boy sewing

Here's a funny story for you.  A few days before Toby was born I got worried that I didn't have enough warm baby clothes in a newborn size since Anna was a summer baby and all her newborn clothes were short sleeves or singlet suits.  So I waddled on down to the local shopping mall a few days post date and bought some long sleeve full leg bodysuits in a neutral colour.  Which Toby wore a grand total of one time before he grew out of them, being born so huge to begin with and working hard on his Buddha appearance ever since. Seriously, he has put on 1.5kg since he was born and now weighs nearly 6kg - our nickname for him is 'wombat' now!

He's now wearing clothes that Anna was wearing when she was 3 months old, which is unfortunate for him since by that age we started buying clothes of the pinkish kind for Anna and not really good for hand me downs.  So in between breastfeeds (about 2 hours), I managed to churn out six pairs of simple elastic waist pants for him saving myself a fair bit of money and increasing his wardrobe quickly:

I drafted the pattern from a pair of RTW pants that fit him, because I know from experience that the commercial sewing patterns are way too huge when it comes to baby clothes.  And despite my stash being absolutely huge, I had very little in the way of boyish fabrics which is why I had to resort to stripes in various colours ( I can feel a fabric shopping expedition coming on!).  I sewed them mostly using my overlocker, which made it very quick to make them production line style.  I even did a pretty good job in matching the stripes too:

And the little wombat seems to like them, judging by the poses he pulled when I was trying to do his 4 week photo:

The good thing about him being a wombat is that the red minkee jacket I made for him from the fabric I received from the OnlineFabricStore (that I reviewed here) fits him quite well so he'll get some good wear from it for a little while at least!

And yes those pants do match the lining of the jacket - I happened to have a very big piece of that fabric picked up from an opshop sometime ago. In fact I've nearly finished making a top for myself from the same fabric, I wonder if matching mummy and son outfits is as bad as matching mummy and daughter outfits?

A few of you have been asking how I've managed to get any sewing done - simple, I haven't been doing any housework! Ha ha, jut kidding.  I wish that were true but since having Toby the amount of washing and cleaning I have to do seems to have increased exponentially.  However because Toby has the decency to sleep for hours at a time and is happy to sit in his bouncer when awake for long periods of time I get pattern tracing and cutting out done during the day, and at night when his dad is home I palm him off as soon as I've finished feeding him so I can do some sewing for an hour or two.  All of this is totally and delightfully new to me - Anna never slept for longer than 20 minutes at a time and if she was awake she had to be held all the time so I never had a chance to get anything done.  Fingers crossed it keeps up......   

what a difference a week makes

Thank you all for your lovely well wishes and comments to my last post - it really means a lot to me that so many of you took the time to make a comment and share in our happiness.  Plus I feel better learning that so many of you also had a similar experience, not that I wish that pain on anyone but it makes me feel normal. 

As for me, the pain is mostly gone (but not forgotten!).  Life has settled back into normal pretty quickly and Toby has been an absolute gem so far.  Mary Nanna believe me that I'm very relieved that he's totally different to his sister - he sleeps so much! I actually have to wake him to feed day and night, and when he's done he goes back to sleep pretty quickly.  Not too much crying either, although he's only a week and half old so I'm probably jinxing myself by saying all this too soon.  Annie - I think you're right that bigger babies go longer between feeds and sleep better at night, I just hope he keeps going this way.

Another benefit of having a big baby (and associated big placenta) is that the weight just drops away quickly.  I have dropped about 9kg in the last week without even trying at all, and now I'm in that limbo land where my maternity clothes are way too big but my normal clothes are still too small.


Due date - 5 days before actual birth



7 days after giving birth

I am itching to start sewing a new winter wardrobe for myself, but I'm poring over my patterns for clothes that can be easily taken in when I lose more weight.  In the meantime though I've started sewing some little blue things for Toby so that he doesn't have to suffer the indignity of wearing hand me down pink clothes! And of course big sister Anna is demanding some new clothes too, so I have plenty to keep me occupied whilst waiting for some semblance of a waistline to return.



the reluctant baby is here

It's a boy

Toby Thomas made a hurried entrance into the world on Thursday afternoon, weighing an eye watering 4.43kg (9lb 7oz).

Well it seems the best way to bring on an overdue baby is to write a long ranty post about everything you've tried already, because after I wrote the last post late on Wednesday night I woke up at 5.30am on Thursday morning with a very mild contraction.  Since my contractions at that stage were quite mild and well spaced out I told my husband to go to work thinking that this could go on for days.  I even started to do some washing and housework that's how sure I was that it would take some time!

But they certainly became more frequent and painful very quickly, and when we got to the hospital at lunchtime the first thing I asked for was an epidural.  When the midwife told me that I was fully dilated and that it was too late for any pain relief other than some gas I bawled my eyes out like the baby I was about to deliver a la naturale.  I totally respect those who choose to deliver naturally but I never expected to be one of them - I knew how much it was going to hurt even with an epidural! And I was right, it was the most excruciating pain of my life, especially when his shoulders got stuck and I suffered a third degree tear getting the rest of his buddha body out.

So I am still a little shellshocked to be honest.  Shocked that I had a spontaneous labour, one that was so quick, and that I did it with no drugs.  And I'm really surprised at how big he is - where was all that baby hiding?

Anna is delighted with her new baby brother, even if he's not the little girl she predicted.  In fact she's already told me that next year I can have a girl baby - not likely!

Anyway the painful part is now behind me and its time to enjoy our new baby.    So please excuse me for a little while - I'm busy sitting on a doughnut cushion feeding a ravenous baby and eating easter eggs!