The Long Morning

R had a rough morning today. I woke her up ten minutes early. She was snuggled under her quilt, refusing to be roused from her dreams. After a quick breakfast of oatmeal, I loaded her into the car and made the long drive to the doctor's offices at St. Mary's Hospital, where she was born.

We go to this place every two weeks. I set R up in a chair with a portable DVD player and let her zone out to Winnie the Pooh or Peter Pan while the docs ask me a million questions and review my insulin dosages. We're usually only there for an hour, but today was different. Today, Daddy showed up. Today, we were there for three hours. Today, we got to know that we are having R's little sister.



I have been looking forward to this ultrasound for so long. I knew it was a girl, I just knew it. This pregnancy is different than R's-- it's so much easier on me-- but still, the thought of "girl" rang clear and true in my mind, where "boy" didn't seem to fit. I had the same certainty with R.

The ultrasound tech left the room to confer with the doctor, and Senpai and I immediately whipped our phones out to send messages to family. R was getting antsy. She had no interest in her movies, was tired of being told to sit, and wanted nothing more than to be up on the exam table with Mommy.

My doctor came in and ran a second ultrasound to verify some results. A bit of calcium plaque was found in baby's heart, and she explained to me how that can be a Downs Syndrome marker, but there were no other signs of Downs, and otherwise healthy babies are born with it, too. I'm not worried.

We finally left the office after having been there for three long hours. R was out of sorts. She hadn't had the least bit of fun the entire morning, and had been told numerous times that she couldn't climb up on Mommy. Poor little lady. Senpai and I drove our separate cars to an Indian food buffet for lunch. R usually loves Indian food, but today she had no appetite. Senpai and I were reminded of her colic days when one of us had to hold her while the other one could eat, and then we'd switch off. Except there was no switching off today: the cupcake only had eyes for Mommy. I completely understood. She's used to having me available 24/7. She says "Up!" and I pick her up. She wants to climb on me and I let her climb on me. Today I was unavailable to her, and it was too much for her to bear. I didn't mind holding her during lunch, but it made things a little difficult that she couldn't decide what position she wanted to be in. A squirmy 20 mos old in one's lap does not make for easy eating.

Senpai went back to work after lunch, and R and I made the long drive back home. She had just fallen asleep when Oma called. "Poppy?" She sounded incredulous, "Poppy? What about Sage or Lavendar?" I had to chuckle to myself. Sage was our boy name. (If you don't know yet, R is Rosemary.) "I guess I'll just have to get used to it," she finished. Yup. :-D

Quilt

Another reason I felt accomplished on Saturday was because I had finished R's quilt. Didn't know I was working on a quilt? I had clung to the idea for awhile, and then around September or so I started cutting up R's receiving blankets. She loves those blankets, but they were getting too small to cover her anymore, and with winter coming, I wanted her to have one nice, thick blanket that would be just the perfect size. (Last year we threw one of Senpai's wool sweaters on her as a blanket at night... she's outgrown that, too. There's a pic here.)


I was so scared to cut the blankets! Aside from a poorly constructed pillow I had made back in my youth, I had never quilted before. Knowing my poor cutting and sewing capabilities, I did not have high hopes for this project, but I really didn't want it to be a flop. Yeah, terrified of cutting the blankets. But nothing would change unless I collected my courage and took the first step. Snip, snip.


There was no pattern to how I arranged the pieces, but I did come up with a few rules as I went along. I'm happy with how it turned out.


This part had me floored, literally and figuratively. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the edging. My breakthrough idea was to iron the pieces into the shape I needed (halved, with edges folded in). Once they held their shape on their own, it was easy to assemble and pin all of the pieces. It also helped TREMENDOUSLY that Senpai took R with him out of the house and I could work on the quilt in the daylight, Saturday morning. I had tried to work on it at night during the week, but by that time I was too exhausted to crawl around on the floor and solve hard problems.


After the edging went on, I ran some seams through all of the layers to hold it all together.


All done! I wish I had a nicer picture, but I don't want to delay publishing this post any further.


Once again, I wish I had a nicer pic-- maybe one where R is smiling instead of hoarding apple chunks in her cheeks-- but I won't wait on it.

Chicken soup, finished quilt... yup, Saturday was quite the day! What'd I do today, Sunday, you ask? I watched R so Senpai could take care of his projects around the house. It's give and take. :-)