Craftiness

Gifts for friends. It's handy they are both having girls. I don't know any boy crafts.

Baby names

James and I have been talking baby names for the past year or so, long before we were actually expecting.  I was excited to start our family but I knew it would be after I finished grad school.  Part of it might have been that I was sick of school and I wanted to move on to the next step in life.  Fast forward to now and we have four months (or less) until our daughter is born.  Luckily, we have a name picked out and we both love it.  But, not everyone else loves it.  It's bound to happen.

I found this list on a message board for baby names.  It was posted by an AP English teacher whose class gave these comments about their own names:

1) I'm really glad my parents gave me a 'resume name,' but I've always wished I had a nickname.

2) My parents almost named me Glimmer, but I'm happy they chose (traditional but uncommon name) instead, because I feel like I would have had limited options with a name like Glimmer.

3) I love my name, but I wish my mom would have spelled it the normal way.  I'm named after my grandmother, but she spelled ( Biblical, but uncommon name) normally and everyone mispronounces my name.

4) I love that you don't hear my name everyday, but people know how to pronounce it.

5)I wish people knew how to pronounce my name. 

James and I both decided that we preferred old fashioned names with traditional spellings. 

We're going to name our little girl

Wilhelmina Anne Beardall 

which I like think looks more complete than just
Mina Anne Beardall

Wilhelmina is a family name, specifically my Grandma Keller's great grandma.  I love the nickname Mina and I love the old fashioned elegance of Wilhelmina. Plus, it's a Germanic name so James loves to say it with the German pronunciation (V sound in place of the W's.)

We're pretty set on Lydia Mary if we have another girl but James has some adventurous ideas for boy names.  He wants to use family names: Ronald and Magnus.  His Grandpa's first name was Ronald and James had a pioneer ancestor from Scandinavia named Magnus.  We'll see what actually happens when have a son or sons.

It's a...

We had our ultrasound this afternoon and it's a...

GIRL!

Personally, I think the 3D images are a little scary but it's neat to be able to see so much dimension.  

She'll look better with a little more fat on her bones, I think.

Pregnancy, in general

During the past 20 weeks I've had a lot of time to read about pregnancy and experience it first hand. I have been surprised by a few things:

1. My body has changed a lot. I remember coming back from Christmas break and my waist was GONE. It was so weird! It just went right down from my ribs to my hips Not that there was a huge difference before... Also weird, the pains in my ribs as the baby continues to grow.

2. I really hate the term "eating for two." The baby is TINY and does not need three adult meals in a day! I'm been trying to eat healthier and drink more water. I'm curious to see how much I have gained in the past four weeks.

3. I'm glad I'm starting to look pregnant and not just bloated. I was really terrified that I'd go the way of Jessica Simpson. I swear she has been pregnant for years! I hear she still has a MONTH to go! (side rant: I've read on message boards and websites about how Jessica Simpson is short so that's why she looks like she swallowed a beach ball. Bull crap. I'm 5'2" and I don't look like she did at Christmas. I also don't eat buttered Pop Tarts.)

4. The first trimester was intense! I felt like I had the flu for most of it. Those fun feelings lingered for a while into the second trimester too. Throwing up is awful. I'm curious if my other pregnancies will be the same.

5. Smells were the worst. And sights too. I had a really hard time going grocery shopping so James did it for a little while. It was so weird to be overwhelmed by the pictures on food labels. I wonder if that is common.

Tomorrow is our ultrasound and we'll get to see our baby! I am so happy!