Long time, no blog...

It's been a long time since I last posted, so I figured it was time to update again. It's been what, almost 9 months since I last posted? Wendy is almost 10 months old now, and she's a joy. She's a big girl, at the 97th percentile in height, weight *and* head circumference. I hope that she grows tall enough to reach things for me! She's been crawling for about 3 months now, and pulling up on everything for almost that long. She's been cruising around the living room, and I suspect any day now, she'll take her first real steps. She loves to express herself with shrieks of happiness and "ba baba" and "dadadada" and that sort of thing. I can't wait for her to start talking and really expressing herself!

Here's my sweet girl:

She's here!

Gwendolyn was born at 11:07 pm on Sunday, January 31. 8 lb, 7 oz. And she has red hair like her daddy! Which is so incredibly surprising. I didn’t think it was possible, because John kept telling me that red is the most recessive hair color, and it only shows up if you get the gene from both parents. But apparently I have a recessive red hair gene somewhere in the family.

She's so sweet, here are some pictures...











Gwen & her daddy (2 days old)











Gwen at 7 days old






I had a 42 hour labor, and 30 hours into it I was given epidural & pitocin, and it all ended with an emergency c-section. It was the complete opposite of what I planned, and probably the hardest experience of my life. The 3-day stay in the hospital after the surgery was really rough, but it's getting better. My feet & legs were terribly swollen for days, because of all the fluids they were putting in me at the hospital - and aggravated by the fact that I wasn't moving around very much. But they're 95% better now. I can get in & out of bed on my own now, and I'm getting around relatively easy, although I still can't bend over very much.

Tired. Very tired.

I haven't been blogging lately, basically because the third trimester is exhausting. I guess I'm having a relatively easy pregnancy compared to many other women, but I can't help feeling exhausted and cranky after just a couple of errands.

I'll be 8 months along on New Year's Day, and that astonishes me. Baby? Here? In a month? Impossible! There's still a lot to do. I don't really have a place to put her clothes. The apartment is not baby-proofed, to say the least. It has a lot of work to be done. I wish I had more close friends that I could call and ask to help me with housework.

Ok, I've got to go figure out what's for dinner...

Kung-Fu Baby!

Gwen has been kicking up a storm tonight. Right now she's kicking me like crazy. It's not like any other feeling, I don't know how I would explain it to someone who's never been pregnant.

I can't really believe I'm already 5 months pregnant. It seems like it's been flying by. I suppose that by 8 months along, I might not feel the same way! But right now I'm enjoying being pregnant, other than being tired a lot of the time. It's exciting to feel her kick, and I like watching my belly grow (although the stretch marks aren't attractive). I'm still enjoying the novelty of all of it!

I love that it's getting cool out, and I've been wearing a cozy sweater for the past couple days. It has a faux fur hood that is great to snuggle against.

Oops.

I kind of forgot about my blog for a while there! A lot has happened in the past few months. We moved. I got laid off. But between those two events...



We're having a baby! I am now 19 weeks and 3 days along. It's a girl (SQUEEE!) and her name shall be Gwendolyn Mae. She's due January 30th, and I can't wait.

When we first found out, we were a little freaked out (John especially), since she wasn't planned, and we're living in a pretty small apartment... But after a few weeks, it got more exciting, and it's brought us closer together. I actually feel like we're falling more in love (as corny as that sounds), now that we're going to have a family. It's so incredible. I'm very happy.

The neverending baby blanket

I started this entrelac baby blanket back in June, for Andy (Doug's baby), and I'm still knitting it. It's only about a third done. Granted, I've taken a few breaks from it -- some of those breaks were a week or 2 long -- But it's taking freaking forever!

Now Brenda told me that she's going to Florida the first weekend of October, to see Doug and family, and I'm wondering: Can I get the blanket done in time? If I make a push and work on it every day, could I really get it done?

15 tiers of entrelac to go. If I work my butt off, I think I could knit half a tier per day. That's 30 days. No. I can't do it. Seriously. I mean, if I was going to work on the thing 8 hours a day, I could probably swing it, but I am NOT willing to do that! My hands will ache and just... poo. Oh well. I guess it will have to be a Christmas gift.

I'm hoping to hear back soon about freelance knitting. Veryyyy anxious. I really want to be able to do this. Everyone send "CALL ME!" vibes!!