Uncoscious Mutterings

Week 496

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Alcohol :: Drunk
2. Pocket :: Pick
3. Squeeze :: Hold
4. Football :: Men in tights
5. Fourth :: Fifth
6. Snake :: White
7. Reduced :: Decreased
8. Polka :: Dot
9. Intrepid :: Chivalrous
10. Paula :: Coffee

OMG.

I bloghopped first time in... two years?

Mind you, only few blogs, those which had new content in my GR, one shouldn't strain herself too much after such a long time without practise.

EEEK! Lizzie*Kate's Halloween Mystery Sampler, take one

I have worked EEEK! here and there, during evenings when I have had energy, or when I have stayed up coughing due recent issues with my asthma... But, it makes a progress!

Actually I am a bit more farther advanced, but am too lazy to take a picture. *grin*

I'm loving how this is turning out, even though there is one colour that IMO fades too much into the fabric (that is green in second pumpkin's leaves), but I let it be.

By the way out of two active WIPs I have two WIPs which have owls in them... makes you wonder.

Lizzie*Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler

Finally! First installment of Lizzie*Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler has arrived!

Scissors! aka. Sales are BAD for you

One should never follow ads on websites. Never.

Iittala's web store has a sale and upon accidentally (yeah, right) clicking there and accidentally scrolling their sale selection I noticed those pretty little nail scissors and thought immediately that they would make great cross stitch scissors... and as they are Fiskars scissors (read: good quality) 10 € is not a bad price - and they ARE pretty.

And... a stitcher has never too many scissors, right? Right?!

Breastfeeding: epilogue

Well, at the ripe age of three and a half months our little guy decided that it's time to do something about his breast milk addiction, went cold turkey and since then little guy has been a formula baby.
Shame really, I did enjoy looking at that little guy's happy face when he was feeding.

But, he won't starve as he understands how many fun foods there are out there and eats solids like a big boy already. Oatmeal is a big hit even he has only started it yesterday.
I guess he'll survive without my milk.

Funny thing is that apparently it runs in my family that babies tend to stop breastfeeding around three-or-so months even if there were milk present.
Though in my family babies also tend to get the idea of solids really fast and require solids almost from birth. We have hungry genes.

Birth Sampler: Mama Owl

I have shocked myself! Stitching! Finally got started with the birth sampler for Boy!

Last summer, around the time of our first sonogram, 1-2-3 Stitch! had a birth sampler sale and you probably can guess who purchased a few (I think curious stitchers want to know which ones so let me link: this, this and this - and of course the one we are now blogging about), just to have options and so on and this was one of them.

Naturally I sold that piece of aida this came with and went with natural 36 count linen and I am really happy how it's turning out even it still lacks backstitching, but I won't get to that before the sampler is otherwise finished. (I "may" have to purchase this growth chart in near future.)

Otherwise... I have been sick and hence MIA as Boy has taken all my flu ridden energy.

Stash! And Life With Boy

Oh yes, I am still alive, as unbelievable as it is. Or maybe not.

I have meant to share last part of Incessant Stash Shopping Phase I had when Boy was born and finally got around to take a picture (not a good one, but a picture nevertheless - and I still forgot all the floss, oh well).



I also came around with the picture host issue I was talking of earlier: I did set up a personal gallery on Periphaeria's server. At the moment it contains some stitchy stuff (and few of my mother's pics), but not all. Maybe some day I'll get around uploading everything...

Baby life goes on swimmingly and despite me being away from everywhere (my thyroid is obviously out of whack still/ again - just upped the dosage without consulting my endocrinologist and I actually feel like having energy) Boy is not that demanding.
He's actually quite a jolly little guy: babbling, giggling and smiling a lot. He also loves his toy arch and going to places with lots of people (as long as they stay away from him as he started "baby shyness" early), everything is interesting, has been since he was born actually.

And to be honest he is not even so little anymore... when he was born he was a short, skinny little guy on -3 line on the diagram. Three months later he's a tall and muscular little guy and has achieved +1 growth line - if he continues like this we'll have a little basketball player in our midst (I guess tamaraland will mention something about big Finnish babies ). I just wonder where he gets that from.

I was prepared for colic and all things like that, but we have little guy who never cries without a reason and even then only long enough to get what he wants.
He has even been quite easy after his first set of injected vaccinations. Feverish and uncomfortable, of course, but still happy and playful little guy. My son.

Boy is also reason for few of those designs as I got Carriage House Sampling's "Alphabet Blocks" (all parts with fabric only like 40 bucks!) and LHN's "Cowboy Dreams" and "Robin Hood" his future own room in mind (I'm praying that we'd get bigger apartment soon, two rooms with almost no closet space, in second floor and no elevator is a pain in the ass when you have a child...). I can see myself justifying some pleasant stitching time with those in the future.

I guess it's sleepy time now, ta-ta!

Confessions

My name is Outi and I want another child. Now. Actually I have had this need since last trimester...

"Luckily" Boy Wonder was delivered with some pointy knives so we have to use birth control at least six months, surgeon recommended one year. And noticing my history it may take quite a while to get those two pretty lines on pregnancy test. If ever.
Though I try to stay optimistic as childbirth is often good treatment for PCOs women. All that pregnancy stuff apparently normalizes our hormones.

Now I'll head to absorb some baby smell and go to bed next to little BW. As, to my surprise, I still do breastfeed at night.

RANT: Breastfeeding

How time flies, young one is soon 3 months old!

If you don't want to read (rant) about breastfeeding, stop now.

SQUEE! ^^

I get Lizzie*Kate's Mystery Sampler's full package as a birthday gift!

Stash Overload: My Oh My, This Isn't All Of It...

I am an addict. That is my excuse and I stick with it.

Well, honestly from now on my stash shopping will happen about once in a blue moon as I am at home with Boy and it affects to our income level even though maternity and parenting grants are tied to one's income level. At least higher income leaves are relatively long. (Honestly I don't get it how you folks in short maternity leave countries do it... work and baby. Boy is easy and content child 99% of the time and still I don't have time and I don't even want to think how tired I'd be if I had to work...)
When my parenting leave ends and "caretaking" leave begins it'll be nothing extra. Nada. But, that's around New Year and in any case it's all the same income wise am I home with Boy or go back to work so the decision isn't hard. I rather have time for the little guy.

Anyhow... Click for a bigger pic.



Ton of OOPs, some nice stuff from ABC Stitch Therapy's and 1-2-3 Stitch's Clearance bin, pretties from Silkweaver, silks from 1-2-3 Stitch etc... *sigh*

And this wasn't all.

Oh yeah, Ovi Share will be closed so I had to change place... If anyone has any good suggestions for free and unlimited image hosting please tell. (Of course I have unlimited server space and bandwidth at Servage which I could use, it just would mean setting up a gallery and I don't kind of have time now... rather I hate adjusting file and folder rights even at my best.)

As you can guess...

...life is busy in my neck of the woods.

Little one is adorable and easy baby, but he's not the napping kind, at least if it he has to sleep anywhere else than on mommy's lap or in his pram (and it has to move somewhere outside the house) so mommy has precious little time for herself (there is only so many things you can do when holding a baby).

I think I'll keep most baby related blabberings as limited friends only entries, BUT it's easy to get on that list: just ask (and registering to LJ is free, so what are you waiting for?!).

I have to confess that I have been a BAD, BAD person and accidentally bought quite some stash when one-handed... more about that later. Castleville awaits.

Boy Wonder aka. Miracles, They Do Happen

Most people got surprised few days ago at Facebook when I announced the birth of our baby boy. And I don't blame you. It was a surprise to me too, even though I had nine months to get used to the idea.

Actually I still look at that boy and wonder is he really ours...

I guess he is as he's becoming a spitting image of his daddy and I do remember being there when he was born...

Had anyone said me last year this time that our first child is nine days old 366 days later I probably had thought they were crazy. But I had been happily wrong about that matter - and I was.
Last year I got the best birthday gift ever and last week there was all the Christmases, birthdays, anniversaries etc. at once when I heard his cough for the first time. Our son, my long-awaited miracle child.

Miracles, they do happen.

39+5

Everything was well in the control.

Placenta is clean and bears no signs whatsoever of being calcified due high blood pressure and umbilical cord has completely normal blood flow. And actually placenta seems to be working very well: estimated weight on Monday was 3,5 kilos (I was 3,6 kg when I was born 42+something).

And we are indeed having a boy - or should we say that the doc saw testicles while checking the measurements and stuff.

As my pressure was still under 150/100 and lady parts weren't matured a bit since last doctor's appointment (35+ something) inducing labor wasn't considered, BUT when they get free slot (next week) they will call me and I'll go there again for another check-up where they do reconsider inducing labor. Now we are just waiting for some maturing to happen and doctor's orders were that it'd be preferred to come there to give birth before next control...

So, I've done some acupressing and hope that it would at least make my body more ready - preferably it would induce labor. Let's see.

And we are ready to go!

Today I got my first maternity allowance and spent part of it at Ikea (and over half of it went for bills - goodness)... Now we have a bed for Baby Wonder and we are ready to roll!

They had really cheap one (39,95€) which I had considered earlier, but decided to get the more expensive one (99€ which is not insane) because you can remove the other side and make it a regular bed when BW is older. Of course not much older, but in any case, he can get out of bed by himself when he is old enough.

This also felt sturdier and looks better with our changing table...

...which I got for free in excellent condition from a friend of a friend.

Health wise... my blood pressure elevated above my normal levels last week and it stays (I check it daily now) around alarm level (140/90) so on Monday I'm heading to hospital for an ultrasound to define the flow in umbilical cord and it is possible that labor will be induced around 40+0 (due date), which would mean... next week!

So now I am just busy resting and trying to clean and so on before next week, just in case they won't let me out of the hospital without Baby Wonder outside of the womb. (I'm cleaning because, thanks to bureaucracy again, Husband is not in the country at the moment. And it looks very much so that he can't make it here before BW has born.)

Though it is also possible that despite my high risk for pre-eclampsia (first born, overweight, family history) they decide that we are ok despite my higher blood pressure and then we'll wait... but I have to admit that I am not at all against inducing at this point. Not because of how I feel as I am feeling good, but because I have gotten this need to meet this little fella.

How much is too much?

I guess that most cross stitchers agree with me and say there is no such thing as "too much" when it comes to stash, but I guess it's getting close when you wonder when and where you ordered all this stuff when walking back from your mailbox... But still, I have an amazing excuse reason to do it now.

This is a picture heavy entry so consider yourself warned...

One night I was eBay hopping and saw certain Prairie Schooler's Christmas pattern, stitched on black and looking amazing, on sale and of course fell in love with it and just had to get it - and as it was quite expensive there (eBay seems to be insanely expensive nowadays when it comes to stitchy stuff) I googled a bit... and found a real store that had it. And it was cheaper than those ones in eBay.

Of course I justified the postages by buying additional goodies with it, being a good stitcher and all. *grin*

Then I found someone who sells discontinued items and other stitchy stuff cheap (which basically means that I am innocent - I really am!)...

And then I wandered to ABC Stitch Therapy's Clearance section...

I have full series of these, but the scan of the third one wasn't good and I realized it after tossing whole haul to my Secret Stash Cave... but they are all great!

Praying Hand's "Blessed With Friends" has some gorgeous samplers and borders even if you don't care about the sentiments. And hey, it was like really cheap! They basically gave it away for free...

There is one sentiment there why I got this and the last pic explains it all. And it was almost free too. *grin*

"Welcome Friends" just popped to my basket because of the design on right corner... biscornu anyone? *grin*

When it comes to stitching I have done absolutely NOTHING in two-three weeks... my right hand has some nasty carpal tunnel symptoms at the moment and all the energy (not much) I have had has gone to other activities (rearranging the apartment).

And it seems I was tagged by Christine. I will get back to it when I get my brain back.