The One About Inori

I sold them to a gypsy passing through town and am going to elope with my dogs and cat and 10 boxes of yarn stash.

NOT!

Well….. needless to say, I’ve been busy with them. It’s not easy having 2 kids under the age of 2. *sigh*

I wish I didn’t have to say this but Chubbs is a little more challenging to care for than Sunshine was.

He cries a lot. A lot. Like this morning, he woke at 8am and cried all the way till 3pm! That’s 7 hours of crying with only some 5 minute breaks in between!

I’ve burped him, rubbed nutmeg oil on his tummy, changed diapers, fed him countless times, rocked him, talked to him, gave him gripe water, swaddled him, but nothing seemed to work! He would cry and sometimes his cries would escalate. Sigh.

He finally went to sleep at 3pm. Only to wake 45 minutes later crying AGAIN.

As I was feeding Sunshine, Nad went into the room instead. When I was done, I went in and saw this:

Awww… so sweet………

My good friends Alison and Debra have given me tips and advice on how to breastfeed (as my let down is very fast and may be causing him to take in more wind and choking on the milk) as well as how to settle him and find out what is bothering him (ie, is it pain or separation anxiety etc)….I’m following their advice and hopefully Chubbs will be a happier baby.

Sunshine has been a relatively good girl with exceptions of being rebellious at times. She’s at that age, ALREADY!

And she’s got her first admirer from church.

They are SOOOO CUTE together… he followed her all around church!

Ok, wish I could write more… But life with 2 kids? Tough.

….or so I thought I did.

I woke up yesterday with aching inner thighs and a very painful left boob. My entire body was aching too.

I thought nothing of it and we went out for Dim Sum lunch with my God-mum. Then we went shopping and I had a hair cut. I wasn’t feeling well the entire time but since we were already out, I beared with it.

When we were at the bank, my mum thought hard on why I had inner thigh muscle pains. She finally remembered that I:

I also did tons of work in one morning. It’s noon now and I’ve already:

- did 2 loads of laundry

- change bedsheets

- picked up all the dog poop in the backyard (Which is, like, a lot.)

Uh huh. That’s why. I had been squatting in our backyard picking up the mountain of dog poop.

At least we solved one mystery.

When we got home, I tested my temperature and it was a freaking 38.8 degrees Celsius!

Nad blamed it on me working too hard and doing too much at once too soon. Mum blamed it on me going out to the backyard with only a towel round my body to catch Kelly – I didn’t close the back door properly and Kelly ran out. Mum saw and shouted that the cat is outside while I was in the shower and so I rushed out in the cold, dripping wet.

Basically, they blame me for my downfall. That I brought it upon myself.

HOWEVER, today I did some research online and found out that I’m having mastitis / blocked milk ducts.

My left boob feels very sore and tender and high fever is usually accompanied with such cases.

I’ve also found out that it’s caused by Chubbs not attaching properly and therefore not draining the boob effectively, which leads to a clogged duct and to mastitis.

He attaches well on my right boob though. It’s just the left one that he’s always had problems with since birth.

Ah well.. who knew something as mundane as not attaching properly could turn into something so ugly?

My mum is going home on Thursday. I better get well by then! Will be seeing the doctor tomorrow if I still have a fever in the morning.

I hate this fever (which is 39 degrees the last I checked). I hate being sick when I have kids to look after. I better get well soon.

I’m still around!

I have been very very tired lately though. And there are 1001 things to do! Housework is never ending and the house seems to be in continual state of mess, to my dismay. Especially after Tornado Sunshine goes through a particular room, that room will be messy. – I’ve been finding oranges hiding in corners lately. Some behind the dining room curtains. Some in the study! Urgh. And her toys are strewn all around! I even slept on her building blocks without knowing. >:-(

Nothing new so far except that I’ve been trying my hand at a completely new craft; not knitting and not sewing. Tee hee hee. I may post some pictures of it tomorrow. Woot!

It’s also getting cooler now, thank God.

Oh. I have been experiencing stronger and more persistent Braxton Hicks Contractions. 2 or 3 nights ago, they were 5 minutes apart and lasted for more than 2 minutes at a time. They weren’t very painful. More like a dull menstrual cramp pain. It was rather irritating since I was trying to sleep. It started at around midnight and I was talking to a fellow pregnant friend of mine on MSN. She was admitted recently into hospital for threatened premature labour as she was having strong contractions and the baby’s due date is in June! Poor girl had to stay in hospital for 2 days on drip to stop the contractions and to be monitored.

I didn’t think my contractions were as strong as hers though, so I went to bed.

At 6.30am when Nad woke up to go to work, I was STILL having contractions. I told him to keep his mobile phone handy. I tried to ring the hospital’s Fetal Assessment Unit but no one picked up the call. I just went back to sleep after that.

The contractions stopped around 8am I think.

Now I still feel them occasionally and they are not as persistent as that night. We went for a check up today and everything seems okay (although it felt like Chubbs was pushing against my anus/tata this time round – I felt like pooping and also something ‘hard’ pushing at my groin from the inside when I walk).

I thought he had engaged but the midwife felt around and he was nowhere near there! In fact, he was lying slightly sideways now with his head on the right of my tummy. Sigh.

Sunshine was a happy baby, walking around the ward, greeting strangers and midwives with a casual, “Hi!” and smiling her megawatt smile. They always say she’s such an angel and they cannot believe that she throws tantrums. Hah! She just threw one big screamy fit before she was shooed off to bed. If only these people can hear her scream (think Dakota Fanning in War Of The Worlds – same thing, prolonged).

Since our car was sent for servicing (and they checked the car late and couldn’t fix the stupid auto windows in time so we have to send it in on Wednesday AGAIN!!!), we took the public transport today and went to town after the appointment. Town was the usual. Boring. The only interesting thing that happened in town was that I took a dump in Borders’ toilet. Maybe THAT was causing my discomfort. Duh.

When you are pregnant you no longer know if you want to poop or if you’re having contractions. Then you want to pee 98% of the time. We might as well just wear diapers.

It’s only 11pm now and I’m exhausted. Will go to bed now.

Bye-bye, shee yew! (This is how Sunshine says her goodbyes!)

Or am I just plain irritable nowadays? It’s been getting worse.

I find myself getting irritated by random people I come across. But I try REALLY hard to keep it all inside of me. Maybe one day I’ll burst. Actually, there were a few times already I felt like bursting out into tears all to myself. I finally understand why Rachel Greene in F.R.I.E.N.D.S was so irritable and hormonal when she was pregnant with Emma. And it gets worse towards the end.

Funny I don’t remember having these feelings with Sunshine. :S

I’ll give you an example;

This morning when I was up making milk for Sunshine, my mobile rang. I was rather irritated as it was only 9am and I seldom get calls so early in the morning although I was already up. But I’m generally not a morning person.

It was from one of the midwives/ diabetic dietitians from the hospital.

Generally, I dislike people who exaggerate and/or lie. And of course, with this pregnancy hormone thingy, I tend to be more on the edge with these sort of people. I would usually live and let live but make a mental note to be careful of such people. But this morning…………….

Midwife: Hi good morning, I am XXX from the diabetes clinic in YYY hospital. Can I speak to Jolene please?

Me: Yes this is me.

Midwife: Oh, good. Are you free to talk now?

Me: (Irritated as I lost count of how many scoops of formula I’ve added into the milk bottle) Yes I am.

Midwife: Oh, I tried to call SO MANY TIMES yesterday and left QUITE A FEW messages on your mobile and your house phone.

Me: (A little sarcastically) Oh, that’s weird because my house phone doesn’t record messages.

Midwife: (Awkward pause) Oh, your mobile then.

Me: (Yeah you only left ONE message yesterday.. but never mind…)

Midwife: So how are your readings?

Me: Yes I’ve had two high readings yesterday of 8.1 after breakfast and 8.7 after lunch. I had milo and two slices of brea….

Midwife: (Interrupting) Ohhhh IT MUST BE THE MILO!

Me: (Irritated at being interrupted and I get irritated with presumptuous people!) …..d with peanut butter.

Midwife: You should cut out the milo from your milk.

Me: I’ve decided to cut out the peanut butter altogether.

Midwife: Peanut butter is fine! (Goes on to say something else… )

Me: Yeah but when I spoke with another diabetes midwife a few days ago I had a high reading too but I had THREE slices of bread with peanut butter instead of the two yesterday. So I’ve figured that it must be the peanut butter that’s causing the high readings.

Midwife: Oh you spoke with someone else???

Me: Yes.

Midwife: Well, maybe try cutting out milo from your milk then.

Me: I don’t drink milk. It’s only milo. (By this time, I’ve NO IDEA how many scoops of formula I’ve put into the bottle and decided to put just one more scoop, just in case and hope that Sunshine doesn’t have constipation.)

Midwife: Oh………….. Ok.. then cut out the peanut butter then.

Me: (That was what I’ve been trying to tell you!)

Me: Anyway, lunch was because I overate, therefore the high reading.

The conversation after this was just me reading out the recent 4 days of Blood Sugar Level readings to her.

Now I KNOW that the poor midwife was doing her job and honestly, I cannot wish for a better service from a public hospital. These dedicated midwives spend time educating and checking up on women with gestational diabetes. I do not know where else I can get this excellent service without having to pay through the nose and giving up my first born.

I am truly blessed to be so well taken care of by this team of people during not just this pregnancy but the first pregnancy as well. I’m highly impressed by the skills and dedication and friendliness of these midwives and the team of doctors in Australia.
Poor midwife just caught me in a bad mood. Well…. it’s kinda hard sometimes when you crave for a certain food and you can’t indulge because you have to watch your diet. My mummy went through this when she was pregnant with both me and Lulu as well.
She told me that she could only order coffee without milk or sugar when she was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes and when the coffeeshop assistant gave her a spoon with the coffee, she snapped at him, “What’s the spoon for when there is nothing to stir? Take it back!”

Poor boy.

But I can understand how she must feel.

Because I feel it too. How I want to gobble all those chocolate! I want my fried stuff! I want to eat noodles!

6 more weeks, I get to hold my little boy.

6 more weeks, I get to eat yummy chinese herbal food.

6 more weeks, I won’t get bruised from the inside.

6 more weeks, I can see my tata again. (Err, I hope? It’s a wild jungle there!)

6 more weeks, I can kiss my knitting and sewing AND sleeping time goodbye.

Such mixed feelings.

Ok. Off to find things to nit-pick at.

So pregnancy has turned my brain into mush.

I’ve been doing (or not doing) things that make Nad wonder and comment, “I really think there’s something wrong with you.”

For example,

- A couple of months back, I threw his half eaten Subway into the bin thinking that it’s an empty wrapper. I failed to reason that the wrapper was too heavy to be empty. -___-

- I forget to reply to customers’ emails.

- I forgot to sign on the dangerous goods declaration on one of the parcels and instead of going by air (which I paid for as an express post parcel), it had to go by road.

- Many other things which the mush of my brain has FORGOT. I wish I had recorded these things down as they happened. :S

6 to 7 more weeks to go!!! Woohoo! Yippee!!! No more mushy brains! No more backaches! No more heartburns! No more fatigue! Uh wait.. scrap the last one… I’d probably end up even more tired, running after TWO kids… -___-

Does anyone want to see recent photos of a whale?

You do?

Really?

Ok.

Don’t laugh.

On a side note, I feel like casting on “A Cardigen for Arwen” for myself. (For non-knitters, it’s a very nice cardigan designed with Arwen the elf in Lord of The Rings in mind.) But my boobies have grown an inch bigger at least..
Now I’m afraid of casting on for a bigger bust – what if I stop breastfeeding and my boobs deflate? I will end up with an oversized cardi!
Can anyone advise?

My bust is usually 36 inches around and that was the size I knitted for “Central Park Hoodie“. I would like a slightly looser fit than the CPH though so was thinking of knitting the 37 1/4 inch for Arwen.
THEN now I realise my bust measures 37 1/2 inches! How???? Should I go for the 37 1/4 inch or should I go for 40 3/4 inch size?

Does this pattern tend to have a positive or negative ease? I will be using Malabrigo Merino Worsted for the project if that helps. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!