Developments

Yesterdays nap went better, Arabella let me have a long nap while she played, and the house was not burned to the ground while I slept. And bedtime was easy and early. I know it won't always be this way, but any naptime that doesn't have me yelling and threatening is good.

And, Frank, Arabella does say she needs a job. Yesterday Arabella helped out by clearing the mountain of stuffed animals off her bed and even removing the sheets so I could put clean sheets on. Very impressive. I may decide to just train her for working here instead of shipping her to a distant Nike factory. Right now she is trying to swiffer the bedroom floors with a cloth-less (and so useless) swiffer. At preschool on Tuesday she was very industriously vacuuming with a toy vacuum and I told another mother, I don't know where she gets that, its not as if she sees me use one very often.

Pregnancy and the Internet

I browse the internet these days, but the one piece of information I crave is one no website can tell me. When and how fast. When will I go into labor and how fast will it be. For some people this may seem an odd preoccupation, but with Arabella arriving after only 3 1/2 hours of contractions, this is a serious situation. My biggest fear is having an unplanned and unwanted home birth. No offense to home-birth advocates (I have several neighbors who I respect and enjoy who are big on home-birth) but I don't want to give birth at home when I can stay in a nice hospital where they bring me food and change the sheets and are always a button-call away.

My father insistence (though I know he is wrong about this) that subsequent labors are always shorter doesn't help my concern. Dad is so helpful. The Man hasn't been to the gym lately, I think because he is worried I will go into labor while he is gone, and I will have no way to reach him.

If we could have some way of predicting, I would be so much happier, but all I have managed to learn backs up what I already knew -- when babies are ready, they will make an appearance.