Sorry i haven't updated in a while. With the garden, canning, baby, and doing some private classes I barely even have time to stalk y'all.
Tomorrow we have a meeting with a mediator, our landlord, and our douchebag neighbours. The same douchebags who were trying to get the landlord to kick us out when i was nine months pregnant. One of these douchebags is the owner of a dog that bit my husband, and still runs free daily (allbeit for a short period of time) in the walled in garden that we have to walk through to enter and leave our house.

I made the mistake of trying to hit the milk bottle again. My midwife said sometimes a baby's digestive system will mature around 4 months and the mama can start having dairy again without affecting the baby negatively. So i had milk in my coffee on sunday and cheese on monday. Totally not worth it! The last two days motorboy has been a screaming, farting, spitting up mess. He insists on being held or worn AND IN CONSTANT MOVEMENT at every waking moment. He isn't taking shit for naps either.
On top of that the weather has taken a downhill turn and it's been rainy and chilly. I have a constant stuffy head headache and a sore throat. Mama is tired ladies, and can't get a goddamned thing done.
Can't call in sick from this mama job. Oh my mama said there'd be days like this...
... wish i didn't love cheese so much.

Proof that the universe is my kind of place.

The rest is a big old sewing photodump that you can leave off if it's not interesting to you

It was the most amazing joyful thing i've ever experienced in my life. I inspired him to laugh by waving my arms around and talking to him like a blabbering idiot. I'm completely swollen with the most amazing feeling that's sort of like pride, but what a silly thing to be proud of because I mean all babies laugh eventually- right, but it just feels like the biggest deal ever.
Now i'm just blathering.

Lady Pheonix??!!! Sunflower???!!! Anybody???!!! I got my rag at 7 weeks postpartum (even tho i exclusively breastfeed- imagine how lucky I'm feeling about this ). So I'm potentially fertile and not exactly antsy to get knocked up again just yet.
I know that I want a cervical cap. I've informed myself and it really looks like a great option for me, but i went to the gynie and she laughed at me. She said nobody in spain uses one, she wouldn't know how to fit me for it, and has no freaking clue where i could buy one. The only barrier method people really use here is condoms which dh and i find uncomfortable, expensive, and wasteful.

Motorboy is so big! Growing out of his bassinette at only 3 months (not that he ever sleeps there anyway- I do put him there when i make the bed in the morning though.
I wanted to photo dump you guys with sewing stuff. So far motorboy nurses all night and takes nice naps during the day. During the naps I either sew, or do laundry. My house is disgusting with dust and dust bunnies- But at least I'm making my sewing goals. I'm not usually too tired either since I can usually sleep while motorboy nurses.
I am pretty tired right now because it's pretty late but here's the only photo that i uploaded that is actually accessible.

He's wearing some wool longies that i made from sweater sleeves.
edited to add- photobucket is being THE SUCK right now.

so here are some bonus photos of me and my aryan masterchild.

and his barça sleeper

and the awesome yu-gi-oh! diaper that only fit him for 7 weeks.

How is it possible that someone so blond and blue eyed and beautiful come out of my vag?

I know you probably want modeling shots but I got these ready for a sewing board and i should go to bed instead of uploading different ones so here's what I've been up to. Just a bunch of diaper sewing photos so feel free to skip this over if it's not up your alley.

woops double post- user error.

All's well with motorboy.

It's totally not contradictory to want to smother child in kisses at one moment and then the next moment- just want to smother them.
(Don't worry I'd never actually smother him.)

LLuc El.liott C H
2/25/2010 8:28
7.5 lbs 21 inches



After 3 sleepless nights
nearly 48 hours of fairly intense but irregular contractions
13 hours of active labour at the hospital (successfully fighting off the only drug happy midwife in the whole damn hospital and a pissy epidural/oxytocin pushing obstetrician).
Our son arrived! With his tiger yowl and a perfect 10 apgar.
And now we're all at home.

I've been having contractions for the last 12 hours, but not at a steady pace- I'll have them every 15 minutes for a couple of hours and then every 7 minutes for a while and then tapering down to every 4 minutes for about an hour but then suddenly back to 7 minutes back out to 15 minutes. I'm 80% effaced and 1.5 centimetres dialated loosing my mucus plug gradually.
Apparently I'm a wussy because although the contractions feel intense to me they register as pretty light on the machine. But of course the other factor is that when I arrived at the hospital the contractions totally slowed down anyway.
They said it could be anywhere from several hours to a couple of days.
The contractions felt intense but cool, fascinating, hopeful before i went to the hospital. But now that I know that they've done so little they feel much more painful and lot less cool. How can i get back into my zen dilation mindset?

First of all my bathroom is totally fucking awesome now.

And now I have almost a full complement of cloth pads for my soon to be christened lunchbags.

The three pairs on the far left are 100% lambswool heavily treated with lanolin to act as soothing medicated pads.
And I made a deluvial mama cloth system that I'm hoping can contain my post partum flow. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I usually have such a heavy flow the first 3 days and nights of my regular period that I'm afraid that my post partum bleeding will be a flood of biblical proportions.

I'm going to take a bath now.

I seriously can't take it any more! I want my uterus back. I want to see my son's face, and feel his little toes with my fingers instead of my rib cage. I'm crawling out of my skin.
What if i ate a whole pineapple while jumping up and down and pinching my nipples? I'll do whatever it takes.

BN- I was really hoping that motorboy would have made his appearance by now, but there's nothin' goin' down at donutland. I guess I know that pregnancy is not like an easy bake oven- the timer does not just ding at 40 weeks and let you take out you your delicious piping hot son, but i still feel vaguely disappointed.
GN- With every day that passes the less i feel scared and nervous and the more I feel anxious and excited. I guess those affirmations are good for something, because I'm starting to get the feeling that giving birth is gonna be great!

FIrst of all a serious taints up for motorman. I'm so glad that i'm having a baby with him! For so many reasons that are only becoming more and more evident as we're getting closer to our birth oddyssey (sp?).
Anyway- I asked him for a indoor laundry drying system for christmas and told him more or less how i wanted it and he whipped this puppy up for me between other serious remodeling work.

Remember the white baby bassinette? This is my bassinette makeover-

this is my son's face at 36 weeks.

(33 weeks 4 days)
That should be enough said...
But wait there's so much more!

You wake up to pee for the fourth time at 6 o'clock on a sunday morning, and as you're trying to fall back asleep you remember you got the mother of all toaster ovens for christmas. And suddenly all you can think about is cornbread. So you get up and mozy into the kitchen and as you're pulling out your baking stuff you notice that the peanuts and carob powder in the cupboard are screaming at you. So you whip up an improvised carob cornnut bread. And your husband who hasn't slept right (between your incessent peeing, massive leg cramps, and crazy dream talking in your sleep) in weeks, doesn't wake up once- not even when you're smashing the peanuts with your morter and pestle- even though your kitchen shares a door that doesn't close right with the bedroom. And then you eat half that carob cornnut bread all by yourself within ten minutes of pulling it out of the mother of all toaster ovens, only to be reminded that eating too much makes you feel like your stomach is trying to hop right out of your esophogus.
But you can't help but feel that it was sooooo worth it, since apparently the new carob cornnut bread recipe is a keeper, and the rolling baby who keeps trying to stick his something or other in between your ribs seems to agree.

I'm feeling kinda lonely as a pregnant lady. I have all of 0 friends with kids (not that I have many friends to begin with). My dh has lots of friends with kids, but not that i've really made great connections with. So i have really been looking forward to my birth prep classes. I was hoping to find some people i could commiserate and swap complaints with, but no such luck.
The ladies at my birthing classes all seem to be beaming with pre-maternal satisfaction and when asked how they're doing they all smile sweetly and affirm that they're feeling really great, or maybe they have some ¨mild discomforts¨. I've never seen such a group of Mary Poppins in my freaking life. I'm afraid to even begin to vent with these people.
Is it really possible that I'm the only 8 month pregnant lady who is scared shitless and sick to f*ing death of living the miracle of pregnancy? I mean are these other ladies not waking up with serious leg cramps- on top of the increasing everyday aching leg and feet sensation. Are they not losing sleep anyway on account of their burning indigestion, crazy kicking fetuses, and even crazier flood dreams? Do they not have burning uncomfortable noses that they blow crusty scabs and bloody snot out of all day? Are they not having difficulties tying their shoes and picking up things from the floor? Do they not have increasingly leaky cooches and get sweatier and smellier everyday? Are they not incredibly tired and find themselves capable of accomplishing less and less everyday and spontaneously weeping intensely over the plight of the polar bears?

Before I start i just wanted to say that today i talked to my boss about how worried I am that they haven't found an appropriate substitute for me yet, and she said ¨But you're planning on having the baby late- right?¨. I shit you not.
Umm, what answer was she expecting for that? ¨Ummmm, ok, why don't you tell me what day works for you and i'll just put a cork up there until then.¨????
I know i shouldn't worry about it, but if they don't find a good sub they'll try to guilt me into doing the summer camp in July and I don't want to go back to work until next school year in September.
Right, so away from my work life and into my real life.

This is the belly a week ago, at 31 weeks and the super curtains that I made to stop some serious drafts in my living room.

I even got the doctor on my case, because I gained 5 pounds this month which she thinks is too much. My total weight gain at 28 weeks is 18.5 pounds. Which i (and my mama and the midwife I talked to) think is just fine for weight gain at the beginning of the 3rd trimestre. I think the doctor was just pissed at me because i refused to take the sugar shock test.

By switching continents. Here in spain they just don't do baby showers, and I haven't been able to drum up much interest in adopting the custom when talking to the few (although very good friends) that I have here. Apparently, my family is also unwilling to host a party in my absence and send me the plunder (which is understandable).
But at least we have the trading fair!