Home Again

Home with River at last.

And she's back to peaceful sleeping and lots and lots of nursing.

And lots and lots of love from her big sisters.

And I'm attempting to regain some measure of rhythm and balance in the house. Which is no easy task at the moment. The four of us have alot of adjustments to make. Not just the new addition but one less adult in the house as my husband moved out this past September. And though we still maintain a loving relationship with one another we're just not compatible to live together. He lives nearby now, but, of course, the girls miss his daily presence and I struggle to meet all the needs of my three girls in a peaceful way. I am grateful that we've been able to keep our relationship intact, much to the befuddlement of our loved ones, and am so grateful that we can both remain united as parents for our girls' sake.

While the change is taking some time to adjust to it has brought a peace to the house and mostly to me. I feel a sense of hopefulness and like a heavy weight has been lifted off of me. It is partly why I stayed away for so long, though. I feel like I kind of hid from everyone through my entire pregnancy while I worked through everything. Grew accustomed. I wasn't here. I dropped out of my knitting group. Ignored phone calls. I wasn't sad. Just needed time.... But now I am ready, and eager, to get back on the horse, catch up and spend some time with the things and people I love.

You'll be hearing alot more from me now!

River

Here I am again in my pitifully neglected space. Looking down below you can see my last announcement of an incoming baby and here I am to announce, 8 months later, that on January 25 we were joined by River Elizabeth. Not a boy but I could not be any happier with my three ladies.

At the moment I am sitting in a tiny hospital room with her. She was born at home, like my first two, but last week she caught the cold that was circulating around our house. It started on Wednesday, she was nine days old. At first she was just snotty and a little congested and I held my breath that she would make it out no worse. But on Friday (2-5) she developed a temperature and began having difficulty breathing through the congestion in her chest. It was too late in the evening to call our doctor and so we took her to the ER. Shortly after they began examining her and running tests they could see she wasn't getting enough oxygen and moved her into the newborn intensive care. Her cold had delevoped into pneumonia in her right lung. I could not hold her or feed her for about 24 hrs. Seeing her like this made me feel helpless but I am so grateful for the wonderful nurses that helped to care for her.
Now, I am happy to report, she is recuperating very nicely, rooming with me and we will both be back home no later than Tuesday. It has been such a long week. I miss her sisters so much. I am a momma, it's what I do and it hurts so much to be away from them. My Zoe will turn three on Monday and I will not be there. This is our first bout of any real sickness in our children and I am so eager to put it behind us.
Meanwhile, I am using the time to work on a gift for Zoe and update my site abit. Up above you can see that I have added a pattern shop . No signing up, simply pay with Paypal and you're done. I've added several new patterns over the past couple of months. Kaiya's little doll I made for her birthday, for one. My Etsy shopped is closed at the moment. It will reopen once River and I are home again. And I will be in this space much more now that my pregnancy is over. There have been some big changes in our home over the last 8 months and it has taken some time to adjust and move on. I will share more about that another time and will tell you abit about our latest homebirth. But, for now, I am going to take care of my baby.

Quite Unexpectedly

Kaiya's birthday was Sunday. So hard to believe how my little one is growing so quickly. Already four, wow! It was a lovely day. Unfortunately I was so busy I didn't get around to taking but just a few pictures of her opening gifts and they were all pretty stinky. But she was happy and loved everything. I'll try to get some pics of the other things I made later this week.

In other news, we discovered several weeks ago that we are expecting baby #3. Due mid-January but with my track record I'm not really expecting it to come til the end of the month/beginning of February. This was a surprise to us, not unwelcome though. So far I am feeling thoroughly disgusting and sick. I really can't wait for this stage to pass. Perhaps this time we will get a boy....

My New Favorite Thing

I found a new (to me) yarn shop relatively near by. I needed a nice yellow wool for a crown special order but just had to have this gorgeous ball, too. It's Poems from Wisdom Yarns. The puppy (who we named Olivia, BTW) chew up the label so I don't know which number of the Poems line it is. But when I saw I immediately thought of watercolors and knew I had to make something Kaiya's birthday with it. And within the hour I had this doll all planned out in my head. I just can't quit pulling her out and looking at her and holding her when Kaiya isn't around. She is my favorite creation in quite a while. I really hope Kaiya loves her as much as I do. I went ahead and put her in the shop. Obviously she will be made to order. I just can't wait to go back to the yarn shop and get some of the other colorways.

Have a lovely weekend!