But I have the best reason, a gorgeous wee six week old baby girl.
I can't begin to describe how much I love our little possum. She has filled a gap I didn't know existed, and she fits so beautifully into our family. She looks just like her big sister and is one of of those 'easy' babies I had heard about before but never experienced. My husband has said that if all our babies were like her he'd be keen to have a dozen more (but we won't, as we have also experienced what it's like to have a baby of the non-sleeping, poor-feeding, reflux-medicating variety!).
Our tiny wee girl has also been diagnosed with a permanent hearing loss, in both ears. It's been a stressful few weeks but we feel a bit better having some answers now. Her hearing loss is mild, which sounds fairly benign but she will need hearing aids to learn to speak and get by in life.
It's not what I want for my little girl and it's not what I'd choose for her - we all only want the best for our kids don't we? But I am not silly - I know many parents face far worse diagnoses than this, and I am really positive about her future. If anything her diagnosis has made me even more grateful for what we have. There have of course been tears and sadness, but we are moving forward and overall we are doing well. Many positives have come out of this too, especially the support I have received from my amazing friends, both online and in real life.
I don't share pics of my kids online but trust me when I say she's a little cutie. Dark hair, fat little cheeks, big blue eyes and a rosebud mouth. She's soft and gentle and always has a smile for me. She really just melts my heart.
I could go on all day, but won't, as this is a sewing blog. I only started sewing when my oldest child (another daughter) was 2 years old, so I have never had the pleasure of sewing for a baby girl all of my own. That's about to change! I have a few projects on the go and many more patterns earmarked to make for baby A over the coming months.
For now, I'm going to share an outfit I made for my 3.5 year old daughter a few days before giving birth. It's the family reunion blouse and puppet show shorts, both from Oliver + S.
I've made the shorts before but this was the first time I've sewn the blouse. As you would expect from O+S it's a great little pattern that is cleverly put together. I sewed it using a French floral fabric I got from my local fabric store a year or so ago. It's finished with my favourite pierced wooden buttons and coordinating lilac embroidery thread.
The shorts pattern is a favourite. It is out of print now but O+S have recently released it as a downloadable pattern - hurrah! If you take a look at the O+S Flickr group, some versions of these shorts don't have much gathering around the leg opening. Early versions of this pattern had a mistake in the leg binding - the errata is on the O+S website. If you own this pattern I really recommend checking it to see if it's affected by the mistake, as the leg gathers are just so cute and really add something to the shorts.
That's all for now. I hope to be back blogging regularly soon with some sewing for our tiniest family member.
The finished outfit.
Tab and pintuck detail. I threaded the buttons with lilac floss.
I used the same buttons down the back.
