Anna (now Rachel)

Introducing our sweet baby Anna ~

**Edited: We changed her name to Rachel Eve, see this post**

She was born around 7:30am on Tuesday, January 24.

She weighed 9 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.

These kids love their new sister.

We are all healthy, but tired, and trying to adjust to life with 5 kids. Anna has been super easy and a great little sleeper so far, which is helping the transition go smoother.

A (Not So) Brief Update

I've been meaning to post some pictures from Christmas but our other laptop (where I had the pictures stored) crashed two weeks ago and the hard drive was completely fried. Don't worry, I still have the pictures on my cell phone, so you'll see them eventually.

The kids have been back in school for two weeks but David has still been home because the college doesn't start classes until next Tuesday. He's been so helpful and it's been nice to be able to rest when I need it. David spent several days finishing up one of our big house projects. With the help of a good friend and his fancy power tools, David has successfully installed all the baseboards and door/window trims in our house. He also put up beadboard around Sarah's room (at 3 feet high) and the baby room (at 5 1/2 feet high). I love the way it looks! It's so nice to feel like everything is put back together again--our baseboards were pulled off over a year ago when we had the new carpet installed and we decided to upgrade from the plain, flat 1" stuff to something more modern and 4" tall. The next project will be painting all of that trim...but not for a few months.

I'm am growing larger everyday and recently hit an all-time high weight, even though I haven't gained as much as last time, I started out 15 pounds heavier. So, I feel huge and am ready for this baby to come...except that we're not totally prepared with the right car seats (to fit 5 seats in the van) or other things like that yet. My mom is coming out here next Thursday and will stay for a week. She will actually leave before my due date, but I'm really hoping (feeling pretty confident) that she won't miss the baby. Either way, having some help will be great, whether she's helping us prepare (making freezer dinners, etc.) or taking care of the other 4 kids while I take care of a newborn, I'm grateful for any aid I can get. I'm 37 weeks along now and I'll hit 38 weeks on Sunday-ish. We're planning another home birth as long as everything is going smoothly---and I hope and pray it does because the hospital here just seems so yucky to me.

I hope you are all having a wonderful 2012. Maybe my next post will be about our new baby. =)

P.S. Do you have any name suggestions for us? The kids have a name that they call her, but I am still undecided and don't have any middle names on a list either.
For first names, I prefer...
1. Very traditional names, or
2. Names that are part of our family history, or
3. Names of people we admire, and
4. Names with 2 syllables, (three syllable names are too long and always get shortened to nicknames, one syllable names often get lengthened when they are made into nicknames).

I don't want...
1. Ultra popular names (check out the top 10 names of 2011 for a list of names we won't use--at least not for a first name), or
2. Names that are too similar to Kathryn (Katie, Katelyn, Kaylynn, etc.), or
3. Names that don't translate well into Spanish (a kid whose parents both teach Spanish has a good chance of traveling abroad or living in a Spanish-speaking country during childhood, so having a compatible name is useful....my name is completely un-pronounceable in Spanish).

Okay, I think that's most of our my criteria. Middle names don't have to follow all the rules. So....any ideas?