Baby Shower / Farewell

Presents

Last weekend we were honoured with a baby shower / farewell party with friends.  These are a few photos - taken by friends - to illustrate how fortunate we are. As you might imagine, given that a large percentage of my local friends are knitters, there were many gorgeous handknit items.  In addition to some adorable sweaters, soakers, dress, etc, there are these two amazing blankets.  I admit I was expecting a blanket because it's become a tradition for the UpTownKnitMob (as we call ourselves) to make a unique baby blanket for each new addition, but one never knows what we will come up with.  Clearly these ladies know me well - you can tell by the themes and colour choices.  (I should add that one husband also contributes by knitting part of a piece.)

UptownKnitMob Blankets

Tree Blanket - my friends are very talented

Apple Tree Blanket

It was pointed out to me that the (natural brown) yarn used for the bottom right (from your view) corner square comes from the animals at Waterloo Park.  There is a small "zoo" there, with llamas and alpacas (and rabbits and chickens, etc).  Each year someone shears the overburdened fiber animals and has it processed.  One of my friends was able to get her hands on some of that yarn.  Lucky me!

"I was planned" ; "I was a surprise"

It's so true!  That 10 week ultrasound sure was a surprise.  Everyone around here remembers me telling them where to go before that week when they would tease me about possible twins... and then the tweet/FB update where I once again told them all "screw you all!"go and wouldn't add anything more until I'd finished making my calls. But they knew, they just knew.

There's another twin pair of onesies my friend made - that both say "Identical (but not the same)".  I love it.

Abi waits patiently with her friends outside.

Special thanks to my dear friend Heather* for hosting this event. And, of course, to all who attended to celebrate with us.
Not shown is the delicious potluck. And the coolest blue punch ever - a duck pond of tastiness. And all the other fantastic gifts, such as 2 dozen Sandy's Bamboo diapers, and a Lug diaper bag, and adorable clothes, and wooden rattles, and amber bracelets, and... it's all been boxed up.

Thanks again to all our friends who have been such a wonderful support over the past few weeks (there's more help needed in the coming "last days")
and...
damn I'm getting a little wet in the eyes.
I'm going to miss you all so much. As much as I love those blankets, they are going to make me cry, a lot.

*Granted, she's kind of responsible for this whole mess... :-p

Womb Babies

Another ultrasound today (yes, so soon because of the recent findings... oh wait, I didn't blog about that.)

Okay, let me start back at Friday.
Friday morning I received a call from the OBS office asking me to come in that afternoon to see one of the OBS doctors on that day (not my usual) about Thursday's ultrasound findings.
Needless to say, I was a wee bit nervous for the rest of the day. Thankfully we'd just seen the babies, and their lovely heartbeats, and their frequent movement... and as Robin pointed out, they weren't asking me to meet the doctor at the hospital.
The findings were that Iongantas is now significantly larger than Earb - so that they are in very different growth percentiles.  Both have grown.  Both are doing well!  But this MAY be an early indicator of possible complications later.  The doctor wants me to see a specialist at Mt. Sinai this week (in Toronto), but I'm still waiting on an appointment.  In anticipation of that appointment, I had another ultrasound today, presumably to check for things not focused on in Thursday's short 'routine' scan.  They also had me go over to obs triage at the hospital for steroid shots (in my butt, how fun) to help the babies' lung development should they need to come out early.

UPDATE: No visit to Mt. Sinai for me.  Doctors there don't think it's necessary and yesterday's U/S results don't seem to necessitate it either. Plenty of time to see a specialist once I'm in Winnipeg.

In short, we're on top of this.  I amaze myself with how calmly I'm taking it all - this is nothing like my hoped-for second pregnancy. But probably you folks aren't surprised in the least.

This type of possible development is precisely the reason that we decided to move back to Winnipeg now, when we learned, at 20 weeks, about the twins being monochorionic.  I look forward to being home soon (and simultaneously hate leaving all my fabulous friends here - but I'll post about that tomorrow perhaps. We had a wonderful baby shower/farewell party on Sunday.)

Anyhow, the upside is more lovely pictures... (must look on bright side...)
And then the babies were dancing about (as usual) this evening while I was knitting with the camera near by, so I took a video for you to see their movement. Then combined that with a series of ultrasound pictures - just for you dear readers/family/friends.  Enjoy.

If you don't feel like watching the video, you can just skip to today's ultrasound pictures below.

Earb

Iongantas' beautiful smile

Iongantas

Babies, Again

Well that would explain why I thought Earb was being far more active/kicky than Iongantas... They're both head down (again) now.
I'll have details early next week, but in the meantime here are two new pictures.

Earb

Iongantas

Birthday on the Farm

We celebrated Abi's birthday with her friends at Steckle Heritage Farm.  It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time seeing the animals, playing games with an event coordinator (ie, we didn't have to do anything except serve cake, etc) and making a grass-head craft.
Abi was delighted to have her friends around.  Sadly, it's probably the last time she'll see many of them.

cute miniature horses

young cows. there were plenty more animals too - rabbits and chickens and sheep, etc

Crafting with her BFF (from daycare, who she never sees, but they both talk of the other frequently)

Abi's chosen party snacks - apple slices and strawberries.

Abi and I made this. Guess who put the sprinkles on.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?  Most days around here have been grey, or raining, or snowing, or just snow on the ground. 
It was a great venue for a party.  We already knew it was a great wedding venue from a friend's wedding this past September.

Old and New

Abi is 4 years old today. Where do the years go? She was disappointed to learn the part (with cake, friends, etc) is not today - despite having been warned of this for weeks.  In her mind birthday = party. And cake. We've got a party planned on Sunday instead at Steckle Heritage Farm with her friends. And cake.

This morning found me digging through old cards and letters as part of moving preparations.  I've decided it's time to get rid of those shoe-boxes full of cards and letters. I had quite a few pen pals from moving as a kid. Plus I kept a few of my school notes and such. That's one box. The other boxes are, literally, every birthday and holiday and valentine and graduation and wedding and farewell... well you get the idea. A lot of cards.  There's a few other items like old awards, etc.

It's a strange juxtaposition to be celebrating my 4 year-old's birthday (so young, and a whole new chapter of my life - as mommy) and looking back at my younger years and relationships.  It's time to declutter... I really don't need those old letters and cards any more.  Another project, for another day, will be to go through the album upon album upon albums of photos (I was diligent in placing my pictures in albums) and slim my collection down to 'memories' in a few books.  I really don't need every party picture, every concert pic, every zoo and animal picture, every flower arrangement...

This is why I like digital pictures and scrapbooks now.  I can take the bazillion pics, and just preserve a few in a book. My scrapbooks are more pictures than fancy-add-ins, but they tell a story of our life. Well, mostly of Abi's life right now.  But there is the scrapbook of our wedding stuff, the one I made of Robin's mom's life, my trip to Germany, etc.  One day I'll probably make an "anniversary" book for Robin and I.  Abi's books already include a lot of family pictures because I want her to be able to remember family and friends when we are not close to see them.

OBS update

I was quite pleased with today's OB appointment.  I already knew the ultrasound results were "good" - in the sense that there's nothing worrisome, babies growing well, active, etc.  As I expected, I'll have another U/S next week (on the 15th). Robin will join me at this one since he's likely to miss the next few and of course, if I have to get these ultrasounds, we want to see the girls. He couldn't make the last one.
More importantly, I was pleased with the results of my blood and glucose tests.  OB was impressed with my results.  I don't recall numbers and so forth, which are meaningless to me, but her comments were glowing and indicate that I'm eating well, etc. In particular, plenty of iron in my diet.  I'll give Robin his due credit as family cook.  I also attribute it to the high quality (not over-the-counter crap) pre-natals I get from my naturopath (NFH brand if you're curious).  They're a great blend of vitamins. (It takes more than just iron to sustain good iron levels, etc.)
I'm pleased, furthermore, that there's no indication of gestational diabetes.  My regular urine tests are always negative for anything with this pregnancy. I recall a few low indicators with Abi (plus the couple times I ate too much banana/potassium before tests, which really through off the levels; fortunately I figured that out and refrained from eating a banana AND a banana muffin on my way to midwife appointments in the future).

I've one more meeting with my OB here the week of my move, and then another appointment scheduled in Winnipeg mid April.

I'm also feeling relatively good this week. Last week I was feeling very "big" and more tired. I feared it was a sign of things to come. This week, so far, I'm feeling a little more spry. I even move a little easier.  I'll be interested to see what Wednesday's belly tracing arc looks like. Last week there was barely any growth noticeable - but of course the growth isn't always forwards. Sideways growth won't show up on the arc.  There's only so far outwards they can grow.
 That's the part that makes me lament about how big I am... because I can't imagine getting any bigger, and yet there are still many weeks remaining.

The babies seem to think this is quite funny... they're dancing right now.  They do that a lot.  Lately they refrain from kicking organs, so I can say that the movement remains "delightful". As you can tell, I'm actually feeling a little "glowy" today.  Most days I feel less than glowing.

Startitis and Fibre

ETA: apparently "startitis" is the wrong word because I actually finish my started projects. Apparently "prolific knitter" is the more accurate title. But I wasn't going to call myself that.

Oooh, look what arrived yesterday. My order of BFL spinning fibre from To-Ply Fiber Arts. I'm going to spin it up the finish my Earth Day / Wheel of the Year project.  It's long overdue to be completed.
I love how fibre (and spindle) orders from independent dyers typically come with mini samples of other fibres - to tempt me. This order come with a silk hankie in a gorgeous fire colourway. I've yet to spin silk, let alone from a hankie. This should be fun!

The mini braid of merino-silk called to spun up immediately. I whipped out my mini turkish spindle from Threads Thru Time and finished up this single. Now I'm quickly plying it together (from both ends of the ball - one of the joys of working on turkish spindles) on my medium spindle (also from TTT).

The fibre I actually ordered is two braids of this BFL in Snowy Pines. I think it will nicely compliment the Earth Day colourway I previously spun up from this same dyer.

As you can see, I'm experiencing a wee bit of startitis... If the recent projects weren't evidence enough, I just started two shawls designed by Canadian Judy Marples. The blue is a Calais Shawl (using my leftovers from the Evenstar shawl). You can guess why I wanted to knit up this pattern soon. The golden is her new Harmony Shawl design, which I could not resist. Hey, they are both stash-busting projects! The golden is Painted Fleece merino/seasilk in Goldie Locks colourway. I picked this up a few years ago at the KW Knitters Fair. One of my fabulous finds in her 50% bin! (Along with the Evenstar yarn actually.)