Vivianne Patricia
November 3rd, 2011 – 10:20am
4lbs 11oz

and

Mireille Desanges
November 3rd, 2011 – 10:23am
6lbs 4oz

As Husband, Behbeh and I have been lucky enough to stay in contact with him and his amazing new family, we were invited to the party.

Good times (and good food) were had by all.

At said party, I joked to his mom about bio mom’s tendency to pop out a child every summer.

Me:  You’d better get ready for Baby #2.  I expect you’ll get a call from CAS any day now, wanting to place Brandon’s newest sibling.

B’s Mom:  Don’t even joke.   Can you imagine?  We’re just getting settled with this one!

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About a week later, I got this email:

So you predicted right.
Guess who just gave birth to a little girl?
We have a huge decision to make.

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And you know what’s crazier than having four babies in four years?
Four babies you don’t even want?
Crazier than CAS asking them if they want another child one year and 15 days younger than their first child?  With no prep time?

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THEY’RE DOING IT!

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I can’t tell you how happy their decision has made me.

I know it’s going to be crazy for them over the next several months, but I can’t think of a better outcome for those kids than being together in that particular home.

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I spend a lot of time being displeased by the world and the majority of the people in it.

This is not one of those times.

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Husband:  Remind you of anyone?

Me:  (Sprawled out on the couch, looking down over my enormously pregnant belly)  What are you talking about?  I can totally see my feet.

Husband:  Yeah, but can you see your snatch?

Me: Not without a mirror.

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And after a comment like that, neither will he.

Even before finding out that I was carrying twins, I had started a fairly strict no wheat, no sugar, higher protein regime.

Not to lose weight, obviously, but to be proactive with things like gestational diabetes and hypertension.  I don’t have issues with either, but I want to give my spawn the best start possible.

That, and I was feeling a little guilty for not taking my vitamins leading up to the pregnancy.  Whoops.

The ‘diet’ went pretty well at first.  Protein shakes (protein powder, berries and spinach), beans, nuts and seeds were my main sources of protein.

I then found out I was having two.  Reading that the recommended amount of protein for a woman of my size was around 125 g protein/day, I added eggs and greek yogurt to my diet.

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Then my body rebelled.

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No longer could I drink the shakes.  The mere thought of eating them made me feel sick, let alone trying to down them.

Beans were a no go.  I could generally get them down without gagging, but they made me feel bloated and horrible.

Speaking with my nutritionist, it was suggested that, for the duration of my pregnancy, I should consider adding animal flesh.

As a vegetarian (sometimes vegan), who hasn’t touched meat (and hadn’t missed it) for over a decade, this was super-hard to hear.

I honestly believe that supporting the food industry by eating animals does a disservice, not only to the animals, but my health and the health of the planet.

I had no idea if I could even choke meat down.  How could that be any better than me up-chucking my protein shakes?

Feeling constantly tired and nauseated, however, I considered it.

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I decided to start out with fish.

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See, I’m one of those hypocritical vegetarians that places some animals’ lives above others.

Insects?  Doesn’t bother me.  I eat honey and I don’t particularly care if something is coloured with buggy corpses.  I’ve been bitten by too many black flies to shed a single tear.

Fish are slightly up on the list.  If I HAD to eat animals, they would be the first to go.

Didn’t work out, though.

The first few times, the salmon went down fine.

Then I started notice The Smell.

How could I possibly eat something that smelled so REVOLTING?

I tried slathering the carcass with sauce.

Didn’t work.

I didn’t actually throw up the fish, but it was a near thing.

So, no fish for me.

I felt good about the no-fish thing, actually.  It sort of validated the whole vegetarian choice.  Obviously, my body didn’t want it, right?

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Then my husband came home with left-over chicken wings.

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Can I just say:  I had never smelled anything so delicious in my life.

But what the heck did this mean?

My body doesn’t want healthy proteins but it wants chicken?

Are you frickin’ kidding me?

I mean, it has to mean something that I’m craving it, right?

That the thought of a chicken sandwich makes me morph into Pavlov’s dog?

Would I even be able to digest the stuff after obstaining for ten years?

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Talking with friends didn’t help a whole lot.

Most of my friends are meat eaters and as such have no real concept of my particular ethical struggles.

One friend actually considers my vegetarianism more of an eating disorder than a lifestyle choice and is therefore thrilled that I was considering eating meat.  I was over coming my affliction, see?

Sigh.

Anyhow, after some serious thought, it boils down to this:

I will eat chicken, as long as my body wants it.

Pfft.

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Stupid offspring.

I’ve already given you my freedom, my nights of sleep, my time and the integrity of the skin of my abdomen.

What more are you going to take from me?

Oh right.

My ethics.

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And my sex life.

The shock has mostly worn off.

Okay, we’re still reeling.

All I can say is:  There better be at least one girl in there, because there is no way I’m sticking around in a household of four men.

My sister-in-law assures me that I have a 75% chance of having at least one girl  (25% g/g, 25% b/b, 50% b/g, for those interested) so that makes me a little happier.

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I’m HUGE already.

With Gabe, I barely needed mat clothes until well into my 5th month.  With Thing 1 and Thing 2, I’ve been in stretchy pants for weeks.

See?

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Granted, some of it is chub, but MOST is baby…s.

I’m still getting used to talking in plural forms.

I’ve already seen my midwife twice, but unfortunately, it looks like that relationship will be limited this go-round.

Apparently, multiple births are considered high-risk and as such, my midwives have to differ to an OB.

Not only that, but my desire for a homebirth as given way to giving birth, not only in a hospital, but in an O.R.

I’m finding this pretty tough.  I already feel completely out of control when it comes to this pregnancy and it looks like I’m going to have a similar amount of control when it comes to my birth plan.

*sigh*

I’m hoping that if this pregnancy is picture perfect, the OB will be willing to sit quiet in a corner while my midwives deliver me.

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Not only are the colours less than inspiring (the rumour is, they ran out of fabric, so the choices have been whittled down to three), but the squares are SUPER EASY.

Sounds arrogant, I know,  but when a virtual beginner finds them simple, there’s something amiss.  I expected to be learning new techniques every month.

Anyhow, here’s Block #8

yawn

This one was in a gorgeous 50/50 Merino/Cashmere, so I was happy to oblige.

The first shawl was in gun-metal grey (classic but uninspiring) so this shawl’s creamsicle orange was a welcome change.

It took me two tries to get the fabric right (the first time was way too loose) but I’m super-pleased with the results.

Fingers crossed, Washington will be too.

Getting something for a song thrills me like nothing else.

It even one-ups sex, in that bargain hunting is a challenge and bargain finding, a surprise.  Sex and orgasms are a pretty much a sure thing.

Anyhow, my friend Judy called me with some info:

A former quilter/sewing teacher recently passed away and her children had organized a charity event, selling 70 years worth of crafty accumulation.

Now, let’s gloss over the fact that a woman had to die for my night of purchasing to occur and get straight to the good part.

The Bin of Supreme Awesomeness

The rules were thus:  Anything and everything I could fit in this bin = $40.   And I got to keep the bin.

The bin held a lot.

This hideous, but super-practical, project bag.  I need another project back like a need a hole in the head, but there was still room in my bin, so home it came.

Two great quilting books (with the combine sticker price of $90) and several quilting magazines.

Two skeins of Dream in Colour Classy (in Flamingo Pie) and a set of Hiya Hiya 16″ circular needles.

I found this gem in and amongst acres of the crappiest yarn in existence.  It was actually bought at Connie’s when her store was still in Bradford.  It still had the $51 sales slip inside. 

I’m not sure that I’ll use this, as it’s an organizational tool, and I can’t keep organized to save my life, but I’ve seen them at Fabricland and they looked useful.

And just to show that I’m not the most selfish mother in existence (I have to rate above Joan Crawford, surely), I picked up some art stuff for Behbeh.

I wish I’d been able to find more batik, but at least these three pieces are of generous size.  ~2 meters of each, maybe?

SO MUCH FABRIC.  Everything is 100% cotton.  Most are pretty generous pieces although there are a few fat quarters in there too.  I tried to get more neutrals and backgrounds that would go with whatever.

Sigh.

Did I mention I got all this for $40?

An excellent evening all ’round.

She’s from Washington, loves my stuff, la la la, would I knit her a shawl with this yarn she’s had for ages?

I generally don’t knit with other people’s yarn as my motto is “Life is too short to knit with shitty yarn.”

Why everyone thinks the $2 balls of yarn from Michael’s is anything but disaster is beyond me.

Anyhow, I was half right.  The yarn was a really interesting, quality blend of cotton and rayon from Blue Heron, but not so fun with which to knit lace.

It was really nubbly and getting a stitch pattern to show up at all, let alone look fabulous, was a sisyphean task.

She originally wanted me to knit my Triple Crown Shawl for her, but I convinced her that I could come up with something that would suit the yarn better.

I think I’m going to call it Undulate as the stitch has more to do with movement than form.

The pictures are of less than high quality, but Husband’s iPhone was all that was available at the time.  It did the job.

The pattern will be made available as soon as I knit it out of some fingering weight yarn.