Distraction, please!

I am going crazy sitting around timing these contractions. They've been 5-10 minutes apart most of the day. Uncomfortable, but still quite mild. I'd be getting excited but after 5 1/2 weeks of this it just isn't that exciting any more.

However, if it keeps up or intensifies in the next few hours I may give the midwife a call just to see if she wants to check and see whether we've made any progress since Wednesday. Then again, maybe not. By this point I'm thinking unless the contractions are knocking me off my feet they're probably not the real thing.

Church was wonderful this morning--I especially enjoyed the worship and the service after missing last week. Everyone kept joking after the service that everyone prayed so hard that this baby wouldn't be born 5 1/2 weeks ago when I started having lots of prelabor, that we made her late. I told them all they can STOP praying she won't be born yet and start praying for the opposite!

We had some friends over for lunch (the rest of the chicken enchiladas, which were fabulous) and had an afternoon rest. Now we're trying to catch up on some things around the house. I think we'll probably watch a movie tonight to try to give me something besides timing contractions to think about.

Feeling better

No labor yet, but I am almost completely over my virus and even have a bit of energy again. It sure makes a difference not to be sick and 9+ months pregnant. I can handle just the pregnancy part. :)

Free Garage Sale

We decided to go out garage sale shopping this afternoon (yes, in this heat!) and saw a sign that said "Garage Sale--Everything Free!"

Of course we had to check it out. It wasn't just junk as we excpected it might be. They had some really nice things--everything from some small furniture to kids' toys and baby items.

I guessed the woman running the garage sale had to be a flybaby. I was right. FlyLady highly recommends that if you have a garage sale, you make everything free and just get rid of the stuff. This family had started out with prices on everything, but after an extremely low turnout today they decided just to make everything free a la FlyLady.

We had a great chat about FLYing, decluttering & organization, babies and kids. She seems like a really nice lady and has kids near my kids' ages. Since she lives just down the street, we exchanged e-mail addresses and hopefully we'll get together for a playdate at the nearby park sometime.

We came home with a ton of baby blankets, a bedding set and a few other items, a clothes valet (a.k.a. butler stand) for the bedroom, and a few books and toys for the kids. M even got the toy shopping cart (complete with plastic food) she's been begging for. You can't beat a free garage sale! And, I may even have made a friend.

DH just put the chicken enchiladas in the oven (did I mention he's also taken responsibility for all meals on weekends?), so we'll be having a somewhat spicy dinner, after which I intend to take a brisk walk. We'll probably try another "old wives" remedy or two also. ;-) Maybe, just maybe, that will kick up these contractions from every 10-20 minutes to a higher intensity and frequency. If not, we have another pleasant day planned for tomorrow. I refuse to just sit around waiting to go into labor.

Existence

O.M. over at The Columnist Manifesto asked an interesting rhetorical question this morning: "If I refuse to accept Jesus as my Creator, does this mean that I don't exist?"

This got me thinking about an interesting parallel. What if one of my daughters decided that she didn't believe I was her mother? Or that she didn't believe in my existence at all?

It wouldn't change my existence. It wouldn't change the fact that she's my daughter and I'm her mother. But it would have a huge impact on our relationship--specifically the way she related to me.

In essence, many teens make the choice to reject the role and relationship of their parents in their lives. It doesn't impact the reality of the physical, genetic relationship between them, of course. But it can completely change the relationship. For me as a parent, those are frightening waters to think about navigating.

I think it's that way with God. What we think about him doesn't change who he is. It doesn't change whether he exists or not, or what we integrally are as his creation. But when it comes to our relationship with him and the way we live, what we believe changes everything.

Breakfast in Bed

Saturday is my day . . . DH takes the kids and lets me have the day to do whatever I want. Usually "whatever I want" entails sleeping in until at least late morning.

Often when I finally wake up DH has taken the kids out somewhere, and I putter around to find something simple to eat and then either stay home and relax, go out shopping, take my Bible and notebook to a bookstore or cafe for some uninterrupted quiet time, or whatever. That weekly stretch of kid-free time is one of the best gifts in my life. The girls love their Saturday mornings with Daddy, too.

This morning around 10, DH came in with breakfast on a tray for me. I wish I'd taken a picture--it all looked so lovely. Orange juice and a tangerine. Fabulous big, fluffy pancakes with a little pitcher of brown sugar syrup and a pile of scrambled eggs, all from scratch.

He's always been able to make better pancakes than I, but the eggs floored me. I didn't even know he knew how to make them that way rather than the less-labor-intensive way he makes them for the kids. But he captured "my way" perfectly--and I'm picky about my eggs. Each bite was perfectly moist, fluffy and separated. The pancakes were heavenly, too. And the syrup--I don't know if he'd ever made syrup from scratch before either. It was all so delicious. Wow. I feel so spoiled.

DH, you outdid yourself. Thank you, Darling, for a fabulous breakfast. Thank you for your weekly sacrifice of Saturdays. I love you.

Right now, I'm going back to bed. But I had to brag about my Dear Husband for just a minute first. :)

The Preggo Belly at 40 Weeks

Yes, that's me and Baby E.

Fairly frequent (i.e. 7 minutes) contractions again tonight, but they are mild and don't seem to be doing anything. Same old, same old . . .

Eviction Notice

All right, Baby E. Today is officially your due date. So, if you haven't already packed your bags and started getting ready to leave your nice comfy home, you'd better do it now.

As Running2Ks said (I hope you heard her), "no one keeps a baby in for a year." Let's not be the first, OK?

Liz, Corndog, KLee, PhantomScribbler, HalloweenLover, Deborah and all the rest of us are wishing you a safe, quick and healthy trip to join the world, and Richard Lawrence Cohen, Sheri, Heather, Brightstar, JT, KibitzingShiksa, Rach, Kevin Edwards, jo(e), Allison and many many others (including Daddy and your big sisters, of course) are eagerly waiting to hear about it.

There. If you posted a comment on my blog this week, you've earned a link. If I missed anyone, let me know. :) (I'll add an honorary link to Agent95 even though technically he didn't actually post.) Sorry, but the person (who shall remain nameless) who posted solely to spam for their commercial website (and whose post quickly--ahem--disappeared) does NOT get a link. You have to post an actual comment specifically geared toward my personal blog to earn that doubtful honor.

KLee does deserve special mention because, thanks to all of us convincing her over at PhantomScribbler's blog, she just started up her own blog yesterday. I'm of the firm belief that if she hadn't wanted to do it anyway, she wouldn't have been convince-able, so I'm glad she did. It looks promising.

I went grocery shopping last night for the ingredients to make ice cream and chicken enchiladas. When I'm pregnant, I can tolerate far more lactose in my diet than when not, for some unknown reason. I decided I may as well enjoy it while I can.

Several people at the store asked me casually, "When are you due?" and then exploded with, "What in the world are you doing here, then!!!"

I just smiled and told them I was trying to put myself into labor. That seemed to be quite an effective comeback.

Nobody offered to help me pack or carry my groceries, although plenty saw fit to tell me I shouldn't be doing it.

No, I haven't had the baby yet

Wow, I have by far the all-time highest number of hits ever on my blog today. Since so many of you are apparently checking in every hour or so to see if I've really gone into labor yet (I haven't), I thought I'd post something new for you.

I am, BTW, feeling better today, though still tired, and having only sporadic contractions. Official due date is tomorrow by the dates or 2 days ago by the ultrasound, making this baby far later than either of my other two in making her appearance. I've been in prelabor/false labor/whatever you want to call it (I call it annoying!) for 5 weeks today.

Since I'm lazy, I'm just going to copy and paste something (slightly revised) from the comments below. Sorry. Maybe later I'll talk DH into letting me take a picture of his humongous discolored toe to give you all something new to look at. Then again, maybe not.

I mentioned that I was embarrassed at crying through my midwife appointment yesterday. That silent cascade of tears actually lasted off and on until I got home and laid down for a nap.

It wasn't so much the midwife I was embarrassed at crying in front of, as my kids. I'm sure the midwife is used to it--obviously she deals with hormonal pregnant women all day long.

When we walked into the clinic, the first thing A said was to the nurse: "My Mommy is sick!"

They went in expecting the "doctor" to "fix" Mommy and make me all better on the spot.

When I started crying they were going back and forth between me, the midwife and DH:

"Doctor, doctor, my mommy is sick. Can you please fix her?"

"Mommy, are you crying?"

"Daddy, Mommy is crying!"

"Doctor, Doctor, excuse me Doctor . . . are you going to fix my mommy?"

I said, "Yes, Mommy is crying, but it's ok. I'm just tired and don't feel good. Don't worry."

Then I just had to add, "But Mommy is crying quietly, see?" (We have a family rule that unless you're actually injured, in most cases after a few minutes you either need to cry quietly or go to your room to throw your tantrum where the rest of the household doesn't have to listen to it.)

DH muttered under his breath, "And Mommy can turn anything into a lesson."

I don't think that was a compliment. :)

Random musings about search engines and spam

To the person who found my blog by searching the phrase "having a lot of inconsistent contractions at 38 weeks": you have my full and complete sympathy. I hope you'll stop in and let me know when you actually go into labor. I hope both of us go into labor soon.

The same to whoever found me by searching for "prelabor stories." Those I can deliver--in excess by this point, I'd think. If you're looking for prelabor stories, you have definitely come to the right place.

To the several who got here by searching for cryptomnesia and/or carl jung--nice to know I'm attracting a few people who are interested either in writing or in expanding their vocabulary. That was one of my favorite posts, actually. It made me feel very . . . literary. Hey, it even got a coveted rare comment from Richard Lawrence Cohen, which made my day. So I'm glad someone is still reading it occasionally. :)

To those who found my blog by the following searches: "jax mush cornmeal," "puzzle how many purple," "kangaroo jumping board game" and "PURPLE BUTTERFLY TATTOOS"--you probably didn't find what you were looking for here, but thanks for clicking through to my blog anyway. I hope you enjoyed reading about cornmeal mush for breakfast, M's birthday party complete with butterfly temporary tattoos, and maybe the infamous pantry project. (I really need to write an update to the pantry project post, especially since I took pictures of the last batch of the liver as I was cooking it and then never made it into a post.)

Now a note about e-mail spam.

How can anyone possibly think I'd open an e-mail from someone I don't know and have never heard of, with any of the following subject lines? (These are the actual subject lines of several e-mails I've received in the past week and deleted without opening.)

Re: Is give of portent

As hear do befriend

For fly the wont fox

My learn the loyalist waken

Is do by rewards

Re: It cough he optician

Re: I fly or shorten celebrated

was learn the rubric lecherous

Just do itt

Do these spammers use programs that just combine random words to attach to an e-mail in hopes of spreading their nefarious virus? Or do they not speak English and just think random English words will draw someone in to open an e-mail? I've gotten several in German, too, but I don't have a clue what they say.

Those last two might have a slightly better chance of being opened by an unsuspecting person, perhaps. Kind of like the multiple e-mails I get advertising free phone minutes, etc. They're even addressed to Sarah in the subject line. Nice try. Except that my name isn't Sarah. Never has been, never will be.

Oh, and to be totally random, I thought I'd share an e-mail forward I actually hadn't seen before. One I enjoyed. (!!!) Of course, I found it posted on a message board instead of getting it in e-mail. But I think it's worth sharing.

Subject: Screen Cleaner


takes a few seconds to load but very cute!


> I noticed that my monitor was not quite as clear as when we first got
> it. Apparently the electrons build up on the inside of the screen
with
> time, and the picture deteriorates. I found a free program that I use
> to 'clean' the inside of the screen and the improvement was quite
> noticeable.
>
> I highly recommend it. If you'd like to try it, simply click on the
> following link. The program is free, works automatically, and takes
only
> about 45 seconds to do its job.
>

Drumroll please: www.legrady.hu/sc.html

Sleep is a wonderful thing

OK, so I went to bed right after we got home from the midwife yesterday afternoon around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Next thing I knew I was waking up at 8pm and DH was putting the kids to bed.

M came in a little while later whispering, "Mommy, I a-fegot to give you a hug and a kiss!" ("I forgot" is always one word to her.) She climbed up, kissed me gently on the cheek, gave me a hug, rubbed noses, whispered "I love you and God loves you" in my ear and toddled happily back to bed. What a sweetie! (Her elbow seems fine, BTW.)

I got up long enough to go to the bathroom, check e-mail and drink a huge glass of water, then went back to bed. Finally got up and ate some chicken rice soup around 10, then went back to sleep for the rest of the night. With brief wakings to haul myself out of bed and use the bathroom, I slept all night.

Of course, since I drank a huge glass of water every time I got up, I was up every couple of hours. Never before have I found myself thinking wishfully of bedpans before. That's an odd feeling. But since the midwife said so many contractions the last few days were quite possibly the result of dehydration with this heat, I kept drinking water.

A came in around 7:30 a.m. to ask if it was time to get up yet (it wasn't). She stroked my cheek with her hand and gave me a hug. Then, on her way back to her room she paused in the doorway and asked, "Mom, do you need anyfing?" I thanked her and said no, but it made me start my day with a smile. I went back to sleep thinking what great kids I have.

Anyway, DH got up, fed the kids and turned on a Babysongs video for the kids before he left. They finally came in around 9:30 and woke me up.

Wow. I haven't slept like this since the "come home from college and sleep for the first few days of summer vacation" days. Drinking lots of water did help settle down the contractions, and now that I know nothing major is really happening yet I've been able to relax and ignore all the odd sensations in my abdomen and just rest.

Today I'm still really tired, but all that sleep and water seemed to help my cold a bit. So I do feel somewhat better, although still sick. I realized I've gotten myself into a cycle where I feel better and then overdo it and end up feeling horrible. I really want to be doing all kinds of things, nesting and all that great stuff, but I'm going to take it easy for the next few days no matter how good I feel. So if you see me overdoing it just slap me or something, OK?

BTW, think of my DH today . . . he managed to do something horrendous to a toe while playing with the kids last night. Poor thing--he hit it on something and by this morning he can hardly walk. As he said last night, "I guess today was injury-prone day for our family."

Appointment report . . . no progress

We're back from the midwife appointment. I walked in and the baby came down so hard on my sciatic nerve so hard it literally made made me cry. I had to lean against the wall and then ended up staggering into the exam room. She's been mashing it into oblivion ever since, and it hurts!

The MW checked and I'm still only 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced . . . no progress at all since Monday. The baby's head is engaged though.

I sat there and cried through the whole appointment, LOL. I'm just so tired and in pain and was disappointed to hear there was no progress. She gave me some Benadryl and told me to try to sleep and rest as much as I can.

DH is so sweet . . . he says it's perfectly reasonable to sit there and cry under the circumstances, and I shouldn't be embarrassed. :)

Now we're all going to try to take a nap. I've been having just a few infrequent contractions since a little before noon, so I'm hoping to get some good sleep. I really hope I can sleep tonight.

I feel silly for being so emotional . . . I don't want the baby to come before she's good and ready, and it would be a lot better if I could get well before she comes. I'm trusting that God and the baby know the right timing better than I do. But I was so excited this morning when I thought I was really in labor. And I'm just plain sick and tired.

Good thing kids are resilient

DH just called and said that sometime between home and getting out of the van at the clinic M popped her own elbow back into place, and it seems just fine now.

I didn't really want this much excitement today

Well, the contractions settled down enough for me to briefly drop off to sleep. I was awakened by DH carrying M into our room, crying and holding her arm. Yep, she appears to have subluxated her elbow again--same arm as a few weeks ago. DH took both girls to the urgent care clinic. We decided that it was best if I stay here under the circumstances.

I am coughing a lot now and seem to have lost my voice. Very tired. But still having contractions. This last one was pretty long and a bit painful. I'm going to lie down again and try to time them--I have a midwife appointment in a couple of hours so my parents/sister are standing by to take me to either that or the hospital if I'm needing a driver at that point.

What an interesting day, to say the least.

Banana Waffles

I'm beginning to get decidedly uncomfortable, but am killing time until it's time to go to the hospital. I'm really hoping that will be today.

Here's what we had for breakfast this morning: Banana Waffles



This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks . . . a two-volume set I picked up at a little antique shop. Originally printed in 1947, mine is from the 9th printing--Dec 1957. Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. It has a lot of great recipes in it you won't find elsewhere--everything from baked quinces to stewed possum.

Banana Waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp D.A. baking powder (or 3 1/2 tsp tartrate or phosphate type)
1 Tbs sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup melted shortening
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)

Sift flour, measure and resift 3 times with remaining dry ingredients. Beat eggs, add milk and shortening. Pour into dry ingredients, add bananas and beat until smooth. Use 1/2 cup batter for each waffle. Bake in a hot waffle iron until golden brown. Serve immediately with butter and hot syrup. Six 7-inch waffles.

It's a pretty foolproof recipe. I substitute freely (non-dairy milk, various kinds of flour, oil instead of shortening) and don't bother with the sifting part (just stir dry ingredients together and use a hand-mixer to blend in the wet ones). If you want the waffles really fluffy, separate the eggs, beat the whites and fold them in last. I haven't tried substituting anything for the eggs, but you could probably add applesauce or something for a vegetarian version?

It would be a good day for a baby

Beautiful bright sunny day this morning, and my cold is quite a bit better I think.

I woke up at 4 a.m. with contractions about every 5-10 minutes apart and couldn't go back to sleep. So far I've gotten all the laundry sorted and folded, and the girls are helping me put it away. Now I'm going to make waffles for breakfast--probably banana chocolate chip, LOL.

The contractions are not very intense yet, but seem to be purposeful and so far they're not going away. I told DH he'd better not get his heart too set on going to work today.

I'll post if there are any changes.

My Hero

I've been craving tangerines since the other day, when the kids and I ate the last ones and I blogged about it. I was rather proud of my tangerine photo, though. I'm having fun playing with my digital camera. (Guess I should have put the digital camera in my list of favorite toys for the 5 things meme.)

DH has gone to several stores in the area looking for tangerines for me this week. I figure it's a good thing to crave, especially since the vitamin C would probably help my cold. But none of our normal grocery haunts seemed to have them, for some reason.

Today DH found some. He brought home a whole crate of them, along with a box of fresh peaches. I haven't had a peach yet, but the tangerines taste wonderful. They are perfect--plump, sweet and juicy.

If I'm not busy giving birth tomorrow, I might even feel up to making something like frozen yogurt or a cobbler out of some of the peaches. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Thank you, DH . . . for the tangerines, and for being such a great provider, er, good sport. ;-)

For those who've been following Maria Korp's case

The Australian woman who has been diagnosed as in a PVS since her attempted murder in February has been sentenced to die.

Brief background info: Maria's husband's girlfriend has admitted to strangling her and leaving her for dead in the trunk of a car, where she was found alive but unconscious several days later. Joe Korp, Maria's husband, stands accused of complicity but maintains his innocence. He will be tried soon.

Mrs. Korp's PEG nutrition and hydration tube is being removed tomorrow, July 27th. It will take a week or two for her to dehydrate to death. More discussion at blogsforterri.

I find this disturbing for several reasons.

For one thing, there has, as far as I can tell, been no evidence or even argument that this would be her desire. She is a staunch Catholic who made no statements about what she would or would not want in such a situation. Her husband, daughter and others are insistent that this is not what she would have wanted.

Her family on both sides seem to be opposed to the move. A guardian appointed by the court is making the decision based on what he deems to be her "best interests."

Whether dehydrating someone to death when they are not otherwise dying is ethical at all, much less "in their best interests" is at best a matter of opinion. In this case someone is making the decision who has no personal connection or love for the person they are making the decision for. Her family claims he didn't consult them about what her wishes would be or what decision should be made.

Secondly, as I mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, Maria's condition has not completely stabilized and has shown at least some level of physical improvement over the past few months. The recommendation of the British Medical Association and many other reliable organizations is that a vegetative state should not be considered permanent until it has lasted for at least a year, simply because there is still a significant chance of recovery before that point.

This situation highlights the continuing trend of the "disability is inherently worse than death" thinking. I staunchly disagree with that argument, or that one person's judgment of another's "quality of life" should be a reason to kill them when they are not dying.

Here are a couple of my most recent posts giving more info. about Maria Korp:

Maria Korp Breathing Unaided

Joe Korp Out on Bail; issues with diagnosis of permanent vegetative state

Resting

I don't seem to be in active labor . . . I've just been sleeping a lot today. Some contractions, pressure, etc. but nothing even close to intense.

My biggest concern is giving this illness to the baby. I'm hoping that by resting a lot I will raise my chances of not having her until I'm over the worst of it. I know, you can't really control these things but it doesn't hurt to try. LOL. I guess it's a good sign that DH and the girls don't seem to be coming down with it.

DH stayed home this morning and is at work now, but the girls are playing so well this afternoon that they're still letting me rest. Right now they're playing a Winnie the Pooh counting game on their computer. :)

I talked to my family practice doctor and she said the best thing I can do right now is drink lots of water and rest to try to get over this as much as I can before the baby gets here, so that's what I'm doing. I really don't want the baby to get sick right off the bat when she's born.

The kids seem to be feeling good, anyway :)

It's 9:15 a.m. here and the girls actually let us sleep until almost 9. I had a few contractions during the night but not much.

It was a very restless uncomfortable night, but I did sleep quite a bit. The main thing is that I feel absolutely miserable with this cold. It feels like it's trying to turn into a full-blown sinus thing, complete with cough. I feel a bit like I got hit by a train.

Nothing much seems to be happening on the baby front . . . at the moment I'm trying to decide whether to let DH go back to work or ask him to stay home and take care of the kids to let me rest just because I feel so sick. :( My main concern is trying to get well enough before the baby is born so that I'm not exposing her to a fairly serious respiratory illness in the first days of her life.

If I had a "regular" job I'd call in sick, but I can manage with the girls if I need to, and DH doesn't want to take any more time off work before the baby comes than he absolutely has to. So I'll probably send him back to work until it looks like it's actually nearing time to go to the hospital--which by the looks of things could be today or next week.

We're home . . . it's not time yet

We're home . . . the contractions mostly stopped after we got to the hospital, but I am 3 cm dilated. We're going to try to get a good night's sleep tonight and hope things pick up tomorrow.

Well, something might possibly be starting to happen here

I've been feeling kind of "crampy" with lots of pressure today. Now I'm having mild, but gradually increasing in intensity contractions every 3-7 minutes. The midwife is having us go into the hospital to see if anything's actually happening here. If it's anything like my other two births they'll send us home and we'll have the baby tomorrow or another day, LOL.

I am feeling a bit better today. My mom says she had a really bad cold when she gave birth and labor/delivery made it go away. :)

I didn't really think I'd be saying this at this point . . .

But I'm really glad the baby hasn't come yet so I can be sick in peace.

DH took the kids to church and kept them out until naptime so I could rest, and I'm so very thankful to be able to sleep as much as I want to. I don't have to worry about nursing or changing diapers, and I'm content knowing that the baby is safe and healthy, happily kicking in my belly. I'm still having some contractions, but nothing that seems like impending labor. At this point I'm hoping she'll wait to arrive until I'm over this bug.

Incidentally, this is the longest I've ever been pregnant--ironic since I've been having lots of contractions for something like 5 weeks now.

It is a bit miserable to be spending our 6th wedding anniversary sick, but DH and I did get to go out for our anniversary last night. My dad watched the girls while we went out to dinner and then drove down to the riverside and took a walk. We had a great time. After the first couple of attempts we managed to break away from talking about the kids, baby, etc. and spent the evening reminiscing about the past 7 years (we got married just about a year after we met) and talking about ourselves/each other. It was really nice.

I gave him a nice romantic card today, and have been spending a lot of the time when I'm not sleeping thinking about how very glad I am to be married to him.

Dear Husband, thanks for being such a wonderful person to be married to. 6 years later you're still one of the very best things that's ever happened in my life. I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you.

Ugh

Headache and sore throat today. This is just what I need; to get sick right before the baby arrives. NOT.

Dirt, glorious dirt

Last night when DH got home he took the girls outside and let them play in the sprinkler while I rested for a little while. Then they all helped our next-door neighbors clean up the dirt in their driveway. (Said neighbors added a load of fill dirt to their back yard this week.)

The girls got to help sweep (both of them holding onto the push-broom together) and then they got their little plastic sandbox shovels and helped shovel dirt.



When they finally came into the house, they were tired, wet, happy, and absolutely filthy (one of M's new favorite words). A wasn't too bad once she took off her mud-coated shoes, but M was wearing sandals and looked like she had rolled in the mud.



You know, dear husband, I just might have changed her out of the white shirt before letting her play in the mud. But, hey, I can't complain. I got to rest while DH, the neighbors and the mud entertained the kids.

Our neighbors don't have children and were amazed at us not minding them getting dirty. Isn't dirt one of the best parts of childhood?

Tricycles and Braids

I love having little girls.




You can't really see it in this picture, but they both have their shoes on the wrong feet. They're so proud of the things they can do on their own.

Every day the last

I found myself thinking a lot today of a short story I read in college. I think it was called "The Last Day."

It was about a scientist who accidentally injected himself with the wrong experimental serum--a serum which had caused death in 24 hours in all the lab mice. There was no antidote, and he knew he had one day left to live. So he took the day off work and took his wife and daughter on a long-promised picnic. The story captures so well the keen enjoyment he felt in every little thing and how he was suddenly aware how precious his loved ones and his life were to him. I wish I could remember the name of the author.

I'm becoming increasingly aware each day that it could be my last day before the baby arrives. The closer it gets, the more I am realizing how many things will never be quite the same again, and how many things will be different or more difficult for a while at least.

We'll never again be a family of four. I'll never be able to take a walk and have my two girls walking on either side, each with a hand in mine, and have it feel complete. I'll be able to carry the baby in a carrier for a little while, but after that I won't be able to hold all my children's hands at the same time--at least not without serious awkwardness. :) DH and I won't be able to each take a child for the evening and pour all our focus and energy into that one child for a "date" with them--at least one of us will need to be dividing our attention between more than one child. We'll never again be Mommy, Daddy, and two little girls. Dividing food, toys and attention will be a bit more complicated.

I'm so excited to meet our newest family member and will enjoy the way the family dynamics change. I can't wait to see how the girls react to their new sister and how they all relate as they grow older. But for now, I'm savoring the things that will change in a special way. Life will be different after the baby comes. I'm finding a keen enjoyment right now in life as it is at this moment.

Today the girls helped me sort and put away laundry. They had a lot of fun running back and forth to their room to put away their clothes. It's so cute to have them at an age where they actually think chores are exciting.

They were so very sweet, cooperative and obedient today, and they got along so well. After a week or two of grouchiness, defiance, and testing every limit, it seems this week we've finally gotten through that stage--at least this time around. :)

This afternoon I braided their hair and painted their fingernails, and then we went for a long walk around the neighborhood. A rode her tricycle and M brought along a pull-toy. On the way home they both rode the tricycle while I carried M's toy. We had a marvelous time.

As the contractions get gradually more intense and frequent over the days and weeks, they remind me to enjoy these moments before things change. The hour or so of contractions every 7 minutes apart this morning and the fairly frequent squeezings of my abdomen throughout the day don't let me take anything for granted right now.

We'll be thrilled to meet Baby E whenever she makes her appearance, but at the moment I feel I'd be equally happy if it happened tonight or sometime next week. I'm just soaking in each moment today.

15 minutes

I've been having contractions every 15 minutes all evening. Actually, they started last night and continued with some regularity all day, but I didn't bother timing them until we were sitting in our Bible study group tonight and I wasn't being so active. They seem to be gradually growing in intensity, but still quite ignore-able.

I am not just going to sit around and time contractions for another two weeks, so I figure I'll try to ignore them until I can't ignore them any more. There aren't any other symptoms of impending labor, so I'm assuming this is just more of the same pre/false labor stuff. I have better things to do with my energy and attention than wondering whether I'm going into labor or not for 5 weeks straight, LOL. It's so nice to be mildly excited rather than worried about it, though, now that it's just about a week till the estimated due date.

Judging from the last few weeks, this doesn't necessarily mean a thing . . . it's just slightly tiring and annoying, but at the same time a bit exciting. I am getting eager to meet our baby!

5 Things Meme

Heather at Was That My Out Loud Voice tagged me for this meme (thanks, Heather!). I've had it halfway written in a draft for some time now, so here goes . . .

The 5 Things Meme

But first the rules to this meme game: Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. Marti http://marti2212.blogspot.com
2. Melody http://melslifeinanutshell.blogspot.com
3. -A- http://motherswork.blogspot.com
4. Heather http://outloudvoice.blogspot.com
5. Purple_Kangaroo http://purplekangaroopuzzle.blogspot.com

Next: select new friends to add to the pollen count. (No one is obligated to participate). You can just put blogs you read if you want to.

(This is the one that's been holding me up from posting this. I honestly can't think of 5 people who haven't already done this that I think would want to do it. So I'll just post 5 random blogs and they can do it or ignore it as they please, or pick and choose which parts to do.)

1. Mark_Congdon http://www.xanga.com/mark_congdon
2. Chocolate and Peanut Butter http://chocolateandpeanutbutter.blogspot.com
3. The Crazy Woman http://thecrazywoman.blogspot.com
4. Jo(e) http://writingasjoe.blogspot.com
5. Dan4x http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=dan4x

Here's the game:

What 5 Things do you miss about your childhood?

1) I miss having my sisters there with me most of the time. We were always close and enjoyed doing things together. We'd play games, tell stories, go shopping or exploring, talk for hours, or just play. Now that we're all grown up we don't get to spend nearly as much time together.

2) I miss having pets. We had cats, dogs, rabbits, and all kinds of temporary lizards, salamanders, frogs etc. caught in the woods and ponds. We also had several ponds full of koi. Those pond fish were amazing. One huge yellow fish named Beaker would come when we called him and did a number of tricks--he would swim through a hoop, "sit up and beg", "fish on a pedastal" (he'd swim onto your hand and let you pick him up out of the water), drink brine shrimp out of a baby bottle, and bump noses with the cat (they were friends).

3) I miss running and playing outside in our fabulous huge yard. We used to play all sorts of games, both typical games and ones we made up. Darktime Hide and Seek, Shadow Tag, Soldiers & Indians (It involved one team hiding in the woods while the other team tried to capture them and drag them back to the swingset and corral them there), and so much more. We had ponds and a creek in our yard, so we spent a lot of time playing in the water, building miniature boats, and jumping from bank to bank of the creek.

We also had a great neighborhood with several wilderness-type areas, and we'd go exploring, fishing, hunting for bullfrogs, etc. We built lots of forts and miniature houses out of sticks, mud and other wild materials. Just some sticks and mud and the great outdoors could keep us busy for hours. My sisters and I bought a book on wildcrafting and learned how to do everything from starting a fire without matches to creating dyes from natural sources, to identifying and cooking edible foods in the wild. Our huge, fenced and wooded yard was full of cherry and apple trees, blackberry bushes, hazelnut trees, and all sorts of good things, and sometimes we'd just eat lunch off the land. I loved living in a place like that.

4) I miss having hours and hours to read. On weekends or during the summer I used to take whole days to just read. I'd read thick books in one sitting. When I was sick I'd lie in bed and devour books, too.

5) I miss family movie nights on Sunday nights, with popcorn and apples for dinner.


Name your 5 favorite cartoons

Hmmm, this one is hard. I've never really watched cartoons that much. Here are a couple I have good memories about from my childhood:

1. Tom and Jerry

2. Pink Panther

And a few I enjoy as an adult:

3. Veggie Tales (I think my favorite is King George and the Ducky)

4. Wallace and Grommit (does that count as a cartoon?)

5. Mickey Mouse. I enjoyed it as a kid and now enjoy it with my kids.

I'm going to add a few more lists of 5 things I found on selkie's blog just now:

Five snacks I enjoy: Chocolate chips, mandarin oranges, yam puff, fresh berries, granola bars

Five songs I know all the words to: Just five? How can I pick just 5? To be totally random: Great is Thy Faithfulness, The Bear in Tennis Shoes, Mary Had a Little Lamb (all gazillion verses), Getting to Know You, Every Heartbeat

Five things I would do with $100 million: pay off our house and do some work on the yard, save some, give some away, trust funds for the kids, travel

Five places I would escape to: Mexico, Europe, the wilderness, a hot bath, the beach

Five bad habits: procrastinating, staying up too late, overextending myself, the extended "just a minute", hyperfocusing on one thing to the detriment of others

Five things I like doing: making things, thrift and garage sale shopping, playing dolls with my girls, hiking into the mountains to trout fish in streams, curling up in front of the fire on a cold day with a good book and my crocheting

Five things I'd never wear: anything that looks like underwear but is meant to be outerwear, metal chains or hooks attached to my flesh, anything with profane or derogatory sayings on it, a bikini, a miniskirt

Five TV shows I like: Numbers, Monk, Between the Lions, Little House on the Prairie (the new Disney version), Poirot

Five biggest joys of the moment: my kids (especially watching them enjoy life and listening to their in-depth conversations about life), uninterrupted time alone with DH, long (mostly) peaceful car rides with great conversations and the kids singing and talking, preparing for the baby, time with family and friends.

Five favorite toys: my doll collection, the computer, board games, my family, my woodburning kit

Overheard

Things my kids said to DH this week.

"Daddy, you're old. Really, really old."

"Daddy, you're good at tickling."

"Daddy, I'm a little too cute. You're a big too cute."

New way to subscribe

Several friends and family members have asked about getting copies of my blog entries via e-mail, so you don't have to get on the internet to read them.

So I've set up a Yahoo! newsgroup for my blog and anything DH wants to post. It's read-only--any replies to the e-mails will go just to me and DH rather than to the whole group. I've set it up so that only the moderators (myself and DH) can see the member list, also, for your privacy.

To sign up, visit the newsgroup website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/markangelafriends

You can join either online or by e-mail. If joining by e-mail, you don't even need a Yahoo! identity--you just send an e-mail to the subscribe address and you'll start receiving copies of my blog entries via e-mail.

If you'd like to post a comment on my blog, you can click on the link in the e-mail to come directly to my blog website, or just go to http://purplekangaroopuzzle.blogspot.com

The link in the e-mail will look something like this, at the bottom of the post: Posted by purple_kangaroo to Purple Puzzle Place at 7/19/2005 11:18:00 AM.

If you have a blogger ID you'll know how to leave a comment already. If you aren't registered with blogger, just click the "other" box when posting and you can put in your name or whatever username you'd like to be "known by" on my blog. It will put that as who the post is from. The anonymous button is for if you truly want to be anonymous and not put in anything that will tell me who you are. I hope most commenters will at least give me a username of some sort to identify them by.

You don't have to join anything to post comments, so feel free!

Just waiting

Why is it that kids always pick the morning after we all stay up late to wake up more than an hour early? I'm so thankful for my sweet DH (dear husband) who got up, gave them breakfast and turned on a video (home video of family birthday parties--their favorite!) before he left for work this morning so I could sleep a little longer.

It's really hot here . . . I'm so glad we have air conditioning. I finally got out the wading pool yesterday, scrubbed it down and filled it for the girls. It's a great pool; quite large and has a little built in slide. I didn't get in it yesterday--just dipped my feet. But it's so hot even with the air conditioning on today that I just might get in with them.

We're still waiting on little Miss E to make her appearance.

Today is the day M guessed 5 weeks ago when she said, "In 5 weeks the baby will be here" but I see no signs that it will be today. Even the braxton-hicks contractions have settled down a lot. My midwife said that all those contractions were probably moving the baby down, and now that she's "dropped" my body is taking a break. :)

Baby is head-down and seems quite healthy. It's the strangest feeling knowing it could be any day, but each day is so normal and uneventful. Other than being tired and the fact that the baby likes to pluck at my sciatic nerve with her fist, I'm feeling pretty good. I bought a humidifier for our room, and it really helps me (and I think DH) sleep a lot better. The house is slowly getting more organized and ready. The longer she waits to be born, the more we'll get done.

I'm just taking the days one at a time, relaxing and pacing myself as much as I can. The girls, after several days of extreme grouchiness, have been amazingly sweet and cooperative the last few days. They've been doing very well with taking a nice long nap/quiet time each day, so I've been able to lie down in the afternoons too. It takes a big bite out of my "time to get things done" but it's definitely worth it. Naps are nice, and I'll be getting much less sleep very soon.

This Sunday will be DH's and my 6th anniversary. If we're not in the hospital we plan to go out for a few hours by ourselves sometime during the weekend (dependent on when we can get a babysitter). We are relishing every bit of time alone together and all the other things that won't be happening for some time after the baby is born.

Sidecar Crib

We were going to buy an Arm's Reach Cosleeper, but then read about doing this with the crib and decided that would be a better choice . . . cheaper, and the baby will be used to and comfortable in the crib already when we move her to her own room in a few months.

DH came home from work early yesterday and got it all set up.

A crib sidecar:





We still have to get a bed bridge to put between the two mattresses and do a little work on it, and move some more furniture around, but it looks like it's going to work great! Baby will be close to us and easy to feed at night, but not actually in our bed except when she's nursing.

[Update:
The sidecar crib setup is just a regular crib with one side removed. We set the crib mattress to be the same height as the mattress on our bed.

We didn't end up using a bed bridge. The white thing you see next to the crib bars is a toddler bed rail--designed to attach to a regular bed to keep young kids from falling out. It has a strap that we ran underneath both the crib mattress and the queen bed mattress, and it's anchored to the other size of the queen bed. That holds the two mattresses together firmly enough that we don't need anything else.

The important thing for safe co-sleeping is that the two mattresses are anchored snugly against each other at the same height, with no gaps between them.

It's been two months since the baby's birth at the time of this update, and the setup is working beautifully for us. I thought I'd add this information since people are finding this post by searching for "sidecar crib" or "crib sidecar". I hope it's helpful to someone!]

Nesting, here I come!

I actually have a bit of energy for the first time in a week or so, and I have that "drive" to get a bunch of stuff done before the baby comes.

The girls and I are going to run some errands today, and I'm going to try to get the laundry, dishes and some organizing done. The baby's room is ready, but our room isn't and we haven't done anything about attaching the crib to our bed yet. Now that I'm 38 weeks pregnant I guess it's time to start doing some of that. We're going to see if DH is able to get off work a bit early today to help get some of the more important things done.

Nesting is fun. :)

Tangerine segments

A has discovered the joy of eating a tangerine slice by peeling it and eating one tiny segment at a time.



There is something special and fun about eating them that way. It tastes different somehow, and the skill involved in separating the little juice sacs without breaking them is always a fun challenge.

I don't have the patience for it any more, but I remember doing that as a child. I often still eat citrus fruits by peeling the segments and savoring small bites of the segments on my tongue.

It sure is an easy way to keep A entertained for a while . . . just give her a tangerine and let her sit there and pick it apart to her heart's content. :)

Afghans

One of my favorite hobbies is crocheting. I mostly do it at times I would otherwise be sitting with idle hands, such as when a passenger in the car, while watching films with DH, in meetings or visiting with people. I can even read to the girls and crochet at the same time. :) I've sold a few here and there and have given many more away.

I think this is one of my favorite baby afghans I've made so far.






It's crib cover/toddler bed size--about the same width and just slightly shorter than a crib mattress.

Here are some pictures on a lighter background:


(Wow, with yarn this soft it's hard to get it perfectly even when you lay it flat!)



I had made it for a friend who is having a baby, but it turns out she's having a boy so I think I'll sell this one and make him something else (maybe a sweater set) instead.

The patterns for all these are by Terry Kimbrough. I really like her designs.

Here's the blanket I made for our baby E. It's extremely soft. M, my 3-year-old, keeps trying to claim it for herself (even though she already has a much-beloved blanket I made for her).



I like the pineapple edging.



And here's the one I'm working on for my BIL/SIL due in November:



I'll probably put some kind of scalloped edging on it.

Right now I'm working on a baby sweater, too. I'll post pics of it when it's finished.

Here's one I made a few months ago (both doll and sweater are for sale).

By the book

The girls got into an argument this afternoon about the dollhouse. Both wanted to play with it and didn't want to share.

So I decided to try a technique I was reading about in "The Toddler Years" last night. I sat down with them and said, "Okay, we have a problem here. Both of you want to play with the dollhouse. I'll bet you two can think of a way for both of you to play with it at the same time--you're smart."

M says, "No, we're not."

A starts crying. "I'm smart!" Sob, sob.

I laugh, "You're both smart!"

However, unlike the examples given in the book, my kids had a hard time coming up with any workable solutions. Their ideas included M's suggestion that she read books while A refrain from touching the dollhouse, and A's suggestion that we all change into different clothes. So finally I stepped in and showed them how they could open the dollhouse wide and both sit next to it and play together.

M quickly lost interest and decided she wanted to go downstairs and have me draw dogs and cats for her to color instead of cooking dinner. ;-)

How come this sort of thing never works quite like it does in the books when I try it? LOL

Girled Cheese

I was making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch when A asked me, "Mommy, how do you make a boy'd cheese sandwich?"

Well, lying in bed in the dark IS boring when you're 4

Last night after she'd been put to bed, A came downstairs with that "is this gonna fly?" look on her face, holding her toy dog.

I asked her what she needed and she said, "Um, my doggie fell down on the floor." Yes, the one she was holding.

I said, "And just why did you need to come downstairs to tell me this?"

"Because . . . um . . . because it was boring?"

At least she was honest. I tried desperately to keep a straight face (not helped at all by the sound of my sister snickering behind me) while I thanked her for telling the truth, took the dog for safekeeping and sent her back to bed.

Still Here :)

Well, I'm officially full-term now (37 weeks pregnant) and although I'm still having lots of contractions, I'm still pregnant. I'd still like it if the baby would hold off for a week or so at least, but it would be ok if she came any time now. :)

All this prelabor stuff is tiring, though! I was awakened at 3 or 4 a.m. last night by contractions that lasted for a few hours and then went away. Tonight I was having fairly strong ones every 10 minutes even while sitting down. But no other symptoms of labor and they are still inconsistent, so it's still a waiting game.

I'm being graced with all kinds of stories of people who had this sort of thing for 6 weeks or more before the baby finally made its appearance. I guess lots of prelabor is more common with the 3rd+ baby. It's quite annoying, but my midwife assures me that I "get credit for this" and it will probably result in an easier labor when the real thing comes.

Of course there are those feelings of wanting to have the baby be born NOW, along with the feelings of wanting her to wait a while so we can be more ready. But mostly I just want her to be born at the time when it will be most optimal for her health.

Garage sales are great

I love it when I find several garage sales that are actually priced like garage sales, and have decent items for sale.

Last weekend I was able to get all the lightweight receiving blankets I'm ever likely to need (and more!) and quite a few onesies for 50 cents each. I also found the baby bath I'd been wanting for $2, along with a few baby clothes and other things we needed--all at one garage sale! I love garage sales like that.

The lady was so nice too--I realized after I got home that while I was writing the check she added a few things to my bag that I had considered and set aside because I was trying to limit how much I spent. She snuck them in when I wasn't looking. :)

I'm starting to feel halfway ready for the baby to come. I even have our hospital bags partially packed. We still have a lot to do, but the most urgent things are mostly ready. Anything else DH can always do while I'm in the hospital or we can do after we get home from the hospital.

The Purple_Kangaroo Method of Baby Registry

I've been reading through some things I wrote around the time my first two babies were born, and some of them are pretty funny. It's so nice to feel like an experienced mom this time around and not be panicking about things like baby registries.

In 2000 when I was pregnant with A (my first), several people had asked me to register for what I wanted in preparation for baby showers. But I had no idea what to register for or what a baby would need.

I was so confused.


How many bibs will I need? Do I really need both drooling and feeding bibs? What do you dress a baby in every day, anyway? What *is* the difference between a t-shirt and a onesie, and are they interchangeable or does baby wear both? What is the purpose of all these clothes???

Will I need an umbrella stroller and something sturdier, or just the lightweight stroller that converts into an infant stroller, or what?

How much of this stuff do I really need and how much is just extra fluff with lots of great salesmanship to make me think I want it when I really don't need it?

And, most importantly, HOW am I ever going to fit a playpen, swing, exercise saucer, high chair, and all that other stuff into the dining/living room area of our apartment and still have room for the couch and dining room set?

Here's a post I wrote 11/7/2000:

The Purple_Kangaroo method of baby registry.

1. Read lots of books and magazines telling you what you need to get. Make a list of what you already have. Forget to take it to the store with you.

2. Go to the store and look at baby stuff. Get overwhelmed. Leave.

3. Take your mom to the store to help you register. Get overwhelmed. Register for a bunch of stuff you didn't really want, or too many of everything, because you can't decide between the options or because your mom thinks it's cute and hands it to you to look at/scan. Get tired and more overwhelmed. Decide to put off decisions on most of the big stuff until you see what they have at the other baby store in the area.

4. Go to the other store the same day. Scan a bunch more stuff. Try to remember what you already scanned at the other store. Compare the lists of what you supposedly "need" for the baby from the two stores, and panic because they vastly disagree.

Try to think of everything you might possibly need for the baby in the next two years. Scan things like baby food, because what if when the baby is a few months old she suddenly decides to stop nursing, and you don't have any baby food to feed her? (Never mind that you live 2 minutes from a grocery store anyway, and the date will probably be expired by the time you use any baby food you buy now.)

Scan a potty chair and toddler clothes, even though you live in a small apartment, will be moving when the baby is a few months old, and won't be using any of this stuff for at least two years anyway.

5. Go home totally exhausted, planning to go back and finish registering later. Realize that the second store (the one you registered for the most important stuff at) is at least an hour away from most of the people who will be buying you shower gifts, and they all make a habit of shopping at the other store anyway.

6. Get online and look at the two stores' web sites. Try to make a list of what you want to remove from and add to your lists. Pick out a bedding set. Abandon the idea of a bedding set because $250 is way too much to pay for a crib sheet and bumper, a ruffle that will just get ripped on the let-down side of the crib, and a comforter you can't use in the crib anyway. Try to figure out why you registered for 15 blankets, a bunch of seasonal clothes that will be gone after next month, and no baby t-shirts.

7. Cry on your husband's shoulder. Let him hold you and remind you that you can always return things or buy things you forgot to register for, and that the registry is not set in stone.

8. Call both stores and tell them you want to erase the whole registry and start over.

9. Go back to the first store (the one all your friends shop at) and register for everything you want there. Buzz through in a record time of a couple of hours because you already did this once, and this time you know what you do or don't want (maybe?). Stand in front of the disposable diapers for a while trying to decide which brand to get, then just register for a small package of each so you can try them all. Ask people with infants what they wished they had registered for and what they didn't use. Ask people in the baby care aisle what kind of baby bath and lotion they use. Register for that kind.

10. Return to the second store on a different day and register for just a few things they didn't have at the first store, or that you don't mind getting duplicates of.

11. Go home triumphant!!!

36 weeks and counting . . .

I'm sleeping better and feeling quite a bit better the last few days, so that's really nice. Still having some contractions, but they seem to be Braxton-Hicks (false labor) and nothing to worry too much about. I'm still supposed to be trying to take it easy until next Friday when I'll actually be full-term, though.

We bought a carseat for the baby, and DH moved the girls' car seats and installed all three in the van. I made an appointment with a child safety seat technician today for an inspection. He was extremely impressed with DH's job of installing the seats. The tech said that 99% of the car seats he sees are improperly installed, and he couldn't have done a better job than DH's installation himself!

DH and I are slowly working our way through getting the baby's room ready.

Our to-do list includes:


* Pack hospital bags (for ourselves and the baby)
* Get the spare diaper bag packed and into the van with extra changes of clothes for everyone, diapers, etc.
* Wash and put away baby clothes
* Buy sleepers and onesies
* Buy diapers (I have a small package but we'll need more)
* Get a waterproof mold/dust/gas barrier mattress cover for the crib (this is the new theory to help prevent SIDS)
* Set up the monitor and make sure it works
* Find the bouncy seat, Boppy Pillow, and other newborn necessities and make sure they're clean and ready to use.
* Get our room organized and ready for having the baby in there (since she'll be in our room for the first few weeks at least)
* Sidecar the crib (we decided to take one side off the crib and attach it to our bed instead of buying a "co-sleeper")
* Try to get all the girls' clothes washed, organized, sorted to pull out the too-small-ones and put away so we won't have to worry about that for a while.
* Cook and freeze several meals
* Make a phone/e-mail list of people to notify when the baby comes
* Check with our support people and make sure we have a backup to take care of the girls when the baby arrives
* Get the house organized and cleaned from top to bottom (okay, this probably won't actually happen but I'd really like it to :) )

There are other things we'll need to buy and do, but most of it can wait until after the baby comes. I'm hoping I'm not missing anything too important.

We'll actually need to buy very little, since we still have most things from when the other two girls were babies. I did loan out my 0-6 month sized baby clothes and didn't get them back, so will have to replace those. I've been buying daytime outfits throughout the pregnancy and am pretty much stocked on those I think. But we still need some onesies, socks and a few basics like that.

I'm feeling like we still have a lot to do so am not in too much of a hurry to have the baby yet, but we're getting excited!

I've been reading through old posts from the message board I was active on when my girls were born. Reminiscing has been fun. I'm printing out many of the posts to put into a 3-ring binder since I never actually kept anything like a journal or a baby book.

I may post the girls' birth stories here, but can't decide whether to do the short sterilized version or the long, detailed version. :)