Atticus Has Arrived

Just over two weeks ago our sweet little Atticus James came into this world. He came 10 weeks earlier than expected; my body just couldn't hold on to him anymore. Despite his early arrival, however, he is healthy and strong. My dear BFF Wendy has more of the details of these first two weeks on her blog here and here, so I won't repeat it all.

Atty gave us a scare last week. On Thursday his nurse noticed that he just wasn't doing as well as he had been before, and when he didn't seem to be digesting his formula and showing signs of gas, they jumped into hyper-cautious mode and started treating him for an infection. They stopped feeding him formula and put him back on IVs and antibiotics, and poor little guy got poked and prodded and x-rayed for several days. They never found the infection, but based on how he was acting and the marginal results of some of the tests, they're pretty convinced he had one somewhere. He's been a lot spunkier since Saturday night, so we feel he's on the mend. If all goes well, they'll start him back on formula today.

It's still an emotional roller coaster. This possible infection really scared us both, but we talked to another mother in the same NICU room as us, and she helped put things into perspective. Her baby has been there for four months so far--she was born at 23 weeks and weighed just over 1 lb. We told her about the infection, and she said they'd been through the same thing three times. "The first time is the hardest," she said. But her baby continues to grow and get stronger, and so will Atty. I have to say, though, it's one thing to hear the high recovery rates and know that a baby has the best chances of coming home and leading a healthy life, and it's another thing entirely when it's your baby.


These pictures were taken last night (30 March). They're kind of dark because the room was dim and James didn't want to startle Atty with the flash. He was sleeping peacefully, and we hate to disturb him too much when he gets the chance to rest. But he had fewer tubes and wires attached to him than we've seen in a week, so we had to take some pictures. One of these days we'll catch him with his eyes open. He'd been more alert during a couple visits last week before he got sick, but we didn't have the camera with us. I think I'll keep it with me all the time now, just in case.

He's such a beautiful little boy, and we are so grateful for him. We love him dearly and miss not being with him. We are so grateful for all the love and support we've received from friends and family and even relative strangers. We truly could not make it through this without you.

Elephant Ankles

The pictures don't really capture the magnitude here, but my ankles have been huge this week. I'm kind of vain about my ankles and feet, so this is yet one more insult of pregnancy. I knew it was coming, but I didn't think it would be so soon. And I didn't expect to feel swelling in my hands and arms and face and thighs. I've been craving salty foods lately, but maybe I need to cut back on the sodium for a while. Some days I wonder if I'm going to make it through the next three months. Not that I have much choice....

I Just Can't Win

The sleep gods are toying with me. I know pregnant women tire easily. I know I can expect some sleep disturbances. But it seems that no matter what I do, I'm still exhausted.

Part of the problem is that I tend to stay up later than I should. So last night, when I started feeling sleepy around 8:00, I went to bed. I relaxed and read until James came in at 10, and we turned off the lights. This is good for us, since lately it's been closer to midnight or later.

But then I was wide awake. We talked some, then I tossed and turned and dozed intermittently until 1:30. Then I woke up every couple hours. Of course I started to settle into a good sleep right about the time I needed to get up. I still made it to work pretty close to on time, though.

So I'm wondering how to approach tonight. Can I force my body into a better sleep routine? I sleep pretty well with Tylenol PM, but it usually makes it harder to get up in the morning. Maybe if I take it earlier....

Anyone have any suggestions?

Birdies and More

This was a crafty weekend for me. Here are the fruits of my labors.

Birdies
These are the felt birdies for the mobile I'm making. James will make the frame, and we'll hang it from the ceiling rather than try to attach it to the crib.

Once we get it put together I may add some felt foliage to the center to give it more punch. But it might be fine with just the birds. We'll see.

I did the embroidery and beading freehand, so it's not always symmetrical or well laid-out. (These are the "good sides" of the birds--the other sides aren't as pretty.) I had the hardest time finding the right fabric for the red bird's wings. I still don't love it, but it coordinates with the other birds and I'm ready to be done with the project.

Tie-Dye
I had the holiday off yesterday, so I decided to do some dying while James was at work. He tends to get stressed out when I undertake complicated and potentially messy projects like this, so I thought it best to get most of it done while he was gone. (I tend to jump into things without figuring out all the details first, and he's very much a details person.) So he was happy to help when he got home and I was halfway done and had a better idea of what I was doing.

I dyed my diaper bag (no, I didn't make it) and nine onesies:
The colors are a little brighter than in this photo. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. My favorite is the dark blue one with stripy arms. It was one of the last I did, and I got that effect by using tiny clear hair elastics, the kind I would use to tie off the end of a braid.

I plan to embellish the diaper bag a little bit. I'm planning an appliqué yellow bird on the bottom right corner of the front flap, with maybe some swirly embroidery around it. Now I just have to find the right fabric.

Bibs
These are the fronts of some bibs I'm working on. I dyed the flannel backing for some of them at the same time as the onesies. They're all a little wonky because I haven't ironed them yet, but I just wanted to show you a work-in-progress. I really like the sock monkey fabric. (Pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol, aka angry chicken.)


My next project is a "tummy time" play mat. I haven't drawn it out yet, but I have some ideas. It will have a plain quilted (flannel?) center, with "activity" squares around the outside: different textures of fabric (furry, silky, bumpy), a shatterproof mirror, and various dangly things to chew on or make noise with. I'll also have a "crinkly" square, and lots of ribbon "tags" to suck on. I already have a lot of the textured fabric, and I have a bunch of canvas I can back it with. So it's just a matter of laying it out and deciding what goes where. Do any of you moms out there have other suggestions of what could be added? What attracts your babies' attention? I see this as a pre-crawling toy, and I'm assuming he'll be able to grab things and maybe scoot a little. What do you think?

There Goes My Million-Dollar Idea

Or maybe it was Susan's idea originally. I can't remember. But it was going to be great and make lots of money. And now someone else has made it happen first: http://www.babyplays.com/. (The link was "temporarily unavailable" last I checked, but it did load earlier today.)

The idea is that you can rent baby/kids toys with a system similar to Netflix. I mean, some of these toys and play gyms cost a lot of money, and the kids are only interested for so long. So you shell out the bucks and then have to find a place to store them when your kids aren't interested anymore.

So this idea is brilliant--for a flat fee you can rent four to six toys a month and keep them as long as you like. This lets you try-before-you-buy, or you can keep trading them to keep your toy stash fresh.

It's probably good that this woman started the company instead of me, though, since according to a news article (news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080210/ap_on_hi_te/toy_rental), she's invested quite a bit of money to get this started. More than I could ever muster (or would want to borrow) to start the business. And now I can enjoy the fruits of her labors.

Now I just need to come up with another million-dollar idea....

Tiny Kicks

Last night was a first: James felt the baby kick. We were both pretty excited. I don't know if this means he liked the stir-fry we had for dinner or that he didn't like it. Or maybe he was just bored. Who knows. I've been feeling him move around more, but he's never kicked that hard before. I swear you could see my pants move. I'm looking forward to interacting with him more as he gets bigger and more active.

I'm feeling pretty good these days, and I'm making progress on the nursery. We've picked out a crib but feel no need to buy it for a while. A friend is lending us her bassinet for the first few months, so he won't need it until the fall. And we don't have much room to store it until then anyway.

We went baby shopping on Saturday, and James got a little traumatized. We went to Babies R Us, which had everything we were looking for and at good prices, but seeing all the other super-fancy overpriced pretentious stuff was just a bit too much for him. His comment: "It's surreal to see this ridiculous $5000 crib and realize that's normal for some people. I'm not saying our baby is better than this, but he's definitely different." I couldn't agree more.

Neither of us is very fond of the standard baby gear, all the lights and noise on the playmats and bouncy chairs, all the pastels and WAY too much blue. And the matching nursery sets and miniature-adult clothes--it all makes me a little ill. There's nothing wrong with these things in moderation, but there isn't much out there to balance it with, nothing that suits our family's personality.

So I've decided to do something about it. I started by buying a bunch of white onesies, and I plan to dye them bright colors. Maybe do some tie-dye, maybe add embroidery or iron-ons. I have plans to make my own mobile of felt birds with wings made of fun fabrics, and in purging my fabric stash, I rediscovered some great fabric for little shorts and even a psychedelic blankie. The problem is, I have to make it all. And I need to get started now before I get too big and uncomfortable to sew. So we'll see if any of this actually happens. But I like knowing I have options.