Stuffed Lobster?

The latest crustacean, kiwa hirsuta, has officially been stuffed. You've got to go look. You can even download tha pattern yourself and make your own! I think there is nothing that can't be duplicated by fabric!

Ruffle back skirts

I love these clothes for kids: http://www.deuxpardeux.com/en/ and http://www.jottum.com/.

Since I have now 5 kids, shopping online is a lot easier than dragging everyone around. (Plus it gives me something to do when I'm up in the wee hours when the baby is working out her day and night reversal). Anyway, I came away from one shopping trip inspired to make a simple skirt with ruffles on the back. I already had a peasant top made from the same fabric. Very simple elastic waist skirt, wide ruffles up the back, ruffly strip taked on in funky heart shape on front. Originally intended for Valentine's day, but it actually got done in time for a Superbowl party. I was busy on Valentine's day trying to get into labor!

Better Baby Pictures

Here is a prettier picture of Emma. Isn't she sweet? Her brothers and sisters love her a great deal, and Abby tells everyone it's her Emma, not theirs. Today I needed a helper to get lunch ready, and Maggie held Emma for me and Emma fell asleep in her lap. Bliss! And Maggie was so proud!

I think they nailed me on the "neurotic" part - I'll retake the quiz in 6 months!

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have low conscientiousness. Impulsive and off the wall, you don't take life too seriously. Unfortunately, you sometimes end up regretting your snap decisions. Overall, you tend to lack focus, and it's difficult for you to get important things done. Agreeableness: You have low agreeableness. Your self interest comes first, and others come later, if at all. In general, you feel that people are not to be trusted. And you're skeptical that anyone else really feels differently. Neuroticism: You have high neuroticism. It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed. You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully. You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Introducing...Emma

Wednesday, February 15th, I finally went into labor after DAYS of non-progressing contractions. Days, I tell you. The midwives even spent the night one night waiting. Three days before I actually gave birth. This is baby #5, and she decided to break all the patterns. My other labors were quick, non-complicated, somewhat non-stressful events. This one was different most all the way around.

The first thing we had to organize was the other kids. Were they going to be here to greet the new baby (and if so, how would they stay asleep and/or occupied during the birth)? We finally decided some dear dear friends could indeed handle what they might dish out, and they spent the night two nights (while we thought I was in labor) away from home. Less than 2 miles away, but away, nonetheless. And it has been reported that they were SO good, which is so reassuring to hear.

Then the midwives, one of whom was scheduled to leave town on the 16th. I tried not to panic as my contractions never intensified, but I am afraid I panicked after all. When our primary midwife came on Sunday the 12th to try to help things along, she stripped the membranes and we started Labor tinctures and blue cohosh. I was about 3 cm dilated at that point. Later that evening, contractions picked up and continued for several hours, although they were tolerable. We called the midwives back at about 8:00, and they got the bed and the birthing pool ready. And we chatted and waited. Finally we all fell asleep about 2:00 am. We woke up with the contractions still coming, but not as strong. I fixed us all breakfast and we waited some more. We decided nothing was happening, so did a 4 hour bit with the tinctures and they went home about 11:00. All day had the same mild contractions. By the time they left I was dilated to 5 cm, no more. We ate super spicy firecracker chicken at Panda Express, and waited some more. That stuff was so spicy I couldn't even taste the chicken. It did not, however, stimulate labor.

Tuesday we had more contractions, did another 4 hour bit with the Labor tincture and blue cohosh, which made me kind of dizzy. Then we went out to lunch at a deli, walked at the cemetery for about an hour (it's the next block behind our house - the other way is the hospital, and there was NO WAY I was going to walk by there - someone might have pulled me in seeing how overdue I was). Came home. No change in the contractions, so we went and picked up the kids. It was nice to have them home, even if things were a little crazy when they got there. James helped make a cake for Abby's birthday, which was the day before, and we all stayed together all night.

Wednesday morning I decided I was not taking the tinctures again, and we were going to get out of the house. I had some groceries to pick up (always thinking - this is the last trip to the store before the baby!) and a run to the PO, so Paul stayed home with the kids while I went. Then I came home, piled the kids in the car with a little picnic and we went to the park (driving quickly past the aforementioned hospital). And we sent Paul to work. I wanted nothing more than to be able to call him to come back home! The park is only 3 blocks away, but I didn't want to give birth on the sidewalk with all the kids just in case, so we drove. While we were there a group of moms from the catholic church was having a play day, and they were all SO encouraging to me and promised to be praying that the baby would come soon. No comments about this being #5 and did we know what was causing it, and all. I know that it was providential that they were there at the same time we were. I was greatly encouraged by them.

Rounding up the kids was only possible by promising that we'd stop by Sonic for a soda, so after changing our order three times, we ended up with a root beer for #1, and three grape slushes. I got the blended dr pepper ice cream thing that always makes my stomach upset, which is what I was hoping would set things off. After about 30 minutes, I think it did. I started having stronger, regular (3 minutes apart) contractions, so at 2:30 I called Paul to come home, and I timed them while I finished checking email. Our midwife came over and checked, no change in dilation but she was excited about the difference in contractions. She went to Walmart and finish her in-town errands. A friend came over about 3:30 and visited with me while I sorted out a bunch of elastic that I ordered from Kathy's lace and elastic yahoo group (fr8rain on ebay). She had used the same midwife we were using so we talked about that and other things. I also got a package right about then from an online friend full of knitting stuff, yarn, needles, and a little kit for knitting newbies. I thought about starting to knit, but I wanted to do that sitting down, and there was NO WAY I was going to sit down when I was having such nice contractions. I didn't want them to stop until the baby was OUT.

After another hour the midwife came back, checked again - still at 5 cm. So she was going to run home and take care of her dogs and wait for our call. I took another shower, thinking that would either slow them down or speed them up, but it did neither. Paul went ahead and arranged for someone to come get the 3 older kids for their missions classes at church and dinner there, while Abby stayed with us. I laid down because I was tired of standing by that point, and I was hungry so Paul made me some cheese toast. I was just thinking that maybe it would be ok for these contractions to go away, and maybe I really wasn't pregnant, just really sick. About 6:45 my water broke! I have never gotten to experience that! It's always before broken while I was pushing. I just laughed and laughed, because it was so funny and there was so much of it! Really, I soaked 2 towels plus the big thick bathrobe I was wearing. So we called the midwives again! And someone to come get Abby. After about 20 minutes the contractions started to hurt, so I got into the water. It started to get really painful right about 7:45, then Paul and I were finally alone. The midwives came very soon after that, I was 8cm, and not thinking I could handle much more. What a wimp I am. I knew that there weren't many more contractions to go, and I didn't have much already behind me that hurt, but I was still afraid of more pain. But after two or three more contractions I started to push, and could feel the baby's head with my hand, so she started to come out. I was laying on my back in the water, kind of floating, but she wouldn't come out any more. In my head I heard something about her being stuck, but I was pushing as hard as I could. The midwife checked and saw a shoulder and a hand coming at the same time. I could not move, so they all got me out of the water and onto the bed. They were moving pretty fast, so I knew something was wrong. The assisting midwife pushed on my uterus while our primary midwife helped manuever the baby out.

I don't know how common that is, but it was not the experience I was hoping for. In retrospect, our baby could have died being stuck there. At worst she was really bruised and she has some broken blood vessels in her eyes. The pictures from that evening look really gross. I think they'll just get filed away. I wonder why she got stuck. Why was I on my back in the water? I know better than that! Why didn't she rotate as she was coming down? Why couldn't I push harder? I suppose I could ask a million more questions. Those last 10 minutes were not quiet and blissful as I had imagined they would be. But in all, we still get to hold a miracle in our arms, and everything else about her seems to be normal. She eats well, has enough wet and dirty diapers (yes, I'm compulsive about counting that, too) and even smiled today. The days of waiting were warming things up. I hope that my husband didn't lose too much by not being at work. Was it quick? only if you count in light years. Was it painless? Not a bit, and the recovery for me has been slower. Was it stress-free? Mostly, except for organizing the other kids.

So, Emma Kathryn Ryan, welcome. You are a miracle and a blessing. And to hold you makes my heart sing. Now if we can just get everyone else to quit running up and down the halls long enough for you and I to take a decent nap! That, and I still really want to get that knitting stuff out!

G. K. Chesterton reminds me of my task - It's not insignificant

When people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult, but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the world. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless, and of small import to the soul [my emphasis], then as I say, I give up. . .How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone. No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness. G.K Chesterton, What's Wrong With the World?

Teaching Kids to sew

One of the moms on the Nursing Mom's Sewing List suggested that a "perfect" project to do while I wait for labor to start would be burp cloths. I've never really used a burp cloth, although I've seen some cute ones out there. She mentioned that some people considered the burp clothes an undignified project, and since I'm always annoyed by people who consider things "beneath them" took on the challenge to 1)make a burp cloth or two, as there are many moms who do indeed use them, and 2)teach my 7 year old son some sewing.

We started with measuring a Gerber prefold diaper (the cheapy kind from Walmart) that had already been washed and some remnants from my sewing stash. He also picked out some other fabrics as we thought of some other people we might make burp cloths for.

We measured our fabric to line the center span down the length of the burp cloth, added a little extra for seam allowances, then cut and ripped for straight lines. Then we pressed our fabric and pressed the seam allowances in. Now for the sewing!

We had to make a new bobbin of thread, as well as thread the machine from scratch. Same son at least 5 years ago had put lady bug stickers on the machine we were using. You can see them in the picture where he is sewing.

Then we sewed STRAIGHT lines with the machine set to a slow speed, being sure to lock out stitches at the beginning and end, remove pins before they got to the needle, and keep the fabric aligned with the presser foot. Did we watch the needle? well, a little bit, just to see that it was doing what the needle ought to do. Let me tell you - that boy can sew! You can also see a picture of our finished burp cloth as well as a sampling of some fine straight stitching.


AGH! I can't get my camera to talk to my computer. Pics will come soon!

My new favorite quote

How can there be too many children? That's like saying there are too many
flowers. ~Mother Theresa

Sewing?

The Nursing Mom's sewing list has these "sew alongs" where we all sew together, together, together. The happier we'll be.

Right now I am doing a sew along for a new pattern from one of the moms on the list, Angela. http://www.blesseddesigns.net I'm working on getting a wearable version of BD 1002, a nursing shirt. My last batch of nursing shirts all went on ebay, where they sold nicely. But in a few days (literally) I'll need some new ones.

So, I'm up to my third attempt at getting the pattern to fit my figure, or what I think my figure will be in x number of days. The nice thing is that according to her size charts I really only need a size L (instead of the plus size that I was before) but I still have to do a FBA. But her directions were VERY clear in the pattern, so I think I can carry that idea over to other patterns. About the size thing, this baby doesn't like chocolate or ice cream, two of the main things that "did me in" for my other 4 pregnancies. So even though I weigh more, my frame is much better proportioned (it's all baby - not even a belly button left), and I'm pretty excited about getting to know my new non-pregnant body soon.

So I sewed today on Take 3, but I didn't choose the fabric carefully. I ended up needing to do a short sleeved version because I ran out of fabric, and it is currently 36 degrees F here, so this is a late spring top, for sure, and it is kind of slinky, onion-skin-ish, fabric. The good thing is that it was from the $1 table at WM, so it's test fabric anyway, but I always hope for a slightly wearable "test" garment. I also tried to do the sweetheart neckline version, but it got all wonky when I tried to stabilize it with lastin, so I need to cut it out and just bind it with FOE making it a regular v-neck. I don't currently have the right color of FOE, but it dyes well with plain old RIT dye, but I think I need to wait to use RIT until I'm not pregnant. If I get the hems done on this shirt all I'll have to do is the neckline which shouldn't take too long when I'm able and ready to get to it.

Technology

I don't even know if I should bother with this project. We have a Sony VAIO laptop that dh bought way back (PCG F250 if you need to know). At three years old it zapped out on us, so we put it aside and bought a new desktop (which was a great deal from Dell - still going!)

Having the new computer didn't settle things. We gave it to Brother in Law computer genius to look at. He said it was the motherboard, but wasn't worth replacing. Other websites said SONY had a faulty part that they weren't fessing up to. Of course Sony would take a peek at it for $350, so it wasn't really worth it. Until last year I stumbled upon this page: http://www.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/cip/Vaio/indexeng.htm

I have been working on installing a version of Linux (that would be the easy thing first, right?) but there was still some kind of problem that wouldn't let me install the whole OS, and I couldn't get Windows off of it.

Not wanting this thing to beat me, I humbled myself to ask Dad for help. Dad's built computers. His garage is a computer parts scavenger's dream house. He can figure it out. Amazingly he didn't even blink when I told him what I wanted to do. The alternative was to give the computer to my three year old with a screwdriver and say, here, have fun. Which he would have. And he might have even fixed it, in a couple of years, but he's three, you know? Dad said he could replace the capacitors that were faulty for me then I could install Linux and play with it from there.

And sweet day! Dad can replace capacitors on a laptop that comes with dire warnings about opening it up without SONY certification! And it works!

I'm going to prove that I can still handle technology. No, I don't want to learn how to work the DVD player, the 7 year old and 5 year old have already mastered that. I want to get this computer (it is a cute notebook, by the way) on our home wireless network so that I, too, can sit somewhere besides the catch all room that is the office and "surf" at the same time as the kids are watching Veggie Tales.

By the way, the screensavers on LINUX are great - right now they are set on all random and it's one of the highlights of the kids' day to check out what's playing now! We don't get out much.

And since the new capacitors only cost 21.00, it's ok if all the kids can play with it. It's just a fancy Leap Pad to them.

I have this wireless USB thing for it (Netgear MA111) but I have to learn how to "build it into the code", or some of the people at the Linux forum have said they may or may not get this USB adapter to work with the version (and there are many) of the OS that I am using (Fedora Core).

I'm thinking this isn't like programming in basic.

I'll keep things updated. The baby is due any day, so maybe I'll wait a little while longer. If nothing else, the kids can be on that computer while I get my stuff done on the desktop.

We did actually have Christmas here

We haven't gotten around to practicing "let's all get into a picture and let the camera take it for us" so this is one that Daddy took on Christmas Eve after church. Most of he festive stuff is off the tree, so hopefully we can get the tree down before the baby gets here and try the "family picture" thing again.

Other categories I want to include

• Ideas for sewing projects
• Status on getting the zillions of remodeling projects done around here
• baby news (countdown 2 weeks)
• book reviews

I've wanted a blog for a long time. Why? Because I hate writing in a journal, there's too much rattling around in my head, sometimes I want to say something but the only people to talk to are 7 and under. So this is my early birthday present, late Christmas present, New Year's Resolution, or whatever else to me, so I can get some of these things out of my head without talking anyone's head off and boring them to tears. If you read it, great, if you get bored, that's your own fault - you've been warned.

I'll post things in several categories (hence the favorite things and random thoughts title):

• reactions to current events
• hobbies and crafts (as a way to motivate myself to get things done and document progress on the hard things)
• eureka moments
  
• life with 5 precious kids and a fantastic hubby