I have a really good reason for being slack

IMG_2253, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

I have had all good intentions of getting organized and writing a decent post about the hospital and the first couple of weeks at home but honestly, it's proven difficult to find enough quiet time to write a coherent post (between the baby and the mountain of visitors). I will get to it eventually but in the mean time you can catch up on all of Sarah's funny faces here.

Floor quilt

Floor quilt, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Surprisingly, the first post I have after having Sarah is not a Sarah post (directly anyway) but evidence that you can get something done while the grandparents are holding the baby!

This is a little floor quilt + stuff bag made with stuff from my stash, to give Sarah a mat to lie on at social events (baby classes, ABA meetings, the meetings of the "Sarah Harris Appreciation Society" formed by the grandparents).

This is the first quilt I have made with a polyester backing and I found it quite good. The puffiness is quite forgiving when quilting and it seems to spring back into shape after being stuffed into the bag!

38 Weeks

38 Weeks (3), originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

And my navel is still holding (just!) I think this proves I have the most capacious navel in the WORLD!

More photos are here.

Without internet friends

I have been tagged by Sally this week for a meme. Rules are:

1. Link to your tagger (see above), and also post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself (random or weird) on your blog.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

However, since I am probably the most geeky of my friends other than Sally and Alison, this means it will stop here (apparently blog = no life to the rest of my friends) ! The facts are:

1. My current breakfast menu consists of a mango and a cup of Earl Grey, followed about 45 minutes later by a cup of decaf (oh, the sacrifices) and a homemade egg and ham and cheese sandwich, with lashings of BBQ sauce. Very good, even if it has a tendency to drip BBQ sauce on your pregnancy mu mu.
   
2. My body pillow is named David, after David Tennant, the current Dr Who and the hottest thing to ever come out of Scotland (and I am including Ewan McGregor here, ladies, he is getting sleazy as he gets older). Needless to say, anytime David needs a fluff up, he gets a good kicking from Paul.
3. The TV show that has most made me yell at my TV in frustration is Six Feet Under, particularly at Nate Fisher. Honestly, the best show ever. And the most involving and frustrating too!
   
4. When we win the lotto, I am going to buy a house with a view at either Peregian Beach or Nambucca Heads (probably Nambucca because the snorkeling is so good). It's going to have a huge crafty studio with a fabulous sound system and at least 3 sewing machines. And a hot tub (possibly not in the crafty studio though).
   
5. On September 16, 2008, Paul and I will have been together for 10 years.
   
6. I grind my teeth. Really well. I managed to dislocate my jaw doing in when I was at uni.
7. I really wish I had organized a foot massage for today. But I was too slow. So I will go wash the sheets and repack my hospital bag for next week... Only 4 days to go before Paris comes out!

No, we cannot rebuild you

I am starting to feel like a very cheap version of the Bionic Woman - where they rebuild her with duct tape and string instead of cybernetic organisms. As I get huger and huger, more and more of my body is starting to complain about the stress but there is no permanent solution at this point (apart from the obvious). So I just keep adding another device, medication or exercise to my day in an effort to ward off long term issues... At the moment, this includes:

• A knee brace to give my poor knees a break from hauling the extra weight around. I currently only have one (pilfered from Mr Paul) so I need to investigate a second rather than alternating legs.
• A back support (a version of this) that holds my sacroiliac joint in place. This stops the delightful sciatica down my right leg and prevents my hip making some very disturbing noises, but it requires that you wear extremely large undies underneath to avoid any velcro burn. Lucky for me, extremely large undies are the only thing that fits at the moment.
  
• A tape edifice (applied by physio) to give my shoulders a break and hopefully relax them enough so they will stop bloody hurting.
• Holding my jaw every time I yawn, to make sure I don't over extend and pop my jaw joints out or something equally dramatic.
  
• Regular doses of mylanta to ensure I can continue to face eating in the face of excruciating discomfort from gas and generally no room for my digestive system.
  
• And in the interests of my nether regions, pelvic floor exercises whenever I think of them!

I am waiting to see what is going to go next. I am sure we can chuck in some constipation
and even less sleep...

Stroller Toys

IMG_1995, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Having been inspired by the work of Lupin, I thought I would attempt to make a mobile for Paris' room - but in a beach theme rather than eggs. But first (before I hand sew a million tiny pieces) I though I would try to make a stroller toy in the same concept.

They are made of synthetic felt, not the greatest but certainly easier to find and much cheaper than wool felt, with hand stitching and Birch quilters template plastic cut to fit inside - this makes everything stick out nicely rather than sag. To keep them on the ribbon, I sewed one side of each toy to the ribbon with the sewing machine and then I am hoping the blanket stitch will hold it all together

I didn't check the felt was colour fast or even safe for sucking on so these will have a limited lifespan, until Paris is able to reach them. Also, smaller blanket stitch will be the way to go next time, to avoid issues on curves etc.

You can see the back and on the stroller also!

Next, is a larger scale project to do the pieces for a proper mobile. I think this will be more challenging as I have thrown a crab and an octopus into the patterns!

Week 35

Week 35 (4), originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Quote of the week (from Paul): You know how you see those actresses with pregnancy prosthetics on, and you think, oh, no one can possibly get that big? Well, I was wrong.

The Savita

The Savita, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

This week has been a great week for doing all those things I had forgotten to do... like tell you about this fabulous bag I made for Miss Savita! The lovely Sav held my baby shower (which was a raging success, given it was a school night) and I also wanted to make up for not ever running the 'how to make your own summer bag' workshop as promised.

As I wanted to get all the finishing neatly done on this one, it took BLOODY AGES (no comment, Sally), and when I was done, I didn't really want to look at it for a while... I used fast2fuse to make the bag stiff, but I always struggle to get the glue to melt consistently. So despite mucking around with tacking the interfacing to the bag to get a nice flat application, it still bubbled the material. ARRGH. This meant quilting to hide the worst of the sins, but in the purple the same colour as the bag, it actually looked ok.

This is the first attempt at using magnetic clasps as well - which Paul was able to apply with a minimum of fuss. Would recommend putting some material between the pliers and the clasp, as the clasp is very soft and you can get up with imprints it if you aren't careful.

The combination of the clasps and stiff interfacing worked very well - after leaving the bag closed for a couple of days, it held it's shape all on it's own!

Socks for those with no shoes

Socks for those with no shoes, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Continuing on a feet-related theme, check out these awesome socks my Aunt Helen sent Paris! We especially love the penguin ones! Extremely groovy socks for those who don't need shoes!

Helen, sorry haven't rung you yet... it's right on the top of my things to do, but I seem to only remember at 10 at night!

Booties for Oscar

Booties for Oscar, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

These are made from the Heather Bailey Bitty Booties pattern for a friends new baby , Oscar. The ribbon actually matches some pants I made Oscar as well.

Can't deny I have some self-interest though - he and his Mum are coming to visit tomorrow and I wanted to see if they do actually fit a new baby! I may yet have an excuse to buy some of that nice woolen felt, to make some for Paris!

The Angry Dome

If you saw Futurama tonight, you would have seen the Angry Dome. I need one of those!

Breaking my own rules

Sally and I have had several discussions in the past about the role of lists. I am a firm believer in using a list to write down what you are supposed to be doing, as an action plan. If it's not on the list, you aren't supposed to be doing it!

Whereas Sally is more along the list of putting things on the list to remember to do them at some point, so you can get on with doing whatever it is you feel like at the time.

Now I am finding, along with the compulsion to start alot of things and never finish them, I am also deviating wildly from my own list. Very naughty. Theoretically I should be working on my mother's Xmas present (and a multitude of other things) but instead I have been making myself shorts and also digging through my stash to see what is in there. This has resulted in more projects - turning some printed cheesecloth into baby wraps and also making some crazy lizard pants for my brother for Xmas. Hrm. So the purpose of this post is to guilt myself back onto the actual approved list. I might just write all my extra projects down on it instead...

Progress made!

I am definitely pleased to report some progress on the sewing front this week:

• Four bassinet sheets and 4 changing mat covers completed. Not without a LOT of swearing at the overlocker. For some reason, it likes to break the upper looper thread completely at random when doing 4 thread stitching. Might be time for a new part or two.
• Using this pattern kindly supplied by Sally, I have now completed
• Five cute little baby dresses - yes, I know, possibly an excessive number given they are all the same size but they were just so EASY and used up little bits of material that weren't good for anything else. However, that excused doesn't really apply to the dragonfly and white/orange/purple ones, so not sure what my excuse is there. Material buying frenzy???
  
• Three cute little vesty shirts and some bloomers. Note to Sally: Bias binding make this quite easy. I tacked the curves on the bias binding to make them nice and smooth, that was the biggest effort on these.
  

Lots of thanks to Mr Paul for persevering with putting the snaps on all of these for me. It was all a bit too hard to do myself... and seeing how many HE stuffed up the first time, I am glad I didn't do it myself! It feels like it took an age to do all of these, but now they are done, it's actually HEAPS of stuff done all at once, which is kinda cool.

In other news, writing this post as given the universe a big clue to steer these freaks away from me - haven't had any rude comments since the 22nd! Yeah!

Other good things:

• Only 5 more client-facing days at work left... then the rest of my time to mat leave will be spent on the couch doing things over the internet
• Work is finally upgrading our laptops and I might get a new one before I go on leave!
• The accountant made a mistake in our tax last year and we are getting back an additional $2800!
• Paul has stained the deck and it looks fantastic!
  
• We finally got a cheap ipod stereo for the kitchen and I can listen to music while washing up without blasting the neighbours.
  

29.5 weeks

29.5 weeks, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Suffering from lack of closure

I am sure there is some kind of nesting instinct at work at the moment because I keep buying more material and notions without finishing much of anything. I am almost at the stage of going to a craft store every day! On the go is:

• 4 babies dresses that need snaps, and another that hasn't made it past the material buying stage
  
• 2 babies tops that ALSO need snaps, and another also waiting to be cut out
  
• Bassinet sheets. Prototype is half done on my floor, but needs to have the other three corners fitted before I unpick it and make it into a pattern for some more
• Cot sheets - but at the rate I am going I will use all my material on bassinet sheets and have to go back for more (yeah!)
• Covers for the changing table mat. No action here, just a mountain of terry toweling that has been washed and is now looking at me. Really, the job would take about 3o minutes to make 3 or 4.
  
• Stuffed frog - I have gotten as far as ironing the material and photocopying the pattern but that's it.
• Mobile for the babies room - purchased a big whack of felt today with no intention of doing much on it for weeks... but I really really needed the felt today!
• Material for Mum's Xmas present has been purchased and a rough design drawn up. This one is a bit fiddly so waiting for a day that I am not cranky to get into it.... hahahha
  
• Trying (via Sally) to track down material for Dad's Xmas present.

Soooo, my goal for this weekend is to finish some of these bloody things. Hopefully can knock over bassinet sheets, changing table covers and the snaps this weekend... if I actually post some photos, you will know I am successful.

No, it's not twins

This week sees the introduction of a fun new topic for blog posting, one we will call 'Insensitive Morons of the World'. With 12 weeks to go before Paris arrives, I have had three complete strangers acost me in public places about my pregnancy and my current size:

• 17/09 - Woman next to me on train asks when I am due. When I say December, I get 'oh, you must be having twins, I was as big as you are when I had twins'. I put in my iPod and ignore her for the rest of the trip.
• 18/09 - Going down escalator to work. Woman going up the other size says 'oh, you must be just about due'. I respond with 'In 12 weeks'. She pulls a face like 'I just fucked up'. Yes, yes you did.
• 22/09 - At a friend's baby shower, some random woman comes up and PUTS HER HANDS ON MY STOMACH WITHOUT ASKING, says 'oh, you must be just about done', to which I say December... and the next thing is, yep, you guessed it 'oh, it's a multiple then?'. No. FUCK OFF. As it's a friends party, I try to be civil and say 'Yeah, but I am a big person, it's all in proportion', trying to give the poor woman a graceful way out. She replies ''NOT THAT BIG, HAHAHHAHA'.

Honestly, I know that being able to kill people with my mind might result in me killing ALOT of people, but at this point, don't you think I deserve it????

Another thing they don’t put on the brochure

My girth has now reached a point where getting out of bed is like trying to get up after some bastard has strapped an entire load of wet laundry to your person. Ungainly, frustrating and exhausting.

After getting up to pee twice on Thursday night, I woke up again at 3am to pee yet again. At this point, even the thought of getting up was making me tired. So I lay in bed thinking to myself ‘Sooo… how much faith do I really have in all those pelvic floor exercises I have been doing? ON the domestic sins list, just how high is peeing yourself because it’s too hard to get up?’

The next day, Paul’s response to this was ‘If the choice is between being woken up to get you out of bed, or peeing yourself, just wake me up’. He left off ‘stupid woman’ but I am pretty sure it was in the version in his brain..

Good to know. He might yet regret that.

P.S. Kudos to Dr Ganter for suggesting flight socks for the leg cramps. Works a treat!

Bloomers!

Bloomers!, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Please note I have restrained myself from quoting anything from Peter Cundall in the title of this post.

These are from a pattern in Sally's baby book (the title of which I should track down given I have given it such a work out) and are a great way to make something out of 30cm of 'something you like but don't know what to do wtih' - hence the crazy space pants on the bottom left!

They are actually pretty big and I can see them doing double duty as shorts with looser elastic in the top and no elastic in the legs.

Final note: I am moving closer to turning into my grandmother as I made these with FRENCH SEAMS. But I have to say, the finish is excellent and very non-scratchy!

Hippo Bag

Hippo Bag
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

Second in the sleeping bag experiments, same pattern but this time with a lapped zip (I cut the front out with an extra 1cm to allow for fiddling). Not sure how this material will go (as the little hippos are embroidered on) but was very happy with the zip and overall finish.

Might be time to deal with the garden

Might be time to deal with the garden, originally uploaded by Kim (GGS).

Sorry, who are you again?

The one thing I was particularly worried about when pregnant was losing my mind. You hear lots about it from friends and family but was hoping I would escape this aspect like I managed to avoid morning sickness.

Not so much. For the past two weeks, people at work have been coming up to me and asking where are you up to on such and such... - to which I have to reply not quite done yet, let me get back to you... which is actually code for HOLY SHIT!!! I have no memory of having to do that!! The funny thing is I am completely unstressed about it - it really doesn't phase me any more if I forgot to something at work. So not only am I losing my memory, I really don't seem to care that it has happened. I obviously didn't need it.

So, when your mind goes, at least you don't know that it has happened...

Freaky little hat

Hat tied
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

I decided to use up some sleeping bag leftovers on the freaky little hat (see here for the untied version, you will see what I mean) from the same pattern. The weird thing was that the hat was big enough for a baby with a 54cm head - my head isn't a lot bigger than that (I think) ! So I resized to a 35cm hat instead. Also quick and easy like the sleeping bag - and extremely cute if only because it's soooo tiny!

Baby Sleeping Bag

Sleeping bag
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

Everyone I talked to thought these were a great idea but I totally freaked when discovering grobags and similar retail for about $60 - $80! And on further investigation, they are not anything extra specially safe - cotton or cotton blend, not treated with fire retartant or similar (which is probably a good thing).

So, despite my morbid fear of sewing stretch I purchased McCalls 4236 for a measly $13 + $8 woth of material and in 1 hour (including cutting time and getting over my fear of sewing stretch) pulled this together. It turned out very well, probably not as beautifully finished as the fancy store bought ones but much more affordable for the small amount of time they get used! This may be my new baby present staple!

Big-assed baby pants

Denim pants
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

The season of baby showers will shortly be upon me - Lorna is 4 weeks ahead of me and Jackie is 4 weeks behind. To make sure I have had plenty of time to make stuff, I have been working on some gifts and also making spares for Paris in the interest of time efficiency.

For Lorna I have made 2 pairs of pants supposedly designed for a six month old baby - and I have made a pair in each colour for myself as well. The shots you can see here are are the ones I made (without the elastic) as I forgot to photograph Lorna's before I wrapped them. They are basically the same but with different trims (for a boy).

The pattern was from Sally's baby gifts book and I am really not sure that they are too big - so I have left out the waist elastic in my pairs until I have a person to measure them against. Just like the little dress for Monique's baby, it's annoying and fiddling and TOO DAMN SMALL to make these little baby clothes.
The other funny thing I didn't notice until they were made up was that the green denim (oh, cute, green demin, that's a bit different) actually looks a littlel too closer to lederhosen....

Green pants
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

Enhanced Coral Broach

Enhanced Coral Broach
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

I acquired this gorgeous crocheted broach from "http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=59351">Sally to spice up my maternity wardrobe. Originally it was sans beads, but I really liked them on another one of these she had in a different colour. I can see why she only did one - adding the beads to this took me an hour in front of the tv. But now it's all cool and sparkly so I am happy (AND I had an hours worth of excuse to sit in front of the tv).

Stradbroke Island

Hiding from the wind
Originally uploaded by Kim (GGS)

Last weekend we took the weather man at his word and ventured to Stradbroke Island for some whale watching. The wind, however, was much higher than predicted (by higher, I mean, 40 knots) so for the most part all we saw was white caps and other people also freezing their tits off!

In the end we saw 1 whale, had a very tasty lunch and a nap in the sun. A pleasant day if not what we had originally banked on.

There is also a rare photo of another large mammal sighted on the day. The jokes about twins have already been done, so keep them to yourself.