Please pray for me?

When we came home with Michael I was the most happy and grateful woman in the world. The C section had gone better than I expected, I was healing very well, I had lots of help and Michael seemed like a sleepy baby.
Ten days later, Michael has two modes: sleeping and screaming while trying to either pass gas or pooping. I've tried the gas drops, we've done gripe water...
In ten more days, my mother is going home. Joseph who at first adored his brother is getting crazy of the crying and all wound up and I am even more so. Please, if you could storm the heavens with prayers that this will pass before my mom goes home, I would be so grateful.

Craft basket wednesday...

Insane, I know..but yes, I do have an entry for craft basket wednesday, two weeks after giving birth. The reason that I have this entry is ehm... procrastination and foolishness?

You see, for Michael's baptism we needed a baptismal cloth, a 'symbolic garment of white' that you put over the baby at a certain point during baptism, over his baptismal clothes. For Joseph we bought one months and months in advance in Saint Louis when we visited my in laws.
For Michael it was one of those last minute things. Then we found out that the local Catholic store didn't carry them (it's a tiny store), and I didn't like the price of the ones we found online.
So I decided I could just 'make one myself'. Never mind that I just had a C section, was still recovering and was expecting 28 people over for the baptism.
I got my sewing machine back, repaired from the store where it had been since before Michael's birth and Michael's godmother drove me to Joann's to select white fabric.

So far so good. Even cutting and hemming it worked out pretty well. After all, those things I had done before. I had my mother draw a simple cross on the fabric with a tailors penncil.. and then I did something foolish. Seeing that there were many pretty stitches on the sewing machine, I experimented a few lines with several of them, chose a star shaped stitch and decided to machine embroider the cross instead of doing it by hand. It would only take a few minutes that way... right?
Except I had not taken into account that with the pressure foot, you couldn't really see the line you were following, or the stitches before you. Going straight down etc was not that much of a problem, but when it came to the corners... oh boy!
Then of course some things went wrong, I had to rewind the bobbin, etc. etc. Needless to say it was not a great sight.
In the end I spend several hours following my machine embroidery effort filling the cross up with hand embroidered stitches to try and rectify the shape. The day of the baptism I spend another hour and a half hand embroidering white stars on a white cloth to make the cross look pretty. In the end it looked different from the designed cross but rather nice anyhow, more like a tau cross.

He is here!

Well, of course he is here. He was born on the eight in a C section. While I can not say that a C section is fun, I can say that everything went well and that I am healing better than I expected.
Michael Damian Hauk looks so much like his big brother, but he has a much different character. He seems much more mellow and sleeps at least a bit better, which I hope will translate in sleeping a LOT better in a few more weeks. (hopefully in two more weeks because after that my mom needs to go home and then my days of day naps will be over!).

I have had a lovely time recovering with the help of my mother in law, my mother and my best friend. And I have done very little, except take care of Michael and heap love on Joseph who adores his little brother and is not jealous as I had feared. Of course it is exhausting to keep my wild boy in check when HE wants to heap love on Michael by heaping himself on him in one rambunctuous jump, or if he wants to climb into the stroller. But it is lovely to see him give his baby brother kisses, help changing diaper, and ask about "the Michael". I must have done something well, right?

Michael Damian was born on the eight, had his first official portrait session on the 19th and was baptized on the 21st. Here follows a BUNCH of pictures!

Tomorrow baby Michael will be here... but today... I am still pregnant...

I am nervous and excited at the same time. As an antidote against those last minute nerves and because I have actually enjoyed having my picture taken in various stages of the pregnancy, I went for one last photo opportunity.

I want to warn you that I will reveal my belly in the last two of these pictures. I have looked and looked at these pictures and can only find joyous and harmless celebration of fertility in them. Still, I know everyone has their own limit on what is apropriete to see of another human's body under any circumstance (I wouldn't think of bearing my belly for a picture on any other occasion) so I wanted to put the disclaimer first.

Craft basket Wednesday

Today is the first time I participate in Craft Basket Wednesday, hosted by a blog I recently discovered: Knit together. If I manage to have regular updates, I will have to make a bit of a nicer logo for the day... but with a new baby joining our little family next week, that is slightly less of a priority.





It's hard to believe I am only a few days away from giving birth to Michael. Despite all the emotional upheaval, I feel a lot better physically in these last few weeks than I did when I was pregnant with Joseph. That means that the state of my household is at least slightly better despite having a two year old running around. And secondly it means that I have some energy to be creative. I actually have Michael's birth announcement almost ready. And since Christmas I have finished several smaller craft projects. I have cross stitched a bookmark, cross stitched a tea towel, started a little baby sweater and finished about 40 sugar bean bags before my machine gave out. I definitely have been more productive.

I am still working on that little baby sweater I talked about earlier. It has been ripped out several times, sometimes just a few rows, sometimes many rows, and once even all the way down to the beginning. I am finally back to where I was earlier and even a bit further. I did interrupt the work to do a bookmark, the little sugar bean bags and the tea towel. I am also planning one more quicky embroidery project before I need to go into the hospital if I have the chance.
I wonder if all the time I need to rest and recover after the C section might actually give me a chance to finish it? *W* Looking at the positive side here. If I HAVE to stay in bed for a week or so, why not stay in bed with some books, knitting or embroidery? Though maybe that might be a bit optimistic and I will just sleep most of the time.

As you can see in the picture, it's just straight up garter stitch all the way through, and the needles are pretty tiny: size three. I am working it on circulars, because I just prefer them, even though I use it like straights. I like the green color of the yarn, and the feel of it. So yesterday I started my first... ghasp... shaping. It was simple enough: knit the first eighteen stitches of the row, turn, and knit back until this part has reached a certain height, then bind off. I managed to do it, even the binding off, which wasn't as easy since the yarn does split easily and the needles are pretty small. Still... I DID it. Now on to the next part: slip a number of stitches on a stitch holder, then rejoin yarn and do the last 18. I know all the experienced knitters are almost falling over laughing at the simplicity, but to a beginner and ahm... klutzy knitter... I am in awe! We will see how it works out!