Happy Friday!

Ok, so here are my wonderings:

• I wonder everyday if I’m having a boy or a girl. From the day I found out I was pregnant I thought it was a boy. But every now and then for a moment I think it might be a girl!
• I wonder how the hell I’m going to get this baby out! For so long you just focus on the pregnancy and I think the words, ‘you’re now in your third trimester’ made me stop and think, oh shit we’re on the home stretch now and I actually have to give birth.
• I wonder what it’s going to be like to not be pregnant! I feel like I’ve been pregnant for so long, it’s almost as if my belly and kicking baby has always been there.
• I wonder when I’ll be ready to leave the house after the baby is born.
• I wonder how the hell you do your grocery shopping with a newborn. Two words come to mind: Coles Online!
• I wonder if my belly button will ever be the same again. Actually lets just add my whole body to that!
• I wonder what Jack our dog will be like with the baby.
• I wonder what it’s going to be like to be a mum. The words hardest but best thing ever come to mind!

What did you wonder when you were pregnant?

So there’s the pressure of choosing the right name, picking a middle name, and checking the initials. And then there’s a new dilemma that I have discovered – what if someone you know has already used that name for their child?

So here’s my question. How far removed from someone do you have to be to use the same name? Obviously we would never name our kids the same as their first cousins or the same as our closest friend’s kids, because they would all spend lots of time together, and let’s be honest it would be pretty bloody confusing for all if there were 2 Streeter kids a couple of years apart with the same name.

But what if you don’t spend alot of time with someone whose child’s name you love? Let me explain it in the current situation that’s happening for me.

I was 85% maybe a little bit more sure that I was set on our girls name. Then hubby came home and was chatting about a work colleague who had bought their 12 month old daughter into work and how cute she was. As soon as the child’s name left his lips I was in love. I immediately thought that’s what I want to call my daughter. It’s so beautiful, and a little bit different, but still a proper name, if you know what I mean.

The problem? Well I think hubby is a little worried about using the same name as his work colleague because he sees the guy everyday and because his daughter is still very young. I, on the other hand don’t see any problems with it as our families don’t spend anytime together.

I do worry a little bit about looking like we’re ‘copying’, but ‘copying’ in a good way I think! Hubby mentioned that maybe if it had been on my list from the beginning then it might be different, but I didn’t think of it until he said this little girls name. My response was that you usually don’t think of names until you here them, or read them somewhere. Well that’s how it was for me anyway.

So, as always, what do you think? How precious are you about your kids names? And how far removed from someone do you think you have to be before it’s ok to borrow steal their baby names?!

Choosing baby names.

Choosing a name for your baby is a huge responsibility. Ginormous in fact. This is the name that your future child will have For. The. Rest. Of. Their. Lives. Yeah, no pressure at all!

When Hubby and I were on our way to pick up our new puppy from the RSPCA, we literally decided in about 2 minutes that he was going to be called Jack. That was seriously the quickest thing we’ve ever agreed on. That, and I’m the best wife in the world. No arguments there. Smart boy. Anyway, sorry, I digress.

So Jack was Jack in a heartbeat, but when it comes to naming an actual human being it’s quite a different story. Like most girls I picked future baby names out long ago, just like we start planning our weddings when we’re about 10 years old.

In the first few weeks of being pregnant I of course instantly started running some of my baby names past Hubby to guage how many of my negotiating skills I was going to have to call on to get my own way. Let’s just say I thought I was going to have to pull out everything I’ve got, as in a heartbeat most of my girl faves were met with the reply, NO, and I don’t think so. It goes something like this:

Me: What about Audrey*?
Hubby: No.
Me: But….
Hubby: (Butting in), I said no.
Me: Well what about Ingrid*?
Hubby: Definitely No. And then some explicitives about bad that name is, and how our child will be teased in the playground.

See what I’m up against! The other problem I’m having, as if a disagreeing Husband wasn’t enough, is that I’m really really crap at making decisions. That’s right, I’m a Libra! I can’t decide what to have for breakfast on the best of days let alone name another human being! If I had to name a baby 10 years ago it would have been Lili or Olivia for a girl and probably Brandon for a boy. I still love the girls names, but not really the boy’s name. So what happens in another 10 years time. Will I still like the names I gave my children? Oh, the drama of it.

Initially it seemed that boys were easier to name than girls. We, well I, had boy’s names coming out of my ears, and for the most part we tended to agree. But coming up with girls names? Well I’d rather try and cut my dogs toenails! Having said that we’ve now probably got 3 boys names and 2 girls names which is making choosing a girls name much easier! Oh how the tables have turned!

I’m thinking though that at 24 weeks Hubby’s just getting warmed up with his opinion! I’m sure he’s got a secret list stashed somewhere.

How did you choose your child/children’s names? Did you just know, or was it a hard decision?

*Not the real names. Names for demonstration purposes only.

Boy or Girl?

These day’s I think it’s fair to say that it’s about 50/50, those you choose to find out the sex of their baby and those who wait for the surprise. Having said that I’m really only going off people that I know, so don’t quote me on national statistics or anything!

And so, here we are preggers with our first bub, and part of me wants to know and the other part wants to have a surprise after that all that hard work, otherwise known as giving birth.

So, some friends found out because they wanted to get organised and decorate the nursery. Practical, yes. And something that I have thought of. Yes we could do a ‘generic’ nursery, but that wouldn’t be fun now would it! Not that I’m a stereotypical mother-to-be, you know pink and pretty for girls and blue and sail boats for boys. No I’m not stereotyping my future child at all!

And so a couple of weeks ago at our 12 weeks ultrasound, we ticked the box ‘No’ we don’t want to know what we’re having at the 20 weeks ultrasound. Hubby was adamant, and I was a little hesitant. You see I’ve never been good at waiting. Patience is definitely not one of my strong points. When we got engaged in January last year, I wanted to get married in March. The same year.

I’ll eat toast that is nearly done just so I don’t have to wait. I’ll beg Hubby to tell me what he bought me for Christmas, always with no luck. And so now I have to wait 6 months, yep 6 months to find out if Tic-tac is a boy or girl.

Having said all that, though, if Hubby turned around and said, Ok, let’s find out, I’d probably be hesitant!

So. Did you find out which flavour baby you were having?

Happy Friday everyone. Catch you next week. xx

Bub's affectionate nickname!

I’m sure most parents nickname their unborn baby at some stage, because lets face it, calling your future child ‘It’ isn’t very affectionate now is it!

I had an early scan at 6 weeks when the baby was just 0.37cm. That’s right, it was bloody tiny, not even half a centimetre, and yet you could see clear as day the heart pumping away. I said to hubby it looked like a jellybean, to which he replied it wasn’t big enough to be a jellybean, more like a tic-tac. And so our unborn baby has now been affectionately known as tic-tac!

Tic-tac has come a long way from 0.37cm and is now about 5cm long! And I’m sure even when tic-tac is 20cm long, it will still be called tic-tac. My brother-in-law nicknamed their unborn bub Merlot, because it was like a grape! They knew what they were having, but kept it quiet so ’she’ couldn’t be called ’she’!

So if you didn’t know if you were having a boy or a girl what did you call your unborn bub?

Wanker drivers speeding through school zones, horrible people just having no regard for other people’s property in general and worse other people’s lives.

Then last week what some would think was a very minute thing happened that made me smile. A short little message on Twitter from my ‘online’ friend Jodie that said: “Say hi to bubs from Aunty Jodie for me, ok? x”

You see I’ve never met Jodie in the sense of we’ve never met in real life. We met online through our blogs. I know that Jodie is a wonderful Mum to 3 boys, is actively involved with their school. And writes beautiful and funny posts which I look forward to reading every day. And while all this happens online, I feel like Jodie is an old friend who just lives around the corner and would in fact be a surrogate Aunty to our bub!

People often turn their noses up at people who spend a lot of time online, but for me it’s second nature. When I’m at work I’m in front of the computer all day long. When I’m at home, and Hubby’s at work, I’m usually on the computer most of the day too. It may come as a surprise to learn that I can actually be quite shy around people that I don’t know. And being able to read other people’s experiences and share mine all from the comfort of my own home really appeals to me.

I’ve written before about what an amazing community the online world can be. Perfect strangers offering support and love and sharing happy and sad stories.

So thanks Jodie for making me smile! I’m sure in the not too distant future when bubs no doubt learns to tweet before it can talk, it’ll say hi back, to its fave online Aunty!

Mum & Bub

I wrote this on Monday 1st February, and can now finally publish it!

I sat on the couch on Sunday morning (31st Jan) and thought ok I have one test left. I’d stupidly not read the packet properly and misread test 6 days before your missed period as test 6 days before your period is due.

So no wonder the tests said negative on Friday. Yes, I did 2 just in case! Then as I was cleaning up the dining table on Saturday for some reason I re-read the packet. Ugh, I thought I was meant to wait until Sunday. So here I was on Sunday morning contemplating whether to wait to see if my monthly friend graced itself with its presence or do the test.

60% of me thought I was pregnant. I had been constantly running into things for the past week seriously bruising myself, and my god did my boobs hurt! I was quite teary, and found myself crying at stupid TV shows in the middle of the day. But then the other 40% of me was a bit cranky had some cramps and thought I was getting my period. Oh well, bugger it I thought, I’ll go pee on another stick and if it’s negative this time I’ll be patient and wait and see if my monthly friend arrives on Thursday.

So I pee’d on the stick and sat it on the sink and looked away. I counted to 120 in my head, told myself if it was negative not to get upset and then turned back. I grabbed the stick mesmerized by what I saw. I walked slowly into the lounge room and sat on the lounge. There were 2 lines. 2 lines, people, TWO LINES! I burst into tears and could barely believe what I was seeing. My poor puppy had no idea what was going on and walked over and sat his head on my leg. I said to Jack (puppy), Mum’s going to have a baby. He did the doggy head tilt thing to the side and looked at me like I was talking gibberish, licked my hand then layed down beside me on the floor.

I tried to call Hubby, wishful thinking he’d pick up, he was out racing the yacht for the day. So I just sat there, puppy by my side and starred at the TV. I was desperate for a baby, but I’d also put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to get pregnant soon so I’d be out of my first trimester when we go overseas. Then I panicked that if I put myself under stress it wouldn’t happen.

Anyway, so sitting there I suddenly thought, hang on, the second line is so faint, maybe I’m too excited too early. So I raced into the supermarket and bought another one. Raced home, and whaddya know? It was positive too. So bloody relieved. So now here we go patiently waiting for the next 8 months to meet our bubba! (about 7 months, now but it was about 8 months back then! Now 10 weeks along!)

I know there’ll be some groans from the male Puff readers about how this blog will no doubt change, but sorry fella’s, I’m taking a right and heading down motherhood lane.

It’s gunna be one hell of a ride! Bring on October 2010!

Happy Friday!