Work In Progress

I have been trying to work on a baby quilt with a fast approaching due date, but haven't had much luck. That is until this week...Teague has taken to wanting to go back to sleep after eating until almost noon! Let me know what you think of this quilt. It's my first venture in designing something more than a simple block.




Here is what my project sheet looks like, and what the quilt will hopefully look like:



And of course, there has to be a picture of Teague. He was watching his daddy's plate the entire Thanksgiving dinner!

Just a few pictures

A Whirlwind of a month

What a month October has been. I can hardly believe that it is already the end of the month, but I am ready to be done with October and move on to November.

The month started out rough, with Teague having surgery to have the skin under his tongue clipped. David was at work the day of surgery, so I thought I would be strong and go by myself. Fortunately a friend said absolutely not and woke up early to be at the hospital 6 am! The staff and nurses were amazing. However it was much harder than I thought. They let me carry Teague back to the operating room and stay with him until the anesthesia worked. They told me exactly what to expect, Teague kicking and screaming and then he just stopped. Even knowing this it was so hard to see him go limp after crying so hard. A kiss and then to the waiting room to wait. At least it wasn't a long wait. Teague was back in my arms in 10 minutes!

He is doing great, now! We went to the doctor for a followup and a possible ear infection. When they weighed him, he weighed 11 pounds. That is a 1.5 pound gain in less than 3 weeks! We are super excited for that.

After the surgery, we traveled up to Chicagoland for David's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It was the first time the ENTIRE family had been together in, well I had never met some of them, so at least 6 years! It was really nice getting to spend some time with all of the family.

But it was an experience flying standby with an infant. I don't know what Delta does, but a flight that has 40 seats open when I go to bed can become oversold when I wake up the next morning. After realizing that we were not going to make a Delta flight, David's brother, who works for American Eagle, offered me a buddy pass on their flight that I would get on. David can ride jumpseat on them, so we both could get to O'hare that night. Fortunately that flight wasn't full and we even got to sit together!

What a busy month....looking forward to next week. Vacation, which includes a trip back to Chicagoland via my parents house, for a wedding and more family time. We will be traveling with Teague and two dogs, so we decided to make it a two day trip.

A Quick Note

Just a quick update as to what happened at the doctor's appointment. Teague is only in the 6th percentile for weight. (He weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces.) They are very concerned with his weight gain, and the length of time during feedings. The consensus was that he might be tongue-tied, so the referred him to a pediatric ENT. We have that appointment Monday morning, so maybe we will find out something more.

Teague's original nurse in the hospital thought that his tongue needed clipped, but nothing was ever said about it again. I guess she was right.

We were also referred to speech at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. I'm a little perplexed by this referral, but we will be making an appointment with them after the ENT visit.

All of this will also require a visit back to the lactation consultants at Southern Regional to learn a new way to latch on and feed more effectively after Teague's tongue gets clipped, if needed.

So until then, we are feeding with a syringe or spoon, 3-4 ounces every hour. We were also given a formula that is mainly used to get premie's to gain weight to supplement with for awhile.

2 Months!

Teague has his two month check up tomorrow, complete with several vaccinations. (And I have to go alone, David is at work.) Hopefully he won't get too upset with the shots, and we can get a few questions that we have answered. Like, is there a reason that he screams for upwards of 6 hours a day? Pretty much if he is awake he is screaming. I feel like I'm a horrible mother who can't figure out what is wrong with him, but I have exhausted everything I know. Should it take Teague at least an hour and a half to 3 hours to finish a four ounce bottle? That's another question I have. He has to be hungry, we will have been out running errands and I pump when we get home since he fell asleep in his car seat (meaning it is finally quiet), when he wakes up it takes him forever to eat what I have pumped.

I spend my days trying to console my crying son, which is bad for the sewing, but good for the weight loss, since there is no time to eat. I have lost over 15 pounds! (That's not including all of the pregnancy weight, total would be about 37 pounds!) I would like to lose 30 more (I would settle for 15, but why settle), and then in April complete the Doc Spackman Triathlon at SIU. This is the shortest triathlon known to man, so I feel I can do it. The only thing that scares me is the run. I have NEVER run anywhere in my life. There, I have said it publicly, I am going to complete a triathlon!



Just a current picture of Teague, for anyone who cares. This is one of the rare moments where he is not screaming! And is acne is clearing up, finally!

Teague is here!

So Teague is officially here. Actually he has been here for 6 weeks now. We have been loving him more and more everyday. He arrived on July 31st at 6:35 p.m. after a lengthy induction that resulted in an emergency c-section. My perfectly planned labor and delivery went out the window from before we even got to the hospital.







We have already gone on a vacation with him. Okay it was only up to my parents house for the week. But still after an 8+ hour car ride with a four week old and two dogs I feel we can call it a vacation. The Du Quoin state fair was going on so Teague enjoyed his first fair experience. I'm not sure if he liked as much as I enjoyed being home, he slept through most of it. (Which is unfair in its self, he doesn't sleep that much at home.)





I haven't had much of an opportunity to sew, hopefully I can get some done tomorrow when David gets home from work. I have this quilt for Teague that needs to be bound.




There are so many projects that I need to finish. I have a new nephew on his way in January, so I need to start working on his quilt. I have a couple of fabric and pattern options, but I'm not sure which one will be declared the winner for baby nephew.

Work in Progress

A few days ago I decided that we needed a bookcase in Teague's room. The only bookcase that even halfway matched the furniture in his room was the one with all of my fabric in it...of course! So I emptied the fabric out and piled it on my ironing board for a few days until I decided where it was now going to go. After a lot of moving things around from bedroom to bedroom and cleaning out a closet in the master, I finally got the fabric put away. (Why is it that when you do one thing, that snowballs into having to do list that is at least 10 things long?)

After seeing all my fabric, I was inspired to start sewing. But what should I sew? And then I realized I had everything I needed to do a zigzag baby quilt. I got the idea from www.cluckclucksew.com who has made several of these quilts. Jeni from www.athomeingeorgia.blogspot.com had asked the last time I saw her in the quilt store if I had ever made one, so I thought why not now?

Here is a picture of one row

just please excuse the mess on my cutting area. It really is going quick. I should be able to finish it tonight, depending on when I get home from Teague's shower from the ladies at work. If not definitely tomorrow before David gets home from work. I'll post the finished top as soon as it is done.

I am planning on quilting it on my little machine, so I don't have to go in to use the long arm. Now, how should I quilt it?

A little of this, a little of that

So I am just four days away from full term! And even better yet, the midwife thinks that I will have Teague in the next two weeks! I am not sure I can make it to the full 40 weeks, it is really hot here. That being said, I have been busy getting ready for his coming. Our bedding arrived just a few days ago, it looks wonderful. You don't have to take my word for it though....look for yourself.

We still have a lot of work to do before Teague arrives. I was sitting in his room this morning and Gershwin and myself noticed a mouse running across the floor in the little bathroom. Needless to say we will be taking a trip to the store later this evening and getting a few traps. I despise mice, however they are easier to get rid of than the lizards that frequent our house as well. You would think growing up in an old house in the middle of a field I would be okay with mice in the house, but no.

We have been busy sewing away as well. I have made my baby sling, well I still have to put a hem in one end, but it's close enough to being done. It is serged, so it can wait for a few days. I have a pair of newborn shorts that I want to get made before the big day arrives. I find it disgusting that a pair of shorts cost $10, when there is only 1/4 yard of material in the shorts. Expensive material would only put the cost at $2.50, and trust me I am not using expensive material for these shorts.

I would also like to get a quilt top or two made while David is away at work this week. Hopefully it will happen, but again, it is really hot and even hotter when the iron is on. I need to go get busy!

30 Weeks and counting

So I am just past 30 weeks. That means only 10 more weeks left, or really 9 weeks. It is hitting me how quick that July 27th is coming. Isn't it funny how in elementary and high school a 9 week quarter was a lifetime. A lifetime of possibilities, work, projects. How long those nine weeks took. Now I look at those nine weeks and think oh my...how quickly that time is going to go by. How much I still had planned to get done before Teague arrives. I am going to get it done, hopefully.

A Lifetime of Changes

I am promising myself I will be better at this blogging, if only for my extended family. They need a way to see the updates of Teague. That's right if you didn't know, David and I are having a boy. He should be here in the end of July! We are so excited, but at the same time, I am nervous.

That being said, I have a myriad of projects that I would like to get done before he arrives. One is a lot of quilting. I am making some progress on it. I went in and quilted one last weekend; it was my first project I made. It had been sitting in the closet waiting long enough. I am planning on going in tomorrow morning and quilting this one:
I only promised it to David's grandparents for Christmas. Oops! At least at the end of the month it will have a way to get all the way up to northern Illinois without my paying for shipping it! And then I have all of the projects I want to do for Teague. They will get done, I just have to get busy.

We have at least almost finished his bedroom...ok we have got a crib and the floor done. But hey, that is something, right!?! Here's a sneak peek.Maybe tomorrow there will be more to show you. Like a quilted quilt, and some onesies with ties! Like I said...I am going to try.