is done. It fits perfectly in the space with really only an inch to spare. I am glad I measured correctly. I am still waiting on the playsilk that covers the canopy frame, it is on back order. Once that is here it will be all set up. Yay!

Kage is enjoying playing in there and is actually using his toys more. Before they were a bit jumpled up, but now each toy will have a place to go when not in use.  This not only makes it easier and faster for me to clean up since I know where everything goes, but it makes it more organized for Kage so he can see his toys. It really does make a difference. I have also taken a few toys out of the playroom and put them away and will rotate them back into his play space when he seems bored of what is there now. Too many toys can be overwhelming for a little kid – less is better in this case I think anyway.

As much as he is enjoying playing in his new space, I would have to say he enjoyed helping Bruce put the playstands together even more. He LOVES anything mechanical. He loves working with tools, figuring out how things work, etc. He could spend all day outside with Bruce in the garage. Not only that but he has become Bruce’s shadow, litterally following him around nonstop. It is adorable. When Bruce goes out to cut the grass, Kage walks behind him and just follows him around the yard. When he goes outside to work on his car, Kage is right there, tools in hand helping to fix it.

After selling the futon that was in the space, I was able to order the kitchen I wanted to get for him. That arrived super fast, with in just a few days! I was very surprised and excited to find it on my door step two days ago.  Bruce was happy it required no assembly.  Kage really has loved playing with it. I wasn’t expecting him to “play” cook for a while, but I guess he is already to that stage. He quickly took a pan from the kitchen and tossed in some vegetables, put it on his stove and began stirring. Then he put it in the oven to cook it. So cute! I know the kitchen is going to provide lots of great playtime for both Kage and Ember.

He discovered that the kitchen sink also makes a great hat!

All that is left is to paint the walls since they are a mess (we never painted this room since we have lived here) and maybe sew some new curtains. I can start working now on making some play food and other kitchen items for his birthday and Christmas.

Happy belated forth of July! Hope you all had a fun holiday.

Not much time.

I need to get myself into bed, so this post is very short. Ember is finally asleep, I think. Normally she has been falling to sleep at 8 when Kage goes to bed, but not tonight. She was having a bit of a rough time tonight – a bit gassy maybe.  So, my “me” time was claimed by this cute little thing. I have a few things to post about, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. Goodnight!

Enjoying the day.

My house is a mess tonight. There is popcorn all over the kitchen floor, toys and clothes strewn about the house and a sink full of dishes. I decided to skip the house work today and just get outside with my little ones and enjoy the day.

Having two babies is already teaching me to slow down, I mean really slow down. When it was just Kage I could still get up and go quickly. I was able to accomplish most of what I wanted to get done. That isn’t possible now. At least not with a newborn. So I am having to take a step back, take a deep breath, and let a few things go. In return, I got to spend some great time outside playing with my babies and enjoying this hot Friday afternoon on the deck. I took my camera out with me in hopes of documenting some of this lazy summer afternoon.

Playing naked golf. He is saving me a bunch on my electric bill. He is going green already! I have to wash very few clothes or diapers for him as he prefers to run around naked. It must be nice. I am finding reasons to go places now just so I can dress him in the cute clothes I sewed for him.

Almost naked that is – have to protect those cute little feet. These Keen shoes are great!

Finally getting up the nerve to venture into the grass on his own. Usually he makes it my job to fetch the ball for him.

Wearing my new Gypsy Mama Bali Baby Stretch wrap – a baby shower gift from my wonderful Due Date Club. Thanks ladies!  I just love wearing my little ones. There are so many benifits to babywearing. I hope to dedicate a post to that subject at some point.

One of the lonely flowers in my back yard.

Looking through the fence to my neighbors yard. She has the most beautiful and well kept garden. I really enjoy walking past her house to see what new flower is in bloom.

I love how weathered my Buddha looks now.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I have made some progress on Ember’s diapers. Although, it is painfully slow going at this point. I am really losing steam on this project. I am getting good at finding other things to work on to procrastinate. At least the elastic is in all of them now.  What is left is serging the edges and putting on the last snaps. I will be glad when these are done, but the problem is this isn’t nearly enough diapers. I am hoping to have at least 40 diapers for her. If I expect them to last upwards of two years, I need that many if not more. Otherwise they are going to wear out too soon. Plus, I am sick of washing diapers every day and would rather get back to an every other day schedule. I might break down and buy some diapers. I really shouldn’t considering I have so much fabric here in my sewing room. I’ll keep plugging away on these for now and maybe I will get to 40.

In knitting land…. I am starting more capris for Ember. I think I have just enough of this yummy organic merino yarn from Nurturing Threads. I love this colorway called Fairy Petal. I was lucky enough to have some matching pink yarn from another yarn purchase that I can use for the waistband and the ruffles at the bottom. I have frogged the body of the pants twice now. The first time I realized they were turning out a bit smaller than I wanted. When I increased the stitches however, the colors started to pool together in a way that I wasn’t happy with. So, these have been sitting in my knitting bag for about a week waiting to be dealt with.

My other big project, the kid’s new playroom, is making progress which I am very excited about. The wooden playstands finally came in yesterday. They need to be put together which means using a drill and wood glue. I figure it is best to wait until Bruce can help me on this project. I really don’t want to mess them up. Hopefully we will have them put together by this weekend.

The t.v. that was in the playroom finally sold. I had it posted on Craig’s list forever. I am so happy that it is gone since there was no room for the playstands with it still in the room. Bruce is sad about it though, he does love his electronics and wasn’t thrilled that I was selling it. To make it worse, it sold on Father’s Day which he made sure to point out. I want to thank him for being such a great Dad and husband and letting me sell it even when he didn’t want to. The money from the sale is going to purchase some new toys for the playroom. The big purchase will be a wooden kitchen. Maybe this one here. The futon in the room isn’t sold yet, but I have two people coming to look at it today and tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I will be thrilled to have it gone too. Then I can move on to the next step which will be painting the room. I am thinking a light yellow, but haven’t decided for sure yet.

On a very different topic, I have ventured in to sprouting for the first time this week. I just sprouted this huge jar of lentils – I think it is close to 6 cups! I had no idea 2 cups of dry lentils would plump up so much. I need to eat them in the next couple of days. I read 4 days is the shelf life on them. My friend Serina inspired me to try them. I am going to make her recipe here and also will try this recipe here for dinner. The only problem is that I am missing a few ingredients. This means venturing out to the grocery store this afternoon with both kids. Since I only need a few items, I won’t be in the store long. But I get stressed just thinking about it. It is going to take a while to get used to having two kiddos to take every where. It is quite an adjustment.

Speaking of kids though, Ember is doing great. Despite all her spitting up, she has managed to gain another pound this week and is already up to 10 lbs 4 oz. After a week of me eating no dairy, I think I am seeing a difference for her. I will have to wait another week or two though until it all clears my system to see the full results.

Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

Something for me.

I finally made something for myself! What a crazy thing to do. It has been ages since I sewed anything other than diapers or baby clothes. All the diapers I have been trying to finish up for Ember are really boring me. I think I am over making diapers for a while. So, I took a short break to make something for myself. I whipped this up while the kids were napping today. It is something I have been wanting to make for myself and is very functional. It is pretty hot here now and I have really wanted to get my hair out of my face. This head scarf gets the job done and is so cute.

My wonderful brother and sister-in-law bought me the book Weekend Sewing and this head scarf pattern is in the book. I first saw the pattern on another blog (I can’t recall which one it was at the moment) and it is what prompted me to want the book. The project took about 25 minutes to make, seriously so easy. It would be great for a beginner sewer. I am sure I will be making a few more of these in some other fun prints.

Hope you are having a great Monday!

A quick baby update.

Free time is hard to find these days, as I expected. I am doing a quick baby update tonight so I can spend a few minutes sewing before I have to get myself to bed or a baby wakes up. Ember is growing fast and will be out of her newborn diapers in a few short weeks.  I have to get her one-sized diapers sewn soon or I am going to be in trouble.

She had her first check-up with our pediatrician this week and is doing wonderfully. She had dropped to 8 lbs. 8 oz. at her two day check-up with my midwife, but by day 9 was already back up to 9lbs. 4 oz. – 2 oz. over her birth weight. Go little nursling, go! The one issue she might be struggling with is a dairy allergy. As a result, I have gone back to eating a vegan diet. I was planning on going vegan again at some point, so I guess it is just sooner rather than later.

So now for the good part, some new photos of baby Ember and her big brother (who is absolutely as sweet as can be with his sister).

Here are some shots of the kids at a picnic last week which was our first family outing since Ember arrived. K is wearing the new shorties I made him. Finally got them finished up! I wanted to post about them yesterday for W.I.P. Wednesday, but never managed to get computer time. The shorties look a bit wonky in the photo, but I hadn’t washed or blocked them yet.

Giving little sister a kiss.

Taking a little nap. I just love her skirty. Ruffles and pink make me happy.

Sleeping, again. She does that quite a bit. Wearing her Patsy Panda outfit, minus the matching hat which is oh so cute.

One of her first trips out in her carseat.  So far she really is not liking it. I can’t blame her, she looks like she is going to be swallowed up by it she is so small.

Baby Ember is here!

This past Saturday was my birthday and I received the most amazing birthday present ever. The birth our little baby girl, Ember. After 40 weeks and 6 days, she finally made her arrival into this world. And on top of it all, I got the home waterbirth I wanted so badly. It couldn’t have gone any better. Here is her birth story.

Around 3 a.m. I woke up and thought I felt some very light contractions. I had been having non-stop Braxton Hicks contractions all week with a few stronger contractions mixed in. I lay in bed for a little while and realized they were coming with some regularity and of course I got excited and couldn’t sleep. So I got up and cleaned the kitchen and ate some food. I was a bit disappointed because the contractions seemed to almost go away when I was moving around. I assumed they were just more practice contractions and went back to bed around 4:30.

At 6:00 I woke up again, only this time the contractions were a bit stronger. When I got up, they didn’t seem to go away. Yay! This is when I started really getting excited that something might be happening. I started timing them on ContractionMaster.com , such a great site if you are in labor by the way, and they were coming about 2.5- 3 minutes apart and were lasting about 30 seconds. I finished cleaning in the rest of the house since I wanted to keep myself busy and really wanted the house cleaned if this was the big day. Having a clean, organized house makes me feel better and since we were planning for a homebirth I wanted the house to look decent at least. Silly maybe I know, but it’s the truth.

By about 7:30 or so Bruce and Kage woke up. I shared with Bruce that I might be going into labor, but I don’t think he really believed it either. We decided that he would still go into work that day since he had a few patients to see, but that he would take Kage with him. Once they were up, Bruce took Kage out and bought some breakfast. They came home and ate while I started prepping for the birth. I first called my mom and let her know to be on standby since she would be watching Kage for us during the birth. I then called my midwife, Peggy, to let her know my status so she could be on standy as well. I told her I would call back in a few hours and let her know how I was progressing.

Next, I took out the labourade I had made and frozen earlier that week and I put together a bag of clothes and diapers for Kage. We got Kage dressed to go and then Bruce helped me get the bed made up with the old sheets and waterproof mattress pads. While we were making the bed my brother called to wish me a happy birthday and I managed to say hi between contractions. The contractions were feeling a little more intense and I wasn’t really wanting to talk through them any more but instead felt the need to stop and focus a bit. It was close to 10:00 a.m. now and Bruce left with Kage to go to his office. He promised to be home in two hours in less I needed him sooner. His office is nearby, so I wasn’t concerned that he would be too far away if I needed him quickly.

I wanted to capture a last pregnancy photo like I had done while I was in labor with Kage, so I got the camera and managed to take a few photos in between contractions.

Here is the photo I took while I was in labor with Kage to compare.

I kept timing my contractions and they seemed to be holding steady. I walked around the house some and sat on my birthing ball for a while. A few minutes after 10:00, my mom got to my house and kept me company. I called my midwife again at 10:30. I told her the contractions were coming a little closer together and were more intense now and that I would like them (her and her assistants) to come on over. She said  they would be at our house by 12:00. I didn’t know until after Ember was born that they were actually finishing up at another birth.Talk about great timing.

My midwife reminded me to try to rest a bit if I could to save my energy for the birth and also to eat something. I managed to eat a few bites of granola cereal and a small bit of cheese, but that was all I could handle. I wasn’t really even hungry now. I did lay down for a bit, but my contractions seemed to slow down. I was really scared that they might slow down too much since my contractions had slowed and eventually stopped with Kage.  So I got back up and kept moving around. By 12:00 I decided to lay back down because I was getting tired and worried that I would be in for a long labor. It wasn’t much after that, that one of the midwife apprentices, Kim, showed up. I was glad to see her because the contractions were really getting strong now and I was beginning to use all of my energy during contractions to stay focused and relaxed. During my contractions I repeated “open” in my head over and over and tried visualizing my cervix opening up. Kim checked my blood pressure and monitored Ember’s heart beat and said everything looked great.

Things started happening quickly at this point. A few minutes later Bruce arrived home with Kage, who had fallen asleep in the car. He put Kage down in his room for a nap and we decided to let him sleep and then have him go with my mom when he woke up. I am still surprised he managed to sleep through all the noise I was making. Peggy arrived by 12:30 and she checked me to see how far along I was. I was disappointed when she said I was only 5 cm dilated. I stopped dilating at 8 cm with Kage and just wanted to get past that point this time. His birth was never too far out of my mind while I was in labor. Peggy assured me that getting this far was the hardest part. It turned out she was right!

She thought it would be best to wait a bit longer before getting in the birthing pool and both Bruce and I agreed. With Kage’s labor, my contraction had slowed down when I got into the pool. I wanted to make sure I was close to giving birth before I got in.

Bruce was a great birth coach.  He kept me thinking positive and had me pacing through the house to help keep the labor progressing.  Keep moving he said. So I did. At 1:00 I felt really nauseous after one of my contractions and threw up. It might sound odd, but I was really encouraged by this since it was a sign that we might be getting close! I think it was at this point Kage woke up and left with my mom.

I went back to the bedroom to rest again. At 1:30, Kim said I could get in the pool if I wanted. What wonderful news. I was very ready to get in. I got in the pool and wow did it feel great. The contractions were still very strong, but it did help take the edge off. I quickly found a comfortable position and stayed that way for about 15 minutes until they suggested I try a new position. It hurt more after I moved, but I realized my legs had been falling asleep the other way so it was good that I moved.

The contractions were getting to be overwhelming now and my low back was hurting too. It was 2:00. I think this is when the second assistant, Desiree, arrived. Bruce got into the pool with me. I won’t lie, it was in a lot of freaking pain at this point. This was the transition period which is by far the worst pain of all. I kept reminding myself of what my Bradley Method teacher had said,  “once you think you can’t make it any longer, you are almost there.” I sure hoped I was close to having her because I started thinking I was out of my mind for wanting to have this baby without drugs. I swore to myself I was never having any more kids or if I did we were going to the hospital to get drugs! After she was born of course, all those thoughts were far from my mind and I was so glad I had her at home. The pain really is fleeting and as I hold her now I can hardly remember it.

It was hard to stay calm through the contractions and my midwives asked if I was feeling any urges to push. In a few minutes, I was. After about 15 minutes of pushing, I could reach down and feel Ember’s head starting to crown. What an amazing moment that was. And so encouraging. She was almost here! I another contraction or two and her head was out. Sweet relief. That ring of fire I had learned about – I was glad that part was over with because that was something out of this world and not really in a good way. Pushing the rest of her out was quick and easy. At 2:22, after only 22 minutes of 2nd stage labor, she was here! This is when I finally opened my eyes. I think they were shut nearly the entire time I was in the pool. I saw her come out into this world and with the help of my midwives, I pulled her out of the water.

In my excitement, I must have pulled her up too quickly or too high, because the umbilical cord broke. My midwives were calm, but quickly pulled us both out of the water to get the umbilical cord clamped. It was a bit of excitement for a moment, but they handled it perfectly. I heard Ember making some noise and Peggy assured me she was fine. We then moved back to our bedroom so I could nurse her and birth the placenta. Ember was born ready to nurse because as Bruce carried her down the hall to our room she was searching for a boob to latch on to! I have really been blessed to have no problems with either Kage or Ember nursing. From the moment Kage was born he was the same way.

From this point on we just relaxed in bed while my midwives packed up their things and helped clean up from the birth. After we had a chance to nurse and bond for a while, they took her measurements and weighed her. I couldn’t believe she weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. I certainly wasn’t expecting her to weigh more than Kage who was 9lb even at birth. Her length was 20.5 inches. She has the longest toes and big feet just like me and all my sisters and nieces. I guess that family trait is dominant. She looks less Korean than Kage did when he was born and her skin looks like it might be lighter like mine. I guess we will see as she grows.

Here she is just a few hours after her birth.

She was very alert and stayed up into the early hours of the morning nursing. It truly was an amazing experience and I am so thankful that I was able to have her at home. Like I said, the pain was intense, but fleeting. Being able to labor in the comfort of my own home, with only my midwives and husband present was really sacred. It was such an enormous difference from all the lights, strangers, noise, commotion and chaos that I experienced in the hospital with Kage. I do hope we have more children at some point and if we do they will be born at home. I want to thank my midwife, Peggy, and her midwife apprentices, Desiree and Kim, for doing what they do and doing it so well. You all are a blessing to women!

Ember Sun Short – one day old, wearing her Born At Home shirt.

And more squishy baby goodness from today, day four.

Thrift store Monday!

I am fortunate enough to live in an area with an abundance of thrift stores. One of my favorites has 25% off every Monday. For a while, I was making a weekly visit to the store, but I haven’t been in some time now. Today felt like a good day to get out of the house for a little thrift store adventure. I hoped it would keep my mind of the fact that I am now past my due date. I figure if I can keep myself busy enough during the day, I won’t go crazy waiting for little Ember to arrive.

The store I went to today is huge, like the size of a grocery store. I rarely spend less than an hour looking around. Today I didn’t manage to find any of the items on my list, but I did make a few wonderful finds.

I spent a grand total of $5.75  and this is what I bought: two playsilks, a wooden firetruck and a small wooden basket for Kage’s silks.

The first find was the silks. I was so excited when I found a solid yellow, 100% silk scarf that measures about 30 x 30 inches. It still had the label on it, so I was sure it was 100% silk. I have plans to dye some larger playsilks for Kage at some point, but I am still waiting to get my dyes and blank silks I purchased through a co-op. He really loves playing with his six fairy silkies and I think he is ready for some larger ones.

As I kept looking through the scarves, I found another scarf that looked identical except it was orange. This one did not have a label on it, but it felt just like the yellow one. I spent several minutes debating if it was indeed silk or polyester and decided it was silk. If it isn’t, Kage sure won’t know. And for $1.50 each I couldn’t pass them up.

Next was a small wicker basket I picked up for 50 cents. I bought this basket to hold his silkies since they don’t really have their own home yet. Now they have a place to be stored and the basket is a great size for Kage to easily carry around. As soon as I gave him the basket filled with the silks, he ran to the chair, climbed in and started pulling them out. He really loves how they feel against his skin as you can see.

The last find was in the toy isle which I rarely go down. 99% of the toys there are stuffed animals, commercial cartoon characters, and lots and lots of plastic. None of which appeal to me. It was like a spotlight was shining down on this truck though! I spotted it amidst all the clutter from the far end of the aisle and ran to grab it before some one else did! It is an unfinished, solid wood firetruck that is about 12 inches long. It probably once had some people to sit up front, but will work just fine with out them.

There is no logo or brand marking on it, so I have no idea where it came from. For $2.25, it was a great addition to Kage’s wood toy collection. One of his only plastic toys is a big Tonka dump truck that he just loves. I hope to replace it with a handmade wooden dump truck at some point, maybe for his 2nd birthday. This firetruck is his first wood vehicle. He took to it right away and had fun pushing it all around the house tonight. With his insistence, it even came to bed with us for story time.

I think today was a great success! You never know with thrift store shopping. Some days are a bust, but finding items like we did today makes it worth the effort.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I found out about this fun and creative Flickr group called W.I.P. Wednesday (Work In Progress), over at Fronteir Dreams and thought I would join in. I always have something on my cutting table or on my needles – why not share? Part of me thinks it is silly to start something new right now since I am so close to giving birth and I am sure I will miss a few Wednesdays after she is born, but I am going to give it a try anyway.

I am trying to finish up one last pair of knitted shorties for Kage.  I am having a hard time knitting with him around because he just loves this yarn. He picks up the yarn and wants to rub it on his face because it is so soft which is really cute. But his little toddler hands will make a tangled mess of the yarn very quickly if I let him hold the yarn too much. It also seems to be going slow because it is a lighter weight yarn, which is great for the summer, but I am knitting it up on size 6 needles which is smaller than I am used to. After knitting tiny things for Ember, these seem huge! I have some matching yellow yarn that I plan to make cargo pockets with. I think they are going to turn out super cute.

And here are all the one-size diapers I have had cut out and sitting on my sewing table for a good 6 to 8 weeks now. I keep procrastinating on these, finding other projects to work on instead. The snaps are in, I just need to sew in the elastic and serge them together. I think I just got burnt out on sewing diapers and needed the break to work on something different. I hope I can get these done in the next few days.

Here are two that I did manage to finish. I made about six of these diapers in boyish prints for Kage and love how they fit him. Hopefully, I will like them on a smaller baby too since I don’t have any back-ups right now if they don’t work. These are what we plan to use after she outgrows the newborn size fitteds and prefolds I made her.

Happy W.I.P. Wednesday!