I wanted to post this sooner, but as you know, our server was down all weekend.

Sophie has pneumonia. Fortunately, I caught it early enough that it’s treatable at home. We’ve had nasty colds on and off over the last few weeks - with a little tummy bug thrown in for good measure. Sophie seemed to be getting better and then she went down hard.

Saturday she was looking very bad - almost dusky. I panicked and went immediately to pick up some home remedy supplies. I put her in an Epsom salt bath and started making some cough syrup. She improved a bit, so we just watched her. Saturday night, we went up to bed - thank goodness we room in with the littles until they’re out of a crib! Her breathing was very fast and heavy. I rang the Ped on call and she agreed that I should bring her in.

We were there for over 5 hours. Her pulse-ox was in the low nineties on room air. Once things quieted down around us, I began to pray a rosary. She put her sweet baby hands over mine and blessed herself at the Glory Bes. I happened to look up at the pulse-ox and noticed that she was up to 99! Her oxygen stayed up in the high nineties throughout the rosary and fell back to the mid-nineties when we stopped.

I know I shouldn’t be amazed, but I was all the same. They eventually did a chest xray which showed a small partial collapse. Simce she was fairly stable, they decided to let me care for her at home. She’s on amoxicillan (blehk!) and homemade cough syrup which keeps the fluids loose and moveable. She’s still a little clingier than normal, but otherwise doind fine.

Would you all offer a prayer for her continued recovery? Pneumonia can turn on a dime from what I understand. We’re keeping her outside exposure to a minimum at the moment - no Mass or anything I’m also worried that the others might develop it as well. It’s beena very chesty type of cold.

Finally, the ped thinks that she may have asthma. Not really a surprise since two of my others and I have it. I always hope that the children won’t get it.

Thank you all so very much.

I’ve been working on putting the magazine together, so I hadn’t been posting any tutorials. I thought it might be fun to re-visit some oldies but goodies. I’ve got a lovely list of Tutorials planned for you after the magazine is safely off to the printer! But for now, I hope you will enjoy this one:

**This tutorial assumes intermediate sewing ability***

This little stacker would make a nice gift, or addition to your nursery. I whipped this up without a pattern, from scraps, in about 2 hours.

Materials:

1 yd 54″ wide fabric
baby sized hanger
9″x12″ cardboard (back of notepad works great!
thread to co-ordinate

Instructions:

1. Lay out your hanger on a doubled piece of fabric and cut around the ’shoulders’, making a seam allowance of approximately 5/8″. Make sure to leave a small ‘neck’ approximately 5/8″ tall.

2. Cut a length of fabric 22″ long by 54″ wide for the body of your stacker.

3. Cut two pieces of fabric approximately 10″x13″ for the bottom of your stacker.

4. Press down the ‘neck’ of the ’shoulder’ piece and hem on a machine.

5. With right sides facing, sew each side of the shoulder piece, from the bottom edge to the neck edge, pivoting at the corners and leaving neck open. Clip corners. Turn.

6. Turn right side out and press.

7. On body piece, turn each each selvedge edge 2-1/2″. Hem.

8. Take up body piece and make three box pleats as follows: One pleat measuring 5-1/2″ at CB, and 2 pleats measuring 3-1/4″ where the body will join shoulder seam.

9. With right sides facing, attach body to shoulder piece, matching side seams and CB. Trim bulk as necessary. Turn right side out and press.

10. With WRONG SIDES facing, take up bottom pieces and sew around three sides. Insert cardboard, sew fourth side.

11. Matching CB with the center of one long side of bottom, attach body to bottom using 5/8″ seam and clipping corners as you go. Pink seams, or use serger, keeping close to cardboard. Turn out.

12. Front edges will overlap considerably. This will prevent the diapers from falling out the front!

Of course, you might like to add emboidery, appliques, ribbons, etc. Make it your own! Send me photos of your finished stacker and I’ll post it here.

We keep our stacker on the back of the bathroom door - most convenient!

Eleven years ago today, a beautiful baby girl arrived, all pink and soft with a fluff of blond hair. Our English rose. Papa’s ladybird. Sensitive, sweet, and soulful.

And ten years and two days later, she welcomed her brother, her special companion, into this world. One year later, she is still holding him close, loving him.

Happy Eleventy-First birthday Caroline and Louis!

I haven’t slept through the night in over a year. Please help me…

The last trimester of my pregnancy with Louis was very uncomfortable and I didn’t sleep at all well. He was born almost 1 year ago. He still isn’t sleeping through the night. He wakes 2-3 times a night to nurse. But often only for a few minutes before dropping back off to sleep. We’ve tried everything we can think of. Warm bath. Cereal. Nursing. Massage. A lovey (favourite stuffed animal). Quiet. Music. Warmer. Cooler. Lots of Prayer. In fact, the last one is the only thing that has kept us from completely losing our minds.

The last trick I have left in my bag is to give him a pacifier. This is no small task. Louis, like most of the other children, has a tongue tie. Unlike his siblings, his tongue tie is much more pronounced. This makes it very difficult for him to keep the nipple in his mouth. And we’ve tried several styles. He generally pops them right back out again. I think I might have found one that will work. It has a long, bulbous nipple on it. I’m praying that this will work once and for all.

But just in case it doesn’t… What tricks have you used?

1/4 c. olive oil
2 drops lavender essential oil (or comfrey or calendula)

Warm the oil, add the EO. Stir well and apply to baby’s scalp. You may need to do this for several nights in a row to get all the accumulation off, but it works better than anything else I’ve used over the years.

In the morning, use a baby comb or brush to remove the flakes.

This oil also works beautifully as a night-time infant (or anyone) massage.

Olive oil is a beautiful gift from nature. It absorbs so readily into the skin and doesn’t leave a greasy feeling. You can also infuse it with healing herbs to use on the skin!

If you, like me, love the smell of a newly baptised babe, you can use essence of chrism in your olive oil. Please don’t worry, it’s not been consecrated, so it’s OK for laypersons to use. But you’ll get that Heavenly scent, which will serve the dual purpose of reminding us of our obligations as Christians. If you’d like a phial of essence of chrism, you can email me. I get it in large quantities from the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey, which is extremely expensive for most families and lasts far too long. But I’m happy to divide it up in smaller containers. 4 dram (1/2 oz.) phial would cost $5, plus shipping.

Off the old block.

Reading already!

…and knitting! It seems he feels the same exhilaration I do when presented with a basketful of delicious fibres!

Oh, those sweet, munchy cheeks! Delish!

Short, bald guys who still live with their mothers:

His Grandma knits! She made him this cozy little outfit for Christmas. Doesn’t he look sweet? LOVE that kooky hat!