Yum!

(Fair warning: this post may contain what is considered "too much information" by those of you not that interested in reading about the more intimate details of birth. Read at your own risk.)

So my kitchen smells like Thanksgiving right now. It NEVER smells this good because I don't cook--at least, I don't cook anything that requires me to add seasoning that doesn't come prepackaged. The reason for the delicious smell that is making me more and more hungry with every passing minute is that I am making...here comes the too much information part...crotchcicles! Otherwise knows as sitzbath peri pads to use after the birth. To make them, you steep a handful of uva ursi leaves, yarrow flowers, sage leaf, comfrey leaf and root, garlic, witch hazel leaves, and sea salt (all those leaves and roots and flowers are dried, by the way) in 1.5 quarts of boiled water overnight, then soak heavy duty sanitary pads in them, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze them in a bowl (to make them curved). Super soothing to the girly parts after the trauma of birth! I remember reading on one of my parenting forums that a mom there used to bring her newborn into the bath with her, which she doused with this same kind of herbal concoction, and that he spent his first few weeks smelling more like dinner than baby. Now I know why. Not a bad way to smell, lemme tell ya. Though I'm sure I'd end up eating all day long because of it.

So I've been having contractions, both Braxton-Hicks and the real thing (though weak), on and off like crazy all weekend. While we were in Ventura I did a lot more walking than usual--we brought Abby's new trike and pushed her around the neighborhood, which is much easier to do there because Dan's parents don't live on a hill like we do. I think all that walking is what did it. And today I was SO TIRED. I slept with Abby while she took her nap, and she's the one that woke me up after an hour and a half--I could have kept going for who knows how long. I'll have to go back into the archives of this blog to see when I first started feeling real contractions that were worth timing back when I was preggo with Abby. I remember timing them through "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" when Dan and I went to see it in the theater. Tough to do in the dark; I was trying to remember the times in my head because I couldn't see to write them down.

Baby's still bopping around in there. It feels like s/he's pushing on my pubic bone. It actually feels kinda good, I don't know why. We're still stumped for a boy's name. Suggestions?