I’m knitting Kate from the current issue of knitty. I’ve just cast on for the fourth leg.

An aside: Every time I look at the pattern I’m reminded of the Ben Folds Five song, Kate, from Whatever and Ever Amen (stolen from my car about 7 years ago, blast!) and I sing to the yarn, “I wanna be… Kate!” Obviously I am a huge ol’ nerd.

Anyway. I’m knitting a single-color Kate in Cascade Pastaza (50% llama 50% wool) in a lovely mauvey-brown, and I’ll be adding an I-cord tail too, since she’s not in kitten britches.

Stats: Kate, single color in Cascade Pastaza color 081, knit on size 8 US.

And I promise I’ll post pictures when I’m done - but in progress limbs look like nothing so much as a knitted willy warmer.

Faith, Abby, Bede and I all have a cold. Bleah! Faith was really sick with it on Saturday, and ran a 103+ temperature all day, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, just lay still and looked miserable. I gave her ibuprofen around 1PM and she perked up enough to drink a little, which was reassuring. She was still under the weather yesterday but by evening she was almost back to her normal busy, talkative and cheerful self.

I felt myself getting it yesterday and today I’m feverish (not too bad, about 101) with a stuffy nose and a headache. If my fever spikes up at all I’ll take some tylenol so as not to cook my wee Glee. Bede is sniffly and a bit more likely to sit with me rather than run and jump and climb and so forth, but he’s not as bad off as Faith was at all. Abby however is every bit as sick as Faith was, and will be getting the same treatment in a few minutes (if I wait til noon it’s much easier to be able to redose at bedtime for maximum easy sleep, if she needs it.)

Gilbert so far is not sick, yay! Maybe he’ll avoid it?

And in other news, I am really really having trouble moving around. In addition to the pains I detailed last week, several of the supportive ligaments on my left side have pretty much given up the ghost, at least first thing in the morning. I couldn’t get up without help! Sean looked very alarmed as I literally crawled out of the bedroom this morning. Gilbert just looked amused. Once I got moving around it improved, but dang.

Etsy.com is all handmade things - you can buy them or sell them.

Really, you just have to go look. It’s fabulous!

h/t: pamelamama

In an effort to streamline my life while diapering 3 babies at once I am (get this!) color coding the different sizes of prefold. Right now, even as I type, the two dozen infant prefolds I own are becoming bright spring green via the magic of fiber reactive Procion dye.

“But Fee,” you are thinking, “the prefolds are already color coded by the thread colors on the edges. Infant green, premium blue, and toddler green… oh, I see!”

See?

Because up til now I could just say to Sean, “Grab me a diaper with green edges” and there was no ambiguity. Not so now. And trust me, in those sleep-deprived first few weeks, we need all the obvious cues we can get around here.

I haven’t decided on the colors for the larger diapers - and it’s harder to dye them because some are always either in the pail or in use on a boy - but I’ll let you know when I do.

Whee!

We were visited today by our make-believe Internet friends and erstwhile Hawaiians, Gina and family!

Picture of the eight children all together on Sean’s blog.

By the way, Gina, the girls really liked the game you got them. Faith said “Mama, I could play this game for days!”

And I really like meeting a family with which one can talk Harry Potter, knitting and homebirth all in the space of five minutes. Thanks for stopping by!

I was awakened last night twice by a hard contraction, once at 3AM and once at 5AM. So far this last month of pregnancy is proceeding like my others, with enough toning flexes and occasional hard solid ones to get me mostly effaced and dilated to about a third of the way (or a bit more even) without any active labor. It’s nice to start the day of the birth already nearly halfway there!

I have never made it to a due date. Faith was born 2 weeks early, Gil one week early, and Abby and Bede each two days before their EDDs. In terms of birth weight, Faith was the smallest at 6 pounds, 10 ounces, Gil was the biggest at 9 pounds 10 ounces (he might have been more at birth - he wasn’t weighed til he was a day old) and Abby and Bede were each 8 pounds.

I think this baby is about seven pounds and will come at 38-39 weeks. That and some outrageously high sum of money will get you a venti latte at Starbucks, kids.

Thanks everyone for the well-wishes. I’m overall fine, of course, just a bit dodgy here and there.

We have had a very quiet day around here. Tomorrow we’re going to the Bedre Chocolate Factory with ONPH, my local homeschool group. I expect to have a great time and to be exhausted when we’re done. See the homeschool blog tomorrow or the next day for details and pictures.

In knitting news, I’m working on the Seanigan (drop-shoulder wide rib vneck cardigan knit in the round and steeked) and it might even be done by the time it’s cold next winter. Might. He’s a sz 46 and he likes lots of ease. It’s BIG. If I think of it I’ll post pix. And I knit Speck a wee little hat but I ain’t a-showin’ it until its on the noggin it was knit for. So I guess I’m just a knitting tease today. Ha ha!

With this child I’ll have had five children in seven years of marriage. Each pregnancy has had its differences but they have all been uneventful and very typical.

But this time, more than any of the others, I feel it.

I’m going to be 32 in March. That’s not particularly old, but it’s very different to be pregnant at 32 than at 24. I remember in my pregnancy with Faith going to the OB for the fundal height measurement and weigh-in each month, and the nurse would offer her hand to assist me to a seated position after I had been on my back for the measurements. I would take her hand (to be polite) but at the time I thought “why on earth would I need help just getting up?”

Ha.

I have to plan how to get out of bed, how to get up from a chair, and especially how to get off the floor. Oh the floor, which is farther away than it was when I was 24! My back hurts sort of constantly and my pelvis is very strained at the pubic symphysis, making me gasp with pain when I don’t move just… riiiiight. I have had those aches in previous pregnancies but not to this extent. I haven’t even gained much weight this time, but I can feel my entire torso and my center of gravity basically resting on my pelvic floor. I can’t carry Gilbert or Bede for long at all. If they want to sit in my (ever diminishing) lap that’s fine, or ride in the sling on my back or the back of my hip it’s okay, but if I’m without a way to distribute their weight across my back and shoulders via the sling, they don’t just get lugged about in my arms much.

I’m not complaining about it really, it’s still a very easy pregnancy - just more noticeable this time. I also have heartburn but it’s not awful (it was really bad with Bede) , and I get dizzy if I stand up too quickly (not that that’s often a problem - see above!) but I’m so healthy and the baby is vigorous and strong as well.

I also know very well that after the birth I will have horrendous uterine afterpains. I had a few with Faith, a few more with Abby, and then with Bede they hit me like a ton of bricks. Worse than labor, and with no baby to show for it at the end! I was prepared for it with Gilbert, and had hot pads at the ready for all the nursing sessions those first few days. I can’t take ibuprofen because it makes my skin itch but Tylenol is pretty effective when combined with heat. At any rate, I’m ready!

Other than that I’m in great shape. I don’t get varicose veins or skin irritations in pregnancy, I seem to have gotten all the stretch marks I’m going to get, my colostrum is well in so nursing with Gilbert is a lot less irritating, and I’m sleeping pretty well at night.

Now I’m working on getting psyched up for labor. As Sean said, when I was looking all nervous about it: “Here’s how it is: it will hurt really bad, for a few hours, and then you get a baby.”

How simple is that, eh?

Fuji apples, which I adore, were on sale this week at Albertson’s and Sean bought a bunch of them. Between me and the kids we’ve eaten three of them in the last ten minutes. Mmm, apples! Crunchy sweet juicy goodness. Even the dog loves apples.

Abby is suddenly so polite and considerate to all of us. I hope it’s not a phase!

Faith is convinced that losing a tooth, and therefore becoming “a big kid” has in fact made her actually bigger, and grow taller. Who can say. I’ll measure her later.

Last night, Bede was very excited that my brother and his family were over, and was acting out of control. The 20th time he tried to shove his fingers into my mouth, I exasperatedly bit his finger. He howled and looked at me like I had betrayed him (because of course, I had) and I immediately felt like such a JERK. Sigh. He forgives me though and loves me anyway.

But in better Bede news, he’s singing the alphabet song - first song he’s ever sang. SO cute!

Gil says things like “ah bah. Ah bah bah. Naa. Mama.” then ‘hears’ himself say Mama, then excitedly points at me, like he’s surprised that someone said it. It’s incredibly cute.

That is all.