Creations from the heart...

I recently created this new ©GermanDolls Design  for my shop. I call it my swaddle baby. It's a tiny pocket doll with a small soft blanket for swaddling.

I get so excited when a new idea pops in my head. I can barely sleep until I realize the idea and create the item.

It came to me when I was getting a package ready for my youngest sister in Germany who is expecting her first child. I was searching the house for my old nursing bras and some other newborn items I wanted to mail her. Stuff I forgot to put in my suitcase on that recent trip home...

I was holding one of the swaddling blankets in my hands that I used for my own babes after they were born. Tears started welling up as a memory popped up. The little blanket was beige and had tiny little stars on it.

This is probably the memory of one of the happiest moments in my life. The image of my midwife handing over my newborn baby boy wrapped in one of those little hospital issued blankets. I was able to repeat this happy moment 2 1/2 years later when my daughter joined us in a similar swaddling blanket.

In Germany they don't hand out such blankets. I had never heard of them and swaddling until I gave birth here. I wonder where this tradition comes from. Anyone know?

So I wanted to share this special memory with my little sister. I sent her the little blanket with the stars along with my newly created doll in a "sweet pea" blanket. I also printed up some instructions on how to swaddle your baby. I found it very hard to explain this in German. The dictionary didn't have a good translation of the word. To swaddle was translated as "wickeln". The word "wickeln" in German basically means changing a diaper. Not exactly what I was looking for.

It's all good. My sister received the package, and I think she understood with the help of my little drawings and the instructions I printed off the internet. Now she can practice with the tiny doll - and soon with her own baby boy. ;)