Knitting Away

Before it's too late!

I'm a lap knitter, so it's only a matter of time before the lap becomes a hindrance to my knitting. Much crocheting has been ferreted away for such an emergency.

Yesterday, I:

• had to make myself breakfast, because the boyfriend was up and down all night with stomach pain (we have no idea why, but it's mysteriously gone now);
• as a result, I ate half of a piece of cold vegetarian lasagna with about 1/4 cup of milk;
• but I did manage to pack lunch, which I ate all of: a piece of lasagna, a Muenster cheese/mayo/ sprouts sandwich, and two carrots;
• brought a box of instant organic maple oatmeal to work for emergencies;
• ate a serving of it right before going home;
• had more lasagna upon arriving home;
• cast on a baby sweater;
• told the boyfriend the fetus is named Bubba.

Today, I:

• rousted the boyfriend out of bed to feed me at 6am (He is supposed to make sure I eat right! No shirking!);
• ate a two egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, two slices of wheat toast, and a cup of cafe au lait (you see why I get him up? :P);
• supervised the Packing of My Lunch while I did dishes;
• implemented the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan;
• had two carrots and two pieces of celery, basically all morning;
• drank a cup of doctored Earl Grey;
• drank a glass of water;
• had 1/4 of an avocado/sprouts/Muenster cheese/mayo sandwich (I think those carrots and celery may have done me in!);
• am contemplating having a boiled egg before leaving work;
• was pleased to hear at lunch that the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan is working.

In a way, I am training a stay-at-home-dad, because that is the sort of guy my boyfriend is. He cleans much better than me, and he's good at (and seems to enjoy) doing all the grocery shopping, with some direction (which I am hoping to slowly remove so that he will act independently), and he's not as equipped to deal with structure imposed from external sources as I am. He agreed that part of his participating in this pregnancy is looking after my nutrition, because I am terrible about remembering to eat, etc., but I am finding that I am having to gently impose this half of the time, or else he tries to sleep. I think that after a couple of months of this, he will have a pattern worked out and will be on automatic. That'll be handy if I am practically useless myself from nausea, fatigue, etc.

Knitting

The baby knits are under way. In fact, I must confess that they were begun before I was actually pregnant. The following items were knit the month before:

KnitPicks Crayon beanie in what I thought was a newborn size, but turned out 3 month old size. Oh, well. Good thing I knit this:
KnitPicks Comfy beanie in Blackberry colorway.
I still have half a ball of yarn from either beanies, which I will probably make socks or mittens from.
This is a baby jacket knit with Reynold's Odyssey. I am in love with it. It needs blocking and buttons. I figure I have... 8 months to get that done?

I also started a maternity sweater.

All I have left on the front is the right neckline. It's the Mommy Shrug from Interweave Knits. I bought this yarn about a week before I started the project with the intention of making a maternity sweater, but I had totally misjudged how much yarn I would need. Imagine my horror when I cast on and saw I was about two skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers short! However, I am one lucky knitter, because I went back to the store A MONTH LATER and got three more skeins in the SAME DYE LOT. Whew!

I also bought a shitload of yarn for baby stuff, including my first baby cashmerino:
Seamless baby booties! Size 6 months, though.

Well. This is hit-or-miss, I'm finding. Fortunately, babies grow, so all is not lost! This should just be a lesson to me on the unpredictability of gauge when you think it's not worth swatching for a project that would take as long as the swatch to complete.

Nevertheless, I made a matching hat, which is definitely not newborn size, may be closer to 3 months than 6 months, but oh well again. (I should not make matching sets, but mix-and-match things.)

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Next up - a wrap cardi! In blue! Because I'm not going to find out the sex, and dammit, I will put the baby in whatever color I like!

Read more! Maybe.

The Dilemma

Yesterday, I:

• had to get up early to go to some course for work at some hard to get to location;
• only had a sandwich made of two scrambled eggs with mozzarella on top, between two pieces of buttered wheat toast with a cup of coffee;
• thought I’d only get to eat the two boiled eggs that were hastily packed for my lunch (because of aforementioned course required me leaving for work early);
• got lost on the way and had to be rescued by my boss;
• spent about nine hours in a lecture on Cathodic Protection that was occasionally interrupted by 15 minute intervals of eating and peeing (I know, I make it sound soooo exciting!);
• nearly went into a fit when I saw the food spread had little packets of peanut butter;
• had a decaf coffee;
• ate a croissant with peanut butter and honey, some melon slices and berries;
• ate a sandwich made of wheat bread with mayo, lots of Monterey Jack, lettuce, and tomato;
• ate a BIG sugar cookie;
• had most of a large dill pickle;
• ate some egg salad and some more fruit;
• and then ate some more fruit and more decaf and an orange juice;
• was hungry enough when I got home to make myself three pieces of French Toast;
• went to bed.

I am just a tad hungry.

Okay, this is kind of perpetual problem for me – small stomach, fast metabolism. A couple hours without eating and I don’t exactly feel faint, but I do feel like I’m far from being a happy camper. For instance, right now.

Today, I:

• had about a cup and a half of oatmeal with milk and honey and half a cup of coffee with milk;
• went to test for yesterday’s course;
• had two cups of decaf, a slice of banana bread (no croissants! :O), and some melon and berries again;
• ate two hard boiled eggs with nutritional yeast and salt about an hour later.

And now it’s a couple hours after that and I am dying. Dying, I tell you! I ate one of those peanut butter packets I scored from the course smorgasbord (who’d notice?) but that only staved off the hunger for a very, very short while. I have set the boyfriend via instant messaging to making split pea soup, but I won’t be having any of that for at least three more hours.

I’m not sure whether this has anything to do with being about 5 weeks pregnant or not. But the boyfriend has been placed on Feeding Duty. It is now more his responsibility than mine to be sure I eat when I need to eat, with a special emphasis on packing my lunch. (I am notorious for not eating all day because I didn’t bring a lunch, and then being a wreck at the end of it.) There are plans for me carrying a freezer bag of chopped raw veggies to work every day, as well as a couple hard boiled eggs, and discussions have begun about making oat cakes from scratch on a regular basis for snacks as well. And I am taking vitamins. All. Day. Long. (Or so it seems – my multivitamin is not a one-a-day, but a five-a-day.)

I finally got a call back from local midwives. Interviews are being scheduled.

But the real thing on my mind is:

What to knit?!?!?

Read more! Maybe.

I take that back

Yesterday, I:

• had oat bran and a cup of coffee for breakfast;
• was too tired/lazy to pack lunch;
• really, really regreted it;
• took a pregnancy test as soon as I got home;
• reheated some eggplant parmesan and scarfed it down;
• sent this photo to practically everyone's cell phone:

That's two lines which are (believe me!) not nearly so fuzzy in person. So last month I wasn't pregnant, but this month... I am.

Read more! Maybe.

Not Incubating

As far as I know, that is... I'm back at that limbo zone where I am not late or feeling funny (or perhaps, funnier than usual) where it's impossible to tell either way.

Yesterday, I:

• had two eggs scrambled with mushrooms with buttered toast and coffee for breakfast - almost! (I had the boyfriend eat half of it after he finished his. He is garbage disposal.);
• drank coffee with it;
• had coffee at work, and an apple for lunch, along with some chips and some oatmeal cookies I made Sunday as a mood enhancer for the boyfriend;
• had a scrambled egg sandwich with avocado and sprouts on toasted bread for dinner;
• and a chocolate Pocky;
• cleaned my guest room.

Today, I:

• had one scrambled egg with toast for breakfast (boyfriend prepared this time), along with coffee;
• missed my subway stop! (And I wasn't even asleep!);
• had an apple and some pre-Halloween candy for lunch, along with my second in-office coffee;
• just discovered an oatmeal cookie I overlooked yesterday, which I am about to decimate!

(Note to self: Pack lunch, damn you!)

Read more! Maybe.

Responsibility

Yesterday, I:

• had a bowl of veggie/rice/kidney bean soup with two pieces of buttered toast for dinner;
• had a hot cocoa w/ it;
• took a hot bath for my... soreness;
• tried to go to sleep at 8pm;
• finally went to sleep around 9:30;
• was kept awake by my boyfriend, who hadn't seen me since 6am (my novelty hasn't worn off).

Today, I:

• had a bowl of oatmeal cooked with a banana for breakfast;
• drank a cafe au lait;
• had a cup of herbal tea at work;
• ate two cheese sandwiches for lunch;
• snacked on a couple sugared, sour, peeled dried plums? I think? (Our admin. people put out the damnest food... and I always eat it!)
• drank a Diet Coke;
• am starving.

The countdown is really on now! Couple days 'til testing...

Work

When I lived in Boston, I had a long commute (45 mins., each way) but I passed the Post Office, which was on my block. This meant I could reasonably participate in swaps, etc.

The Post Office closest to me in Oakland is, I suspect, in Emeryville. I have not been to this Post Office, but a friend of mine has (on my behalf, picking up a package) and I recently missed getting a package there because, frankly, I SIMPLY COULD NOT MAKE IT. There is a Post Office near the BART station I take in the morning - I think it's in Berkeley - but I am on the train in the morning before it opens and off it in the evening way after it closes.

This Post Office situation, combined with my now 1hr 30 min commute (each way), now means that seeing a Post Office is something I can only dream of. This has created problems.

I have an hour lunch, but I have no idea where there is a Post Office in San Leandro, and I have no car and work in an industrial area. If I forget lunch I can't even get that. I am out of luck. (If, however, I want to become a connoisseur of big rig truck types, this is the place!)

Seriously. For three months my rent has been a couple days late because I could not get a stamp. (I know what you're thinking - when I finally got a stamp for the first one, why didn't I get more? In answer to that question, ask yourself: How many three cent stamps scavenged from my junk drawer fit on a standard business envelope? And how many months can I desperately scavenge 3 cent stamps in my apartment? Answer: one. The landlord picked up the others.) I am so behind in a swap I'm in, I should fear a lynch mob. (Seriously, again.) And those clothes I was going to send to my nephew? He's outgrown them.

This is quite a dilemma. It may be solved by the presence of the boyfriend, who has evening classes. But one thing I have decided: no more swaps, no more book exchanges. I'm not even sure I can order yarn online. Or magazines. (The mailperson is oddly reluctant to fit them in my box, and instead is insisting I come get them in Emeryville. What's with that?)

So. I will have a discussion with the boyfriend. He's proven himself proficient in grocery shopping by proxy so far... maybe he is good at parcels, too.

But I am finding it incredibly ironic that having a steady job means I can't get anything, even very basic things, done without great difficulty. Spraining the foot would have been the end of me, probably, if the boyfriend hadn't been here, because I spent the first couple days crawling, and it's hard to grocery shop like that. (As it was, I missed two days of work because I simply could not get there. When I was well enough I was hauled to a bike shop by a friend, fortunately.)

Read more! Maybe.

Feed me!

Yesterday, I:

• had two eggs with two pieces of buttered toast, made by my boyfriend;
• didn’t bring lunch, so I had two granola bars and some Filipino candy from the receptionists instead;
• drank some hot cocoa;
• had some herbal tea;
• was starving by the time I got home, so I ended up eating a big bowl of soup with four pieces of toast;
• nearly fell asleep right afterwards;
• ate a soy ice cream sandwich;
• chugged some milk;
• fell asleep at 8:30;
• got a call from my boyfriend, who had been passed by by the bus he was supposed to take;
• went back to sleep when he got on the next one;
• dreamt of Patrick Dempsey.

Today, I:

• made myself two eggs (scrambled with cheese) and buttered toast for breakfast, and coffee;
• didn't pack a lunch;
• felt hungry by 9:04 am;
• feel like an idiot about it.

Plan B

Seems to be working so far. The boyfriend is now enrolled in school and taking classes, vacuuming my couch, making my bed... as those manly duties, hehe. Thank goodness he is a neat freak who cooks! (Now if I can only get him to pack me a lunch every day...)

Foot

I sprained the sucker, which is totally unfair. I didn't see a curb, and the rest is history. On the positive side, I now have a bike again, because without one I wouldn't be able to make it to work.

Hungry, Tired, Sore Breasts

And, oh yeah. My breasts have been crazy sore for about a week now. The fatigue I was feeling from sleeping in a bed with someone after months of having a nice peaceful bed to myself hasn't gone away. I was discounting it until last night, when I practically went to bed a 7pm, got some sound sleep - and still, even now, feel tired, even though I woke up before the alarm as if I'd had enough. I'm constantly getting up in the wee hours to... wee. And I'm starving all the time now. Just starving. I was dying for some buttered toast last night. Read into all of this what you will. I am. But I may be wrong. I could just be weird.

Read more! Maybe.

Plan B

Today, I:

• had a couple sips of coffee before leaving for work;
• ate melted cheese on toast for breakfast;
• am drinking yet more coffee at work;
• am trying to strategize Plan B.

Plan B is not a new plan, it is simply a plan that didn't get as much air time as Plan A. A very interesting weekend passed, ending (in a way) with my boyfriend calling me yesterday after work. Plan A (trucking school) was scrapped in favor of Plan B, him leaving trucking. He is probably as I type this packing his stuff to come to California.

Sudden? Well, I made the offer about four months ago. And three months ago. And the other week. So, yes, as far as a turnabout is concerned, it's sudden, but the offer has been longstanding, so this is not something totally out of left field.

This should be interesting. I need to clean everything. I have seriously been letting things go around the apartment, and now I have to seriously pick it all up. Time to finally plug in that new vacuum, scrub the bathtub, and clean the freezer. Time to make space in the medicine cabinet and thank goodness he can't carry furniture on a bus.

So. What is going to happen?

I will most likely be at my current job for a while longer, despite the tendinitis. I will save up for those doula classes I was thinking about (instead of saving for trucking classes) and concentrate once again on writing and art as a means out of the office, as well. I am also formulating plans to exploit the aforementioned boyfriend as a model for painting. Hehe.

Wish us luck!

Read more! Maybe.