Sick

For the last week and a half.  Hoo boy this is fun.  Everyone else has already gone through it (and still have lingering symptoms- thank goodness the boy is still nursing because he can't keep anything down but mama milk) and finally today I notice a little drip from the nose.  Perfect.  Well, maybe hubby can pamper me for a couple of days while I recover.  Lacy has already missed 4 full days and 2 half days of school AND two violin lessons.  We are managing to get practice in most of the time, though.  Hopefully by this Thursday she will be 100% better and ready to fiddle again!

And I always start getting smug in late February that we didn't get sick this winter.  And then we get sick in March.  Never fails.  I'll stop being smug about our health next year.  If I remember.

All boy!

They say that boys and girls are equal and that we teach them to be boy-ish or girl-ish based on our own biases and expectations.  Well, I don't believe that for a second.  I didn't believe it when my first child was born and she gravitated toward girly things to do.  I did buy the gender neutral toys, and they have a box of dinosaurs and trains (Rose requested the trains, actually!).  Of course, the dinosaur gets dressed up in fancy dresses and Lacy parades the beautiful T. Rex around the house singing, "This is the dinosaur of the queeeeeen!"

Now I have a boy.  He turned 1 about a month ago.  I love him more than life itself and I would do anything for my little man.  I'm so glad I got him!  Of course, being a mom to a boy is a new thing for me, so I treated him exactly as I have treated my girls.  And the girls have put bows in his head more than once.  I may or may not have encouraged that.  Once I put a girly diaper on him and Dave wasn't too thrilled about that, but all my diapers were dirty and I only had a pink flower one handy.  What's a mom to do?

We're in the midst of a large amount of remodeling at our house, due to some unfortunate wind, ice and rain damage that occurred.  Because Dave is handy with this type of thing, he is doing the majority of the work himself.  My dad comes over and helps Dave often with the work that needs done, as he's pretty handy as well.  Uriah of course wants to be around all the action.  He loves hanging with the guys and is always picking up tools and trying to "help" any way he can! It's adorable!  At least, until he finds the razor knives and carries them around.

...and he's off!

My 11 month old decided to turn the corner with the walking this week!  He's been taking steps here and there for about 6 or so weeks, but usually resorts to the Mowgli crawl after falling down on his bottom.  Not anymore!  He rarely is Mowgli crawling (which makes me sad because it is the cutest thing ever) and now is almost exclusively walking everywhere.  It is so adorable.

Pacific Science Center

Yesterday we decided to take my sister and her family on a trip to the Pacific Science Center- we went in the summer and got a year membership for about $30 more than going that one time cost us, and we had enough passes for my sister's entire family to come, too.  Plus, the Harry Potter exhibit was there!  Leslie's 3 big kids were really excited about going there.

We got there around 11:30 or so and find out that Harry Potter is sold out until 5:45, and we weren't staying there that long.  Lovely.  That's ok, though- there's plenty to do at the science center!

There were way too many people there yesterday, though.  It made it difficult to do anything fun.  But that's okay.  We enjoyed the butterfly house,

Riah and Rose loved the music room,

and I thought the dinosaurs were really cool.

Rose hopped in the stroller when Ri wasn't in it.

But then Turner got lost.  He wandered off when we were doing silly pictures with the girls.  We got security to start looking for him, too.  And then he just... appeared again.  I don't know where he went.  Dave said he searched exactly where he was found and he wasn't there.  Leslie explained the importance of staying with the group to him, and we all decided we were done for the day.  The crowds were too big to have a good time.

We decided to see an IMAX movie (about beavers!  I really enjoyed it until Ri fell on his head in the theater) and then head home.  On the way out we snapped a few pictures in front of the space needle and headed home.

We took Porter with us so he could help butcher Dave's deer and then they went squid jigging last night.  I know they were successful because I was surprised to find a squid helping me do the dishes this morning.

We love the science center, but it's a lot more fun when there aren't huge crowds of people there.  Maybe we can go during spring break, but it might be crowded then, too.  I'll just hope that Lacy's school break is at a different time than the kids' in Seattle.

Mowgli boy

My sweet little boy has been walking! Earlier than either of his sisters by quite a while. He took his first steps about 6 weeks or so ago when he was about 9 1/2 months old. He wasn't even standing up well when he first took some steps. But even though he started walking so long ago, he's still only taking a few steps at a time each time he attempts to walk. Because it is just so much faster to crawl. Especially when you crawl like Mowgli. My boy must have some serious upper body strength! He crawls so fast.

Music and my kids

I love music. Anyone who knows me knows that I am musical, and I hope to raise my children to be musical as well. Now that Lacy is in the first grade, that means private music lessons. I thought about starting her in piano, but since I was having difficulty getting into the groove of teaching her myself, I decided to go for an instrument that I can't play- the violin. Lacy's also been begging me to put her in violin lessons for about 6 months or so, and in September we finally got started with Suzuki violin. She's doing so well and has learned to play Twinkle already (it takes several weeks to understand the posture, holding the bow, holding the violin, etc. before they start in on playing the music).

Today I had a proud mama moment when Rose was done with preschool. Normally I wait outside of the preschool building to pick her up, but today Dave and I had finished our Christmas shopping and Riah was starving, so I went into the waiting area to nurse him while we waited for school to get out. At the end of school the teacher always sings a song as they are leaving. And whose voice did I hear, loud and strong? Of course my Miss Rosie! She was so happy to be singing with her teacher as she left the building, and I happened to be inside where I could witness her singing so well. She loves singing in church, too, and always loves learning new songs, too! I can't wait until she's old enough for music lessons, too!

And my little Ri guy; he's been immersed in music since before he was born. He was lucky enough to be my belly baby when I challenged myself to practice piano every single day in 2009. So he got to hear the music from the first time his ears started working in the womb! And the music hasn't stopped. We're always singing around here, and I play the piano a lot and Lacy practices her violin every day. The girls love to listen to music, so they usually have CDs going in their room when they're playing. It's a lot of fun! Riah has shown his love for music by pounding the piano keys and reaching up as tall as he can to play the keys whenever he passes the piano. I can already tell he's a musical child. People comment all the time on how big Ri is (he's almost to the same weight Lacy was at when she turned 3, and Ri is 10 months old), saying he'll play basketball or football or whatever sport. I really don't care what sport he plays as long as he plays an instrument!

This video features both Lacy playing the violin (Monkey Song) and Rose singing along enthusiastically! I hope you enjoy!

Laughing Uriah

My adorable ticklish little dude is sure to make you laugh, too!

Paper Plate People

I have a stubborn child. She's been struggling to learn to read, and I get easily frustrated with her. I hate feeling frustrated at her when she won't try but I have to help her to learn to read this summer. She got a bit behind her reading lessons in school this year, and her teacher sent home a big stack of lessons for us to work on every day. Well, it hasn't been every day. Partly because of the frustrations we both feel when she isn't getting anything out of it.

Enter the paper plate people. One day, Lacy decided to draw faces on a bunch of paper plates. Then it was time for summer school. She decided to have the paper plate people read all her lessons for her. And do you know what? She actually learned! She read! I didn't get frustrated with her! She didn't get frustrated trying to read! It was a miracle! So now, every time we do school, the paper plate people come out and read for Lacy.

But today, Lacy admitted something to me. "Mom, it's not really the paper plate people who are reading. It's me. I just make different voices and pretend that it is the paper plate people who are reading." Well, what a revelation, Lacy! I'm glad it's helping, even if it's not real.

Mr. Chubbers 6 month update

Uriah had his 6 month appointment today. He is doing great- sitting very well unassisted, scooting around the floor via rolling over, preventing me from actually diapering him by rolling away from said diaper each and every single time I try to change him (guess he likes the freedom of no diaper... not that I blame him!), trying to crawl but can't because his massively heavy midsection is firmly planted on the ground, can stand up holding on to the edge of a couch for a couple minutes at a time... he's really growing and learning new things every day!

He's also quite a big boy! He weighed in today at 20 lb 10 oz, which is the 90th percentile. And for length, he is 28 1/2 inches long- the 96th percentile. I can't even remember what his head circumference is- maybe 19 inches? Anyway, it was the 99th percentile. He takes after his dad, who has the biggest head I know (love you, honey!). Thank goodness his head was only average sized when he was born, otherwise he may have taken more than two pushes to be born!

In other news, Dave and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this week! I can hardly believe it's already been ten years! I'm so thankful for my awesome husband who provided me with three beautiful children!

Allergies

I'm terrified that my babies are going to end up with severe allergies like their mama. Or, worse allergies than the ones I have currently. Yesterday my sweet Rose's back was all broken out in bumps- not exactly hives, but an allergic reaction for sure. We gave her benedryl and Dave's friend who is a medic came over to check her out. We washed her off to make sure it wasn't something she was wearing/laying in (she was in the grass earlier that evening). It could have been the new sunscreen we got, or maybe all the mosquito bites Rose got while camping. She still looks like she got punched in the eye because she has a swollen bite right below her eye.

For now I'll make sure I have Benedryl on hand and I'm going to include Rose in our daily spoonful of local honey ritual to hopefully lessen the effects of the allergies, but I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm trying to take the more natural route. I'm going to talk to the doctor about allergy testing because she's had three allergic reactions in her lifetime now and I'm starting to get concerned about them.

Packing up

We're planning a camping trip, and the girls decided to pack themselves. Here's what an almost-6 year old finds essential for a camping trip:

two skirts

two t-shirts

one flashlight

And a four year old:

three t-shirts

four long sleeved shirts

one pair of stretch pants

one swim suit

one swim suit cover-up

one uber-froofy skirt

My baby is growing up!

Lacy turns 6 in 11 days and now has her first loose tooth! It's officially wiggling, and I don't know who's more excited- Lacy, or me! She was giddy with excitement. It would be really cool if she loses it on her birthday (but honestly, I have no idea how long these things take to fall out!). She's already got some permanent molars, and the dentist said it's less common (but still normal) for children to get their 6 year molars before they lose a tooth. He mentioned that her new teeth would be coming in shortly after that, and sure enough, they are!

Which reminds me. For a long time, Lacy would show everybody her 6 year molars. Not just friends and family. Everybody at the grocery store, random people she met while we were out and about, pretty much anyone who would give her the time of day. She would say, "I have a six year molar and I'm only five and a half!"

Summer School

I'm trying my hardest to work with my children this summer on school work. Especially Lacy. She needs to review several reading units from kindergarten so she can be prepared for first grade. She's struggling a little with it. She has some attention problems and she gets burnt out really fast. As much as I would love to homeschool her (and as much as she would benefit from it), it is really challenging for me to be consistent with her schooling every day and to be patient with her. We really can only do 15 minutes at a time, tops. I think I need to learn some unschooling methods so I can figure out a method that works better for her.

As far as Rose goes, she's just turned 4 and can't sing the alphabet song yet. She's a little slower with learning to speak than Lacy, but she's been evaluated and is within a normal range for her age, but they actually are concerned about her fine motor skills. She just started drawing recognizable people within the last couple of months. Maybe it's because she's small and still speaks babyish, but I haven't really worried about what she knows yet. But it dawned on me- she's supposed to start kindergarten in a year! I don't know if she'll be even close to ready for kindergarten. If I don't work with her, she for sure won't be ready. So we have these alphabet strips that Lacy made in kindergarten, and we get them out and point at all the letters and sing the alphabet song each day. My friend Emily also got her a beginning tracing book, which is really cute. She likes to draw in that every day. Hopefully that helps her fine motor development.

We're also busily reading every day. Lacy and I just finished On The Banks of Plumb Creek, from the Little House series, and we have just started Twig. which we're enjoying so far. We attend story time each week (it only runs in July in the summer) and pick out a selection of books each week to read with Rose. She has several favorites, including Blueberries for Sal (which we own, thanks to my sister Leslie), Belinda Begins Ballet, and Claire and the Unicorn.

Hopefully my allergies will finally go away in a few days so I can really get down to business- I feel like they've been weighing me down all last month and into this month, and I haven't been a very good mom. But with our new air conditioner, perhaps I'll be able to do better!

Awkward Babywearing comments

I have a pretty awesome woven wrap. See it? I made it myself. (Oh, the door isn't dirty- it's painted courtesy of Rose. We still need to fix it). I took five yards of 100% linen from JoAnn's fabric (where I conveniently had a 40% off coupon and a $50 gift card- linen ain't cheap, you know), washed it, cut it in half lengthwise, hemmed it, and voila- a woven wrap. I love it and wear Ri in it all the time. In fact, my new Costco membership card has both me and my baby in the picture because he's in the wrap almost excursively when we're out and about. Which sometimes leads to interesting comments.

One day I took the kiddos to the library (a frequent occurrence in my house- we LOVE the library!). While checking out, a woman said to me, "Wow! That's really cool! Where'd you get that carrier?" I replied by saying, "Actually I made it myself out of linen. And I just wrap my baby up on me and he's so comfy." She responded with, "I've been looking all over for one of those so I can put my dog it it!" Seriously, what do you say to that? I know people love carrying their little dogs all over the place in doggy carriers, but... I don't know. I was just speechless.

So, I take all three kiddos out to the van and we start getting in. The car next to my van has the driver sitting inside. He rolls down his window. "Hey, that's a pretty neat carrier! Where'd you get that?" I respond with my usual, "Oh, I made it myself out of linen. Just took 5 yards and cut it down the middle lengthwise..." And then, creep mode set in with his response- "Oh, I'd like to be carried around in one of those" I think I smiled and nodded and turned to the kids and said,"Get your seatbelts ready! Hurry up! We need to get home!" That guy seriously creeped me out. I understand that babywearing is unusual (well, not too unusual in the town in which I live- I see people in Ergos every single day, and I'll often see wraps or other less commonly used carriers) but my goodness! Keep the weird comments to yourself and google it yourself when you get home (or even right then in the library! You've got a card to use the internet there, you know.).

Ahem. Sorry about my lack of blogging.

Well. I've been a little busy with three kiddos. So with no further ado, I'll jump back in! No pictures- for some reason I'm having trouble uploading everything right now. Still working on that. So we'll get into today's feature...

Why parents love to embarrass their teenagers

Otherwise known as "Payback."

Oh yes, my kids can embarrass me. Big time. Rose is part monkey, and she will climb all over everything. And Lacy has no concept of personal space and thinks everyone is her BFF.

So why would today, my major errand running day, be any different?

Oh, we have the usual run off and have lengthy conversations with adults. Which other people (I think) find charming. Me? Well, it was charming the first 500 times it happened.

But perhaps today's embarrassment wasn't so much my children's fault, but rather a byproduct of having children with me. I totally brought it upon myself. But it was Their Fault.

Today was a busy day. Starting off early with a 7:30 wake-up time (why do they never wake up that early during the school year?) and immediately starting to fight. I serve breakfast and work on some morning chores, wash a load of diapers, get the baby down for a nap (I have to say, he is the least embarrassing of my children, despite the fact that he frequently burps and farts loudly in public)... you know, the usual mom stuff. The kids get to watch a television show while I fold socks. At 10 am, we load up in the car and go off to story time at the library. Thank heaven for story time on a beautifully rainy July morning! After story time was over, the real errands began. Bank, and stop by two establishments to give them all of the money I just deposited. Finally, a bite to eat and grocery shopping.

At the grocery store, Rose always insists upon riding in the car shopping cart. You know- the kind that look like this:

Oh yes. Great fun. Unfortunately, Rose is at the age where she no longer wishes to be restrained, and it's difficult for me to keep her restrained even if I wanted to (which is hard because I keep little Ri on my front in a woven wrap, making it difficult to bend and reach in to buckle her in in the first place). So she climbs on it the whole time we're shopping. Eventually she and Lacy start sitting on the edge of the seat with their bottoms in the car and their legs and bodies outside of it. It's already awkwardly shaped and gigantous. Now it's even wider.

Halfway through our shopping trip Rose announces, "I have to go potty!" Well, I kinda had to go too, so it must be time for a bathroom break. I hate hate hate taking bathroom breaks in the middle of a shopping trip. But even more so I hate having accidents in the middle of a shopping trip! So, I park the cart near the bathrooms and we go. After Lacy wastes a bunch of paper in the automatic paper towel dispensers, we finally get back into the cart.

Look back up at the picture of the cart. You'll notice the very front of the cart jets out several inches. And that's your cart's blind spot. I always think I have more clearance than I actually do because the cart is so long. Of course today I happen to park the cart right next to a sunscreen display. Which was soon displayed all over the floor of the store. Right as a bunch of people happened to walk by. I apologized profusely and walked away as quickly as I could, a little pink in the cheeks. We hurry and get the rest of our items and go to check out.

Lacy absolutely loves workers at our local grocery store. She in particular talks to a lady named Crystal and a lady named Rose who works in produce. Today she say Crystal and had to say hello. I told the cashier, laughing, "Yes, that's my girl- wants to work at Top Foods when she's bigger. My girl reaches for the stars, she does." Um, I was talking to an older lady who probably had been working at a grocery store for most of her adult career. Cheeks are slightly pink once again. I try to pry the foot from my mouth and backpedal a little because I'm afraid I was insulting, and quickly we rush out of there (after we look to see if Rose the produce lady is working yet).

And that's when it hit me. While the embarrassment was because of my own doing, it was all because I have children in the first place that I became embarrassed. IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT! And now I understand. I hereby vow to be as embarrassing to my children as humanly possible as soon as they become humiliated by their parents. It's only fair.

Chunky Monkey!

My little guy is growing like a weed! He's 9 weeks old tomorrow and is still just as huge as ever and smiling a lot (and eating a lot, too!). He's a good baby except at midnight when he starts crying and doesn't let off until 1 or 2 am. But then he sleeps practically all morning and won't wake up until mid-afternoon! I'm trying to switch his schedule around slightly so he'll sleep soundly starting around 9 pm. Good luck with that, right?

Riah had his 2 month checkup on Monday and they weighed and measured him. He weighs 13 pounds 13 ounces (and this was on a cleared-out system- he had just filled a diaper and hadn't eaten in a couple of hours) and is 24 1/2 inches long. Head circumference is 16.5 inches. Weight and head are 80th percentiles, length is 84th. Everything looks good with his health and he just gets cuter every day!

2 Week Update

Today Uriah got to meet the pediatrician for the first time. Since birth, he has grown lots!

Weight: 10 lb 3 oz (birth 9 lb 8 oz)
Length: 22 1/2 inches (birth 22 inches)
Head Circumference: 15 inches (birth 14 1/4 inches)

She also checked out his whole body, especially his nose since he has been dripping milk out of his left nostril when we nurse side-lying on his left side. His nose looked fine though- it may be because I have so much milk. She's also concerned of a slight tongue tie, but it's not enough to worry about since he nurses effectively and is gaining weight rapidly. He's only got 5 ounces to go until he is a pound over his birthweight- a lot of babies are just barely back up to their birthweight at 2 weeks old!

While we were at the pediatrician's office, the girls got to go to a birthday party! They had lots of fun playing games and doing art projects. Now Dave is taking them both to a basketball game, so it's just me and Riah at home. And he's sound asleep! I guess tonight's a good night to curl up with a book. Good thing I stopped by the library to pick two new ones up today! I've been reading books from the juvenile and young adult sections lately. I got book three in the Gregor the Overlander series, and I picked up a book called The Goose Girl that my sister read and really enjoyed.

The birth of Uriah Gregory

Wednesday I had a midwife appointment and was so tired of all the prodromal labor. We realized at the appointment why my body was having such a hard time starting labor. His hands were up by his head, making it near impossible to descend much farther down in my pelvis. My midwife was able to kind of push him up, move his hands out of the way one by one, and get him back down there. She stripped my membranes (I was 5 cm when I left) and gave me instructions to go walk around before getting in the car and driving off, while keeping my hands down by where his head was to keep his little hands from going back down so he could settle in head-down. I was supposed to use wide strides. It was very awkward to walk around in public like this.

Apparently, what we did that night did the trick. Around 12:15, I felt my first real contraction. You know, the kind that make your toes curl. Not just crampy or tightness, which all my previous contractions had been. After 15 minutes, I had had three of them and Dave told me that I needed to page the midwife. I did, and told her these ones were different, and she said that we needed to go up to the birth center. I called my sister Leslie, who came over to stay the night with my kids. Since I was laughing and joking between contractions, she was not convinced I was actually in labor. To be honest, I wasn't completely convinced I was in labor, either.

We left and told the midwife we'd meet her up at the birth center. On the way up, the contractions continued to intensify and started getting closer together. We got to the birth center almost exactly at the same time as our midwife, around 2 am. She unlocked the door and let us choose a room, and started filling the tub for us. I got into "birth mode" and changed out of my clothes into my swimming suit. I was in there maybe 10 minutes when the contractions went from me being able to talk between them, joking and laughing, to having to recover from each contraction with another contraction beginning again almost immediately. The pressure was getting intense. Then my water broke in the birth tub. Dave went out to tell the midwife my water broke (she was getting set up with her assistant out of the room- and her assistant had just gotten there maybe about 10 minutes prior to my water breaking) and then I had even more pressure on my perineum!

It only took about 5-10 more minutes before I started feeling "pushy." And, oh my goodness, I have never experienced such an urge to push as I did with this baby. I literally couldn't stop pushing. I was on hands and knees in the birth tub, and his head came out. The midwife ordered me out of the tub because his cord was wrapped around his neck three times and they had to get it untangled. I leaned up against the bed, standing, with both midwives and DH behind me, working on the cord. I said, "He's coming! I can't stop it!" and baby boy shot out into Dave's hand! His other hand was holding cord! He was born at 2:52 am.

The midwife told me this was the longest cord she had ever seen. It was about four feet long. Though Dave would describe it as even longer, and he's probably a better judge of that considering I had just given birth when I saw it. Not only was it wrapped around his neck three times, it was also under BOTH arms, criss-crossing in the back.

After a few seconds, he let out a nice little cry to let us know he was okay. We weighed him a bit later, and he weighed in at 9 lb 1/2 oz, and is 22 inches long. I escaped without needing any perennial repair! I'm pretty happy about that considering how fast he came out!

This whole pregnancy, I've had a strong feeling this labor was going to go by quickly. I still can't believe how fast it all happened! Just over 2 1/2 hours from first real contraction until he was born. WOW! I can hardly believe it. My family does have a history of very fast 3rd labors... my mother, a 3rd child, was born in the hallway of the hospital during the era of twilight sleep- no medications for my grandma because it happened so quickly! I am also a 3rd child, and was born in the labor room after my dad ran frantically down the halls trying to find a doctor to deliver me.

In labor, still filling the tub.

20 minutes later, a baby!

A few hours later, right before heading home. I was a wee bit tired! Sweet little Riah always has his hands up by his face, just like when he was in the womb. Little stinker!

He's here!

Uriah Gregory

I went into labor around 12:15 this morning and after a very intense labor he was born at 2:52 am. Less than 3 hours from the very first contraction to his birth! 9 lb 0.5 oz 22 in long, 7 min pushing and only a tiny tear that doesn't require repair. Was going to be a waterbirth but the cord was wrapped tightly around his neck 3x and under each arm so I had to get out of the tub.

More details to come!

Waiting Game (aka ramblings from a very impatient pregnant woman)

It's now a waiting game for us. Lacy was born at 39 weeks and 2 days, and Rose was born at exactly 40 weeks, so I'm anticipating baby in the next couple of days or so, since I'm in the middle of week 39 now. Friday night I really felt like that was the night. I was contracting every 3 minutes or so for 6 hours. The girls were overnight with Dave's brother's family, so it was a perfect night to have a baby. But alas, when we went to see the midwife at 11, there was very little change since my appointment earlier in the week.

So we went home, went to sleep, and slept in until 11! It was great! Then, Brenda (Dave's dad's wife) and her son Kyle brought the girls back to us and we had a super fun day with them- we walked around the docks around the Puget Sound, ate a spicy Mexican dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, visited the cloth diaper store and the library, and came home to two very exhausted children who fell asleep like angels!

But of course, I had virtually zero contractions last night, despite the spicy food and all the walking. Today was Stake Conference, so I opted to stay home with the kids while Dave attended. I really hate attending SC with the kids because it is so hard to get anything out of it with trying to keep two kids occupied for two hours. Dave was able to enjoy it, though. We went to a baptism tonight which was really nice (at least I got some spiritual enrichment today!) but before we left for the baptism, I was starting to feel really icky and crampy. I'm still feeling icky and crampy and am having more regular contractions, but they're still to the point where I can eat during them, walk and talk through them, and basically function through them. Occasionally I'll get that one contraction that stops me in my tracks, but that is pretty rare. We're not calling for babysitting backup or paging the midwife unless I am fairly certain that it's the real deal, though. My body likes to tease me. But I have known with certainty when I was in labor both times, so I'm confident I'll know this time as well. But the anticipation! It's making me crazy!

So I've decided I'm going to get in my jammies, put on a DVD, and relax for the rest of the night and not worry about the contractions until they are strong enough for me to feel urgently that I need to leave my home and go to the birth center.

I have to admit that I'm really hoping for a birth tomorrow the 25th- it will continue our tradition of having our children born on the day after a blood relative (Lacy and Rose are also born on the same date as relatives-by-marriage) since today is Dave's grandpa's birthday. Also, Lacy's birth day is the 23rd and Rose's is the 24th, so it would be fun to have Riah born on the 25th!