Updates: No baby or afghan, yet

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't had anything real to post about. But I have been steadily working on Baby J's afghan as my numb hands would allow, even working with completely numb hands at times. It's strange how much knitting I can still make my hands do without any sensation whatsoever. Okay, so the fine motor skills are impaired somewhat, but my hands know what they're doing, even if I do have to pay a little closer attention. And here's the big news: I'm finally on the border! Let me repeat that. I'm finally on the border!!!!! I thought this day would never come, and yet, here it is. I decided on a moss stitch border to add a little contrast and to prevent any rolling, and I must say I do like it so far. There's something fitting about having a moss border in green for an afghan with a lace leaf motif. Okay, maybe it's a bit cliche, but I like it. It satisfies something in me. I refuse to post a photo of it in this unfinished state, mostly because it's on circular needles all the way around and it looks like some sort of sea creature. I cast on for the border going around the corners rather than starting and ending at them, so it's not flat. That makes for a bit of a mess, but it works, and I wanted to protect the corners from being stretched out too much since they'll get enough of that in use. In a few days, I expect to have it finished and blocked and ready to show off.

In baby news, he's still snug in the womb. He's big, but the doctor says he's confident I can deliver him normally because he's already in the pelvis (has been there for a while actually) and he wouldn't be there if he couldn't fit. Makes sense. I'm still very uncomfortable all the time and actually, there are a few new aggravating pregnancy woes, but I'm not going to get into that. You're welcome. I am a bit concerned that I won't really know when active labor starts. I've been having real contractions hourly for over a month, and I've learned to mostly ignore them, even hard ones. It rather surprised the nurse when she hooked me up the the fetal monitor and found I was having a strong contraction, but I didn't feel any more pressure than normal. Oh, well. I guess we'll see when the time comes. Whenever that is.

There was a major breakthrough in my work. But that means having to redo a bunch of models that had already been "done". So the breakthrough means a redo as well. Such is research. At least we have confirmation that the method is improved and correct.