Saturday 17 January 2009

Cuddly Blankets

At the end of our first ultrasound, our doctor told us to prepare for the possibility that the baby's heart would not be beating at our follow-up appointment in two weeks. Thus we had a very small window of time to prepare for the possibility of his or her birth. Since I was in California between the first and second ultrasounds, my mom and I went shopping for receiving blankets. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything that was perfect. Knowing that I only had one chance to wrap up my baby, I wanted perfect. All the blankets we found were so big, and I wanted something that wouldn’t engulf our baby. After searching multiple stores, I realized that I would have to make my own blankets to get what I wanted.

Mom and I spent an entire afternoon searching for fabric. I wanted to find something with either bunnies or squirrels, and I hoped to find two fabrics so that I could make a blanket for a girl and one for a boy. The first store we tried had nothing I liked, and I felt so discouraged. We tried another store, where we found some great options for the "boy" fabric. I decided on a blue background with white bunnies.

Finding a "girl" fabric proved more difficult, and I ended up settling on a Beatrix Potter character fabric on a green background since I couldn’t find anything I really liked in pink.

I picked out a soft white material as the backing for both blankets. It had a cute pattern of raised bumps on the back for a little added style. These bumps turned out to be a real lifesaver because they provided the perfect guide for sewing straight lines without having to measure and mark the fabric.

I began work on the blankets the very first afternoon back in Illinois. First, I cut the white material into a twelve inch square, which I pinned to the patterned fabric. Then I measured and cut the patterned material to create an overhang of ½ inch. I folded that in half and folded it over on top of the white material and then sewed it down. I folded in the corners so that they looked nice. I finished both of the blankets in that one afternoon.

Working on the blankets was difficult. That day I felt exhausted both physically and emotionally. Fear that I would go into labor and not have a blanket for my baby drove me to finish them quickly. Balancing the drive to finish with the desire to make the very best blankets possible proved a lot to handle. I nearly broke down the second time I had to seam rip a mistake. Yet even though that afternoon caused me a great deal of anxiety, the memory remains very special to me. I felt so helpless during that time, because nothing that I could do could make my baby healthy. I had a small window of time to care for and connect with my daughter. Making her blankets allowed me to lavish my attention and love upon her. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to do something special for my Leah.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful gift for Leah and a lovely memory for you.

mary said...

I will always remember the difficult day and was so pleased when we found something at Cotton Shop.