So, despite the fact that some of my boys are hilariously squeamish about creepy crawly creatures, they have all been enamored with some of the very interesting creatures in our backyard. Burke wanted to catch this gigantic praying mantis, I tried to get him close to it for a scale picture, but it didn’t turn out all that well. You can kind of see a brownish line on the window to his left. He wouldn’t get any closer because he thought the bug might eat him. At least you get to see his cute smiling face! We didn’t get to capture it for closer examination primarily because even our largest mason jars were not large enough for this big guy!

Neils later captured this fuzzy-looking caterpillar, though he couldn’t tell me if it were prickly or furry because he opted to just scoop the thing up into the jar rather than (ugh!) touch it with his hands… who raised this pansy, anyway? (Remember, you’re talking to the girl who used to eat live grasshoppers just to gross out the boys down the street…) Anyway, we have learned some rather fascinating things about caterpillars, primarily that when fed on beet greens, they get these groovy red stripes and produce rather large quantities of poop.   

Apparently that’s what our little angel is trying to tell us.

"Um, stay put kid." That’s what I’m saying! November is a much better month for your birthday, trust me. I have a tendency towards "false labor," but never like this. Usually it’s early labor intensity contractions that start out maybe 5 minutes apart and last for an hour or so and then stop. With Keane I had contractions 10 minutes apart for about 4 hours then suddenly we were in a panic to get to the hospital on time.

Last night I had fairly intense early labor intensity contractions 13 minutes apart for about 6 hours. Well they ranged from 15 minutes to 7 minutes, they never got consistently closer together however, and they eventually decreased in intensity, so we’re off the hook. We did call our midwife after about 4 hours, however, and she gave me some herbal remedies that would space out the contractions and calm the uterus if it wasn’t real labor. And she checked me, and for all that ruckus there was no progress, so, for sure, it was a false alarm. 

It made me realize 3 things:

1. I am not ready for this baby.

(Read as: I haven’t even washed the newborn stuff and put it in her dresser yet, let alone buy tiny diapers!)

2. I really don’t want another October birthday for our family.

3. I am really glad we found a midwife!