Lessons I've Recently Learnt

So little EJ is teaching me some great lessons in the last two weeks. She's taught me some Mommy, Knitting and Life lessons so I thought I would share them with you.


Mommy Lessons
#1 you never leave the house as early as you want with a newborn, plan for it
#2 Invest in a calendar that has those rip off sheets for each day, its easier to forget the date when you're not working
#3 Watch your newborn very carefully in walmart, strangers will come up to you and want to look at your baby and talk to you
#4 You can never pack everything with you, the one thing you forget will be the one thing you need
#5 Maternity clothes are ok after you give birth too, especially when you still can't fit anything else yet
#6 There's no sense getting upset when your baby won't sleep, they feed off of your stress, you will eventually make the sleep back even if it's not for another 18 years
#7 You never finish being a Mommy and a child will never not need her Mommy, I'm 23 and still need my Mommy lots :)


Knitting Lessons
#1 Knitting for your baby is very addictive
Just the one rule but so very true.


Life Lessons
#1 When you're in a hurry to go somewhere you will either run low on gas, get behind a very slow driver or leave way later than you plan
     #1 a) or all of the above
#2 Celebrate the small things, when you can fit into normal clothes again after giving birth its amazing but not as amazing as when your baby's cord falls off (if I was a little stronger stomached I might have kept it)
#3 Remember you are not perfect and nothing will ever go 100% to plan, but that's ok sometimes those off times are the best times


And now for your viewing pleasure, here's EJ chilling out after her lunch







Gotta love the small quiet moments with her <3

Life goes on

So it's been forever since I posted but I swear I have good reasons....

And the biggest one is my new little Elainna Joy (EJ for the rest of this blog)!

She was born on August 30th after a 30 hour labor. Not exactly what I was expecting but definitely worth all of the work :) I'm quickly learning just how much work motherhood is and just how rewarding it is. Even when they're too small to say thank you. We are both doing really good now.

But it didn't start out that way. We had her home for only three days before she got jaundice so bad we had to take her to a hospital over 3 hours away. She was then promptly but into a Bili-bassinet which is a fancy bassinet with UV lights all over it. I unfortunately do not have any pictures of this. I'm very thankful to everyone who works at that hospital. They made what was very stressful and scary for two first time parents much easier. She also got to sleep in something else at the hospital.

That's a hand knit blanket that someone was nice enough to donate to the hospital's NICU, and that one of the nurses was nice enough to borrow for us. It was very warm and very pretty. This brought back the reasons I was starting a project last year.

Last year I had started two baby blankets that we were passing around amongst a few of us and we were all knitting a little bit on it. Unfortunately I had some illnesses of my own and the project died off. This tiny blanket made me want to go home and knit ten million for babies that were sick like mine or obviously sicker as I got to bring my baby home after only four days and some of those families seemed like they'd been there forever. When we were there the NICU was full almost every day.

So I want to get going on this Blankie Project again. I am going to unearth the blankets and get them sent out as soon as I can. I believe that these blankets actually help the kids and their families feel better. I know that I felt a little more at home when my baby was wrapped in a home made blanket instead of the sterile hospital blankets.

This is an important cause and I do believe in it more than ever. If you would like to knit on the blankets and you read this please just comment and let me know. I would love the get some blankets done and to the local hospitals/Ronald McDonald house as soon as I can. :D