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.