For everyone that hasn’t heard [are there still people who haven’t heard?] Aiden [dubbed Babysticks by the LSGers] was born Tuesday, July 15th at 1:53pm after 6 quick hours of labor. He weighed in at a crushing 9lbs, 5oz and is absolutely perfect. And I’m not just saying that because he’s mine, he had perfect pink skin, a round head, 10 fingers, 10 toes, and feathery blond hair. Seriously…look at him…I make damn pretty babies!!

He is such a good baby. Only cries when he’s hungry [which is a lot, he didn’t get to be a nine pounder by accident] and is probably the snuggliest baby ever. And he smells good. And his sister, who insisted she didn’t want a “stinky brother”, is absolutely smitten with him.

The labor was crazy. I woke up at 9am feeling a bit crampy [I was crampy the night before, like PMS level crampy] and went into the bathroom, came out, Zoe asked me if Aiden was kicking me and I told her “No, I think I might be in labor”. I went into my bedroom and woke up the husband and told him I thought we might be heading to the hospital soon, and just as I said it I was slammed with horrible pain. It came on so hard I started thinking something must be wrong. A minute later we’re packing up and I feel something warm, thought it was my water and ran into the bathroom to check. Nope- blood. My first thoughts went to those stupid pregnancy books, all of which said blood is BAD and could mean placenta rupture or placenta previa or whatever. I burst into hysterics and run out of the house barefoot with a barefoot Zoe and freaked out husband behind me.

I sobbed the whole way to the hospital thinking either I or my baby was dying. I burst into the ER and screamed incoherently at the poor receptionist that “THERES BLOOD, BLOOD IS BAD, PLEASE HELP ME”. Poor Zoe chatted with the nurse who wheeled me upstairs while Jon parked the van, she was trying to comfort me and make the nurse laugh. I guess she started crying as soon as I was out of sight. I can’t believe my 8 year old handles crisis better than I do.

They let me go on thinking I or Babysticks was dying for a while until the nurse finally turned up the heart monitor so I could hear his heartbeat and told me blood can just mean that I dilated really fast. She admitted me to labor and delivery. I went about 2 hours drug-free with massive, rapid contractions. The nurses couldn’t believe how fast I was progressing. They made me sign shit and answer questions and I just remember bashing everyone’s skulls in inside my head while I tried to answer and breathe through the contractions. You know, you really forget how much that hurts…what a reminder.

Once I got my epidural and was finally comfortable they had me at 8cm, they broke my water and I was 10cm MINUTES later. I pushed once, gave a little half-push for the head, and one last one and Aiden was born! The best part of the pushing process was watching the face of the twenty-something paramedic student who was watching his first birth. When blood shot across the room I took a mental snapshot of his face. I will laugh at it for years to come.

So now we’re home and settled. I have an etsy order to get to, I’m going to try and make a batch of earrings so I’ll be all stocked up, but we’ll see how much time I get from this little meatball.

I HAVE been knitting but I have to keep one project on the down-low for a few weeks. The other is a modified Pea Pod sweater. I’m having mountains of problems with the pattern directions, they’re really confusing to me and even the threads on Ravelry don’t quite help. I nix’d the weird ribbing and just did 2×2. Hopefully I can make it work with some mods.

So that’s it for now, I smell something brewing in Babysticks’ pampers so I better put the idiot box away and get to Mom-ing. A huge thanks and tons of love to everyone that’s emailed and posted in LSG getting me through the long wait of the final month. There were 3 or 4 threads on Ravelry I will be saving and burning to disk and wedging in Aiden’s baby book. It meant a lot to me and I won’t forget it! <3

I’ve been tagged for this puppy about 5 times, so I decided, upon seeing it on Sassy Stitchess, that I would finally do it.

1. Where was I 10 years ago.
Let’s see, 10 years ago I was 16, just turned. I had just lost my virginity, was dating a guy named Mike who I still adore. I just finished the 9th grade and was spending most of my days hanging out at my friend Kim’s house smoking pot and listening to NIN. I wore a lot of black and thought I was kinda cool…in a socially awkward way. I had no idea that a year from then I’d be expelled from school for complete bullshit, knocked up, and up shit’s creek without a paddle.

2. Five things on today’s to-do list.

1. Go into labor
2. Go into labor
3. Go into labor
4. Go into labor
5. Mail some letters

3. Snacks I enjoy.
I think it’s pretty clear that right now there aren’t many snacks I DON’T enjoy.
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Start a not for profit so I could live with myself. Pay off my parent’s house. Buy myself a house where the nearest neighbors were half a mile away. Buy a couple alpacas. Dress fabulously and send my kids to college. Oh and I’d have every expensive piece of photography equipment and a stash that would put your local LYS to shame.

5. Places I have lived.
Masshole for life: Quincy, Dorchester, New Bedford, and Fall River.
6. Jobs I have had.
babysitter (fail), telemarketer (fail), dunkin donuts (tried to kill a coworker fail), iParty (fail), blockbuster (gradios quit victory), new age store (fail), grocery store (quit after 2 weeks), general dynamics (fail), tutor (went pretty well but made me want to kill myself).
7. Who would I like to know more about.
I’d like to know more about you.

Still no baby. He’s being a creep.

Still haven’t finished my Central Park Hoodie…I’m being lazy.

I decided to be nice to myself and got a haircut today. I love it! I took my MIL’s and SIL’s advice and went to their salon, and FINALLY got what I wanted! Great cut, no lectures about home haircoloring (I hate that), and she gave me ONE product that wasn’t expensive and rules. All for about 40 bucks. Woo!

Other than that…life is pretty mundane at the moment!

Well it’s 4am, so technically it’s the fifth. I’m having sleeping issues, can you tell?

STILL no baby, but here’s some holiday pictures in the meantime. My first stab at bulb night shooting:

Well I just returned from the doctor’s office. They gave me my ultrasound results, contrary to how I feel and look…I am not, in fact, carrying a 30lb infant. They guessed him at about 7.5lbs (as of last week anyway) and said he scored an 8 out of 8 on the muscle test…whatever that is.

Unfortunately, just like with Zoe, I am low on amniotic fluid. I’m not in the danger zone yet, but they’ve got me going in for another ultrasound to check my AFI levels on Tuesday. With Zoe, this is why I was induced.

I’m about 2cm dilated, which is more than I ever got with Zoe…so that’s good. Hopefully a natural labor isn’t out of the question after all. (Being induced sucks.) But they’ve basically put me on bedrest, so I am basically just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs.

Guess I’ve got some time to knit, eh? Ugh.

365.2

Originally uploaded by lick_my_sticks

One of my mother in laws kittens. She made my whole day just stumbling around and mewing.

ETA: Nonnahs is super smart and told me she’s going to do her 365 pictures on her blog as a weekly round up. I’m going to bite her style after this. Stay tuned for a real post, barring me going into labor or being induced tomorrow!

1-Strawberry Lemonade

Originally uploaded by lick_my_sticks

Project 365 - Day One! For those who aren’t familiar with Project 365, check out this URL and jump in!
http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Day 1 - June 30th, 2008
Got my new camera today, and went out with the family for dinner…I chose a picture from dinner for today because this was more than likely our last dinner out as a family of three. Crazy.

So the ultrasound went well I guess. I was going to scan the photos but I couldn’t make heads or tails of them so I doubt anyone else will be able to either! They wouldn’t tell me whether he was big or not, I have to wait until Wednesday at my next appointment.

The good news is my paranoia about a misdiagnosed gender prediction were put to rest, we were treated to a head-on view of Baby A’s meat and potatoes…so uh...he’s still a boy!

With my mom’s baby shower for us this weekend I’m trying to sit cross legged until Sunday. It’d be a real shame to not be at my own baby shower! Fortunately if he DOES decide to crash the party this weekend, we’ve already had a baby shower with Daddy’s side of the family so we’re prepared!

I haven’t packed my hospital bag yet. That seems so…final. I don’t know why I’m putting it off but I am.

We’ve had some lovely weather around here this week. Thank fuck I have air conditioning because I would be miserable right now otherwise. The air outside is best compared to the air swirling about inside a dog’s mouth. However it’s not all bad, we had some great thunder and lighting the other day!

So with all this waiting and lousy weather, I’ve just been camping out in my fabulous new bedroom, watching UFC unleashed episodes from the DVR and working on my Central Park Hoodie-which I am actually making some progress on! Look at this…it’s not just a sleeve…it’s the SECOND sleeve. (oooooh)

I’m hoping to finish the sleeve by tonight, then it’s just the hood and button band!! Woohoo! Can I tell you just how much I am dreading the button band? Picking up 300+ stitches? Shoot me in the face. But it must get done!! Why?

Besides the fact that I started this hoodie back in July of 2007 (making this a ONE YEAR knit), I’m clearing out the WIPs for the Knitting Olympic Trials going on on Ravelry. I’ll be knitting for Team MINE (for the Selfish Knitters) and Team LSG (for Lazy, Stupid and Godless). Yeah that’s right…I’m playing for two teams. I am an Olympic whore.

My olympic goals are especially ridiculous considering I will have a newborn and be deliriously exhausted, but I’m thinking that not only will that make an Olympic win more satisfying, it will probably give me something to focus on and keep me sane. Can you sleep-knit? I will find out!

Thank you to everyone who commented on the bedroom re-do!! I often feel like a total decorating failure, so all your awesome comments (and the ones on Flickr) really made my day. I also made sure to tell Zoe how awesome everyone thinks she is for her good grades and dancing accolades. You guys rock!

Well, I better get back to this sleeve. If I don’t get this bad boy done quick, I fear it may never get done! I’ll leave you with an image that never fails to make me smile…my child reading. Not because I told her to, because she likes to:

I’ll bet some of you thought “hmmm, no blogging…Pam must have had that baby!”. Nope. Wrong.

I’m due in 3 weeks, which makes me 37 weeks…the magic number for expectant moms. 37 weeks is considered full term, which means Baby A could show up any day now and have no complications. I’m taking a much-need sigh of relief for this, but now the “holy shit, labor hurt” anxiety is setting in.

So what have I been doing to pass time during the waiting game? NESTING! And not just nesting, crazy nesting. I have purged the contents of all my bathroom cabinets. I threw out every hair cream, bath bead, bubble bath, old cold medicines, junky body wash, unwanted make up, stretched out hair elastic…you get the idea.

Then I did the same thing in Zoe’s room. Her room is still a work in progress however. Her closet needs cleaning out and her clothes need another round of goodwill sorting. More on this later.

However, most of the work has been in my bedroom. When I moved into this apartment, I set my sights on the living room. Jon and I spent some quality time at IKEA buying a new desk, coffee table, couch, file cabinet and TV stand. I posted some pictures of it before I believe. While we did all of this, our bedroom went woefully neglected. I hated being in it…perhaps you can see why:

Our old hand-me-down dressers SUCKED. They were ugly, old, and didn’t have near enough room for our clothes (hence the laundry you see strewn about). The built-in hutch was a clutter catcher and an eye sore. Our bedding was beat up and too busy (the red and white quilt cover is new, the actual quilt looked like that beat up dust ruffle). Our bedside tables (more hand me down mismatched furniture) we covered in clutter. The whole room was cramped, I stubbed toes, banged elbows and tripped over cords constantly. It was a room of misery.

I took the quilt cover, IKEA of course, and my “thing” for trees and starting dog-earing pages in my IKEA catalog. When we finally saved up the cash, we went to IKEA and came home with tons of stuff.

We cleared out the room, shampoo’d the carpet, and Zoe even kicked in and spared me the base-board washing.

And in the end, we came out with this:

I LOVE my new room. We still need a real bedframe and some matching bedside tables, but it’s organized and modern and I just love it. That skinnier dresser on the end is a jewelry/lingerie dresser with a pop-up mirror and I love it so much I can barely stand it. Baby A’s clothes are in the red bins in my hutch for now and there’s plenty of room to move around and room for A’s bassinet!

And the best feeling is that Jon loves it too. I designed the whole room and while it’s not going to make any interior design magazines, I think it’s pretty sweet for a beat up apartment occupied by a couple of broke ass 20 somethings.

We are doing the same total re-do in Zoe’s room, cleaning out my FORMER craft room (sigh) for Baby A, and Jon even cleaned out the kitchen cabinets yesterday. Stay tuned for more before and afters since I’m giddy about decor.

As for KNITTING, as this is a knitting blog right? I lost it for a few weeks due to fatigue and stressing over prepping for the baby, but for the last couple of nights I’ve been knitting away on my Central Park Hoodie. I’m just about done with a sleeve, one more sleeve, a hood and a button band to go! I WILL finish this damn sweater this summer. It’s been a UFO for way, way, way too long.

I’m planning to do the Olympic Trials going on over on Ravelry. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll be representing Team LSG and Team MINE. What am I knitting? No idea.

The Slow Bee Mystery Shawl was misleading! It wasn’t slow. Not slow enough for this bee anyway! I’m still on Clue One. How sad is that. I think the KAL is on Clue Seven. I fail at mystery lace I guess. To be fair, I did have to frog the whole thing and start over…

I have not knit either of A’s sweaters. Again with the fail.

Other news on the homefront is all about Zoe. She officially passed the 3rd grade, and made Honor Roll again! Unfortunately this shitty city is closing down her school and moving her AGAIN. Poor kid. Hopefully her friends will end up at the new school, too.

Zoe also just snagged herself a FIVE YEAR trophy at her Dance Academy. I’m very proud of her, five years is a long commitment for a scatterbrain like her. She was GREAT at her recital this year.

Good job, kiddo!

Now it’s time to get off my butt and do some things around here. I’ve got an ultrasound tomorrow because they think A is “big” (great.) so I’ll post those pics up tomorrow! I’ve got a couple meme’s to do too, so I will get to them as well!