A Reprieve!

No, it’s not done. I had really hoped to post a big ‘TA DA’ photo on Monday but it just didn’t happen. Thank you, THANK YOU to all of you for your supportive thoughts and good knitting energy. I could really feel the love from here. How I do love knitting bloggers! You are such a kind and friendly and nice bunch! I’m just sorry that I have not had time to respond to you with individual thanks as I’ve been very busy packing (see para 3).

The hat itself is complete. It’s the ‘accoutrements’ that are doing me in (crocheted ‘frosting’ and I’ve knit the candle and wick twice and still don’t like them. Plus, I’m having a hard time sewing them on – do I just tack them on or attempt some type of mattress stitch???). Anyway, as was forecasted by the great Yarnhog who knows about the fickle nature of gift deadlines, it turns out that I have a reprieve on the hat. One of the recipient’s parents’ is away until February 3rd and the birthday party will not be held until after that at the earliest so I should be able to finish the hat today/tomorrow and put it in the mail. I will post a photo when we’re back.

Back from where? Oh yes! I forget to tell you! Iain is going on his first ski trip! Well, actually, Iain is tagging along on his first ski trip. No skis for him yet – DH and I will take turns caring for him while the other is skiing/taking lessons (that would be me. I know how to snow board, not ski and, frankly, I’m not very good at snow boarding either. DH is the skier of the family). We are headed to Sugarloaf, Maine and are en route this afternoon. Although there is a childcare centre at Sugarloaf, I am not yet comfortable leaving my little one who has not been separated from me for longer than three hours in his entire life at a day-care centre for an entire week. I am going to check it out, though, as I might consider one afternoon of childcare as an option.

Anyone out there know of any knitting shops along the way? We’re going through St. John, New Brunswick, crossing into Maine at St. Stephen, over nighting somewhere near Bangor and then off to Sugarloaf on Sunday. Unlike many other things that need to accompany us, my knitting is packed. That was the first bag I got ready. When going on a road/ski trip, one must have priorities.

Because my hat progress is not much yet to look at and I’m trying to post equal knitting to Iain shots (and failing miserably), here is my knitting shot for the day. Allow me re-introduce…my feet.

The relaxed nature of this shot belies the actual pandemonium of my residence at present.

Gotta run! Talk to you again after February 3rd.

Desperate Knitter

Desperate knitter seeking act of God. Somebody special turns three at the end of the month. I just found out that her birthday party might be earlier than her actual birth date. That means this hat must be finished this weekend. Must. Knit. Faster.

Send me luck, K?

PS I’m knitting the ‘Birthday Cake’ hat from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hat book.

Have I yet mentioned just how darn clever I think Susan B. Anderson must be? I love this book. Thanks for raving about it, Samantha, or I likely never would have bought it.

Edit: Oops. Sorry about that Susan B. Anderson. I was giving Louisa Harding all the credit for Susan's book. My mistake. Not that Lousia isn't a genius - I'm sure she is - but I'm rooting for Susan B. Anderson right now! Thanks for the correction, Renée!

A Book Reading Meme

Back in October (yes, you read that right. October. Of 2007. Yes, that October), Elizabeth meme’d me regarding a book I was reading. My task was to open the book I was reading to page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag.

Now, October may be a long time ago but I happen to remember which book I was reading at the time. That’s because it was pretty much the – gasp! – only book I was reading at the time. Well, knowing me, it may not have been the only, ONLY, one but it was certainly the one I was referring to most frequently.

Page 161, sentence five from my book reads "It was a wonderful means (and a challenge!) to be available to my son’s needs, on the spot." The quote is taken from the book Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer. This book is one of my favourites because, as is indicated by the name, Iain and I are on our way to becoming diaper free.

Yup, I/we use diapers (cloth) as a back up. Iain uses the potty, or the toilet depending on our mood and opportunity (e.g. I don’t tote the potty to the mall). And, yes, Iain just turned six months old. (If you’re interested, keep reading. If not, scroll to the bottom to see if you’ve been tagged. Otherwise, see you in my next post!).

We started practising elimination communication (EC)/natural infant hygiene with Iain when he was about 3 ½ months old. I would like to stress that we are NOT toilet training him or encouraging him to 'hold it' when he needes to eliminate. The premise behind EC is communicating with your infant regarding his/her need to eliminate. I have learned to recognise when Iain needs to nurse; learning when he needs to eliminate is based on the exact same principle.

The book suggests that infants under six months are aware of their requirement to eliminate and simply lack the ability to get themselves to a toilet place. That’s where we come in. When Iain tells us, we take him to the potty.

Although I did not start taking Iain to a toilet place regularly until he was 3 ½ months old, I had been reading the Diaper Free book with the intention of beginning as soon as I felt comfortable holding Iain over a toilet or on the potty. Three and a half months was the age when he was big enough for me to feel confident that I could hold him over a toilet without losing him. It was also at that age when he ‘sat’ (with assistance) quite comfortably on the potty. I also spent his first 2 ½ months looking for signs of when he was going to eliminate.

Now, I figure most people, parents or not, are able to tell around when a baby is going to have a bowel movement. Red faces, looks of intense concentration, grunting or breaking wind – these are all familiar, right? Iain is no different. In the past three months, DH and I have changed four dirty diapers. That’s right, four.

Pees are not so easy to catch. Like many babies (again, according to the Diaper Free book), Iain was not clearly communicating when he needed to pee. I mainly used time since our last toilet visit to catch pees. More and more, Iain is fussing to tell us when he needes to pee. Additionally, we have found that Iain does not pee while sleeping. Therefore, as long as he goes to sleep with a dry diaper (which is 98% of the time), he can wake up, nurse for 45 minutes and then be pee’d – and still have a dry diaper. He is also dry first thing in the morning if I get to the bathroom before he fully wakes up.

I have really gotten away from knitting content today! So that I do not stray too far from the knitted track, if you are interested in more information on EC (it apparently works with older children too but I can only speak from my experience which is with an infant), talk to me offline via email.

If you have had time to read recently, then Life With, Yarnhog, Me, Myself and Milotis 78, Clandestine & Candour, and I Like Yarn – consider yourselves tagged!

My Weekend

These photos represent my Saturday morning.

This is now (see the sleeping boy on the couch? Thus, blogging time!).


Whew!

Iain also experienced his first ‘solid’ food (rice cereal thinned with breast milk ) meal yesterday. He’s growing up too fast…

Knitting My Son to Sleep

It was a wonderful two weeks. DH was home for all of it and, I must admit, I was quite selfish about sharing any of my time with him and the outside world. Thus, little blogging action! We had a great holiday with a nice mix of quiet family time (Christmas) with visiting (between Christmas and New Years) and company (just before Christmas and New Years week). We were all thoroughly spoiled by our wonderful family and friends and feel very thankful and blessed in every way.

DH went back to work on Monday so Iain and I are slowly trying to re-establish a routine. Only one of our usual baby programs starts again this week so I had a couple of girlfriends and their babies over yesterday afternoon so that the young ones could get reacquainted. Iain and I also attended a Pampered Chef party at one of those girlfriend’s homes on Monday night as well as attending our first La Leche meeting last night.

There were some stresses that arose with the holidays. Either because I was too busy (I tried not to be but was likely giving off ‘busy’ vibes) or because Iain is now distracted by EVERYTHING, he decided to stop nursing. Therefore, a great deal of the holidays were spent pumping and fretting over why a 6 month old who has not yet started solid foods would be weaning himself already. Luckily, he continued to want to nurse for his before bed meal and throughout the night. As a matter of fact, he refused the bottle at all at night which greatly assisted in making me feel better. As of Monday, we seem to be back on track with nursing during the day. I just need to be patient and allow him to pull off and look around and re-latch many, many times over the course of a feeding. The La Leche leader last night said that his behaviour is part of a developmental stage and, likely, he will go back to enjoying his usual nursing sessions at some point. I’m hoping!

Another thing we, or rather DH, noticed about Iain was how to get him to sleep for naps. I know I’ve said this before but our child does not sleep much during the day unless it is stroller or car induced. Yes, this means his nights are fairly pleasant and, luckily, despite the lack of naps, he is generally pleasant during the day. However, he was getting up earlier and earlier before the holidays (0430 – eek!) and going to bed earlier and earlier. We wanted to see if we could change his routine a bit. One day, after a very fussy morning without either of us being able to get Iain to have a nap, DH decided to take him for a walk in the stroller – a tried and true method for many parents I’m sure. So, he got Iain all dressed up in his fleece suit and then into his snow suit and bundled in a quilt. There was some screaming as is usual for dressing him up fully for winter. While DH was getting himself bundled, Iain fell asleep. On the kitchen floor. With lots of things going on around him, not the least of which was a black and white border collie wondering if she was going for a walk too (she was). Yes, Sir, there he was. Gone.

Now we’re calling Iain’s fleece suit his ‘super suit’ (The Incredibles can take some credit for this – DH is a fan). When Iain gets fussy during the day, usually indicative of naptime, we put him in his super suit and either walk him for a minute or two and put him down or….

Just put him down while I sit and knit and hum to him until he goes to sleep. He watches the fibre move through my hands and drifts off. Here’s proof of that process.

I haven’t managed to get much knitting done using this method as I’ve just discovered it but I have managed to knit a few more rows since last I wrote. It felt good too.

Happy 2008 to all you lovely knitters out there in blogosphere land!