What a rollercoaster.

DIL may get to go home tomorrow. I am home now and other grandmother is with Baby B. I've had a total of 5 hours sleep since I went there Monday morning. Son has not left DIL's side.

The blood clots were dangerous. DIL was at a hospital in a small town. There was no blood going to one of her legs, there were clots in her lungs and abdomen. Hospital said the clots were too close to the kidney for them to deal with so they were going to send her to Dayton. Dayton then said they wouldn't deal with it either. I think that was the worst part for son to deal with. Then they said they were taking her to the hospital close to my house. After they arrived there, Dr. assured son they deal with this all of the time. Son was greatly relieved. So emergency surgery started at 10pm and ending around midnight. Dr. said he got them all cleared out and put in a filter. DIL was told never to get pregnant again. Period.

I took things to do with me to their house. Oh how naive of me. Baby B gets fed every 2 hours. In that two hour time, she is changed, bottle readied, fed, burped, and held for a bit so she doesn't spit up after eating. That takes 30-45 minutes. Then, at least 80% of the time, Baby B wakes with gas pains 15-30 minutes after she is put in her bed. That can take 10-20 minutes to get her back to sleep. During the night, the gas pains happen pretty much every time.

When other grandmother arrived, I was wearing the same pjs I had put on the first night, and they were not very clean. I did manage to brush my teeth though. Those who know me would laugh at the image. I'm teased because my default is to take a shower in the morning and a bath at night, each day. Oh, I forgot to mention they have cats. Even when Baby is sleeping, she has to be watched to make sure cats don't jump in with her. They put the cats upstairs at night time.
I did that the first night and then kept them up there for yesterday. I was too worried I would doze off. When cats realized it was just me there, and that they weren't missing out on much, they didn't seem to mind too much. DIL worried about her cats. I let them downstairs with me this morning.

DIL won't be allowed to do much. I don't know for how long. We all joked about son getting a 6 week paternity leave before Baby B was born, but they really need it. Thank goodness for that.

I'm home and I can't get to sleep. I dozed off once and woke up because I heard the baby crying.
I knew that would happen. The long dormant maternal quirks can resurface :)

On the way home, I passed an elementary school. Water that had been in my car was frozen. My car temp gauge said 22 degrees. Almost all of the kids were outside in short sleeve shirts. I'm assuming it was a fire drill. If I was a parent, I would be way pissed.

It's all coming back to me

What it's like to deal with stressful things. I had a decade of it and was adjusting nicely to a lack of it.

I'm packing to go stay with Baby B for a few days. DIL is in hospital with blood clots. I am doing my best to stay calm. Blood clots are why husband had his leg amputated but he had artery clots, her's are vein clots, which is "better".

It's no fun having to watch son go through major stress, but damn, he's a trooper.

"Everything comes down to poo"

These days all conversations with my son include a discussion about poop, so I sent this to him after seeing it the other night :)



I spent the evening with Baby B yesterday while her exhausted mom went upstairs to get some sleep. The worrying new mom won't leave Baby B with Son, to even go upstairs. He encouraged her to do this and I was the backup person. He said I'm one of 2 people that she trusts enough to be able to go upstairs. So this was the first time he got to take care of her and he did just fine. I wish she could see that she can relax a little (a lot, really), and let him help. He really wants to. Baby B is just so darn sweet and cute. She's starting to look more like her mom these days.

I messed up a row in the tam, and I haven't undone it yet. Maybe tonight while I watch friends bowl.
Bowling? Bowling and tennis are two things I've said never again. Just the idea makes my joints ache. Although I played much more tennis than I went bowling back in the day. Anyway, I said I'd let them entertain me and I would knit :) I still haven't bought new batteries for camera, so no pics of progress.

Weak batteries = fuzzy pics

Work on the practice tam is moving along. My pics are too fuzzy to show it. I'm getting ready to start the top portion with the decreases. I'm not sure what I will do with the tams when they are finished. I will be surprised if they suit me to wear. I think they would suit daughter, but she seldom agrees with me, esp about handknit items :) The green yarn has already told me it will be for a xmas one. I need to get some ink so I can print off some knitter's graph paper to start thinking of designs. We haven't had ink in the printer for months :P

I'm loving the Options needles. I want the kit!

Puppers' (AKA Katy) echocardiogram was rescheduled. They want her on the medicine for a couple of weeks before doing it. She seems to be feeling better and is again actually playing with Lucy (AKA Butters) sometimes instead of laying around looking at me with sad eyes.

I've got to start thinking about clothes for the cruise. I've avoided buying any decent clothes since I gained weight a few years ago, so my clothes are all lame. I still don't want to invest much since I plan on losing the weight this year. Which is the reasoning used for basically having lame clothes for about 3 years now. I need some casual stuff plus 2 nice dresses. I have no idea how to successfully shop for this body. Ugh.

New Yarn!

So much for my plan to deal with stash :P


The yarn is Knitpicks Palette, which I guess you can see on the labels :) I also got a couple of the new Options needles to try out, the 16 inch circulars in sizes 1 and 3. If they are as great as I have read that they are, maybe I'll go for the kit.

My plan was to work from my stash, only buying nice yarn for specific projects. Then I got the book about Tams....my plan went out the window. I really want to see what I can do with this. Mixing colors should be fun, not stressful....I keep telling myself. I think my first attempt should be with only about 3 colors, to get the feel for it. Now to pick out which ones to start with, and yet save my favorites for when I have mastered a few skills.

This yarn can be used for so many things that I'm not concerned about it becoming permanent stash. Plus, maybe it will help to fully convert me to wool. We'll see. The yarn does feel soft.

Getting back into the groove

I spent a few days with Baby B! She is such a sweetie. I can't wait to see her again. Her parents are still struggling with sleep deprivation, but seem to be slowly getting into a routine. Her mom is a quite a worrier though. Funny how that and sleep deprivation can be a vicious cycle. After coming home, I commented to husband that I probably didn't appreciate what he went through when we brought our babies home. He laughed and said probably not. I then apologized :)

On the other hand, I took my beloved beagle for her annual checkup and shots. The Universe does not like me being happy. A serious heart problem was discovered. We are giving her tests and I learned there is such a thing as a dog cardiologist, who will get involved next week. She is only 9 years old (vet's best guess - she was a rescue dog) and I am nowhere near ready to give her up.

Baby B is here!!

Everyone is fine, everyone is thrilled, and everyone is exhausted!

She was born today at 13:07, weighing 5 lbs 14 oz, and is 19 inches long.

I think she looks just like here dad did as a baby :) But really, everyone (except one person) there kept commenting on how she is like her dad.

She is a beautiful baby.

Happy Birthday Baby B!!

New Books

These arrived yesterday!



I find myself getting into the idea of knitting - tams
It's a way to work with color and they won't take forever to make. The book is full of info about tam construction.

The Victorian Lace Today has lots of nifty pictures of the Cambridge area of England along with all of the knitting stuff. I'm really happy with it too. If I ever use any of the patterns in the book, I may need a magnifying glass to read the charts. Why in the world would they go to the effort of making an
otherwise nice quality book, but slack on the charts?

It looks like it's going to be a long day

I didn't sleep much last night.

I was called by office a couple of hours before my usual wake up time. I was to be called back by HQ about laptop problem. 3 hours later, I'm still waiting. Will have a few hours of furious typing to do after problem is fixed to try to get work done. Deadline was 7:30 am - today. I may sit here all day waiting and then hear "sorry, it's too late".

DIL is scheduled to be induced Sunday night. Stifling all of my wtf comments to be supportive. Trying to assume the doctor knows more than I do. :)

It's raining.

Edit: I should have whined sooner. HQ called right after posting. Work is completed and accepted. Boss just ended a phone conversation with "Ah....bless you!".

Time for a nap.

The bear is warm

Although he never complained about being cold.



This is the hoodie I made for Baby B. You also get to see the view I see much of every day :) I was a slacker on the seams so they were not nearly smooth enough for her to wear. From now on, more thought and effort is going to go into quality of knitting, not just trying a technique.

For example - Irish Hiking Scarf 2




I practically had to force myself to start on this to use up some of the yarn from the abandoned sweater. I fought the boredom I felt from a lack of color. I made an effort to knit tighter than usual, or at least think about it some. I now really like this. I may make accessories to go with it, like a hat, mittens, and/or a headband.

While messing around with these photos, I found a button that says "saturation". So THAT's how people get such bright intense colors in their photos! On the one hand, I love bright intense colors, on the other hand, I like natural photos. I imagine my photos will stay natural though.

I should name the bear if I am going to dress him....I

Happy New Year

2007 is off to an ok start.

Son that I don't see enough stopped by today for a few hours. He stayed long enough that I got to feel much better about him. I learned that he bought himself a pasta maker and a How To Make Pasta book. That made me smile. I asked him if he keeps his place neat like he used to, he laughed and said no, but that he knows where everything is :) That made me smile just thinking how he and other son have totally switched on that.

The plan was to take down all of the xmas stuff today and clean up the house. After son left, it was late enough I didn't want to start on it, so that didn't happen. I have a feeling I will regret that before the week is over.

With tv reruns, my TiVo only recorded BBC shows. Between that and my BOFFAL dvds, I've watched nothing but British tv for over a week. Husband and daughter said I was starting to act differently! I think it must be all of that British humor...the others just look at me funny when I laugh at it. Oh, I did watch the ball drop so I saw a few minutes of Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark. They don't inspire me to prefer US television :P

Work starts back up tomorrow with more of a time crunch than usual. I got an email saying I should go ahead and work even though the people in the office will be off. I'm ready to get back to a routine....I can't believe I'm saying that. And the wait for Baby B to arrive continues.

I started a few scarves with the lion brand yarn and ended up deciding to make the Irish Hiking Scarf with the yarn. It will be my mindless knitting. I frogged an almost finished pair of socks, a top, and I think something else. It felt good to do that. Now there are fewer unfinished things mocking me around here. The baby hoodie is finished and on a teddy bear instead of for Baby B. I decided the seams just weren't up to snuff. They didn't look comfortable to me. I've got to get my skills up to my standards!