Relaxation?! Who Needs It?

Baby Linnaea is often active when Ivy is. She kicks or punches, or does somersaults, or whatever it is she's doing, while Ivy is walking, and oftentimes when Ivy stoops or stands.

A couple of weeks ago we took a weekend childbirthing class, where we learned lots of techniques for relaxing and influencing the baby's position during labor.

Ivy learned that a good position for her is squatting on the ground while I sit in a chair and support her. My hands rested on her belly as Ivy let herself sag. She seemed quite relaxed.

Not so Linnaea. I could feel her dissatisfaction. Bam! Bam! Bam!

Ivy giggled a little even as she tried to relax.

Bam!

More giggling.

Eventually both mother and daughter settled down and relaxed together.

Week 27

week 26

Week 25

week 24

What's in a Name?

Assuming the ultrasound prediction is correct (and we gather that it isn't always), the coming child's name will be: Linnaea Adoracion Kling. 

Adoracion is her grandmother -- Ivy's mom. We want to raise her to know and understand both sides of her ancestry. Ivy is going to ensure that she will be bilingual in English and Tagalog (and I look forward to learning right along with our daughter), and we'd like to find a way for her to get some extended time in the Philippines during her formative years.

Naming her after her Lola Dory seemed a great way to honor that. 

Lola Dory (Adoracion Ver Yap)

And I'm honored to have a wonderful mother-in-law, so I'm very pleased with her middle name.

Linnaea has two sources. She's indirectly named for Carl Linnaeus, known as the 'father of taxonomy' for developing a system to name and classify organisms. More directly, she is named for my favorite wildflower, called Twinflower, which is found on the forest floor here in the pacific northwest. The scientific name is Linnaea borealis. 

Twin flower growing at Lake Padden in Bellingham

As the name 'borealis' suggests, twinflower occurs all along the northern tip of the northern hemisphere. It was supposedly one of Linnaeus' favorite plants, and a friend of his gave it its genus name Linnaea in honor of him. It has generally been placed in the honeysuckle plant family, but some taxonomists are now placing it in its own family: Linneaceae.

We're placing it in the Kling/Yap family.

23 weeks