Entries are in...

I worked my tuckus off and this is my entry. It is quite a large piece...about 3 feet wide. In retrospect it looks a bit bare to me. Due to lack of time I had to cut some elements out. When the State Fair is over I will finish this by adding more animals and a garden and maybe a few puffy clouds here and there. This will hang in Picadilly's room. It is the very first thing I have made for her so far. I hope she likes it!



I entered several other items but didn't have time to photograph them. As I turned in my tatted pieces a crowd of ladies gathered to oohh and ahhh. Some of them had never seen tatting in "real" life before. Between the tatting and my ever blossoming belly, we were quite the spectacle.
I will know if I have won any ribbons by this weekend. It is all so exciting!

Here is my most recent belly picture. It is getting bigger everyday and I can almost hear my skin stretching...eeww!

Things I am thankful for

I need to write this post to pull myself out of the funk. So many difficult things are going on in my life that I need to focus on some of the positive so here we go.

I am thankful for:
The tatting world. All of you encourage me so much. Many of your comments have brought tears to my eyes. I wish I had the energy to thank each of you personally for how you are a bright spot in my day.
When asked about my modest little tatting shop, I always tell people how lucky I am to have the BEST customers in all the world. Not only are you guys awesome customers but you are all my friends.
I am so thankful for the hospital that I am assigned to, the staff and doctors are top notch. I know I am in good hands!
I am thankful for my husband who is having difficulties of his own..but he makes sure to take leave from work so that he can stay with me in the hospital as much as he can! He has picked up additional duties around the house and has even started making me breakfast and the best sandwiches ever!
I am thankful for all the prayers being offered up on my behalf!
If I were going through this 100 years ago I would probably have lost the baby by now and perhaps even my own life.
I am thankful that I live in America. Even though we don't have perfect health care it is far better than most other countries (no offense to my foreign friends). I could be still living in Korea and I shudder to think of going through all of this there.
I am thankful for family, even though they all live far away they call to check in on me all the time.
I am so thankful for my pets. They are such a source of joy and comfort...all of them in their own ways.
I am thankful for my faith in a God who is much bigger than all of this. I am ashamed to admit that I have been kinda mad at God lately, but He has never let us down and things always turn out for the best in the end.
My heart is broken, I am still very sick but I realize things could be so much worse and truly I am blessed.


As for Picadilly, we are back home and back on bed rest. The doctors have found a combination of medications to quiet the contractions. It was much worse than I even thought. I was hooked up to a monitor for almost two days and I was contracting every minute of every hour. The contractions are not completely gone but they are much much better. My cervix is still short but has not gotten any shorter so that is a positive thing. The doctors have already started the steroid shots to help Picadilly's lungs develop sooner so if she does come early she will have a fighting chance. We are aiming to keep her "cooking" until at least 34 weeks. That is 10 more weeks from now and that would make her 6 weeks early but her chances will be so much greater.

...and guess what?!?!? I have some tatting to show. I wanted to post this several days ago but being in the hospital for preterm labor kinda threw a wrench in the works. So here it is...as sneak peak of a new pattern I have been working on:
"CORAL ROSE" in size 20 silk

I have also listed some new hook pens.

Being on bed rest is the worst so I am trying to occupy myself with what I can.

quick update

...back in the hospital...AGAIN! Seriously, I feel like I am a patient in an episode of HOUSE! A swarm of doctors trying to solve the mystery of why they can't stop my contractions. This is getting old my peeps!
Plus it is hard to type with one hand! (The other one is hooked up to an IV....which also makes it hard to tat.)

Picadilly's Progress

Just a re-cap for anyone who is new to my blog. Picadilly (not real name) is now 23 weeks old in my womb. SHE, so far is healthy. I, on the other hand, have been experiencing the pregnancy from hell. I have been puking sick this whole time, unable to gain weight, experiencing migraines and in general just plain miserable.
But all of that has taken a back seat to the newest complications that have arisen. Last week I was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix and a single umbilical artery (there are supposed to be two) and I have been having regular contractions since 17 weeks. Any one of these conditions alone put me at high risk for a pre-term delivery and wouldn't you know it, I am lucky enough to have a triple whammy!
So they put me on a medication that was supposed to (but did nothing to) stop the contractions but rather, was successful in creating a rash from my neck to my knees. It was so uncomfortable that I couldn't even wear clothes and sleeping was difficult since I couldn't stand anything touching my skin.
I have been on bed rest until yesterday when I went in for a follow up ultrasound on my cervix. While there was a slight improvement in my cervical length (but not enough to breathe a sigh of relief) we have not been able to stop the contractions. They decided to hook me up to the monitors and time my contractions which turned out to be about two minutes apart. That sent me straight over to Labor and Delivery Triage where I spent all day hooked up to machines, getting shots and several other forms of new medication and unpleasant procedures.
To make a long story short, I am currently back home and back on bed rest and bored out of my mind! I am being monitored closely and am trying a new medication to see if that will arrest the contractions. They took my sweet OBGYN away and assigned me full time to the high-risk fetal medicine division and a new team of experts.

I have been so tired and so stressed out for so long that I have nothing left, I am totally spent. I am just taking life day by day with my new focus of trying to keep this baby "cooking" for as long as possible.

Today was supposed to be our first day of vacation. Hubby and I have been waiting so long for time off from our stressfull situation. We were to visit family, have a family baby shower for Picadilly and travel around mountain biking and enjoying the great Pacific Northwest. Obviously, all that is down the drain. I feel so bad for DH...he needs a break so bad and now he is just worrying about us! Of course we are super bummed but we know baby is the most important of all. I am sad that I won't be getting a baby shower...maybe after baby is born...oh well!

On the bright side of things, being high risk such as I am, I get to have an ultrasound every week which means I get to see my little Picadilly. Yesterday she was picking her nose (takes after her daddy) and rubbing her eye as you can see in the photo above.