My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Friday, August 24, 2007

Show and Tell

Kelli is hosting show and tell Friday again

So, here's mine.





This is Sonshine's baby quilt. I started it pretty early in my pregnancy and he got it for his first birthday. I came to call it my "therapy quilt, or sanity quilt." To understand this you have to get some background into that pregnancy. First off, we tried to get pregnant for two years before being successful. This time period includes a miscarriage. I started spotting at 8 weeks and was put on bedrest for about a week. Then it was smooth sailing until the 20 week sonogram. It showed a problem with his brain (too much fluid). From then on out it was one thing after another. I was going for scheduled monthly sonos at the perinatologist's to see if the brain fluid had normalized. I was already considered "high risk" because I am what is known as a "cardiac mom" (meaning I have a heart condition). My OB was very overprotective of everything. I lost weight for the first half of the pregnancy and only ended up gaining 15lbs (as opposed to the 20-30 recommended). At 33 weeks I started spotting again, I happened to be at work and my head nurse (and dear friend) took my blood pressure (she can't tell you why she took it...we say Divine Intervention). It was high. That was the last day I worked. I went to the hospital for the first of what we call our "false starts" From there I was sent home on bedrest for Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (aka Pre-eclampsia). Every week I went in to see the OB, each time (just about) he sent me for a sono to check on something or other. In the meantime the brain issue was still there. I was taking my blood pressure a couple times a day and spotting off and on. I don't remember how many false starts we had. 3 or 4 I think. At about 35 or 36 weeks the brain fluid finally normalized. When I was at 37 weeks I went for a regular OB check up. He hooked me up to a monitor for a Non-Stress Test. It showed little drops in the heart rate (variable decelerations). I went over to the perinatologist for an urgent sono, then on to the hospital to be induced. Sonshine was born the next night, November 25. He was "a blue baby." (nucal cord). But we were able to go home ontime. Because of his brain fluid issue I'd prepared myself to have a special needs baby. We just didn't know what impact there would be. I remember when he was 6 months old sitting and bawling my eyes out because it hit me that he was normal. Through all of this I worked on that quilt. I'd picked a ridiculously time consuming quilting pattern of hearts. I tried to get a picture that would show it.





Throughout the whole pregnancy, whenever I would get to worrying about my baby I'd just sit and quilt. (I couldn't do anything else anyway) I prayed as I quilted. And I made my "mommy plans" imagining all the things we'd do together. It brought me comfort and peace in a time that was far from either.

I was most proud when he went to pre-school and I saw all the bought blankets the other kids had for nap-time and I knew that Sonshine had his lovey that his momma'd worked very hard on and that had prayers sewn into every stitch.

9 comments:

Susan said...

What a wonderful quilt to show and for telling us all the details. Every stitch sewn in love. How special is that!!!
Susan

Linda said...

What a beautiful quilt and a beautiful story to go with it. I can only imagine how incredibly worried you were throughout the whole pregnancy and I am so glad that everything came out the way it did.

By the way, your Sonshine shares his birthday with my father!

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Thank you for sharing this special story; isn't God good! I can tell you are a nurse - all those medical terms you included! My sister was trained as a nurse, she uses them a lot too...

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I never take for granted my healthy daughter and granddaughter.

Jessica has a quilt that I made for her when I was pregnant with her. As you said, I stitched love and prayer into every inch of it.

Beautiful story, beautiful quilt. :-)

Love and hugs,

Diane

Pen of Jen said...

What an amazing story!! I am so impressed with you(didn't think I could be any more, yet you are so neat)

I love this quilt and I know that this will be a cherished quilt forever!!!

Excellent show and tell!!

MightyMom said...

Well, this may shock you, but it isn't meant to last forever.

If you look closely as the quilt you'll see it's got a lot of points. Many of them are far from "perfect"....In order to keep my sanity while creating a quilt with pointless points and not be a perfectionist I kept telling myself that this quilt is not to be hung in a show.

It's intended to be pooped, peed and puked on.

I don't want the quilt to be handed down through the generations, I want Sonshine to literally love it to pieces. I want him to wear it out. That's what I made it for.

The biggest insult a person can give me (even though I know they don't mean it as such) is to put something I made them away because it's too pretty to use.

I HATE THAT!!

I make things to be used and enjoyed. Always.

Anonymous said...

Oh my. I'm glad you shared this wonderful story of how your baby was restored to you whole and well. The quilt is wonderful. Blessings on you all as you remember the miracle of this little one...

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful, and what memories are stitched into it!

Stephanie D said...

Double therapy--that's what quilts are. Beautiful story, and I love the Jewel Box pattern. Bet he loves it to pieces soon, so you might oughtta start collecting fabric for Quilt 2!