Besides searching for the appropriate name for my child. I've been thinking lately exactly what and who I want her to become. I know that to some extent I won't have anything to do with it at some point in her life, when choice begins to supersede training and instruction. But, aside from my obvious curiosity as to what she'll look like, whose nose she'll have and if she'll have the Wingfield Widow's Peak, I often wonder even further down the road.
How will she behave? What are her favorite colors, smells? Will she love music and movies like me or love to read encyclopedia's on Saturday mornings like my husband. Will she bore easily? Will she be a recluse or as is the result of two similar forces coming together be an extrovert to counter her parents' shy nature?
I remember my sister saying after the birth of daughter Mya, "I'm so glad you're here." She said it as if to say "I'm so glad to finally meet you," which is what fuels my anticipation. I can't wait to meet my own creation. That sort of thing just boggles my mind; to know that something you and another create can be completely different from the originals.
My hope is that she will be the perfect balance or combination I should say of my husband and myself. I would love her to have my kindness and patience and his keen sense of awareness. I want her to be compassionate and calculating. Like her father hopefully she'll always be thinking ahead of the next person. Like me I hope she never forgets a face. I guess sensitivity and sensibility is what I want most. That should go a long way.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
What's In A Name: Part II
Okay, Naomi and Mackenzie are out. They've been knocked out by the father. He is suggesting Regan as a first name which I immediately shot down. So now we've just got Trinity. More later.
Monday, January 19, 2009
What's In a Name
This is possibly the most discussed issue surrounding the baby. Most people ask, now that they know, if I've picked out any names. The answer is "yes" and "no." We've got the last name set, right. We've selected Elizabeth as the middle name. It was my maternal grandmother's first name and paternal grandmother's middle name. Then we're left with the first, which is totally up to my husband and myself.
Currently on the short list is; Trinity, Mackenzie and Naomi. Both of us have to sign off on these, but we've got a few more to look at. I've been advised it needs to be something the child can pronounce and spell. It needs to have a nice cadence and syllabic flow. It needs to read well. It needs to be a name that will stand out, but won't be confused with all the other girls in the class with the same name.
Most of the time the names given to children are directly connected to the meaning it has to the parents.
Trinity - Representation of the three forms of God in the Christian faith. Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. Is this child holy? Of course. She's certainly a blessing to me and my husband. The fact that she found her way safely without my knowledge is miraculous in my eyes and we anticiate that she'll be a blessing to our lives and through our tutelage, she'll be a blessing to the world.
Mackenzie - From the Gaelic surname Mac Coinnich, which means "son of COINNEACH". A famous bearer of the surname was William Lyon MacKenzie (1795-1861), a Canadian journalist and political rebel. As a feminine given name, it was popularized by the American actress Mackenzie Phillips (1959-). Now does this have any real connection to an African-American family? No, but the practice of giving formerly masculine names to girls started in the last 100 years. In fact, the names Tracy, Shelley and Marion were originally male names that started being given to girls. I think this name is on the list because the sound of the name is very different. It's a first name that's a last name and it sort of covers the spectrum of the alphabet too.
Naomi - (1) From the Hebrew name נָעֳמִי (Na'omiy) meaning "pleasantness". In the Old Testament this was the name of the mother-in-law of Ruth. After the death of her husband, Naomi took the name Mara (see Ruth 1:20). Though previously common as a Jewish name, Naomi was not typically used as an English Christian name until after the Protestant Reformation.
Naomi - (2) From Japanese 直 (nao) "honest, straight" and 美 (mi) "beautiful".
Both meanings in the Hebrew and Japanese tradition are attractive to me. I must admit they are all growing on me. But I'm open to other options. I'll admit, I lean more to the traditional, WASP-Y names, but if it sound beautiful to me, I'm a sucker. This is more than likely the first of several blogs on the subject.
Currently on the short list is; Trinity, Mackenzie and Naomi. Both of us have to sign off on these, but we've got a few more to look at. I've been advised it needs to be something the child can pronounce and spell. It needs to have a nice cadence and syllabic flow. It needs to read well. It needs to be a name that will stand out, but won't be confused with all the other girls in the class with the same name.
Most of the time the names given to children are directly connected to the meaning it has to the parents.
Trinity - Representation of the three forms of God in the Christian faith. Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. Is this child holy? Of course. She's certainly a blessing to me and my husband. The fact that she found her way safely without my knowledge is miraculous in my eyes and we anticiate that she'll be a blessing to our lives and through our tutelage, she'll be a blessing to the world.
Mackenzie - From the Gaelic surname Mac Coinnich, which means "son of COINNEACH". A famous bearer of the surname was William Lyon MacKenzie (1795-1861), a Canadian journalist and political rebel. As a feminine given name, it was popularized by the American actress Mackenzie Phillips (1959-). Now does this have any real connection to an African-American family? No, but the practice of giving formerly masculine names to girls started in the last 100 years. In fact, the names Tracy, Shelley and Marion were originally male names that started being given to girls. I think this name is on the list because the sound of the name is very different. It's a first name that's a last name and it sort of covers the spectrum of the alphabet too.
Naomi - (1) From the Hebrew name נָעֳמִי (Na'omiy) meaning "pleasantness". In the Old Testament this was the name of the mother-in-law of Ruth. After the death of her husband, Naomi took the name Mara (see Ruth 1:20). Though previously common as a Jewish name, Naomi was not typically used as an English Christian name until after the Protestant Reformation.
Naomi - (2) From Japanese 直 (nao) "honest, straight" and 美 (mi) "beautiful".
Both meanings in the Hebrew and Japanese tradition are attractive to me. I must admit they are all growing on me. But I'm open to other options. I'll admit, I lean more to the traditional, WASP-Y names, but if it sound beautiful to me, I'm a sucker. This is more than likely the first of several blogs on the subject.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Two Days Later
So it's about 48 hours later and I'm scheduled for my first ultrasound since as it turns out I'm right about due for one. We get to the doctor's office early in the morning and go inside this room with a computer screen and a bed. I can see the monitor on the wall where I'm laying and I get some more jelly on the belly so we can find out just how far along I really am.
The sonographer is warm and friendly and she starts sliding the scanner across my stomach and asks if we want to know the sex of the child and my husband and I say in unison, "YES!" Well in looking at the feet and legs which apparently the baby loves to show we can see it's a girl. For the first time we see movement of feet, hands, legs, nose, spine, chest, fingers and the heartbeat. It's very real to me now and it's very strange to know that what I'm watching on the screen is actually happening inside me.
One of the things we discover is that she, yes we're calling her "she" now, doesn't really "like having her picture taken." She keeps her hands in front of her face and the sonographer can't take all the pictures she needs to. I discover later, in a fetal echo cardiogram, that she's probably sensitive to the sonic wave because she tends to move around a lot during the procedure.
The cool, quiet, dark room is putting my husband in nap mode and he's struggling to stay awake in between the obvious images we see. He asks questions to keep himself up. So about 30 minutes later of pictures/measurements of her head, femur and spine the OB comes in to take a few more pictures and concludes 1) I'm about 21 and a half weeks; 2) I'll be due approximately May 12th; and 3) We have a healthy baby girl.
So, who do we tell first?
Baby Feet
Unfortunately, this is the only image we got on the CD that was recognizable to the untrained eye (that would be me). All the others were a smudges as far as I could tell.
The sonographer is warm and friendly and she starts sliding the scanner across my stomach and asks if we want to know the sex of the child and my husband and I say in unison, "YES!" Well in looking at the feet and legs which apparently the baby loves to show we can see it's a girl. For the first time we see movement of feet, hands, legs, nose, spine, chest, fingers and the heartbeat. It's very real to me now and it's very strange to know that what I'm watching on the screen is actually happening inside me.
One of the things we discover is that she, yes we're calling her "she" now, doesn't really "like having her picture taken." She keeps her hands in front of her face and the sonographer can't take all the pictures she needs to. I discover later, in a fetal echo cardiogram, that she's probably sensitive to the sonic wave because she tends to move around a lot during the procedure.
The cool, quiet, dark room is putting my husband in nap mode and he's struggling to stay awake in between the obvious images we see. He asks questions to keep himself up. So about 30 minutes later of pictures/measurements of her head, femur and spine the OB comes in to take a few more pictures and concludes 1) I'm about 21 and a half weeks; 2) I'll be due approximately May 12th; and 3) We have a healthy baby girl.
So, who do we tell first?
Baby Feet
Unfortunately, this is the only image we got on the CD that was recognizable to the untrained eye (that would be me). All the others were a smudges as far as I could tell.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
You're 'Bout Half Way There
I've always considered myself a late bloomer. I don't necessarily procrastinate, but things, events just seem to happen to me after they've happened to everyone else I know and I am totally oblivious as they are happening to me. I begin this blog with the date Monday, December 29, 2008.
After having worrisome feelings that I might have some sort of fibroid tumor or ovarian cyst the size of huge meatball, I scheduled an appointment with my gynecologist or whoever was available to see me after the holidays. My 11:15am appointment was suppose to reveal that everything was fine and that I may need an ultrasound to find out exactly what this bulge in my lower abdomen was. Did I think that perhaps it could be another life form? Nooooo. There was no way I was about to have a child.
So after an exam, my doctors confirms there is something there, hinting "it feels like a uterus." Why did she have to say that, sending my head spinning while laying up on that exam table? So she comes back in with her sonogram wand, listening for a possible ...... heartbeat! I get the cool gel and she mushes the instrument on the right side of my belly. Funny, I never used to use that word until now. And we hear static underwater current-like sounds and I can see her searching with her eyes for a sound. Nothing. Then she switches sides to the left and there it was. The muffled "wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow" of my child's heart beating. "That's not you, that's baby," she concluded and my mind was racing.
She leaves the room to set up an appointment for an ultrasound and all the other tests will be needed in the coming weeks. I'm still sitting on the exam table in my gown, in utter shock and disbelief while I hear here talking to nurses on the phone. She comes back into the room and tells me she thought I'd have my clothes on by now, but the moment was a lot to take in. Then I asked her how far along did she think I was thinking like 8 or 9 weeks, right? "Your about 20 weeks." My bottom lip and jaw are in my lap as I realize a full pregnancy is 40 weeks. "Yeah, you're 'bout half way there."
After having worrisome feelings that I might have some sort of fibroid tumor or ovarian cyst the size of huge meatball, I scheduled an appointment with my gynecologist or whoever was available to see me after the holidays. My 11:15am appointment was suppose to reveal that everything was fine and that I may need an ultrasound to find out exactly what this bulge in my lower abdomen was. Did I think that perhaps it could be another life form? Nooooo. There was no way I was about to have a child.
So after an exam, my doctors confirms there is something there, hinting "it feels like a uterus." Why did she have to say that, sending my head spinning while laying up on that exam table? So she comes back in with her sonogram wand, listening for a possible ...... heartbeat! I get the cool gel and she mushes the instrument on the right side of my belly. Funny, I never used to use that word until now. And we hear static underwater current-like sounds and I can see her searching with her eyes for a sound. Nothing. Then she switches sides to the left and there it was. The muffled "wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow" of my child's heart beating. "That's not you, that's baby," she concluded and my mind was racing.
She leaves the room to set up an appointment for an ultrasound and all the other tests will be needed in the coming weeks. I'm still sitting on the exam table in my gown, in utter shock and disbelief while I hear here talking to nurses on the phone. She comes back into the room and tells me she thought I'd have my clothes on by now, but the moment was a lot to take in. Then I asked her how far along did she think I was thinking like 8 or 9 weeks, right? "Your about 20 weeks." My bottom lip and jaw are in my lap as I realize a full pregnancy is 40 weeks. "Yeah, you're 'bout half way there."
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