spring has sprung!

officially but not really totally yet where we are. in fact, there was a fresh coat of snow on the ground when i awoke this morning.. funny sincejust yesterday i was outside in a tee-shirt on my knees starting to weed the garden..but the days are getting longer and there are definite signs of spring around. ngaio and i saw a butterfly a few days ago and the cows down the road are all birthing their calves. i got to scratch a brand new calf under the chin one sunny morning last week. it came right up to the fence to meet me and elwynn. it was just beautiful. mama still had the umbilical cord hanging out of her! she hadn't yet passed her placenta. its sad to thing that they are born just to get big and be eaten, yet they are still so tame and trusting of humans.
im looking forward toi having a huge garden this year. timothy has already started a few things in one of our sunny south facing windows, i'm sure it will just be a few weeks and we will have the shelf full of small green sprouts. yay!

may can't come soon enough.. my sister is moving up to the north thompson!! hopefully the clearwater hospital wont close (dr. shortage) because she wants to live in little fort or clearwater to be near us.

elwynn, ngaio and rue-bee are doing well..ngaio just got over a rather nasty sickness but she is very much back to her old self now. its amazing how fast they bounce back at 2!

elwynn is happy to be free of school for spring break. its hard getting up so early for such a small guy, but summer will be here soon enough.

rue is almost 2 months old now. time is flying by sooo fast! she is absolutely the most sweet baby in the world (they all are though!) im just sooooo in love. i can't get enough of her smiles and little "coo's & goo's"

so that's our short update..

no knitting in sight but i did get some beautiful white and pink and red veregated HPY in the mail a while ago from uruguay..im just waiting for some free time to cast on some longies.. one day..right?

home!

well, i hanv't knit a stitch..but we are home and so happy to be! there is at least 2 feet of beautiful white snow surrounding our little cozy home and town, but it seems like we missed most of winter while we were away. spring is on its way i think..

ngaio just threw herself onto the floor of the library..gtotta go.

Avalanche!

well, the roads are closed due to mother nature.. avalanches and slides all over the place..both routes home closed! we are about an hour and a half from where we started and are staying with tim's grandparents till they re-open the road..probably..hopefully tomorrow!

on a happy note, we went thrift store shopping today and found lots of rad treasures..some beautiful soft fleece lined jeans for elwynn and a bunch of fancy baby/toddler clothes..so, its not all bad. i hear they are thinking of opening a thrift store in little fort..yay for thrift stores!

i really wish my knitting bag wasn't in my mom's van! she is meeting us up there (little fort) tomorrow because we couldnt fit all of our stuff and kiddos in our van, but now im itching to knit something..rue sleeps lots still and i know i should take advantage of it. i always want to knit when i havn't got my stuff. grRrR.

xoxo fern

finally, home is on the horizon..

January has come and gone since being here, in the big city, but we are finally heading home!
the next few days will be full of packing up and goodbyes then we are on our way homeward Thursday morning.

i'm feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety..at the long snowy drive with 3 kids&a dog&cat!
at being home in our own little house, but without any extra hands to hold and help..wondering how timothy will find some work in the deep of winter...but i know that everything will fall into place as it should.

life is so beautiful with a baby in it!

my sweet family!

this is love..






*sigh*

it is so nice to finally put to use all of the wee woolens that i lovingly knit... the little pants, of which i knit 3 pairs, fit her perfectly. they go up to her armpits and cuffed, they are the perfect length! i love these little pants. they are butter soft and she wears them most every day.

this little curly purly soaker fits her super well. the other ones that i knit are too big on her yet, especially the leg holes..she has these loOong scrawny little legs. im loving the tight rolled cuff..with a premie prefold under it makes the trimmest little diaper..i love prefolds!



.
she hates diaper changes.

and finally! a name for our baby..

we have decided to name her.... Rue Bee Olive Suzanna Sabine.. its a weird untraditional name, i know.. i love "ruby" but timothy was not so keen on it. this way we have the name i want but also a plant name and bee..its cute. i love it. its totally her name. i'm so glad we waited and got to know her a few days...

Rue is almost 4 days old now. it feels like she has always been here, in my arms. she is just the most serene baby i have ever met, well, except for bum changes! she has a very loud voice when needed.. that is all i will say about that. we are still adjusting to being a family of 5, but for the most part it feels like our family is finally complete.

some pictures...

1: suzie schulz, RM and baby..1 day old!
2: Big sister Ngaio & babe.
3: day 2. .so awake!
4: not 1 day old..sleeping in the sunshine
5: mama and babe
6: the grrls
7:

She is here!

our little girl was born last night after a long but beautiful labour. i started to have contractions around 11:00 the night before but didn't really go into active labour till she was almost born!
after a day of regular contractions my sister and i went for a beautiful forest walk..it seemed like things were actually slowing down, but once we got back home again everything happened fairly quickly. we filled the birth pool and after about 10 contractions that were 1-2 minutes apart i got in. it was heaven! i was in the pool for about 45 minutes i think.. she did all of the work. it was amazing. i felt her little body move down..down..with each surge and finally she was right there! i felt this bulging bag of waters and broke it with my finger and out she came in a few quick pushes. i caught her in my hands and held her for a long time before getting out of the water. she was pink and breathing and just perfect from the moment she was born. *sigh*

my midwife suzie said that in 600+ births it was probably the most peaceful,perfect birth she has witnessed. it made me cry.

she weighed 8lbs 3 oz
born around 6:30pm..( i'm not even sure on the time, but my midwives have it written down)
no height yet because i just didn't want to put her down.

im having a baby!

and no Castor oil and verbena after all!! ive been having contractions since about 11:00 tonight. its 4:57am and i can't sleep.. they are about 4-5 minutes apart right now.. not terribly painful, but there for sure and lasting about a minute long.

im so happy!

Today or Tomorrow..

i'm having this baby today or tomorrow. thank the earth for Castor oil and lemon verbena..

another beautiful day

still pregnant. yep. im going to be pregnant forever..

we took the kiddos and the dog and the remote control spider man monster truck and ngaio's beloved "strawberry shortcake dolls" to the park today to soak up the beautiful January sun...then we decided to walk..and walk..and walk..to the fabulous coffee shop that timothy knows of. turns out that wasn't open. so we walked and walked some more back to the park and our car. we are home now and im very glad. walking that far whilst being even more than very pregnant (plus my only pants will not for the life on me stay up so i have to walk while hiking them up, which doesn't really work when you are
a) pushing a buggy b)holding the dig leash c)carrying a child)

anyways, i can't have the baby now for another few days. everything is on hold. no baby. no way. the carpets in my mothers house (where we are birthing) are all being replaced tomorrow. talk about a nightmare. so i'm going to be pregnant for at least until that is done and over with. there is NO way im having a baby while a crew of carpet installers are on the job. wouldn't that be just soooo my luck?

i love being pregnant.

longies..but not.

i cast on these cute tiny longies but realised soon after starting on the earthy colorway that there wasn't a hope that i would have enough yarn for longies .. so i improvised and made a boy short kind of soaker thing.. im not 100% sure that its going to work, but we shall see soon enough!

Today was a better day..

infact, after i posted that short and sad update yesterday i decided to cast on a pair of small longies and knitting did make me feel better.. it was just the current project that wasn't working for me.
im on leg one now and happy, but rubing out of yarn, so i think they will be summer shorts, not longies.. im a bit sad, but i kind of knew there wouldn't be enough of it..

i saw my wonderful midwife suzie today and though im not in labor yet, im much closer than on monday. im sitting at 4cm having lots of painless contractions but they are obviously doing something since i was 1/2cm on friday... its giving me hope that my body does in fact know what its doing and that once i do go into labour it will be quick and i will be holding my healthy baby very soon after! the thought brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart flutter.

im feeling pretty worn out. we took the kiddos to a community hall playgroup this morning which we walked to and the local forest ecology center later i nthe afternoon. i got to see my friend sheila and her beautiful new baby boy cassius again, which made me feel so happy! just holding a new baby is so lovely, even if its not my own! and her older daughter cora and ngaio just love each other and it was really nice to see them together being so 2 and cute.

its late and i need sleep.. maybe tomorrow will be our day!

im going to be pregnant forever and a day..

even knitting isn't helping today... *sigh*

no baby!

i'm sorry! false alarm....i did have lots of contractions last night and i couldn't sleep but baby is still womb side...

but, i did finish the 2nd kimono sweater last night and with about 14 inches of yarn to spare! i was sure that i would run out and have one sleeve with just a few rows left and no yarn but it worked out perfectly. i think im going to use buttons instead of ties for the closures, just to change things up a bit... i washed it last night in the washer on gentle because some great MDC mamas said it really helps peace fleece soften up and "bloom" and it really feels lush now...i didnt really love peace fleece when it came in the mail, but im really starting to see the beautiy in it!
im going to knit a matching peace fleece soaker today in pink and turquise stripes i think.. and here is a picture of the whole "new baby" outfit that i've made..





if this baby doesn't come soon its going to drown in my basket of hand knits.

i'm not totally certain, but i think this baby may be born sometime in the next day or so.. i'm feeling some really big changes in my body and i'm feeling very sensitive to sounds and goings ons around me.. not something i usually feel.

we spent a beautiful day on the beach collecting shells and treasure to put on the birth altar. it was sunny and crisp. being at the ocean felt so good! living up where we are is lovely, but once in a while the Pisces in my craves the ocean...

so if i don't post here for a while, it probably means baby has come!

baby name revisited..40 weeks +3 days!

yes, again! until this baby is born i'm going to quietly agonize over names..

The other night my sister and timothy and a few other random people were again talking about baby names for my baby (believe it or not i don't bring it up!).. then the name Matilda popped up and i instantly loved it. i'm still pretty set on Olive, so i Thought Matilda Olive Suzanna (my sister's middle name and my midwife's name...) Sabine sounded very nice..
it spells "Moss" i love it. timothy.... isn't so sure..

Matilda is an old German name meaning "mighty in battle" and in some translations "mighty battle maiden" very heavy metal, huh.. but i figure, in life you have to be mighty in battle, at least some of the time. It is a good name. i'm usually more inclined towards the serene and beautiful, but somehow i feel like this name fits. Olive is symbolic of peace so it balances out the battle part and Suzanna means Lily..i love plant names!

pictures finally..

here is the sweet baby cap. i so wish i had a head to try it on!!

and the kimono..still working on the last tie, but its pretty close to being wearable.

Its my due date!

It's been a beautiful sunny day here which is a big change from the almost torrential rains of the last few weeks.. last night it rained so hard that all i could hear was the constant patter of huge drops on the roof.. i love rain when i'm inside and cozy snuggled up with a nice cup of tea and a book, or a knitting project!

we just got home from a nice walk in the forest with all 3 dogs (our pup finn, my moms dog willow and my sister's dog katie) & the kids..they always have such a nice time in the woods collecting sticks and ferns and rocks...jumping in mud puddles and climbing up and down tree stumps. at the end of the path sitting on a log in the creek was a huge old Blue Heron. he was just beautiful and so serene and still. ngaio was screetching and he didn't move a muscle. i wish so much that i had my camera. it was such a stunning sight.

Ive been working on a hat the last 2 days that is a bit unusual for me.. its knit with super fine yarn and small needles (baby weight bamboo/wool and 2.5mm &3mm needles) im almost done now...the pattern is here. My knitter friend anna just knit the same hat and said that it turned out tiny, but mine seems huge.. its most likely NOT going to fit a newborn baby. i wonder why they turned out so differently....she must have used lace weight yarn or something!

The kimono is done but for one tie..i'm not a huge fan of doing i-cord, so i took a break. it looks like it wont fit till babe is 6 months old or so anyways, so no rush.. i tried it on our 1 year old foster babe who is pretty tiny and it is kind of short on him but its Very sweet.

happy due date to me!