Off quarantine!

Well, Allie was finally feeling better today- yesterday was the first day all week that she didn't voluntarily take a nap. Unbelievable. I'm getting over the upper respiratory thing I caught, and so are Gabe and Eva. I'm pretty sure Allie was the only one lucky enough to get influenza- none of the rest of us have been half so sick (although I've been twice as whiny!). Jeff only got a teeny bit sick. Lucky. Now I'm wondering if maybe Gabe and Eva are getting their 2 year molars, because all of the sudden, sleeping through the night is just a memory. Ugh.

I'm so glad a few of you are stopping by to comment- it feels nice to be thought of, especially since I've been posting so erratically the past few months. And Rachel- what you said about the water birth that never happened- that's exactly what I'm afraid of. Gabe and Eva were the longer of my two labors, and they clocked just over 12 hours...Allie was just about 8, even though she was stubborn posterior (facing my belly) and ended up being born that way- sunny-side up, it's sometimes called. As far as I can tell, a birthing tub would have to be filled from the kitchen faucet, which would probably take 4 or 5 hours. And I have no idea how we'd keep it warm, in any case. It just seems like so much trouble...

Speaking of posterior babies, I did a belly mapping exercise last night, and it seems that this baby is posterior too, at least for now. If you scroll halfway down that page, and look at the picture labeled "OP", I'm 90% sure that's how Blinky's laying in there (my runner-up is ROP). No wonder my midwife was having a tough time finding heart tones- you usually hear those through the back of baby's shoulder, and there's no way to access any part of Blinky's back! I'm brushing up on ways to change that- I'd prefer not to have stitches this time, thanks.

I bought two new baby carriers- one wrap-style (like this one, but different brand) and one pouch. I wanted something easy for when Blinky is new and needs to be nursed/changed often (the pouch), and something that would go over both shoulders to distribute weight for later on, and for my bigger kids (the wrap- I also wanted something really versitile, position-wise, and wow, despite it being a little goofy to look at, you can use the wrap a zillion different ways!). I had regular slings with my other kids, and I loved them, but because much of the weight is on one shoulder, I always hurt after using them. I've used a Snugli carrier before, and theoretically, it should be comfortable- straps on both shoulders and all that- but it wasn't terribly. And you can only use them till baby is 25 pounds or something! I had Allie (4 yrs, 40ish lbs) in a back carry with the wrap for a little while today, and it worked great!

This week Allie got a new book, called Runa's Birth (warning- if you click on the "US english" link, it just takes you to a PDF of the book's text- if you want to see what the book looks like, check the buttons on the left). She's very, very excited about the baby. She has informed me that she would like to be the one to cut the cord (just like Runa's big sister Lisa in the book). She also told me we should name a girl baby "Dorothy" after the dinosaur on the Wiggles, but that idea I'm not so open to.

I'm pretty set for middle names- most likely Rae or James, thus keeping our single-syllable middle name streak (Brynn, Kate, Dean) intact. We have to give the kids a break somewhere- their last name is 9 letters, and Allie's first name is the shortest with 6 (Gabe's is 7, and poor Eva's is 10). The first names I'm looking at are all 8 or 9 letters. I don't set out to curse my kids, I just tend to like longer, more old-fashioned or unusual names. Although I thought we should nickname Eva "Jelly". I was voted down.