Thinking about baby names

We are thinking, thinking, thinking....about baby boy names.

We're stumped. 

Some of you may remember that in the past, God has given us the names for our children before they were born.  (Some of you may think that's crazy, but it's true.)  We knew, in our hearts, the names for our last four children.

This time, God seems to be saying, "Hey.  You're on your own with the name this time."

I think we've forgotten how to do that.

Jeff and I generally agree on most things, but I've been shocked to learn that we don't like the names the other picks out. 

I'll suggest a perfectly great name.  He wrinkles his nose.  "Meh..."

He suggests a name, and I can think of a dozen reasons WHY I don't like his choice.

I'm learning that I'm picky.  I don't like soft sounds for boys, or certain letter combinations.  I won't even consider some beginning letters, I skip right over E, F and G (among others) on the baby name websites.  But at least I can give a good reason for why I don't like a name.  Sometimes it's because I've known too many people with that particular name.

I've taken to looking specifically through baby names from other countries, since we can't seem to find any within our own culture.

Some people think it's because we have so many boys that we can't come up with yet another name.  That's not it at all.  We just can't agree.

I asked our resident 2 year old what she thought we should name our new baby.  She thought, she got excited, she said, "Ummmm....I think.....we should.....call him........BABY!"

Big help.

Our other children are also "helpful."  They can come up with dozens of names...but none of them are serious and none of them are acceptable.

Examples:

Beo  Wolf
Hal Shar Ha Al Shaz Baz
The Peaceful Noodle
Tubal Cain
Curious George

When it comes right down to it, if we have no name by baby's birth date, I will remind them that I carried him and that I will nurse him for a year or more. 

It's a pretty good trump card.

Reason #2094 that I'm glad I'm a mom.

 There are little bits of joy lying around my days that make me say, "I'm glad I'm a mom." 

A well-loved, bedraggled, stuffed ducky napping on a mattress of dinner rolls, covered with a paper-towel blankie?    Yeah.  That's something that I spy, unexpectedly, that brings definite delight.

Baby Talk

Here he is.

Depending upon how you look at it, 3-D ultrasound pictures can look scary, or really neat.  :)

Having ultrasounds every two weeks is new for me.  I've had ultrasounds before, but usually just one per pregnancy.  I've always seen the basic outline pictures, recognized a nose or a chin - but I've never been able to see a little one so clearly before it is born.  Although I tend to think that 3-D ultrasounds look a little bit like a clay sculpture (that need a little smoothing out,) it certainly is a neat feature.  I feel like I will really know and recognize this baby by the time he arrives.

Even though I have frequent ultrasounds to check for blood velocity in the baby's brain, all is well.  Were we to try to graph problematic antigen levels, we could not.  Antigen levels are flat, and hopefully, they'll stay that way throughout.  With just 11 or so weeks to go, it looks like things will be just fine.

Baby boy looks a lot like our 5th son Ben to me.  All of the pictures have a little distortion/blurring around his lip, but the ultrasound tech says that's just because the cord crosses in front of his face and casts a type of shadow. 

The baby is a little bigger than average at this point, weighing around 2.4 lbs.   A good portion of that just might be cheeks.  The tech even said, "Wow.  He has chubby cheeks for this stage of the game!"   I'll tell you what, *I* feel plenty big.  So, maybe I'm growing a big boy.  We'll see.

In other family news, Jeff is slated to return to his work as a family counselor for a private social services agency August 3.  His healing from the last surgery has gone well, but he ended up with an irritated vertebrae in his neck that has probably bothered him even more than the surgery did.  He's had trouble sleeping and moving, so he has been visiting a chiropractor, hoping to have more flexibility before he returns to work.

My mother is having knee replacement surgery in August, and my father is having his hip joint replaced in September.  The baby is due in October.   Yes.  I know.  Crazy.  :)

As always, thanks for stopping by.  I have not given up on blogging, there's just been a million things that demand my attention right now.  I hope to see you all around!

God bless you -

Surgery update

Hi everyone,

Jeff's surgery went well.  The surgeon (who wears his emotions easily) was beaming when he came to find me in the waiting room.  (I remember the moments following the first surgery so well - he was sweating and concerned and certain that he had done his best - but uncertain as to the outcome.)  This time was very different, in that he was pleased with the interior condition of Jeff's hip joint.  I believe that he feels confident that he has been able to save the resurfaced joint.  That's such a great thing, as the alternative would have been a total hip replacement.  ( If I seem like I repeat myself - it's just that I'm aware of friends who have recently found me online, and I'm not sure how caught up they are on current things.)

When I posted yesterday, it was under the assumption that the surgery would be a fairly simple procedure of a 3-4 inch opening over scar tissue to remove 14 cement antibiotic beads.  When we visited the surgeon, he told us otherwise.  What happened, instead, was that the entire 10" scar was re-opened, the hip prosthetic was taken completely apart and washed and scrubbed (again,) and then was doused with an antibiotic powder.  It's a much more intensive surgery and thus healing process than we had counted on.  It's major joint surgery all over again.  (That's three for the count.)

That was disappointing, and yet, he seems to be doing pretty well.  He came out of anesthesia pretty hard, and is sleepy, but that all falls within the realm of normal.

That's about all I know as of this point in time.  I'll update if anything changes.

Thanks for your interest, concerns, and prayers.  They are all appreciated!

Sweet days, busy days

Sweet days, busy days, indeed.

Things have been so busy here that I have not even had time to update.  It's been on my list for several days, but it is difficult to squeeze in blogging or facebook time.

Jeff has the surgery to remove the cement beads from his hip joint tomorrow.  The week has been full, beginning with a needle aspiration of the fluid around the joint to test for infection.  No results on that yet, we should know soon, I would think.  Today, we meet with the surgeon to finalize tomorrow's plan.  Either way, infection or not, the beads have to come out.  They've done all they are going to do.

He'll have a short hospital stay of a day or two, then hopefully come home for a heal time of 2 to 3 weeks.  After that, he should be able to head back to his work as a family counselor for a private social services agency.

Things appear good on the baby front.  Baby boy is growing well, showing no signs at this point of anemia.  I'm scheduled for bloodwork and ultrasound every two weeks, which feels intensive to me, but a talk with the fetal/maternal health specialist yesterday convinced me that they do believe it is necessary.  (My blood carries a big E antigen.)  The due date is sometime in the first half of October - with this type of problem, they often opt to induce, and that can fall within a three-week time frame depending on how the baby is doing at the time.   I'm at 25/26 weeks.

My parents are still working through the process of joint replacement surgeries:  A hip for my dad and a knee for my mom.  They hope to get those surgeries in before we have the baby. 

We were recently able to get together with Jeff's family.  That's a pretty big feat as most of them are scattered geographically.  We only see his parents about once a year, and I think they were pretty anxious to see their son.  They've prayed a lot and worried some, too, over the past few months.  It was great to spend time with everyone.

Thanks for stopping by - feel free to say hello!  :)  I'll try to update here once we know how Jeff's surgery went, if the infection is gone, etc.

God bless you all!