Quick Baby Update

Readers,

Well, the baby's getting ready to come much earlier than LittleMum did. I don't know if that means she'll come early, but she's in position and my body's getting ready for labor.

I have finally packed the bags! Everything's ready to go, so we just wait. My certified nurse midwife said that we could go ahead and schedule the birth if we wanted. The baby's good size (a little less than 7 1/2 pounds), conditions are favorable, and everything looks good. I would like to wait until the baby's ready to come. I think it makes it a little more difficult for attending physicians and CNMs, though... I'm sure Dale would prefer to attend the birth on a day he doesn't do clinic hours. He'd have to run back and forth from Layton to Ogden during my labor.

If the baby's born on her due date, it'll still be a week and five days. If she comes early, it could be any time now. Pretty amazing that it's almost here!

I still may post a photo of the "before" me, but that would require Paul's cooperation. He's at work for the next few days, so if I remember while he's here...

The Name Game

Both Grandmas posted a comment guessing what frequently asked questions we get asked most frequently... and Grandma Hurd guessed correctly to the one: "Have you picked a name?" The answer, "No, not yet" is the appropriate answer to that question. *sigh*

Yes, we have a bit of a challenge in the name department. I come up with suggestions, which Paul readily dismisses. He can't really give reasons most of the time; the names I suggest just don't strike him in the right way, I guess.

Paul has come up with a couple of suggestions, which I don't mind, but don't necessarily prefer. He came home from work one day and said, "The nurses at the hospital have been trying to help me come up with names." So I asked, "What did they suggest?" The only name he could remember was Shea, because the others he readily dismissed (just as he does with my suggestions). I told my sister a few days later about the name, and she said, "That's cute... and you could give her a middle name Lynn. Shea Lynn." "Cute," I thought. So I suggested that to Paul. "Yuck," he said (or something to that effect; I don't quite remember). So Shea's okay, but Shea Lynn is unacceptable. And we differ on spelling too... He thinks if we spelled it Shea, people would end up calling her "Shee-a," so we ought to spell it Shay or Shae. So that's a possibility that we haven't crossed off the list yet.

The other suggestion he came up with the other day was Sally. I like it... but it hasn't quite settled with me. It would be cute for a little girl, but how appropriate is it for a grown woman? And the fact that it's a nickname for Sarah feels a little strange. Does that mean she'd be named after her mommy?

Yesterday I got on the internet and Googled "Baby Namer." I found some good sites to help me figure out our next baby naming steps. Probably the most helpful site I found was Oxygen's "Find the Best Name for Your Baby." It includes perceptions, namesakes and potential drawbacks for names parents are considering.

Another gem I ran across was called "The Utah Baby Namer." Okay, so I knew that historically Utah had been known for some very strange names. But to see many real names posted on this web site was hilarious. If you visit, make sure you read "What's in a Utah Name" to understand how these names come about. I guess that Paul and I are somewhat guilty of a Utah name with LittleMum... one feature is combining either parents' names or grandparents' / ancestors' names. And LittleMum is a combination of Grandma Hurd and Grandma Fisher. We figured it an appropriate tribute to the women who brought us into the world and mean so much to us. Hopefully LittleMum's name is not too bad... at least it's a name that can be seen in other regions. My niece and her husband recently named their new daughter Avrianna, which is a combination of four grandmas' names (Avis [maternal great-great-grandmother], Carrie [maternal grandmother], Anne [maternal grandmother], and the fourth which I can't remember). Avrianna made my favorite name for my little one, Ava, a little less desirable. I wanted to pay tribute to my sweet grandmother as well. But Paul didn't like it anyway.

The Utah Baby Namer led me to another fun tool, although I don't know how helpful it is. It's called the NameVoyager, and it shows the popularity of any name you type in from the 1880s to 2004. Apparently, my parents were on the leading edge of a trend when they named me "Sara" in 1974. The names Sara and Sarah were very popular in the 1980s.

And then I started on a very big tangent, Wes Clark's "Avocado Memories." Wes and his wife run the Utah Baby Namer site, so I linked to this find from there. Wow, this guy has so many incredibly fun memories of growing up in Burbank, California in the 60s and 70s. He has posted photos that he took of his home growing up, documenting his parents' interesting attempts at home decorating. His memories encouraged me to look back at my own childhood (hey, we had avacado appliances, mustard yellow carpet and a wood-paneled station wagon), and I think it would do the same for you. I had intended to make this post yesterday, but got sucked right into Wes Clark's world. Enjoy!

So, back to the original intent of this post... the name. Although I could just decide and tell Paul that's the way it is, he does have strong opinions and I'd like him to have a say. He may still get some inspiration or something... and a few weeks ago he said, "just don't think about it for a while and maybe I'll come to like something I didn't like before." Time's short, but I figure we'll come up with something. Even if we have to bring the baby home as "Baby Girl" and call her real name in.

Have you taken the time to watch the leaves fall?

I took a break in the middle of that last post to watch the leaves fall with LittleMum. We've got a big tree outside of our sliding glass door, and the leaves have turned yellow and started to fall. I was surprised to see that many of the leaves had already fallen, and decided that we'd not have leaves on the tree too much longer. As we sat there, we'd round our mouth with a sharp intake of breath as we saw one fall, and then LittleMum would say "one time," then "two times," etc. She'd start over when she reached ten... "Ten times..." "One time..."

We read the scriptures a bit after that. LittleMum is funny when we read scriptures; she'll point to one verse, and then a totally different page and different verse for me to read. So of course it makes little sense because it's not in order, but reading the "scrip-ures" is something she really enjoys.

We also waved to our shadows on the floor. LittleMum had her hair up in pigtails again today, and I asked her who's shadow she was waving to, and she said it was "Mei's shadow."

And lastly, here's a contribution from LittleMum:
kn nnnbnbn nnnnnnnnnnnbnnb nnbbbbbjbbjnjjn jnnb nnnnnnjnnnnnnjjjjjnjjjj

nnnnnnbnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bjjjjjjjnnjnbbbbbnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvvv nnnnnnbnbvbbbbbbbbbbbbbbhhhhhh bb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbvbbbnmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Answers to FAQs

I taught the women's organization in church today (called the Relief Society), and because everyone at church is asking about my pregnancy and the soon-to-arrive, I began my lesson with "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions." Here's a sampling:

• Less than four weeks
• Girl
• No, not yet
  
• Big, and excited to have a baby

I'll bet you can guess the questions... this can be like Baby Jeopardy. No money for prizes, though

Our LittleMum

LittleMum's response when we put her hair in pigtails is this: "I look like Mei!"

For those of you who are familiar with the Japanese animated film Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro), you'll know who Mei is. When we rented the English version of the movie, LittleMum watched it over and over again and loved it. I wish we could own it, but the version we rented is no longer available (I wouldn't want to own it anyway, as it has no original Japanese track), and Disney has not come out with its version. This Hayao Miyazaki classic is immensely popular in Japan, and when I was there as a missionary I saw Totoro merchandising all over the place. With good reason - the movie is delightful and the animation appeals to young and old. I've preordered Disney's version from Amazon.com, but they are publishing its release date as Dec. 31, 2025 (huh?). I hope we don't have to wait that long...

So are you curious? Here are some pictures of "big Totoro," "little Totoro," "Satsuki," and "Mei" (in LittleMum's words).

LittleMum's awfully cute in pigtails, but she hates Mommy to mess with her hair. As a result, most days she looks like this:
The "whiny look" is not too typical, luckily... but the "bedhead look" is pretty standard. And even better - Mommy cuts her hair. Poor girl. Hopefully she won't be scarred for life.

LittleMum is an active, delightful little girl. She's excited for her baby sister to come, but not sure yet what to expect. Neither are Mommy and Daddy. We hope that she's a loving, helpful big sister.

LittleMum's favorite pasttimes are learning ASL and signing, drawing, "reading" books, singing, dancing, bossing people around, and acting out scenes from her favorite DVDs. She loves Primary songs, especially "If you chance to meet a frown..." "I am a Child of God" and "Book of Mormon Stories." When we put her down for a nap, we often hear her singing at the top of her voice in her bedroom instead of sleeping.

I know I'm biased, but LittleMum is, without a doubt, the cutest two-year-old in the world...

Prepping for Baby's arrival

I have received many requests from friends, clients, and family members that they be informed when our new baby girl makes her appearance in November. "How can I make this easy?" I thought. I first started creating a web page, but my knowledge of html is pretty rudimentary. It would be a challenge for me to make it look good, and it would take more time than I currently have. When our daughter LittleMum was born, two-and-a-half years ago, we used Babies Online to announce her arrival and post pictures.

This time around, I think we'll try Blogger. Blogger will give us the chance to communicate our thoughts and experiences as well as our photos. It also gives you the opportunity to respond to what you see and read... not just your congratulations, but your own thoughts and experiences as well.

Baby is due to arrive November 12, 2005. She's been moving around like crazy... I think she's getting excited to join our family. Perhaps in the coming weeks, I'll post a photo of my growing belly, but I'm not promising anything... :-)