Baby Names II - Celebrities

Last night my husband and I watched a VH1 show about celebrity baby names. We didn't get any new ideas, but we had fun talking about names we would give our kids if we were celebrities (Diesel, Scooter, and Zoom).

A brief quiz (no fair using the Internet!):

1) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Alchamy
b) Audio Science
c) Pilot Inspektor
d) Sintax Erra

2) Which of the following is *not* the name of a son of Rob Rodriguez?
a) Racer
b) Razor
c) Rebel
d) Rocket
e) Rogue

3) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Poppy Honey
b) Sweet Cherry Baby
c) True Isabella Summer

4) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Cooper Alan
b) Hopper Jack
c) Piper Maru
d) Sailor Lee

5) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Boston
b) Brooklyn
c) Ireland
d) London
e) Milan

6) Which of the following *is* a celebrity baby name?
a) Five
b) Seven
c) Ten

7) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Apple
b) Kiwi
c) Peaches

8) Which of the following is *not* a celebrity baby name?
a) Fifi-Trixibelle
b) Hannabella Bea
c) Saffron Sahara
d) Tallulah Belle
e) Tallulah Pine

9) Which of the following *is* a celebrity baby name?
a) Kyd
b) Normal
c) Proxy

Answers:
1) D
2) B
3) B
4) A
5) E
6) B
7) B
8) B
9) A

It's a girl!!

My two weeks of being inundated with doctor's appointments is over, culminating in an ultrasound that determined that a) all is well with heart valves and other important parts and b) we are having a girl! At least, the ultrasound tech and the radiologist both said so, but honestly all the ultrasound pictures looked like unidentifiable blobs to me. Except the hands.

Though we are grateful to be temporarily saved from the circumcision discussion, my husband and I have had to start discussing baby names again. The trick is finding something that is new and hip without being too obscure or popular. Our top choices:

Avery (#66)
Casey (#404 - seemed to hit its peak in 1992)
Quinn (#676)
Skyler (#315) / Skylar (#154)
Yvie (not listed - we made it up because my grandmother's name, Yvonne, was too old-fashioned for my husband's taste)

The numbers after each name represent the popularity ranking for this name for girls in 2005. The government maintains a very handy website of name popularity based on social security applications for newborns.

I am hesitant about giving my child a name that is too popular, but then, thinking to my own experience, my name was about as popular in 1972 as Avery is now, and my sister's name is extremely popular and she has not seemed to suffer ill effects or much inconvenience. Hmm, how much of this is about my own investment in being cool and hip and not a sheep, and how much of this is about picking a name that we (and our kid) can live with for her entire life?

For a more in-depth discussion of trends in baby-naming, I recommend Freakonomics. There is an extensive analysis of baby names given to California babies for the last 40 years, with some interesting results about demographic trends and the tendency for boy names to become girl names over time.

Also another useful, and visually fascinating, site that tracks baby name popularity.

good news, bad news, good news x2

Today four things relating to my pregnancy happened:
1) A friend told me about a book called "The Panic-Free Pregnancy", which looks like it will have scientific info about what pregnant women are/are not supposed to do/eat. I ordered it on Amazon, will report back once it arrives and I have read it. It may help keep my husband from getting concerned every time I have bleu cheese on my salad. (good)

2) I got an email from my midwife group stating that they are dissolving their hospital affiliation and will be closing for a time starting July 31. I am due September 27. This means that I have to find another hospital-based midwife practice and convince them to let me in. This will be the third midwife practice I've been in so far this pregnancy. (bad)

3) Climbed in my new body harness today. Works really well, except rides up in the crotch. May switch to boxers for climbing. (good)

4) Got a call from the genetic counselor with the results of my integrated screening, and learned that baby's risk for Down syndrome and trisomy-18 disorders are both 1/10,000 (the lowest the test could register) and risk for spina bifida is 1/5800. All very low risk, all indicating that there's no need to do an amnio or CVS for further diagnosis. (very good)

Spinach Soup Recipe

Here is a fabulous recipe for pregnant women or anyone who has trouble getting enough iron:
(with gratitude to Farmgirl Susan who invented it).

Original Reference

Farmgirl Susan's Super Spinach Soup
Makes about 7 or 8 cups
(I forgot to measure before I started inhaling it)

1/4 cup nice olive oil
1 pound yellow or white onions, chopped
6 cups (48 ounces) homemade chicken stock (or high quality storebought)
1/4 cup uncooked white rice
12 ounces fresh organic baby spinach (about 8 cups packed)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon good pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook onions, stirring frequently, over medium heat until translucent and just starting to turn golden at the edges, about 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, add rice, turn down heat, and simmer, with the lid cracked, stirring every so often, for 20 minutes.

3. Stir in spinach, salt, and pepper and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes. Carefully puree the soup using a blender or immersion hand blender. (You know I can't say enough about my KitchenAid Immersion Hand Blender. Probably the best $50 I've spent in the kitchen in years.)

4. Serve hot, garnished if desired (but it really doesn't need it) with dollops of sour cream or creme fraiche and a few chive blossoms if you happen to have any laying around.

Showing?

Mostly I've been wearing aforementioned huge jeans and mens T-shirts with sweat shirts lately. This past weekend we were headed to a memorial service, so I had to dress a little less sloppy, and did a double-take when I passed the mirror on the way to the shower. My breasts are huge! And when I pulled on my not-as-sloppy shirt - my belly shape really looks like a pregnant person's now, and it no longer just looks like I'm getting chunky.

I stopped being freaked out about gaining too much weight - I realized that I haven't gained any noticeable weight in my face, my arms and legs, or my back. I'm still lean (well, as lean as I was in December) in all the non-baby places. I don't trust my scale completely, but according to the one at the gym I've still only gained five pounds since I found out I had a stowaway on board (when I was 146 lbs, on the non-trustworthy home scale).

My climbing has been improving lately, in part due to the motivation of having a new climbing partner who is at my level or a little above. My goal is to send a 5.11 before I get to the third trimester, and he figures I can make it. My new climbing harness arrived in the mail Saturday - will take a little getting used to, but it will do the trick.

On a whim I went back to the cardio kickboxing class where I used to be a regular. Starting in second trimester, I'm not supposed to do any exercise lying on my back (compresses certain arteries and spikes my blood pressure, puts too much strain on baby's blood supply), which meant I had a limited choice of ab exercises to substitute. Also, I can lie on my stomach in bed, but not on the floor do to back extensions. Will have to experiment with a ball to see if that helps. In general, though, it didn't feel like the class was any harder than it would have been after any normal eight-month absence. Jumping rope felt weird, with my big ole' belly jiggling up and down.

I have a big week of appointments next week, with a prenatal on Wednesday and a "medical anatomy ultrasound" on Thursday (checking for all the important body parts, like heart valves, and also trying to determine baby's gender!) In preparation for the prenatal, I have to write down everything I eat in the next four days. I ate a really healthy breakfast and felt very wholesome until lunch, when I had a healthy bowl of soup and... a mini French bread pizza.

Symptoms-of-the-week

The current symptom-of-the-week is ligament cramps: my uterus is big enough to cause my ligaments to stretch but not yet big enough to rest on my pelvic bone, which means that when I go from sitting to standing or forget to walk around every hour or so, I get shooting cramps that cause me to double over.

Last week's symptom-of-the-week was lightheadedness when I stood up too fast. This is because my circulatory system is dilating and I haven't made enough extra blood yet to fill it up. My blood pressure is way lower than usual too (108/65 vs. 125/75). I've been checking it every few mornings - I've become my own favorite science experiment.

I am pondering why I haven't felt the need to post here as regularly lately. Perhaps it's partly because everyone knows I'm pregnant now, so I have more RL people to talk to about it. Perhaps it's because I'm experiencing fewer reminders as I go through my day (big jeans not withstanding). I don't think I truly realized how crappy I felt in first trimester, figuring I had pretty light symptoms since I wasn't throwing up or feeling that nauseous. But about 2-3 weeks ago, I suddenly felt loads better and the contrast was striking. In short, weeks 5-8 (the first month I knew I was pregnant) I had a lot of trouble maintaining constant blood sugar, which made me moody and tired and subject to very sudden hunger pangs. In weeks 8-12, I lost my appetite, had an aversion to meat, and had pain that felt like indigestion most of the time. (Someone who hasn't seen me in six weeks commented that my face looked thinner - I'm guessing I lost mother weight and gained more baby weight than I realized.) Nice that things are evened out a bit.