November? Already?

I can’t believe how much I want to share with you. I was looking through the photos I’ve uploaded from my camera and there are tons of photos of knitted projects, and pics of the boys…so much stuff I want to share and yet this blog has been sitting here empty. Barren.

I’m not happy about that. I think I tend to want to save a project to share with you once its complete…but that leaves the blog pretty boring in the interim. And then if I get busy and forget…well you guys get nothing new to read.

I’m not going to make a ton of promises…but I will try my best to post more often, and share what has been going on around here.

Guess what?  Maaike and I are going to Rhinebeck this weekend!  And we’re both squares!

In case anyone comes by to blog-stalk beforehand, I thought it would be nice to give you an updated photo of me and a little peek of what I’ll be wearing.  (Sounds so fashionable, no?  “And who are you wearing, dahling?”)

This is one of my more recent photos, taken at the end of August:

My face is slimmer now, and I’ll probably have my bangs clipped back, but the hair color, length, etc are all the same.

And assuming the weather cooperates, I will be wearing my (as yet unseen on this blog and not even in Ravelry yet) Audrey:

Sorry for the blurry pic…it was that or a flash white-out.

After the last 2 months…I’m looking forwards to getting away and meeting some fellow knitters.  See you in NY!

It’s Friday now, and there’s not much more to report.  I’m surprised that I’m not already starting to feel better, and I have to keep reminding myself that after each boy was born, I was in the hospital for 4 days and only came home in the afternoon of the 4th day, so now is only about the time I would have come home from the hospital.  And I would have a newborn to care for, to distract me and to take up all my attention.  Between the baby and the cooing and cuddling and nursing and diapers and the snatches of the second or two of sleep you can grab, no wonder I don’t remember much about the pain of the surgery itself after each child was born.

I’m sleeping a lot more than I had expected to.  The pain pills are tricky- I can take 1 or 2 every 4 hours; when I take 1 it barely numbs the edge of the pain, but if I take 2 it knocks me out within minutes.  I’m trying to eat enough to not get any side effects, but I still have to take 12-hr Gravol twice a day and I’m still having dizzy/nausea spells.

Wednesday night I was able to watch tv for the first time and caught up on some America’s Got Talent with Yannick.  One hour was enough for me, and it was back up to bed.  Yesterday hit me hard with 2 dizzy spells, and the only thing that makes them pass is to sleep it off, so that’s pretty much all I did.  I took off the bandages for the first time so I could shower, and had two surprises when first  a few spots started bleeding (scaring the crap out of me…but I think it was just a scab that got pulled off with the bandage) and then noticing that I had 18 STAPLES!  The nurses had told me I didn’t need anyone to come take staples out, like I’d had done on the 5th day post-babies, because I didn’t HAVE any staples.  They said it was all stitches, and it would be fine to wait until I see the surgeon for a follow-up next Thurs (10th day post-op).  Well huh- 18 shiny staples, all in a row.  Fun…

I leave you with this photo of Jakob from Sunday night.  Apparently he did the hair pomade thing himself.  🙂

Let’s face it- description of surgery is icky. To try and negate the ick factor of this post, I’m mixing it up with some recent photos of the boys, taken St-Jean Baptiste Day weekend.

Monday morning I had to be at the hospital for 6:45am to check in for the day surgery. The operation itself was booked for 7:45, the first of the day. I was all prepared to have only the right side hernia repaired, and to have to do this all again in a few months. My surgeon came to see me in the hallway as I was being wheeled into the OR, and gave me a quick examination (HELLO cool breeze and flashing the entire hallway!). He hemmed and hawed about doing only what he’d planned, or redoing the whole thing- it’s preferable to do only once side and let me recover before doing the other, but I was in so much pain on both sides that he told me he’d open the right side and see what he could see and decide once he was in.

They brought me into the OR and moved me from my bed to the table, strapped my arms down and then the anesthesiologist told me he was going to give me something to make me sleep. A few seconds later the edges of my vision got a bit blurry…and I never even noticed passing out. Unlike the movies, there was no mask over my face, no “count down”. Just a slow, soft, easy fading away.

I woke up in the recovery room. I remember feeling pain pretty quickly, but the nurses were really prompt and gave me something for the pain. I’m allergic to morphine, so they gave me fentanyl which works, but wears off sooner than morphine would. I think it took an hour or two before they wheeled me back to my bed’s slot in the day surgery ward. From that point on I would be allowed to leave as soon as I could go to the washroom. I was still in a lot of pain so they gave me a big shot of demerol with some gravol and I slept for a while longer. My mom came in to see me a few times, and I had my ipod with me but I couldn’t pay attention to the Cory Doctorow podcasts* I’d brought to listen to, because I kept drifting in and out.

I still had no clue what had been done to me. I couldn’t tell by feeling the bandages if my surgeon had done just one side or both, and the nurse couldn’t decipher his handwriting on the notes in my file. In the meantime they wanted me to go pee, but when the nurse moved away my blankets so I could prepare to stand, she saw I had a catheter in! Eventually everything that had to be moved was moved, and I stood up to prepare to walk to the washroom. I felt fine, and said so, and then all of a sudden nausea hit me so fast- I had no time to react. My throat felt tight, I felt flushed and hot and I had to sit down NOW. The nurse and my mom quickly got me back into bed though the relief at lying back down was tempered by the pain of moving that fast.

I was given an injection of something for the nausea even though I felt better immediately upon sitting down. They made me wait around an hour before trying to stand again, and in the interim the nurse managed to find my surgeon and bring him over so we could ask him our questions. I was a little out of it, but from what I could understand, he had opened the right side as planned, but was able to see right away that things were a mess inside and he could see the hernia on the left too, so he made the decision to completely open my 19-month-old c-section, fix both hernias, and redo the c-section. Had I been any older he never would have done it like that, but since I’m still young-ish, and pretty healthy, he decided it was worth the risk.

After that it was another hour or so before I could leave. A quick (ok, slow, shuffling) walk to the bathroom, some help putting on my clothes, and then it was back home into my own bed, where I’ve stayed for most of the last two days.  The living room couch just isn’t comfortable right now, and the one in the den is too deep for me to get in and out of yet, so I’ve been holed up in bed with a netbook my cousin lent me, a puzzle book my neighbor brought over, and my ipod.

Yesterday had a small setback where too much medicine + not enough food = nausea and vomiting, and let me tell you heaving to throw up when you’ve just had your belly cut open is NOT fun.  Luckily it passed quickly and now I’ve been careful to eat a little more and take gravol 30 minutes before my pain pills.

All in all, in essence I just had a c-section, so obviously there is going to be some pain.  Unlike the last 2 times, however, I don’t have a newborn to care for, and have been getting a lot of sleep, and a lot of rest.  My friends and family have been awesome, giving me more support than I need.

Now I think I’m going to try and stay up a little bit longer, and I just *might* pick up my needles…if I can find them before the pain meds kick in.

*awesome free sci-fi, btw.

**These gorgeous photos were taken by Avi of Red Button Photo, and the boys’ matching jackets were handmade (!) by Catherine of HairSprayMafia.

I wonder how many of you read this blog for the knitting stuff and skim the personal facts, and how many of you skim the knitting to see what’s been going on in our lives.

I’ve thought about posting so often lately, but I don’t because I don’t have the time to put up photos, and I wonder if you even care that there are no photos, if it means there will at least be a blog post.

I miss blogging, and I miss the interaction with those (few) of you who read me. And lately I’ve been torn between wanting to talk and share and get advice and vent, and keeping everything inside and keeping this an infrequent blog about knitting.

I’m still torn about the direction this is going to stick with, but I can’t stand sitting silent with the occasional “look- published pattern!” post. That’s not me, that’s not why I started blogging.

Knitting-
I’m currently working on another pattern for KnitPicks, as well as a pattern or two to self-publish. I have completed all but the cuffs of the Enchanted Forest cardigan, but am planning on undoing and redoing the sleeves, because the 80’s batwing look is SO NOT me. I’m 2/3 of the way through my current pair of traveling socks, knit with the Regia Canadian Colors Ontario colorway. I’m also 80% finished a pillow design that my sister-in-law requested oh, a year or two ago.

Family-
Yannick and I finished our first year of school! Our final exam was last Sunday, and after many marathon study sessions, we both found it easier than we’d expected. We still have a few little assignments to mail in, but the majority of the first year is complete and we now have a little break until year 2 (of 4) starts in January.

Jakob is the funniest little chatterbox I’ve ever met, and it’s scary how much attitude can come in such a small package. The other day I peeked in his room at 10:30pm, expecting him to be asleep ‘cus it was so quiet. He was holding the Cat in the Hat book and his Diego dome-light, looks up at me and says “What Mom? I’m just reading.” He’s moved up to the bigger (2nd oldest) class in daycare, and is in the middle of mostly-successful potty-training.

Henri is awesome, funny, sweet and really, really silly. He’s almost as big as Jakob and is stubborn as heck, but whereas Jakob is a Daddy’s Boy all the way, Henri lately seems to be more of a Mommy’s Boy and always wants me to be standing up holding and cuddling him, and I love it!

We’ve been going through more health issues with Henri, though. I swear, this poor kid can’t catch a break! Long-time readers will remember some of the issues we’ve been through in his short life so far- the tongue tie, the nursing, the food issues, possible allergies, his horrible eczema, the scary infection…it seems to never end. This has been the scariest so far, though. I’ll get into more detail another time, but to sum up, he has started walking funny, and the doctors aren’t sure why. We’ve done some tests, but are waiting to do others before any diagnosis is made.

And finally, my last bit of news is that I will be having surgery tomorrow. Both sides of my last c-section have herniated, and the doctor will be going in to fix the right side tomorrow. He’s not able to tell yet if it is an inguinal hernia or an incisional one, but I don’t think it would change anything, either way. As if this weren’t bad enough, the sciatic (sp?) nerve on my right leg has been on/off pinched or caught or something for the last few weeks, and the last few days have been more “on” than “off”, today especially, and I can’t take even Tylenol or Advil because of the surgery. So in a way I’m looking forwards to getting some pain killers not so much for the surgery, but to help my leg!

I can’t drive for 10 days, and can’t lift the boys for 6-8 weeks, so my mom and Yannick are going to be doing a lot around here over the next little while. We’re really lucky to have my mom and siblings here to help out while Yannick is at work with my dad, ‘cus otherwise he’d have to leave work early every day. I’m going to take some time off work and rest. I’ve got some mindless knitting, some dvds and an ipod full of sci-fi and knitting podcasts. I’m all set! Now if only I weren’t freaking out about being put under…

As you may have seen in photos (or in real life), my hair is pretty long.  Waist-length.  The last time I cut it more than an inch was about 2.5 years ago at least, though it grows really fast.

I’d been thinking about cutting it lately, and realized that if I gave it more than just a trim, I could do something useful with it.  I decided to donate it.

It took me a while to find somewhere that would take bleached hair, but I finally did.  There’s actually a place here in Montreal that takes the hair, sends it to China to have a wig made (did you know it takes 10-20 ponytails to make ONE wig?) and then the finished wig comes back here to Montreal to go to a woman with cancer.  I really like that I’m helping someone locally.  Once that obstacle was out of the way it was like a switch had flipped- instead of loving my long, flowing hair, I suddenly just WANTED IT OFF.

So one fateful day at the very end of June I made an appointment (without telling anyone but Yannick) and shocked the hell out of my hair stylist when I told her to cut it all off.

“How short?” she asked.  I pointed to my chin.  She almost needed to sit down.

Here’s a before shot:

I actually didn’t realize it was THIS long.  I can’t see the back…so I only see how much comes forwards, and as it goes over my shoulders and chest, it looks shorter.  Even I was surprised by this photo.

No going back now!

We did it in 2 cuts because had we pulled all the hair back into 1 ponytail, the back would have been cut short but the sides would end up longer with that length being missed from the ponytail, because they were being pulled back.  This way the donated hair was able to be as long as possible.

18 inches cut off to donate.

18 INCHES!!  I’m amazed…

So now my neck is cold as I sit under the A/C at work, and I used WAY too much shampoo my first few washes, but I’m really happy with what I did, and I really like the end result.  I think it’s cute, and it is really easy to care for/style.  Plus as soon as I get a free moment at work I will be dropping off the (kinda morbid-looking) ponytails at the salon, and that will be a really awesome thing.

Here’s the front.  It’s not the best photo, but I took it myself the day it was freshly styled from the hair dresser (though I’d tucked it behind my ears with clips in the photo, ‘cus she’d dried it like a bob and it was a little poofy).  I’ll try to get Yannick or someone take a clear shot sometime.

Later that same weekend, I got into the cutting mood and attacked all the men in the house.  A while ago I took over from Yannick’s mom in cutting his hair, and finally was willing to try using clippers.  It’s been twice now that I did his hair, and he’s been really happy with it.  After cutting his, I asked if he’d mind if I cut Jakob’s hair.  Just a trim…but his long hair has been doing the Farrah Fawcett on the sides, winging out, and it was starting to be a little much.

This is a photo of the boys Maaike took one afternoon at the park.  You can’t really see their hair…but I like the photo.  🙂

This is Jakob’s “before” shot.  His hair is really long, and really thick.  I was just trying to clean up the wings, but he ended up looking like he had a bowl cut…almost in the vein of Dumb & Dumber.  So I tried to fix it…and let’s just say that he moved…a lot…and then on the day we were supposed to get together with my Dad’s side of the family for dinner I quickly rushed Jakob to the kids’ hair salon to try and fix the mess on his head before he could be laughed at by family.  Oops!  His once-flowing locks are now short…really short.  “Boy” short.  But our favorite time it grew out long was after being cut at the salon, so we have hopes that when it grows back it will be just as cute.

I feel like cutting his hair was freeing in some way for him, because ever since we cut it he has been such a devilish little monkey!  Even more of a clown than usual…and that’s saying something!

And as for Henri…poor little Henri…once we got home from the salon with Jakob I looked at Henri’s head…  There was nothing wrong with his hair, though it had never been cut before, and was a little longer on top and in the back than the sides, causing some people to say he had a mullet.  He still looked cute.  Really cute:

…but when I got home and saw his hair all straggly, compared to Jakob’s now neat, short cut, I couldn’t take it.  I popped Henri in his high chair, grabbed the clippers and a #4 guard, and gave his whole head a buzz.  Of course it was only after doing it that my mom showed me this photo, and I saw how cute he was, and kinda regretted it.  But it’s only hair, and is already growing back.  #4 isn’t THAT short, maybe 1cm long, or so, and at least now it will all grow in at the same length.

I’ll post photos of the boys post-cuts once I get them off the camera.

I had 8 million things to do this week.  I have drafts of posts sitting there waiting for photos or content.  I have cakes to bake, icing to make, patterns to write and knits to photograph.  I have an exam in 3 weeks that I need to study for, a son turning 3 around the same time with a party to plan, oh- and I was going to have a pair of socks started and finished by this weekend.  AND my Palm is officially gone to the big graveyard of dead nearly-obsolete electronics in the sky, although I guess that’s a good thing.  I’m not able to have electronic reminders of how far behind on things I actually am.

It’s been a fun last few weeks.  I think I said last post how I’d come down with strep?  Well 2 days after I finished my meds, Jakob tells me he’s scared of his food ‘cus it made a “boo-boo” throat.  I took him to the doctor and he had a positive strep culture.  That night I felt the signs and sure enough, the next morning I was at the clinic watching my own little culture stick show a positve sign.  The NEXT day Yannick mentioned that Henri was wincing a bit while eating breakfast…and about 2 hours later HIS culture was positive.  The day after that Yannick was diagnosed.  So it’s been fun around here.  I finally finished my final dose and am really hoping it doesn’t come back AGAIN. 

Until I get the latest photos uploaded, here’s another cute one of the boys playing with my grandfather’s hat.

Hi!

Ok, this is good.  Typing is fun when you can’t talk- makes you feel like you can get stuff out.  🙂  Now if only the text would stop swirling around the page…

I missed last night’s seder, and will miss tonight’s too, ‘cus I’ve got strep once again.  I know- third time since September.  At least this time it seems like Henri has been spared the Superinfection he usually gets when I get it.  And now that it’s been documented as being this frequent, my family doctor is sending me to an ENT for further evaluation.

Let’s see…I’m seeing an ENT for strep, a surgeon for hernia(s), aren’t I supposed to be older before I start having a different doctor for every part of my body?  🙂

I haven’t posted in a bit ‘cus we’ve been so busy studying for school.  And, I confess to taking 2 weeks off studying after our last exam to get out some other knits.  Which made this last exam (done yesterday) real pain to study for.  ALL formulas, calculating focus lengths, angles of deviation, indices of refraction, etc… Thankfully our midterm will come with a formulas sheet.

I took my first-ever trip to New York two weeks ago to go to an optical exposition for work.  It was a lot of fun; I went with my mom and dad and Yannick, and we managed to fit a LOT into barely 2 days.  We left Saturday after work and drove straight down.  Our hotel was right in the heart of Time’s Square, so we walked around a bit that night before bed.  Sunday was the expo, and a real blast.  We couldn’t make it to the shuttle ‘cus the streets to cross were closed for the New York Marathon, so we had to take the subway instead.  Really makes you appreciate the STCUM metro system!  LOL  We made it to the exp on time, in the end.  It was so cool to see all the latest lines coming out, and newest gadgets, and we got a goodie bag when we walked in that made me feel like the celebs who get givaways when they go to awards shows.  After the fair we went back to Time’s Square and got last minute tickets to see Avenue Q that night.  Then we walked to Central Park ‘cus Yannick insisted I see it, walked around there for a bit and had a quick bite from a hot dog vendor.  (Hot dogs- thumbs up.  Pretzels- thumbs down.  Fresh nuts- didn’t get a chance to try.)  Then we walked back to the theatre and saw the show, which was absolutely insane, inane, and hysterical.  From there we walked back to Time’s Square, had supper at Olive Garden (my first time) and walked around some more.  Yannick was thrilled ‘cus the night before he’d found what seemed to be the only Tim Hortons around, and my dad was thrilled ‘cus the Hershey’s store was still open.  On Monday we left before eating so we could get on the road, and stopped in Albany to go to Joann’s (my first time).  I was good and only bought a few items, stuff I can’t get here, and NO yarn.  Then we went to Lake George and bought some work clothes at the outlets, then drove to Plattsburgh to have dinner at Applebee’s (my first time) and go to the huge Big Walmart before finally getting home around 1am.  It was a crazy weekend, but it was a lot of fun, and amazingly we all got along the whole time.  Plus, since I didn’t drive, I got to knit!  I managed to finish Anouk for a friend’s upcoming daughter, and even bought the perfect buttons at Joann’s.  Then while walking around the expo I finished my Toasted Almond socks and cast on for a new pair!

Photos to come as I feel a little better.