Alright, the nitty-gritty

I told you that I had my baby, Brock, last week on July 13. He was born at 12:02 a.m., on his due date. I was trying so hard to push him out on July 12, but I missed by a few minutes. I'm not sure why I cared. Maybe it gave me a goal for the whole thing to be over with!

I thought I'd share my story while I have a spare 5 minutes. I know some of you are pregnant, and I don't intend to make this any kind of horror story, so don't fear. I am just sharing my experience, and want to whisper this in your ears: take the epidural!!

So, on Sunday, July 11, I started feeling some contractions. But they were really minor and easy to deal with. I went about my day feeling giddy and thinking, "this isn't so bad." I had been having painless Braxton-Hicks contractions and menstrual-like cramps for weeks, but not painful contractions I could actually time. Sometime that afternoon, it all just petered out. I was disappointed and hoped it still meant that it would happen soon and I wouldn't go late and be induced. I figured it was a good sign.

The next day, I got up about 7:30 to feed my cats, who were annoying me. I went back to bed and started feeling contractions again. This time they were darn painful. But they were spaced out. A few hours later, I decided to get up and eat. Each contraction had me pausing, doubled over and breathing through them. I had expected them to start more slowly and gently, for some reason, and then work their way up. Incidentally (grossness alert), I never saw any sign of mucous plug or bloody show.

I decided to shower while they were still far enough apart that I could handle it OK. I'm sure glad I did. I then got back into bed and started recording/timing contractions. They hurt terribly. I couldn't talk through them or listen to someone else. I stayed there for hours, fearing I'd have to wait a really long time like that before they were close enough together to go to the hospital. Thankfully, they were about 2 minutes long. So all I needed was for them to get a bit closer together.

Here's another TMI moment: I went to pee a few times and there was a gush of fresh blood. Not like a tiny bit on the TP, but a lot. So I sort of freaked out and called the doctor's office. The nurse didn't sound particularly reassuring about the blood and after asking me about the contractions decided I was close enough and told me she'd let them know I was on my way.

Mark loaded up the car frantically, somehow forgetting all of the stuff I packed for the baby and some other things I had deemed important. In the end, most of it was unnecessary. (I will say that I'm glad I took some [dark-colored] nursing pajamas and a nursing sleep bra. I would have hated to wear the hospital gown the whole time, even though I was not in the hospital long.) The ride to the hospital seemed endless. I could not walk well at this point, so I was wheeled up to labor and delivery and placed in triage. I was upset because I kept feeling blood coming out, but they left me there for quite awhile like I was not in the midst of the scariest and most painful event of my life.

At this point, the only word in my vocabulary was the F-word. Over and over and over again. I fear it may be Brock's first word. It was kind of funny that that was all I could say. The contractions seemed to never end, and they really did hurt more than I expected. Finally, they got me into a labor room and apologized for taking so long.

They offered me some sort of narcotic through my IV, which was probably one of those things I'd read other people criticizing on the pregnancy forums, but at that point I did not care what they gave me, as long as it took the edge off. The drug started with a Ph or an F sound, though I don't recall what it was. It made me feel goooood. I was sort of dizzy and in la-la land for a while.

Eventually, maybe around 4 or so, the anesthesiologist came and gave me my epidural. He said that it went in better than any he'd given before. Maybe he says that to everyone. But I did still feel contractions on the left side, and I had tremendous pain up in my rib cage on the left, where the baby seemed to have shoved himself.

A nurse came and "topped" off my epidural and I got sweet relief at last! I actually went 100% numb from the rib cage down. You could have stabbed my legs and I wouldn't have felt it at all. I could not wiggle my toes anymore. It was disconcerting, but I figured it was better than many more hours of what I had been feeling. I kept asking the nurse if she was sure I'd ever be able to use my legs again.

Eventually, around 7 the doctor on call came in as her shift was ending and broke my bag of waters and checked the dilation. It was pretty good, I think 8 cm. Eventually, I was found to be fully dilated, but I still had zero feeling. They wanted me to be able to at least feel the pressure so I could push, but I was not regaining feeling and they decided to proceed. My labor nurse was wonderful. If you don't have a great labor nurse, I'm not sure how you'd get through that!

My nurse set up a bar on the end of the bed and tied a bed sheet to it for me to hold onto. She held one leg and Mark held the other and then when the machine showed I was having a contraction, she'd tell me to push. I couldn't feel a thing, so I'd just push blindly and she'd tell me by watching if I was pushing in the right area. Very weird.

When the doctor on call got there, we did this a little longer and out came Brock! Mark worked so hard on my labor. He certainly wasn't just holding my hand. He was sore for days from holding the dead weight of my leg (maybe I gained a bit too much weight?) and helping me push. It would have taken ages longer to deliver if not for him.

Now, about Mark: He's way squeamish. I don't blame him; I'm the same way. Earlier, when I'd asked about him cutting the umbilical cord, he was horrified that someone would even ask him that. During the labor, when the nurse would recline me flat, my blood pressure would drop and I'd get really nauseated. At one point, between pushes, I started vomiting. Mark tried to hold a bucket there, but vomiting while flat on your back with your legs in the air is not easy. Needless to say, it kind of got everywhere. I started panicking and crying when I couldn't breathe. I'm pretty sure I inhaled quite a bit of it because I was coughing a nasty cough for a few days.

After that, Mark felt emboldened. He figured, he took the barf, he could take the rest of it. He wasn't freaked out to look at the baby as he crowned or watch the doctor stitch me up (level 2 tear, wasn't too bothersome). He even took interest in the placenta, which is actually very interesting. Mark decided it just looked like liver or something you could eat. And, actually, some people do.

At this point, as you can imagine, I was in heaven. It was finally over, and I had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. After nine months of worrying about your baby, seeing him in the flesh and knowing he's OK is such an amazing feeling.

Unfortunately, my legs didn't work for hours more. I had to be taken to my regular room on a gurney instead of using a wheelchair. But I can walk now just fine, so no worries.

I think of friends who had no pain meds, and I'm pretty amazed. Either I'm wimpy or they are incredibly strong. Or they had some totally different contractions. But I'm really glad that I personally went the medicated route. I think it made my birthing experience a million times better. I know some people want to feel the whole thing because they feel they get more out of it that way, but it wasn't for me.

As for the aftermath, I really didn't have much discomfort, ahem, "down there." I did for a few days, but it went away quickly. I never needed pain meds that were offered to me, and the numbing spray was unnecessary. I had planned to do sitz baths, but I honestly never had time once I got home. I healed up quickly and it never bothered me much.

I was a little surprised by the pooch that was left after the birth, but it's going down pretty quickly. I also haven't looked in the mirror much (I've only gotten dressed and left the house twice since), but then saw that I had actually lost most of the fat I gained. I'd look pretty much normal if not for the stretched out belly, which isn't fat anyway, and the ginormous boobs that came with breast-feeding.

A few more things I want to share:
If you hang out on pregnancy forums, you'll see a lot of judgmental moms out there. People who have decided to oppose everything from vaccines to epidurals. And if you don't know what you're doing, you feel like you need to make a fuss about things, too, or you're a bad mom for just going with the flow.

I found that flexibility is key. I took the meds offered to me because I needed them. And I wasn't going to feel bad. I don't believe they'd really give me that narcotic if it was a danger to my baby.

I was made to feel it's a terrible thing to allow your baby to be taken from your room at any time. They automatically weigh and measure the baby in your presence, after some bonding time. But I refused to send him to the nursery when I was falling apart and hadn't slept in ages. Mark couldn't understand it, but I'd allowed these "forum" people to make me feel terrible about that. At one point I thought I'd drop him from exhaustion at 3 a.m. but he was screaming nonstop. I was crying, too, and called the nurse to help me figure out what to do. She came and said that she has newborn testing to do, anyway, and that she could do it now and give me a little break. I didn't want to, and she said, "You're not a bad mom for letting him go to the nursery. 10 other moms have called in the last hour looking for a little chance to sleep." I still cried because I sent my newborn son away because he was crying and I wanted to sleep. I felt so selfish, but now I wish I'd taken advantage a bit more because I'm still so exhausted!

Well, I've used up my luxury time here, so I'm going to wrap it up for today. I will write more soon about the first week and what it was like for me.

Baby Brock

Hi everyone! I've been such a bore lately that I'm sure nobody reads my blog anymore anyway, but I wanted to announce the birth of my son earlier this week.



Brock Emanuel
7 lbs, 4 oz
20 inches long

Everything went great. He's perfect and I had no complications or need for induction. I will tell more about my experience later, since I'm pretty much exhausted and have to sleep any chance I get.

I was able to get some rest today and tonight and feel much better. My husband's shift ended and the baby actually went to sleep in his crib. He had been cluster feeding this evening, so when my shift started, I realized he was kind of on a longer break. I still got up to check that he was OK and found myself with a spare few moments to catch you all up.

There are a few of you who are also pregnant. I have little Internet time for the next few weeks, but I'll definitely be catching up on how you're doing and hope you are well!

What pregnancy has taught me

Well, I'm nine days from B-Day! Of course, he may come sooner or later, but I can't believe it's so close.

I'm very tired lately. The smallest errand really takes it out of me. Right about now, I'm so glad to have a job where I sit all day. I only have to get through this week and then I can take it easy and await the birth of my firstborn.

I just got a small burst of energy and dusted my bedroom and vacuumed upstairs, and now I am afraid I'm going to crash. Thus, I will make this snappy and get in the shower before that happens!

I will not lie. Pregnancy has been much harder on my body than I expected. Is this because I'm 36? Or is it just the way it is for everyone? I don't know. It seems to be that way for everyone.

The end of pregnancy has involved a lot of waddling and pelvic pain for me. The baby has dropped really low -- past the zero station to the 1 station. He's primed for take off! My doctor says that is good for delivery and pushing. I'm not dilated much; I've been at 1/2 cm for a while now. I'm about 60% effaced. My cervix is also still at the back, and I guess it has to shift for birth. These things don't really point to any particular birthing date, as any of them can change very quickly.

I also have had some mighty puffy feet in the last few weeks. And there's some nerve that baby presses on sometimes that sends shooting misery down the inside of my right leg. The pressure on the pubic bone also sends some shooting pains throughout my private regions. It's hard to wear pants because the bottom of my belly literally stops a couple of inches above my crotch. So most of my maternity shirts do not reach long enough to cover my tummy.

The plus side is that my entire wardrobe fits in half of a laundry basket and I don't have to bother putting my clothes away.

I've had a lot of ailments to complain about, but I'd like to point out a few things I'm thankful I didn't have:

Carpel tunnel in my wrists
Mask of pregnancy (I do have two small spots, but nothing that has taken over my face or anything)
Vomiting or extended morning sickness
Extensive weight gain (I've gained the full 30 pounds that was recommended, but not more)

I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now.

Now, on to what I've learned from pregnancy:
I'm so much stronger than I thought. I can take so much more than I expected. Women are strong ... much stronger than men! Really, I'd like to see them do this. Before, when I had an ailment, I visited the medicine cabinet. I've learned that I can take just about any misery without any kind of medicinal aid, though I thank God for Maalox. The nighttime acid reflux can get pretty vicious toward the end. Finally, mothers really do have a right to say, "... after all I've done for you!!!" This is just the beginning of sacrifices I will make for my son, and gladly!

Fine. Here's your picture.

By popular demand, a picture of me at 37 weeks' pregnant.

And I didn't even crop out my face.

3-1/2 weeks to go

I simply cannot believe I'm so close to having this bebe! I'm completely ready and not the least bit scared. I think I may get a bit freaked out when I actually enter the hospital, because hospitals just don't impart a good feeling in you. Maybe that's the appeal of home births for some people. I don't think I realized this until I went on a tour of the maternity areas today.

The thing I like about my hospital is that it's very mother/baby friendly. It's pretty much automatic that you're expected to room with your baby. You'd have to go out of your way to have it kept in the nursery. It's pretty much automatic that you're to breast-feed, too. I mean, it's your choice, but I had heard other people talk about nurses formula feeding babies without permission, and I guess that won't be an issue where I'm going. It's also very partner-friendly, encouraging fathers to play their really important part in everything. I like that they give you skin-to-skin contact with baby for the first hour of life. All these things were important to me, but I thought I'd have to request them.

As for how I'm feeling:
Remember the severe mid-back pain I whined about all of the time? Well, for whatever reason, that disappeared. It seemed to coincide with when the baby moved into the right side of my belly. I don't know why he likes hanging out with his head shoved into my pelvic bone, but I sure do feel better.

On the negative side, my feet and ankles started swelling something awful. And now that it's so hot, I feel compelled to cover up with long pants instead of wearing breezy dresses. It's a dignity thing. It's easy to tell me not to care, but I do care. I have very few ways in which I can feel like a decent-looking human being. Therefore, I do what I can. A pedicure, eyebrow wax, makeup, style my hair. Shave my legs, you know. I still look like a cow, but at least I TRY to be pretty. Sometimes I try to hide all of the bad stuff with inappropriately fancy jewelry. I'm not sure if it's foolin' anyone.

I'm totally prepared for the baby, as far as supplies and the nursery go. And mentally and physically, too. Actually, I have not done my Kegel exercises or my perineum massages, and I'll probably pay for that eventually, but I'm just coasting along for a few weeks, looking forward to some time off of work and meeting my precious son. I also haven't picked a pediatrician. Maybe I should do that sometime soon. Sleep has already become rather difficult, so maybe I'll be a little prepared for exhaustion on some level. I'm totally ready to be able to move -- dying to go for a walk! My pelvis hurts with each step I take, so it's really frustrating.

I'll leave you with my cankles/puffy feet. Oh, they get much worse than this. I got to take a nap today, so my earlier swelling went down and then I started over. But at least my toenails are pretty!

Nursery is finished

I've finally finished the baby's room. I'm only 4-1/2 weeks away from my due date, you know!

I've shown you the fabrics before:



Step right in ...



These are the cheapo shelves I once tried to paint with regular paint. Up close, they look just awful. But they came in handy.



I selected the crib online, and did a terrible job of matching the wood to my existing furniture. Too much trouble to send back, though.



The crib will turn into a toddler bed and then a full-size bed.

The mobile was custom made by etsy seller Buggalove. I hand-embroidered the dinosaurs in the frames.




I sewed all of the bedding and such from fabrics I got at Warehouse Fabrics Inc. You can see them here, here, here and here. I used Vogue 7245 pattern, which I wouldn't recommend. The instructions were awful and the techniques lacking.

This is a toy holder.



The bumpers are a little loose fitting and need some more work if I choose to use them.



A little hamper, a rocking horse that was handed down to me by a co-worker and a photo holder that I made.



I later decided to whip up this pleated valance for the window. It did a lot for the room, really, and was easy to make. I made a tutorial here.



I ended up ordering the cheapest glider chair I could find at Target, and it is really quite comfy! I made the quilt and diaper holder, too.



The dresser from my guest bedroom set stayed in the room and will double as a changing table.



(My cat really likes the changing pad for a bed.)

JackKnits on etsy.com custom made these dinosaurs for me, and the colors really matched well.



Now I just need to get the bags packed!



Oh, and go into labor and stuff.

Suggs

First with the funny. My cat, Suggs, is 17. She isn't grooming well and as she started to shed for the summer, her fur got very matted. And so I decided to have her shaved.

Here is a before picture:




Here is an after picture:




Are your LOLing? Are you ROTFLing? I knew it. Poor thing looks ridiculous and Roady (the other cat) hissed at her for days. She seems so pathetic.

On a less comical note, she was always a "fat cat." She has lost a lot of weight, and we could tell by picking her up. The vet wasn't worried because she was overweight before. But now that I see her naked, she looks like she's on death's doorstep.

She's also having a lot of trouble in the **ahem** litter box department. We thought she was severely constipated from all the straining she was doing and the very little that was coming out.

The vet said it was quite the opposite -- she had diarrhea. I don't see how one can mistake the two, but he felt and said there was no back-up inside. So she took some medicine for a week and ate special food for the tummy.

And neither did a thing. She seems to be in pain and she is having "accidents" around the house that aren't doing a lot of good for my marriage since my husband is very upset about living like that.

**edited to add: She had bloodwork done and everything checked out great. There didn't appear to be any problems at all. The vet said next step is X-rays, but he doubted they'd show anything. After that, he said, would be exploratory surgery, which we aren't willing to put her through. She is not having issues with peeing, just "number 2."**

We both think she has something really wrong, but we aren't sure if it's time to put her down. Frankly, we aren't going to put her through treatments for something like cancer, or surgery for that matter, at her age. But she's still eating and drinking and often seems pretty happy, so it's really a hard situation. Any advice?

Baby shower!

Saturday was my baby shower, and it was lots of fun. At least, it was fun for me. It had a great turnout. I felt so touched that so many people came. And their generosity was amazing. They helped us out so much.

My mom hosted it at her house with the help of my in-laws. Here are me and my mom. I'm just shy of 34 weeks here.



Yeah, I didn't realize how much weight I'd gained till I saw my flabby arms in these photos. My arms are usually among my best parts.

They made an amazing spread of food, and the house looked beautiful.



Holy cow, that's a lot of gifts!



I got some great ones. I loved the Sleep Sheep, which is a portable white noise machine that you can hang on your baby's car seat to keep him sleeping while out and about.



A bunch of co-workers went in together and made me this amazing basket full of essentials!



And if baby gets to be too naughty, I can float him down the Rio Grande in this Moses basket!

My baby daddy stopped by for a quick hello and felt a bit awkward.



And one last random picture, my swing. I wanted a fairly compact one to save on space. This one's portable.



You would not even believe how much clothes this baby has! We are very blessed to have such caring friends and family!

Right around the corner -- 33 weeks

I have just been swamped lately, but I wanted to stop in and say that I'm 6.5 weeks from baby time, and I am doing well. My belly is huge, and I started gaining real weight, as in fat, a while back, so I'm feeling a bit pudgy. But I shouldn't have too much to lose in actual fat weight.

I've had no strange cravings. My only cravings are sugary foods and pizza, especially from Venezia's Pizzeria. I can't get enough of that stuff. Thus the fat. This lady at work says she craved ... wait for it ... vegetables. Damn her.

We have one more ultrasound next week (week 34). That's been planned for some time, but four visits ago the baby measured (using a tape measure and my belly) right on target. Then three visits ago he was 2 weeks big. Two visits ago, she didn't measure for some reason. And this week he was 2 weeks small, which has my baby daddy worried that his son will grow up to be a shrimp. I'm not too worried, though. There can be many reasons for those measurements and my doctor did not seem concerned. They'll check on his growth and amniotic fluid next week.

I'm just getting the room ready. My baby shower is Saturday, and I'm both excited and nervous, because fun as it sounds, I always get a little shy being the center of attention like that!

Chickens on a wine bottle!

My friend Amy, of the famous Chickenbone Jones blog, is in the final round of a very important contest to get her dog's portrait on a wine bottle. It's a special present for her husband for Father's Day. They also have a new baby (who is cute as the dickens), so it's a big Father's Day for him!

She commissioned an artist to draw their dog, who recently sustained a paralyzing injury that required back surgery and a slow recovery (he's walking again!). Then she passed Round 1 of voting. Now she needs your vote to get her dog on the actual bottle.

This takes about 2 seconds and there's no funny business. You don't have to enter any personal information or anything.

Just go to this link, check out Chickens, click vote and choose #57. Hit the button and you've done a great thing! Chickens deserves it after all he's been through! And I really want a bottle of that wine (for after I'm no longer pregnant, of course).

Thanks!

Latest projects

I'm running a bit late right now to my first-time mothers Meetup.com group, which is actually really useful and fun.

I just wanted to share a few recent projects for the other blog I do. Click the photos to visit the posts.

Gardening apron




Diaper bag with interior divider




How to make a pillow using a pillow form and zipper



Also, I forgot to tell you that we did a $50 fabric giveaway. I'll try to remember to announce that over here next time, but please visit the Warehouse Fabrics Inc. blog to see how you can follow on Facebook and Twitter to get these kinds of updates.

10 weeks and counting!

I haven't been posting much lately, especially about the pregnancy. With all of my early complaining, I'm sure nobody is particularly heartbroken about that. I have no photos for this post, so I apologize for the loooooonnng, texty post.

I just hit the 30 week point -- that's out of 40 weeks total. Of course, he could arrive a little earlier, or even a little later. There's no pop-up timer like on a turkey.

I have been generally uncomfortable throughout the last 7.5 months, but thankfully it's just discomfort, and not any kind of serious problems with my baby or me.

So what has it been like to be pregnant?

FIRST TRIMESTER

I found out I was pregnant at five weeks, which is really three weeks, since they start counting at the first day of your last period, not at conception. I thought, "Well, at least no morning sickness!" Then I read that it actually usually starts around week 6. And it did, right on time. Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones. Mine only lasted about three weeks and never involved any puking.

On the other hand, around the same time I developed serious food aversions, which are quite common. Somehow, though, it's distinctly different from the nausea of morning sickness. It's just a serious disgust of certain foods, for me, mainly, vegetables. Even thinking about broccoli, normally a food I'm fond of, made vomit rise in my throat. Later, vegetables started seeming less awful, but things like chicken and other meat started to be disgusting to me. Conveniently, fried chicken and hamburgers never seemed gross. As it turns out, these are very common food aversions.

Aside from that, I found that my blood sugar seemed quite unstable. Without warning, I'd start to feel kind of ill. I had to have something in my purse at all times for a quick bite.

I don't recall the exact timeline, but maybe around week 8 I started getting really severe headaches. I've always been plagued by headaches, but I'm accustomed to popping a (mostly over-the-counter) pill when need be. When you're pregnant, you can really only have regular strength Tylenol. My doctor said if it got really bad, I could have Midrin, a prescription that I already have on hand. I found that I could never bring myself to take it. I was just too scared. That first trimester is when everything is developing, and I had to take my first lessons on sacrifice as a mother.

Those headaches were among the most severe I've ever known, and they lasted for days and days. I'd never had headaches that lasted that long. Tylenol was about as effective as Tic-Tacs, so I quit even bothering with it most of the time. I was incredibly sick. But somehow I rode out several months of those, and every day I wondered how I made it through. There were times that I had horrible thoughts about the pregnancy, and then I'd feel just awful for thinking them.

Those were my major ailments. On top of those I had unbelievable exhaustion; breasts that tripled in size practically overnight and hurt incredibly until about week 14 and many other things that can be found in this whiny post: Things that suck about pregnancy.

SECOND TRIMESTER

Ahhh. The second trimester. This is usually considered the best time of pregnancy because many of your first trimester ailments ease up, you're looking a little pregnant, but a lot of the discomforts that come later are still in the distance.

Boy did I feel better. My headaches cleared up and most of my food aversions did, too. But I had a lack of appetite through week 20 or 22. The plus side was that I barely gained any weight up until this point. I really disliked food and ate enough to nourish myself and my baby, but had no desire to eat anything extra.

By week 24, all food aversions were gone. I loved food! I still wasn't particularly hungry -- no more so than I was before I was pregnant, but at least food sounded good. I was no longer fatigued, and I found out that a condition I had, placenta previa, had cleared up. That's when the placenta covers the cervix/birth canal. It can cause bleeding and other problems, so you're basically on some degree of activity restrictions -- like no exercise. If you start to bleed, you could be taken out of work and put on home or hospital bed rest. I found out at 24 weeks that as my uterus grew, the placenta moved on over to a safer location. Yay! From that point on, I just got to be a normal pregnant woman.

I was eager to exercise, but I found that starting at 24 weeks' pregnant wasn't so easy. Just walking around the block was incredibly hard. I had some extra weight, of course, even if it wasn't much fat. My blood volume will increase by 45 to 50 percent by the end of the pregnancy, and as lung capacity decreases, more oxygen is still needing to be processed, so it's just darn hard to exercise if you haven't been doing it all along. My blood pressure has also been very low, like 85/50, so sometimes I'd get dizzy.

I also found that if I didn't get enough protein with breakfast, I'd get really sick shortly thereafter. That led me to this helpful pregnancy breakfast, since I wasn't too big on a meaty start to my day.

THIRD TRIMESTER

I was sort of shocked when I found myself in the third trimester. It all seemed to be happening so fast! I was definitely glad, though. Somewhere toward the end of the second trimester, I developed really severe back pain. Not lower back pain, like you'd expect, but mid-back pain. I still have it. It's so much worse when I sit. As a matter of fact, I can generally stand and walk as much as I want and feel no back pain. From time to time, my lower back, way down by my tailbone, starts up and I get really stiff when I move about. But usually it's just the sitting that gets me. That's also what I do at work all day. Sit. I had to give up my regular chair for a kneeling chair, and if not for that, I don't know how I could continue at my job. It still hurts in the kneeling chair, but it's much more tolerable.

I also have several belly/back support braces that help a lot, too. I try to get to the chiropractor once a week, and my insurance allows me a 30-minute massage with that. My mom sent me to her physical therapist, who told me my pelvis is misaligned. But no amount of exercises or adjustments seems to get it to stay in place. I guess my body is just changing too much, and there's a lot of extra weight in the front.

One thing that happens in pregnancy is that your ligaments loosen, so your joints are less stable. In addition to that, your pubic bone also can start to separate at the cartilage in the center. This is to make room for baby, and I may say that it doesn't feel too good. (Up above, I accidentally wrote "public" bone. I work for a newspaper, and I think one of my biggest fears is accidentally writing the word "pubic" in a headline instead of "public," so my fingers have major trouble writing it without the "L.")

I am a little (lot) tired of the hair thing. First off, where is my long, thick lustrous pregnancy hair? It's exactly the same, but with more broken wispies around the face that must be glued down each day. But the body! It's like you get a fine peach fuzz all over the place. I feel like a damn werewolf sometimes. I haven't even bothered with my normal waxing, because it can't put a dent in this mess, and I can't afford to wax head to toe.

A few weeks ago, I started to get more hungry. I have not had any strange cravings, but boy do I LOVE sugar. Love it. I have to force myself to get some veggies and nutrients in my body for the sake of the baby.

He's been very active all along, but now that he's big (should be close to 3 pounds and 15 inches, I think) I can really feel him moving in ripples across my belly. It's strange feeling, but it comforts me to know he's alive in there. My husband sometimes feels my belly while I sleep and wonders how I can sleep at all with all that movement going on. Sometimes it weirds him out a little. The other day, I saw a bulge come out, stay a moment, and recede. I guess he was stretching a leg or something. It's funny to look down and see my belly wiggling about through no effort of my own.

So that leaves me at week 30. I feel pretty good, except for the back pain. But it's funny how something that makes you so miserable can eventually start to seem less noticeable. Ten weeks is not long, and before I know it, he'll be here!

14 months later ... a finished quilt!

Over a year ago, I posted several blog posts expressing my excitement to make this clothesline quilt from Oh, Fransson. I searched high and low for vintage linens in thrift and antique shops, even online.

Then I got started. Then it quickly stalled. I don't know why. I think part of it was that cutting up old sheets and pillowcases is not as easy as cutting crisp, smooth fabric off of a bolt. So I had a bit of a hard time.

Then I found that sewing old fabrics together accurately wasn't as easy as sewing new fabrics together accurately. Some were really worn, some were crisp.

Well, I finally finished it! And I do love it, even if it's not perfect.





It's interesting how the texture comes out so much more when you don't use the flash. But you also can't see the fabrics as well, so I did photos each way.





The back is nine different vintage fabrics -- I like the orange ones the best





I'm so glad to have the project completed. It's been sitting around my sewing room cluttering everything up for over a year. Now I have a pretty quilt instead of a mess!

How to make a PDF out of your pattern

As some of you know, I do a blog for Warehouse Fabrics Inc.

One of the things I do is provide tutorials for different projects, some of which require a pattern for download. At first, I had a heck of a time figuring out how to scan in a pattern and make a PDF file out of it that prints to scale. I needed the pieces to be printable on regular computer paper, and taped together if need be to form the full-size pattern piece. But, try as I might, it always shrank the pattern from scale.

My smart dad, T-shirt Face, informed me that one problem was that I was drawing the pattern pieces all the way to the paper edge, and that it won't ever work that way because you can't print to the paper edge, so you need a border. Because of that, it was shrinking my pattern to fit within a page with borders.

Here is how I finally figured out how to do it (with help from a tutorial on BurdaFashion's site, but many of you may not have access to that, and I had a terrible time finding it).

1. Take a piece of computer printer paper and make a square border around it measuring 6-5/8 x 10-1/32 inches. I drew mine on with a ruler, but if you're nice and computer literate, you can probably do this on the computer. Make a bunch of copies of this page (I have a four-in-one printer, so I can do this at home). To give you an example, the apron I'm doing in this post took 15 sheets of paper.



2. The next step is to tape together one giant piece of paper from all of these little ones. The pain in the butt part is that, for now, we don't want to deal with those borders. So fold the pages in on those lines. This will provide a continuous drawing area.
NOTE: You should have already created your pattern pieces on other paper. Now you're just redrawing them for the purpose of scanning them in and making a downloadable PDF for the Internet.



3. Turn over and tape from the underside.



4. Continue in this manner until you have a big piece.



5. Lay out your pattern pieces and see if you can make them fit. If, as in my example, there is just one small area that needs an extension, just add a piece there. It doesn't all have to be a huge square.



I'll add another on the bottom right where that apron tie is sticking off the page.

6. Trace all of your pattern pieces on. For square items, it's sometimes easier to just get a ruler and redraw than it is to trace with a nice line. Whatever is easiest. You'll definitely gain an appreciation for having pattern pieces cut on the fold. It makes them much smaller.



7. Label your pieces well. I start with the top left sheet of paper and go row by row labeling each sheet by number (above). I label each pattern piece with the name of the piece and how many to cut. But since most pieces will continue over several taped-together sheets of paper, you must mark where they join. I do this by drawing two lines across the paper joins and labeling each side with a letter. That way the person putting it together knows where to join the papers. If you have "half" pieces that are cut on the fold, be sure to make this clear.





8. Carefully take apart your pages. I recommend pressing them with a dry iron to smooth them a bit. (This pic is before ironing.)



9. Now it's time to scan them in. I have a scanner that doesn't work well with Windows Vista, so I can't just put the paper in and hit "scan." I have to open the printer's program and click scan there, as shown below.

NOTE: Click the following screen captures to get bigger images





10. Next, I get this box. I choose "save to file" and select "Photoshop Elements." I don't have real Photoshop, but this does the job.







11. After my piece scans, I get this box. It will give me dotted lines that I can adjust. It usually tries to frame the border I drew on the page, but I want it to be as close to 8-1/2 x 11 as possible, so I move the lines out. You can see the measurement of the page at the right. Then I click "finish."







12. After I click "finish," I get this screen telling me it's scanning to Photoshop Elements.







13. Now Photoshop opens and there's my scan. Now I'm going to save it as a PDF. I'll do this by clicking "file," "print."











14. If you get this error message that says "This image is larger than the paper's printable size," don't worry. Just ignore it. DO NOT click "scale to fit media."







15. Choose your printer as Primo PDF. I guess I should back up here. If you don't have a PDF program, you can download this free one here.







16. This screen pops up, and I just click "Create PDF" without changing any settings.







17. It'll bring up a save box, and you should rename it because it will give some unwieldy name for your file, and you'll probably never find it again.








And that's all there is to it! Just repeat these steps for each page. I recommend that on one page you do a 1-inch scale so that people can check to be sure it printed at the correct size.

TIP: Usually after it scans the page, it asks if I'd like to scan another (BTW, I'm scanning as photo, not a document). I click no because I want to see the process through for each one and not scan them all and then try to go back and reopen each and finish the process.