still waiting....

No baby yet. Technically this Monday I'll be at 41 weeks, and no signs from baby that he or she is making a move for the door. :(

I think that's the hard thing about due dates - I'm perfectly happy being pregnant (I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit) and everything has been going quite smoothly, but now I have a little voice in the back of my head saying "something may be wrong here... no baby yet.. is this going to make delivery harder?...no baby yet....where's baby? why haven't you felt contractions yet?" etc. etc. and the little whispers go on...
If I didn't have a due date, I'd like to think I'd still be in my bliss of happy pregnancy. Although all the test I've had so far says' baby's doing fine - and I can feel (and see!) the little one moving all the time, so things like that usually quiet the voices.

Monday I have a Dr's appt. and I have a feeling an inducement will be scheduled. I know, I know, inducements happen all the time, but I know a lot lead to C-sections as well. And I know that a C-section is not necessarily a bad thing, just didn't jive with the image I had in my head of how labor was going to go.

I also realize I need to let go of any notion I had of how things are supposed to go, because from now on, I'm not in the drivers seat anymore - baby is. I think I can deal with that... I'd just like to meet the new driver!!! :)

I have finished a newborn baby hat - we'll see if it fits - I've heard 5-7 lbs for baby, but don't know how big the head is:


And I made mittens to match:



I'm almost done with Grumpasaurus Max - just needs feet and new facial feature colors - the blue is too light:


And I'm slowly working on another hat and the Ice Queen Pattern:


We'll see how Monday goes, and hopefully my next post will be all about our new baby!!!! yeah :)

waiting on baby

...to get a move on!

Baby is completely content to just hang out in mama's belly and dance! My due date technically is this Monday, the 2nd, but they had also given us the date of the 5th, and I've had that date in my head for most of the pregnancy. Although it is the first full moon of Nov. I think baby's going to wait a bit till the end of the week at least.

As of right now, I don't feel much different than I did a week ago, or 2 weeks ago.... and it's not a bad thing, I'm pretty content too. The heartburn and that I get tired more easily are really the only things that bug me. So I'm good to wait until the baby's ready to say hello.

The Dr. was worried a bit because I'm so small for how far along I am, and we had a couple of extra ultra sounds to check and make sure baby had enough food/fluids etc. to be okay - and all is good. Baby passed his/her first in-utero test with flying colors! 100% - go baby go!

We're getting tested again on Monday, and we'll see how that goes - hopefully we'll have the same results. The nice thing about it was we got another ultrasound and Mike was there for this one- he missed the 20 wk ultrasound due to being in NY, so it was nice for him to see baby in real-time. Here are a couple of profile and face shots from last weeks ultrasound:

Here is a profile - and what looks like bubbles is the umbilical cord:



These two are face forward shots, you have to turn your head to the side, but I think they are so sweet... top of baby head is ---->this way looking straight at you.

look at those cheeks!



Here - baby is sleeping same as above - forehead is ----> like baby is laying on the side facing out:



My friend Jean made me the cutest baby hat EVER!!! I just love it! it puts my knitting to shame, and it was her first attempt at fair isle - it's just beautiful:



This week, Mike and I attended his school's fundraiser, called the RED party - it was a masquerade ball, and everyone was all dressed up. They had this fabulous person in drag with an amazing costume:

My friend Meghan and I got our pictures taken with... her

Not my favorite shot of me, but ah well!

Meghan made her mask out of broken mirror parts - it was really cool:


It was a good time but really loud, and I was tuckered out by 10pm.
Off to do some more knitting and enjoy the last few days of my pregnancy!

preparing for baby

Ok, I first started writing this post when I had three weeks to go - now I have.. um 2 days.
We'll start with the old post...

Three weeks to go! Eeek!!

I know I know. Everyone wants pictures of me and my belly. It's just hard to find a good time to take one - in other words - when I feel like I look cute or at least half-way decent! Here are a couple of shots to sooth you all. (The ones in purple are from 2/3 weeks ago - the ones in blue - last week - I really haven't changed much...)



Mike and I are trying to pull things together for the baby. We're putting together the final details and trying not to freak out in the process. Or more than that - not get overwhelmed. There is SOOO much advice out there, and so many differing ideas, it's hard not to get swept away by all the chaos.

We have the crib set up, and have finally decided on a glider/rocker -although the picture isn't that cute, it looks much better in person and is very comfortable. We have our car seats and bases - and are putting them into the cars this weekend. I have started packing my bag and need to pick up some snacks and books to put in there. I'm hoping I'll have a quick labor like my SIL's though.

I have been knitting. I'm half-way through the cutest little guy called grumpasaurus - I misplaced one of my DPN's half way through knitting him, but I just picked up the next smaller size and substituted - it's a toy, and the fabric should be tight anyway!

I finished the baby sweater for Max and sent it off - here's a final picture, which doesn't do it justice:



And to torture myself, I've started IceQueen in a beautiful red/pink/purple colorway - not sure how it'll look with the hot pink color, but I couldn't find anything else I liked to make with the yarn (which is soft and oh-so-pretty!), since I only have one ball. I am still open to suggestions if anyone knows of a laceweight wrap/shawl etc. that would look good in the Alchemy yarn. Here's my colorway:


I'll put my new thoughts into another post....

having a bit of pre-mamma anxiety

So at the Dr.'s last week, I realized that I am 34 weeks along, which means.. I have about a month and a half to go. Yikes!!! we're not ready!!! (is anybody ever???)

My due date was either the 2nd or the 5th, the doctors office chose the 2nd and I've always kept in my head the 5th (I hear your first is usually late), but I just checked the moon cycle and the full moon is due for Nov. 2nd. So... I may be right on time! (not that I hold a lot of stock in such things, but... they do say more babies are born on a full moon!)

I have some pictures from my trip to visit my brother and SIL in DC
Here are some pictures of "baby Dominic" as Gabriella called every toy/doll and her brother all weekend - it was so cute!!

Baby Dominic and Daddy



Baby Dominic and Mommy:



Baby Dominic and Gabriella:


G being much kinder to her brothers than mine looked like they were to me....


Me and Baby D:
(not the best picture)


And Daddy and his babes taking a nap:



I did finish my purple sweater and it fit Gabriella perfectly - but I didn't get any pictures of her in it - At first she wouldn't take it - all presents were for 'baby Dominic", but eventually she warmed up to it and I was happy to see it fit! Just she and I went to the park and played while her parents had an event to go to, so it was nice to spend some one on one time with her. One of my favorite shots was of her on the swings:



Having just come from 3 days at a work conference, I was pretty worn out - between having my 'game-face" on the whole time, and staying up late while everyone drank and socialized, it really exhausted me. The scary thing is, I know that when the baby comes, I'll be 8 times more tired than I was that weekend! Yeah, feeling a bit unprepared, but I know we'll do fine when the time comes.

Mike and I are going to pick up the crib and narrow down our choice for a chair today. I have one more baby shower coming up next weekend, and we're just trying to spend some quality time together and get the house ready. Crazy times eh?

watching time fly by...

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted! So much has happened - most of which has kept me from blogging, I just haven't had the time/energy!!

First off - Baby updates - 2 new babies in the Tamburro family - one to each of my two older brothers

Carlo/Kristin are the proud parents of :
Dominik "Nico" John Tamburro - born on Aug. 16th and



Alex/Amy are the proud parents of:
Max Michael Tamburro - born on Sept. 4th



Here are the boys "practicing" with me many years ago - I think they're going to do much better now!



I also got a promotion at work, and have moved up into a larger role - which means I'm spending a bit more time at work trying to get all my 'ducks in a row' before I go on my own maternity leave! So my focus there in getting into my new stride has taken up some of my time too, but I'm enjoying the position and excited about it!

I spent a week in KY with some old school friends who threw me a great baby shower! Here are a couple of shots of me out with friends and at the shower:

An evening out:


The best type of cake:


and the shower:



It was fun and silly and good to see my friends.

Mike started school again and is working hard as a Junior this year. He's also trying to get things lined up for when the baby comes. I can't believe it's happening so fast!! I've only got 2 months left - and I feel like there is so so so much to be done!

I have a few things on the needles to be finished up in the next few days and sent out to the new parents, and then a couple more in que for me and some other prego mamas! Pictures next time. I'm converting my office and craft room into the baby's room, and we're trying to find a place for all my stuff! It'll all work out, I know, I just need to keep calm and breath. There are days I get totally overwhelmed with all the decisions and things to do, and others I've got more energy than I know what to do with and don't know where to focus it. I usually have my hands full on those days anyway. Maybe that's for the best!

Knitting a bit

I've been trying to get some much-needed knitting done lately, and all I've really ended up with, is more UFO's - but they're closer to completion than the ones that have been hanging out in my sidebar for forever.

I started with the baby sweater I've been working on for a while. I really enjoy knitting with the Elizabeth Lavold cotton, and I just adore the color - I've got one side seamed and I just need to do the other side, which I'm determined to finish today:



And here's what it'll look like finished:


sort-of - I may add something to the bottom sleeve edges - it looks kinda unfinished to me this way.

Then I started a crochet cap on my way back from NY that is also close to completion - I started this one, and then had to 'rip back' because I wanted it to be tighter, so I went down a hook side. I put the rip back in quotes, because I actually didn't rip, I just started from the other end of the ball (that's how far along I was) and would just pull out as I used up the yarn.

Here's a shot of it so far - I'm finishing up the brim. The problem here is I put it down, and had two copies of the pattern printed out and am not sure exactly where I am in the pattern - I just need to sit down and figure it out:



Then I also started another baby sweater - The Kipling, which I've always wanted to knit, and just love the greens in this yarn, although it's not as soft as some of the other yarns I've used lately, but it is machine washable and that's what counts here:


I've also been fortunate enough to win a couple of blog contests lately, and got a great copy of the book DomiKNITrix:

from the blog Lazy Knits and Purls which is great! I've wanted to try out some of the patterns in here.

And then I won some milk fiber roving from Silverstah's Etsy shop Feeling Sheepish which I'm a little scared to take out of the bags for fear of ruining it. I want to wait until I'm ready to use it - I've got to find a special project for it.



I got two bags - one small black bag of 'carbonized Bamboo':



The orange in the picture is from the light above - it was hard to take a decent picture with the plastic still on it...
And the other is called Robin's Wren and has brown and white and a beautiful streak of robin blue in it:



This picture may show the colors better:



So I'm super excited about winning those contests - thanks ladies!! They were great little pick-me-ups while Mike was gone. It's always nice to get packages in the mail unexpectedly or expected! Did I mention btw, that I'm so excited that he's back? I am. It's just nice to have him around to talk to and cuddle with.

The baby is moving around quite a bit. I do have more of a belly, but it really depends on what I'm wearing on how prego I look, and I'm really bad at getting people to take a picture of me and the little one. Still feeling pretty good - more heartburn than I'd like, but what are you going to do? Small price to pay for such a wonderful gift.