davejenbarnes

I went in early for my 27 week appointment and glucose blood testing. Not much to report. My blood pressure was 98/58 (no wonder I’ve been tired!) I got to feel Lowell’s head.  (He is head-up at this point but he does flip every now and then.)  Lowell’s resting heart-rate was in the low 140’s and after some jiggling from mom, we heard it go up to 157 or so. My fundal height is right on target at 27 centimeters though you’d think I am farther along if you compare the belly shots… I’ve gained 5 pounds in the last 5 weeks which is good, but I need to be gaining more weight. Forever with the gaining of the weight.

I must comment that the midwives that drew my blood (I had two blood draws and a different midwife each time) were the most awesome ever. I didn’t even feel the prick. Painless. I’ve never had a painless blood draw in my life but these two ladies managed it. I didn’t even know it was possible. Holy crap, it was that awesome. Where were they when I was getting the botched IV and all the painful needles at the hospital having James??? Why didn’t I choose to go with my gut instinct and have James at the birthing center??? I am in awe of my experiences with the birthing center and midwives this time around. There is no better way to prepare for the birth of a child than with such an educational and empowering team of caring, gentle midwives. This birth is going to be so amazing. I can’t wait.

CRW_0982, uploaded by davejenbarnes

We are finally home from our week of travelling (read: driving). *sigh* It is good to be home. David and I are both exhausted and catching colds and James has a bum of a diaper rash (we both think from a week in paper diapers and a funky travelling diet combined)… All our pictures (well, the ones we managed to download off the camera) are still on David’s work laptop so it will be awhile before any of those get posted.

I won’t give a play-by-play but rest assured that none of us rested well the entire week. James does not bode well in a pack-n-play and we do not bode well staying in the same room as James. He seems to know what a pack-n-play is called and that play means play, even at all hours of the night. I am hoping we are all able to get a full nights’ rest in our own beds and rooms tonight and that these sore throats go away. Very far away.

It was awesome seeing family and having all the Barnes cousins together and the food was tremendous. We are hoping to be able to visit up there again after Lowell arrives and see e’eryone again. I’ll post again once the pictures are off the lappy and post processed, uploaded, and collages are made. Until then, Happy [belated] Thanksgiving everybody.

Dave and I went to a wedding tonight and it felt like a date because we left James with David’s parents. Hurray for being able to get out and have some fun celebrating with friends! I’ll, of course, have all the pictures uploaded once I get home to our big mac (not the hamburger, for you pc people) and photoshop. For now, thumbnails will have to do (iPhoto converts the RAWs to the wrong color profile except in the thumbnails for some odd reason… I know, I’m a color profile nerd.)

Congratulations, Jay and Laura. Best wishes to you both! We had such a great time at your wedding…

I forgot to add links to these on our photos page though they’ve been on our youtube account for awhile…

• Pushing the corn popper :: August 2006
• Kissing the camera :: August 2006 (sorry for my annoying “mommy” voice)
• James and a glowstick :: August 2006
• James at bedtime :: September 2006
• Buckling some buckles :: October 2006
• Day Out With Thomas :: November 2006

I’ve decided to keep track of the things I knit with numbers, so this is No. 2 (pending completion) so far:

Some observations this far about my knitting: I’m surprisingly close to the pattern’s gauge (for my second knitting project of all time) though it seems small and tight. I had some other knitting moms check it out and their first comments were on how small a needle size I’m using because the skein calls for a size 7 needle. But the pattern called for a size 3-5 needle, so I originally went with the pattern and am using a pair of size US 5 needles. So far, I’m only 2 stitches over the pattern gauge (meaning that my stitches are slightly smaller than called for). There should be 24 stitches across to 4 inches and I have 26 to 4 inches… and the pattern calls for 32 rows per 4 inches while I have, again, two rows over that. I’ve also noticed that as I get farther along, I am beginning to relax and my yarn hold has loosened considerably. I am guessing that this will put my gauge right at what the pattern calls for by making the stitches slightly wider and taller. In the end, though, I predict that this will be for Lowell and that it will indeed be too small for my growing James, however fast I knit.

In the picture, the edges are curling under but that’s normal from what I gather from my research for a stockinette stitch, which is what I’m knitting. It’s the same reason you don’t often find many people knitting stockinette stitched scarves. They’d be a tube of rolled up knit.  The scarves.  Not the people.

So I decided to knit some wool longies since the pattern made somewhat sense to me as I read though it. Here is where I was after completing the first 8 rows of ribbing.  So far, it’s off to a good start.

I knit one leg at a time and sew them up after completing both halves. I’m using Bernat Lana 100% wool yarn found on sale at Hobby Lobby for $2.80 a skein. Not bad for cheap wool to learn with. So far, I’m liking the plastic needles a lot better than the metal ones, save for one feature. They’re so dang long. Oh well. When I went to go look for bamboo needles at Hobby Lobby, I didn’t like any that I saw and they were pretty expensive for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing knitting quite yet so I picked up the plastic pair that was on clearance. When I get more proficient, I’ll splurge with a trip to a local yarn store to check out some nice knitting stuff.

James is heavy and Lowell is getting bigger so having one baby on my back and another in my belly was not good on this momma’s back. Better to leave the rides to daddy.