The name game

Who knew I could post so frequently? With the baby fast approaching (and I say that with great trepidation as Papoosie Girl arrived four weeks early) we need to come up with a name. Since all of you are so gifted in spotting the bad ones and overflowing with good ones I am putting this out there for one and all to help. Despite a big show of getting the books out and Papoosie Girl enjoying reading them we have not had an earnest name discussion.

My last name is Greek, not too long and ends with an "S" and both my girls have fairly classic, feminine names ending in an "A" one is a bit more common and one is not. Both however, are pretty and girly and you would not have to guess their gender say on a class list. I am leaning so strongly towards Amelia now I even refer to the baby in my head by that name. Other names we (ok mostly me) have come up are: Melina, Makena, Olivia. There is also the fact that both my girls names have a Greek meaning and I would like to stick with that. Amelia, Melina and Olivia have Greek meanings, Makena is a town on Maui we visited and I just like how it sounds.

I am thinking of Jane for a middle name for a girl no matter what the first name is, it was my great grandmothers name and I just like it. This has not been met with any kind of approval as of yet mind you. Other than that we have no ideas for middle names and I am not sure we want to go the family route since we didn't do that before, except for Papoosie Girl who has my maiden name as a middle name (and it is now an up-and-coming first name) and it was in honour of my Dad. Rosebud's middle name was just a name I liked.

Here is the fun part, we know it is a girl! After a very dramatic Christmas Eve trip to Labour & Delivery for assessment with what we now know was a kidney stone and a trip back Christmas Day for four hours for an ultrasound and follow-up - we found out it is indeed another daughter. I can't say I am surprised, but officially knowing just makes it all the more exciting.

So I am asking for suggestions, anything at all really. I would say it is fairly certain we will go with a name ending in an "A" since I like how they all sound together, but you never know. If the right name comes along it is the right name. I hope we will know it when we hear it.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. Mine have been a bit strange, but we have salvaged what we could and with the help of our family were able to celebrate and be thankful for a healthy baby girl on her way.

A nice little update

Hello one and all. Or more likely one at this point in my sketchy blogging career. I know it has been several months...here are some random updates.

I am still pregnant, I am about 8 weeks away from delivering by a scheduled cesarean, based on the fact that Rosebud was breech and resulted in a cesarean. My doctor feels strongly I should just go ahead with another one. I had, actually still have, mixed feelings about it all and really don't want to go through the surgery again, but the doctor feels really strongly about. Some of the doctors in the clinic say that if I go into labour before my scheduled date and all is well, I can certainly go ahead and try a natural delivery. The problem is when they all start talking risk factors and the likelihood of complications I get all panicky. When one of the main complications is death it does that to a girl.

Still on the medical front I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and right now I am still in the phase of keeping track of my sugar levels for now. I am not on insulin as of yet, and hopefully won't have to, but as of right now I am having a hard time keeping my levels, well level. The diet I am following is not too bad and the biggest problem I am having is eating as much as they say to eat. Usually at the end of the day I am way behind, I do alright with the meals, but I can never manage to get in the snacks. I go back to the clinic this week so I am sure they will have lots of advice on where this is going.

To be honest I am just tired now. The pregnancy has finally caught up with me these last few weeks and at nearly 32 weeks I am feeling it. Up until now I have pretty much been operating as usual, now I am finding myself out of energy by noon. With Christmas fast approaching it is getting harder and harder to keep up.

Aside from all that I do feel pretty good for a tired, old pregnant lady. I have only gained two pounds and even though I still have some shopping to do I am pretty organized. It helps that we are not entertaining at all at our house this year. We will be fed and entertained from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day at our families, which takes a huge burden off of me. Even stranger this year was the canceling of several of our long-standing events. We have been able to add in some spontaneous fun these past few weekends with some of the free days.

I do love the holidays and I am starting to get really excited and so are the girls. This will be our last Christmas just the four of us and I am trying to soak it all in. Try as I might I cannot imagine the new baby in our mix yet, I realize that sounds a bit bad and I don't mean it that way. It is just that every time I try to imagine us as five, with a little baby in tow I just come up blank. As this baby kicks me as I write this I know that very soon this will all make sense.

This may or may not be pregnancy related, but this morning I burned ground beef. Exciting right? I mean I am not a five-star chef or anything, but I can usually handle browning some ground beef and sauteing veggies to make a big batch of sauce. I went ahead and picked out the really burned parts and made the sauce anyway. Now I wonder if that was a good idea, dinner time will tell.

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday however you celebrate. I have everything I want, other than maybe a few more hours in the day. I have really cut myself some slack this year and it feels great, while at the same time a bit drafty if that makes sense. I plan to fit some baking in this weekend and we are taking the girls to see some Christmas windows downtown.

I will be in touch hopefully once more before the baby arrives and if not I promise to let everyone know when the big moment happens.

Happy Holidays to all.