vital

Just after I wrote about spinning the shetland on Tuesday (and right after I covered the house in fleece rats) my pager went off and I rushed off to a birth.
Number of hours without sleeping: 41
Number of meals missed: 3
Total Cups of coffee drunk to avoid falling asleep standing up: 11
Number of times I fell asleep standing up anyway: 1 (but I didn’t fall down)
Baby born: one baby boy, 3200g (7lbs 2oz) pretty darned cute.
Knitting done: one sock (ok, it’s a small sock, but I was busy) I always knit, or at least cast on, something for the baby during its birth. I’ll knit the mate and take it to them at a postnatal visit.
babysock
Funniest moment: When a nurse clearing away garbage picked up the sock I had just finished (she was watching me knit it two minutes before) and asked me quite earnestly “did you want to keep this?”. “Er…yeah, I knit that” I said (sort of wondering where she was going with this). “Oh” she said, replacing it on the table, “I thought you were just knitting for fun”. I was too tired to come up with a snappy response, so I just sort of stared at her. I mean, even if I did knit just for fun, which I suppose is mostly true, why would you throw away what you knit? I imagined knitting a whole sweater, then carefully sewing all the seams, then picking it up, showing it to your family, admiring it, then crossing the room and unceremoniously dumping it in the garbage. Maybe that thought isn’t cracking you up now, but last night, sleep deprived and hopped up on lousy hospital coffee, it was hysterical.
Number of nurses who think I’m nuts for laughing hysterically to myself: just 1 (I hope)
Today will be dedicated to restoring the house and family to working order, since whenever I disappear for a day or two it all gets pretty “Lord of the Flies” pretty quickly. Joe keeps the family alive, but by the time I get back home the house is trashed and nobody can find a hairbrush or that permission form for the astronomy thing. (Mom? Mom….Mom? I know you are sleeping but if you could just tell me where my blue hairtie is…Mom?) I try to appreciate the fact that I can just walk away from my family with no notice and with no idea when I will be back, and nobody complains. Joe calls friends, family and babysitters to make it work and I try to overlook that there is a chance that there may be cheese on the living room floor, or ketchup in the bathroom when I come home. It does make me feel vital that it takes a team of adults to do half of what I do when I’m gone.
Number of adults it took to replace me in a 30 hour absence: 4 (and not one of them did the laundry)

9 thoughts on “vital

  1. I was going to say that I didn’t know there was laundry to be done (since I don’t live there and all), but then I realized that I know better than that. Of course there was laundry to be done; there’s always laundry to be done in a house with three kids. Next time I’ll make Amanda do some laundry… 🙂

  2. I’ve been thinking and I still have no snappy comeback to “knitting for fun”. Just a big HUH???
    (Ken – maybe you should get Amanda to pack your panniers, too…)

  3. I am also stymied by the nurse’s wondering if you wanted to keep the sock. Talk about being process- rather than product-oriented. Good thing she didn’t ask the new mom the say thing about the baby…. As a new blogger, I also have a blog question, since I am checking out Movabletype. Are you using the basic level? or Plus? Thanks in advance.

  4. God love ya – you delivered a baby and knit a sock. All in the same 41 or so hours. I thought taking an operating systems test and walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes in the last 41 hours was pretty significant, but I’m doing some major rethinking!! How goes it with the kitchen rats? Were they still there when you got back, or did the evil squirrel notice your departure and sneakily make his way into the kitchen?

  5. Theresa, to be completely accurate, the mother delivered the baby, and I’m pretty impressed with her 41 hours! Making a sock sort of pales in comparison with making a whole human being. The kitchen rats roamed a little up and down the hall, kicked off the heater by the uncaring other members of the family. Some were carded as punishment.
    Rob, process vs product was exactly what I was thinking! I don’t know about a moveable type “plus”. I’m using the latest version from their site.
    Eklectica, don’t think I didn’t think it. Lifting my arm would have taken too much effort though. The only thing that was worth lifting on that point was coffee.
    Ken and Lene…play nice.

  6. Hi! I love the shawl below. Can you tel me where to get the pattern. Also I am new to this, and have no idea what yarn you all are talking about.
    I am loving how wonderful you all are and how much I learn about knitting.
    Joanna

  7. I have no clue how you found out I blogged about your site but glad you realize how much I enjoy your blog. Loved your articles before you blogged so this is just FAB having a daily dose of your humor.

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