We are five girls and one boy

The NaBloPoMo prompt for today is: Are you the oldest, youngest, middle or only child? Talk about siblings.

I am the oldest of six. I have four sisters and one brother: Michelle, Raquel, Jeannette, Jannelle, John. Here’s something I wrote about six years ago (with a little editing) at my former blogging stomping grounds on Xanga:

When I was younger, my sisters, little brother, and I would sometimes watch scary movies together and agree that we’d just sleep in the family room downstairs. All six of us would line up along the floor like tightly packed sardines. We’d watch the movies with our eyes just over the top edge of the covers so we could pull them over our faces and sink under the blankets during the scary parts. But before we got settled, we always fought over who’d have to sleep at the ends—the scariest places because you didn’t have the security of a body on both sides (maybe i should specify “a sibling’s body”). They’d tell me that I had to be at one of the ends because I’m the oldest. So I’d always pick the end that was by the fireplace—not next open space and the hallway. I’d tell the second oldest, Michelle, to take the other end because she was braver.

This post is part of the NaBloPoMo daily blogging challenge. The theme for this month is “Between,” which goes perfectly with how I’ve been feeling and where I find myself: between hope and despair, between love and fear, between trying to conceive and holding a living child in my arms.