Name Woes

We've happily had a name picked out for over two months now and have been diligently keeping it a secret. Yesterday I was reading some birth stories online and I came across an interesting story. The birth wasn't all that out of the ordinary, but the name was...the same name that we've picked out. Now, that doesn't seem weird for people that have names picked out like Emma, Jacob, Ava, etc., but our name is VERY unique (I thought) and they're using the same middle name also. The name is spelled slightly differently, but it is such a weird coincidence. I happen to know this person from an online community and she had kept the name secret until after the birth also so it's definitely not a case of either of us "stealing" a name from the other. However, it's going to look like we're name stealers to people that "know" both of us since she had her baby first. It's a good thing no one in our real life has this name and we're unlikely to meet, but I'm still a little disappointed. I was so excited about our name choice and now I feel like a thief. I wish we would have told everyone what we were naming her so there was proof that we aren't just copy cats.

My next appointment is Thursday afternoon. Hopefully I will get the all clear for our trip to Dallas on Friday or we'll be out a lot of money and fun. I haven't been feeling any contractions or anything so we should be good to go. If I'm still feeling good at the end of the month, then we might even be able to travel for Thanksgiving. Jon is on call the day after Thanksgiving, but he has that Saturday and Sunday off. We'll see. I'm getting huge so travel might become too uncomfortable.

I'm trying to figure out whether or not to take the "Parenting a Newborn" class that is offered through the hospital. We're definitely doing the all day Saturday seminar on "Childbirth Preparation/Lamaze Techniques", but I don't know if I then want to spend the next afternoon at another class. Here's what's covered in the parenting class: normal newborn appearances, physical, social, and mental abilities, basic baby care, safety, choosing baby's health care provider, and general information regarding infant feeding methods. Some of that sounds like common sense so I don't know. Keep in mind that I'm a youngest child married to an only child so I'm not the most confident mom-to-be. I'm planning to take a breastfeeding class and join La Leche League so I don't need the info on feeding methods. I think we can pick out a doctor just fine. Jon is a pro at the safety stuff and I'm planning to take the Infant CPR class that's offered. I guess I just fear that I'll miss out on some tiny nugget of knowledge that could come in handy. I plan to watch "The Happiest Baby on the Block", have read most of "What to Expect the First Year", I'm partway through reading "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding", I'm a member of a very large online community of moms where I can go to for advice, and of course, I have my sisters, moms, and friends. With all of that support and education, everything will go perfectly smoothly, right? Okay, so I thought you could use a laugh with that one. :) Well, the class is free so it's just a matter of whether I think it will be worth my time or not. I feel like I'm preparing for war.

I really don't like Trista from The Bachelorette. I liked watching that show and cheered her on when I found out that her and Ryan had infertility problems, but now I find her annoying. If you want to know why, then check out the latest US Weekly. Basically, she wants to feel hot again after having her baby this past summer. She weighs 116 and won't feel good about how she looks until she's down to 106. She wears baggy clothes to cover up her ugly body. I suppose I could feel pity for her obviously low self esteem, but it's irritating. I'm up almost 30 pounds and I still have 8 weeks of pregnancy to go. When this is all said and done, I'm going to have a lot of work to do without a physical trainer or dietitian. Poor Trista.

Jon will be done with his general surgery rotation after tomorrow. Woohoo! We survived. It really hasn't been too bad in the last couple of weeks, but I'll be glad when things are back to normal. He'll enjoy working on oral surgery patients again.

Euclid's Rough Life

Here's The Buddy AKA Euclid AKA Mr. Irresistible. He was taking a nap while I was playing around on the computer. I just want to love him and squeeze him! It's hard to believe that I'll love our child more, but that's what people tell me. Our poor child. She's going to be bruised from all of the kissing and snuggling.


Last night I think I experienced the first case of baby hiccups. There was a rhythmic thumping about an inch to the left and below my belly button. Luckily Jon was home so he got to witness it. There seems to be some sort of party going on in my uterus today. Whenever I set something on my tummy, it gets moved. Pregnancy is wonderful some days. Did anyone watch My Name is Earl last night? I really hope I don't experience anything like that. Gross! Jon will be home in a few hours and then we'll get to spend some time together at home. It's so nice to have a weekend of not traveling!

31 Weeks

Here's the belly. All I can say about the front view is WOW - I didn't realize I was THAT lopsided.


Jon's been getting home earlier lately and it's been delightful. We've had supper together every night this week. It does a lot for my emotional well-being and it inspires me to cook. We had tater tot casserole tonight. Yummy!

Great News Today

The infertility financial services lady just called and gave me some great news. A few weeks ago we received a letter that informed us that we had used up almost all of our infertility benefits with the first two IVF cycles. We only had about $1500 left out of $25000 so obviously that wouldn't have paid for much of anything. Baby-making is expensive! I knew that couldn't be right because I still had health insurance coverage through my job and the "house staff" coverage was just supposed to be used as back-up. It concerned me because our plan has been to go for baby #2 at some point during Jon's residency and we'll most likely need fertility help again. Anyway, I called the lady and she refigured everything by hand, taking into account what the hospital had actually paid for versus my other insurance and we have an amazing amount of money left over. We've only used $3200 so that leaves a little under $22000. That should pay for a couple of frozen embyro transfers (remember that we have 8 frozen embryos for the future) and possibly even a fresh IVF cycle or two. YAY! Hopefully we won't even have to use much of the coverage, but it's comforting to know we have it. We're EXTREMELY fortunate to not have to worry about the financial aspects of infertility. I wish everyone had such great coverage, but Jon is definitely earning every benefit we get. If Jon would have matched to any other hospital, we'd most likely still be struggling to get pregnant. UIHC is the only hospital that he applied to that has this kind of health coverage for its residents and there is no way we'd be able to afford IVF at this point in our lives without assistance.

We're going out to eat with Jon's sister Claudia and her husband on Saturday. We haven't seen them for a long time. They're coming to our house so they can get a look at the nursery and everything. It's strange that we both have sisters named Claudia when it's not a common name. Anyway, Jon has the whole day off on Saturday so he should be able to get some of his "honey do" projects done. He's getting a life insurance health screening at 7am so that will be fun for him. Maybe I should feed him fish for the rest of the week to improve his HDL. Too bad I can't stand the smell right now.

I'll add a belly picture tomorrow. I don't feel any different or bigger this week. However, baby girl wakes me up at night when she changes position. Hopefully she'll change to head down and stay there soon. She's probably mad because I'm always laying on my back or belly no matter how hard I try. I barricade myself in with pillows and lay on my left side when I go to sleep, but I still end up in no-no positions. I never realized how much of a back sleeper I was until I couldn't anymore. I limp around from my nerve getting pinched when I wake up on my back. That's not good. I'm assuming baby girl is surviving just fine despite the circulation issues.

We're Back!

We had a great time at the wedding. Wisconsin is beautiful at this time of year with the trees changing color. I survived the 6 hour drive pretty well and didn't kill any of the three guys in our room so all was good.

30 Weeks

Jon had the day off yesterday and it was one of the best days I've had in a long time. Sure, I've had fun showers and football games, but I got Jon completely to myself for a whole day. We didn't do a whole lot. If only I got to see my favorite person more often. We get to spend the weekend together (plus others) since we're going to a wedding in Wisconsin. I'm not looking forward to the 5+ hour drive with three guys, but I'll have a pool waiting for me so I can stretch my muscles. We'll take some pictures at the wedding so you can see my cute dress.

Here are the belly shots for 30 weeks. I've been extremely lopsided lately. I don't know if you can tell that from the pictures. My body seems to be slowly falling apart. I ache all over and I'm very tired. I'm enjoying all of baby girl's movements though. She can make ocean waves at times. Last week she was pretty still so it's been much more fun this week since she's been moving so much. It sure makes me worry less.

Nice and Clean

I'm back from Fort Dodge and my final baby shower (or baby wash as Macy calls it). It was a fun, relaxed shower. I was so pleased that one of my friends from Kansas City made the trip. I hadn't seen her for about 4 years. The hostesses did a great job. Also, my registry is looking pretty well accounted for. I can't believe how generous people have been with us. It will definitely help out, especially with me not working right now.
Here I am with Lynelle. The shower was at Lynelle's house. She's also responsible for the beautiful diaper cake pictured. Lynelle's house is kind of party central. My shower was the third shower I've been to since August held in her home. She has it down to a science.
Here I am with my sisters. Claudia is on the left and Emily is on my right. Sorry Emily, about the closed eye picture. I'll replace it with another if someone sends me one where you look like your normal self. :) I was so glad that my sisters were there to celebrate with me. Plus, Emily came up with some really fun shower games that I hadn't done before. She had a name meaning test that was based on the names of the shower invitees and she also had us make predictions of what the baby will look like based on Jon and my baby pictures.
Here's my mother-in-law Cathy creating her dream grandchild with the collage game. Some of them were really frightening. Claudia gave our future daughter a beard! Jon had a good laugh when I showed him the pictures last night. I'll have to save them...although I hope no one is right since the pictures were disturbing.