Emotionality

I wanted to write a list of things that have made me cry while I've been pregnant, but I think a shorter list might be "Things That Don't Make Me Cry While Pregnant."

I realized that perhaps I have become slightly over-emotional when I walked into Kenzie's first grade class as a surprise guest and got all choked up seeing her happy, toothless grin of excitement. She was sitting on the floor, surrounded by her classmates, and she looked so grown-up. I didn't want to embarrass the poor girl, so I managed to keep it together, but seriously, who cries just because they see their kid at school?

The next hint that perhaps everything is not right in the hormone department came while I was driving home from shopping. "Home" by Dierks Bentley came on the radio and I cried real tears when he started singing the chorus. "From the Mountains high, to the wave-crashed coast, there's a way to find better days I know. . .This is still the place that we all call home."

"Oh," I sobbed aloud to my empty car. "America really is great."

Now that heartburn is settling in (Just in time for the holidays!), perhaps I will become a little more angry and less sensitive.

Baby Names

We're not finding out whether this baby is a boy or girl. This has been met mostly with, "Oh, that'll be fun," reactions from people who are probably thinking, "You lunatics. That's like not taking penicillin or not having a computer." I have to admit that it was my idea. My sister Alisha did it this way and she thought it was marvelous, and being a curious soul, I wanted to see what it was like. Because hey, birthing without drugs does not provide me with enough excitement. Just call me an adrenaline junkie.

Mike is more in the "we're lunatics" camp about not finding out, but because I am swelling to giant portions and I am capable of squashing him like a bug just by sitting on his lap, he is willing to go along with my plan. Although he did try to see what it was at the big 20-week ultrasound, his ultra-sound reading skills were not as good as his engineering skills. He suspects that it is another little girl (Oh the Hair! uttered in the same tone of despair as Herbert Morrison's report on the Hindenburg disaster), because the ultrasound technician began saying, "Oh she's looking so good. Look how beautiful she is. I see her little leg." But later the technician did say, "I don't know why I'm calling it a she. I really don't know what sex it is."

I suspect that it is another baby. I have no intuition one way or another. I was a big believer in mother's intuition and all that pregnancy glow and feeling about just knowing what you're having until Hannah. I was sure Hannah was a boy. Positive. The pregnancy was so different from when I was pregnant with Kenzie. I was sick (with Kenzie I wasn't sick). I had heartburn. I was carrying differently. I had dreams that it was a boy. I just knew it was a boy. At the ultrasounds they would say, "Yep. A little girl." and I would shake my head and say, "You can never be sure, huh?" And secretly think that all this technology really didn't amount to much. I was positive it was a boy.

Then Hannah was born and my belief in mother's intuition was shot. (Don't worry Hannah, I'm glad you're a girl and it was probably best to rid me of my false beliefs early on in motherhood.)

Anywho, we're keeping our options open for names. We'd like to go for a name that ends in a -uh sound, as in "Hann-ah", since we've got Ellie and Kenzie.  Here's what I've come up with for boys, "Noah." The end. I like Noah, although my friend just named her baby Noah, and one of Mike's cousins just name their baby Noah. So maybe there's just a flood of Noahs. (Haha.)
For girls, I like "Ava" but our neighbor's little baby is Ava.

Hannah suggests that, "If it's a girl, we'll call it Sunny. If it's a boy, we'll call it Moony." Then she pauses and adds seriously, "And we can call him Moonface."  (I think she's hoping for another girl.)