still here, still pregnant

I went to the doctor yesterday. Everything looks good. I am still feeling pretty good too, which is amazing if you ask me. I am only very slightly swollen at the end of the day, and wake up most mornings with it all gone. The braxton hicks contractions I've been having are working, I am 2cm dilated! Progress! I had several strong contractions yesterday evening and last night, but this morning I feel fine. They were strong enough to wake me up last night, but I kept willing myself to sleep. I knew I had to have at least a couple hours sleep. Finally around 12:30am I was able to fall asleep and stay that way. I heard Mary say my name a couple times, but she must have fallen right back to sleep. John went to check on her once, but she ended up sleeping all night long by herself in her bed. Yippie!

The good news is that with all this excitement, I got my hospital bag completely packed. I got the baby's stuff packed too. In theory, I want to use cloth diapers in the hospital. So I packed those, plus some of the little woolies I made and some of the shirts I dyed. I set everything out in the bedroom so we wouldn't have to dig for it in the closet when the time comes. I got the "sewing room" taken down yet again. I mopped the kitchen floor. Today I want to clean up the guest room and put on fresh sheets. I want to get the co-sleeper set up. And clean both bathrooms. I guess what's left is a mix of things for when I'll be gone and we'll have guests here and just trying to stay on top of daily chores.

I really, really need to go to the grocery store in the morning. So hopefully the baby will stay put for another 24 hours.

Dye job

These are the diapers I dyed up. I used Dylon dye. Each package is supposed to dye a half pound of dry material. But when you finish up your first batch, you can put more items in the dye bath and get a lighter color. That's what I did with the purple and the orange (though the second orange turned a little peachy). I have one more batch dyed, but I still need to wash them up. It's olive green. I was worried the items would come out too green, so I think I put about a pound of diapers and shirts in the dye bath.

Mary helped me fold and sort this stuff this morning. When she saw the shirts, she said "oh, those are really small." Yeah. I don't think she's ever seen a newborn. At least not lately. I think she thinks her 10 month old cousin Lucas is a "baby." Anyway, here are the shirts.

The one on the bottom of the pile (top of pic) is actually a second batch from the light green. It's interesting how it turned out a light teal color instead of light lime. I just try to go with the flow with dyes. I never know what I am going to get. This is my first time dyeing cotton, but I've dyed wool yarn many, many times.

I got a ring sling custom ordered this morning. One more thing off the list. This afternoon we are going on a tour of the hospital. I altered the diaper pattern I had downloaded and finally made a diaper that should fit an actual baby. I think I'll make a couple more of those and then put the sewing machine away. Our dining room has been my sewing room for way too long.

35 days to go!

Nesting...I hope

I am starting to get an overwhelming feeling that there's SO MUCH to do before the baby is born. I am glad I have a decent amount of energy and my back has been feeling pretty well. I finally feel like I got the hang of making newborn sized diapers! Then I ran out of elastic and velcro. Argh. Going to the store tonight to get some more. I am really ready for this project to be over so that I can move on to the next thing.

That's the first 4 I got done. I have one more white/bears done, and have 4 more almost done. I should finish them tonight once I get my supplies.

THEN....I have some shirts on their way to me which I want to dye. Then I have some small prefolds (diapers) coming which I am thinking about converting to prefitteds (cutting them into a different shape so I won't have to fold them every time and adding elastic to the legs) and/or dyeing those. I am hoping to get some yarn from a co-op right before the baby is born which will be enough for 4 pairs of longies that I'd like to have done before the baby arrives. Who knows when/if I'll have time to knit after the baby arrives. I also found a pattern on how to make a fitted sheet for our co-sleeper. I actually bought flannel to make a sheet when Mary was little and never got around to it. let's see, oh, the hutch is almost done. The doors are on, and I am working on painting them. And I want to make a window covering for the kitchen windows. I have fabric I think I can use and we have a spare curtain rod. What else??? Oh, a knitted rug that nearly killed me and I only finished 2/3 of it. Surely there's more. And how many days left? 59!!!