Halfway to Baby! And The Name Game

Wow! I can't believe we're already halfway to his due date! Granted, we weren't aware of anything for the first 4-5 weeks, but that was 15-16 weeks ago! Amazing how fast it's going.

Baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and will be in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).


I'm finally starting to sorta show more obviously. I've been able to notice for awhile but now it's really looking like I might be pregnant. Not that anyone's asked yet. I've gained around 5-6lbs so far, which I think is about normal. After the first trimester, I'm supposed to put on about a pound a week. Seems like a lot. Maybe when my appetite increases.

I feel him moving around daily now. A few days ago when we were lying in bed, he actually kicked or punched or shifted so hard, I screamed a little with surprise. It was pretty strong! Unfortunately Matt hasn't felt it yet. I can feel baby's movements but only internally still; I can't feel them with my hand on my stomach most of the time. They've changed from feeling like fluttery/goldfish-swimming/top-spinning feelings to what now feels like muscle twitches... or like someone inside you lightly punching you from the inside. I was really excited to feel him; it's still very cool and makes me feel more connected to him, but... I can see how this could get annoying, especially as he gets bigger and stronger. It's so unpredictible and surprising.

I meant to post updated pics of the artwork for his room that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Here it is... and it's actually kinda cute, but not what I expected. His room is very slowly coming together. We just bought a crib. We have a bassinet that he'll sleep in at first in our room, but I also wanted a crib now so I can put him down for naps there during the day, since his room is right next to my office. Plus it'll get him used to his room. We need to start baby-proofing some of the house.

Hard to believe it's the end of October! I've been trying to walk at least every other day, and last weekend was GORGEOUS! I took the Duerst dogs on a walk out on the "trail of tears."

But just a few days later, in true Central Oregon fashion, it was snowing in the morning. It melted shortly after and has warmed up a bit since, but yeh, snow before Halloween... you can count on it. Still, there's something about this area I love. Probably it's that we don't go many days without seeing the sun, even if it's cold.

So... baby names. Matt and I had already discussed names of our future children starting... oh, when we were dating. Matt had told me a name that he loved for a boy before we were even engaged. We had a hard time finding other names we agreed on, for boy or girl. But eventually, we thought we'd come up with one of each that we agreed on. Matt would sometimes call our hypothetical future children by these names. But... it turns out, as uncommon as the boy's name Matt loved is, it's also a name that someone in the family likes, we discovered when we were talking to them about names we liked. So when we found out we're having a boy, we thought it would be polite to get their feelings on the name again, since it'd been quite awhile since that conversation, and more so because it's not worth it to us to pick a name that would just cause hurt feelings. Apparently, they are in love with the name too. And because Matt is a peace-maker and wouldn't want to upset anyone, and because, in all honesty, I like the name, but I like it more so because Matt loves it than actually liking it for my son, we decided to go with a different name than we'd originally thought. I'd had a new #1 name, which was Matt's #2 or nearly #1.5, and when I say the name, it sounds right. And when I look at our ultrasound pics, it seems like the right name... But... we may wait to publicly announce it. Though I'm 99% sure we won't pick something else.

It is REALLY hard to pick a name! Obviously we've thought about it for some time, even before we were pregnant and knew it's a son. We'll hear names we like from time to time and ask the other, and we almost never both like it. I feel like I want Matt to really love his son's name. He's a man; he has a better sense of what other men would accept as a name of a fellow bro.

And even though we had these two names we were really considering, we still both went through several name lists, independently picking our favs to then cross-reference. The only same name on the list is the one we're (most likely) choosing. Mainly we had a few different baby name apps that we referenced. I also looked through the Social Security's baby names site, which is really interesting and you should look at sometime. It shows the popularity of names over time, -by year -by name -by region -popular twin names -names after cities... seriously, it's interesting.

One particular baby name app, What To Expect- Baby Names, I had thought seemed like a pretty comprehensive list. They have the top 1000 by year (1950-2009), though it's alphabetical, an alphabetical listing of names, and then filters you can use to look at names by origin. And you can add names you like to a "favorites" list. So we were using this app but came to realize, they have a lot of HORRIBLE names on the list! Honestly, where did they get these names?! Matt kept saying "where is the filter to only look at names actually used in this country in this century?" Not to be rude, but here is a list of some of the worst names I saw on the app; see if you'd consider any of these for your son:

Adolf, Abukcheech, Abooksigun
Bendigeidfran, Beowulf
Cooey, Cumhea
Dealbeorht, Divyanshu, Dubhglas
Enkoodabooaoo, Eanruig
Felamaere
Glaleanna, Gahmuret
Haestingas, Henbeddestr, Huldiberaht, Hwitcumb
Infant (seriously?!), Inerney
Jazzalyn, Joop, Jyll
Kynthelig
Lugaidh, Luxovious
MacDhuBh, Muireadhach
Nancie, Nahiossi (which means "has three fingers" in Cheyenne)
Oxnatun
Pinochos, Pwyll
Qssim
Rygecroft
Shaku, Searbhreathach, Saebeorht
Talmadge, Tahmelapachme
Uaid
Voisttitoevetz, Vortigem
Waeringawicum, Wselfwulf, Wyrttun
Xalbador, Xarles, Xzavier
Yissachar
Zayit, Zdenek

Seriously, where did they come up with this list?! Is this every name EVER?! And I didn't even see my favorite- LeMathew - on the list.

Let's end the week with some cute pets! Jack NEVER sits on my lap; maybe he finally realized he better sit while he still can. He was extra lovey today, not just with me.