And... We've Got a Name!

S. and I agreed that it's probably the right time to tell everyone our baby's name now, especially since we (okay, more like I) apparently feel comfortable enough with the name to have it slip out in public company! Last Friday, we were having dinner with our friends T. and L., and after dinner, as they were walking away, I said while rubbing my belly, "Poor <baby's name>. He must be feeling so squished from all the food I ate tonight!" Oops. Almost as soon as I said that, I realized my mistake and hoped fervently that I hadn't been overheard. Unfortunately, L. did hear, tossing back, "I heard that!" I guess the secret's out!

It's not like we hadn't been holding onto this name for awhile now - I think starting from week 5 or 6, we'd already been playing around with various boys' names, and we always came back to this one as the one we liked best. We did what a lot of new parents-to-be did - we each looked for baby names that we liked and came up with our own lists. We tried to see which names overlapped for us... Unfortunately, none of them did! Then we just started going through the names together that we'd come up with to see which ones we liked. 

I'll reveal his middle name first - Franklin. This was something I had proposed to S. early on, and lucky for me, he agreed to it. I really wanted to name our son after my uncle on my mom's side. He's the only uncle on my mom's side of the family, and he's both unmarried and without kids. As me, my brother, and my cousins grew up, he took care of us like a real dad would, taking us on trips together, planning weekend outings for us, and just being an awesome father figure. He's one of the kindest, generous, intelligent, family-oriented men I know, and I would be so proud if our son could grow up to be like my Uncle Franklin.

Given that we wanted to go with <something> Franklin Chong, the "K" names were quickly nixed from our list... Think about the initials. Yeah. His father, "Colonel" Sanders, and little KFC. I'm sure our little guy would have loved to deal with that growing up! :) 

We wanted a name that wasn't too common, too Biblical, too much associated with a particular stereotype, etc... We wanted a name that our son could really grow into and make it into something that represents him, his personality/character, whatever that may be. The name we decided on was one that S. had found first, and after saying it aloud a few times, addressing my belly by the name for a couple of weeks, and really just falling in love with saying the name and thinking about the baby with that name for awhile, we've decided to go with it. 

We're going to name our son Aiden Franklin Chong. Aiden has Celtic origins, meaning "fire", which we both liked since "fire" has so many different properties and characteristics, and it'll be up to our son to make the name represent what he will as he grows up. 

We're so excited to meet little Aiden in person, but until then, don't be surprised if you hear us talking about him as if he were here already! :) 

Side note, as I found this to be utterly adorable and I'm sure little Aiden (when he's finally able to read this blog) will find touching: I just found out that S. has gone and purchased little Aiden's first gift already. He bought a baby book that he wants to read to Aiden when he's finally here. :) It's so sweet to see S. this happy and excited about our baby - I love it! <3

Almost Halfway There!

We are almost at the halfway mark; this Sunday will mark the start of my 20th week of pregnancy! I am feeling pretty wonderful these days. My energy levels are back, I feel like being active (for the most part), and everything feels mostly the same as pre-pregnancy... except for the growing belly, of course.

We found out that we are having a baby boy at this week's ultrasound appointment. It's likely the last time we'll see our precious baby's image before we welcome him into the world this fall, so we definitely treasured every minute of it. He was very active the whole time; it's a wonder I can't feel him moving around yet! (I hear first time moms don't feel the kicks til the 20th-22nd weeks.) Neither S. nor I were particularly surprised by the news since our ultrasound technician at the 12th week mark told us she thought that the baby would be a boy. She seemed to have years of experience, so I'm sure she knew what she was talking about. :) We've been agonizing over it somewhat because, although we've always had a solid baby girl's name in mind for a daughter, we're still uncertain about what we want to name our son. I guess now we have to figure it out! We do have a front runner in mind, so I guess we'll start addressing our baby more frequently by the name and see how we like it. Feel free to suggest some names, though I won't hold it against you if you're trying to keep the perfect name to yourself for your future son!

Again, for the sake of remembering this time period, I am going to make a quick list of easy/hard things about the pregnancy over the last month:

Easy:
1. Drinking more water - I'm usually not much of a water drinker, and when I found out that I had to consistently down 8-10 8-oz. glasses of water everyday, I was pretty sure that this was never going to happen. My body seems to know that I need more water though - I feel thirsty if I don't have a gulp of water every 15 minutes or so. The 64-80 ounces of water per day was easy, even without me keeping track of it too hard.

2. Fooding - I'm not craving anything unusual, and there aren't any smells that are putting me off.

3. Staying stress-free - I guess it's a combination of work being more stress-free these days as well as my general philosophy of life keeping me stress-free, but whatever it is, it's working. I am feeling good - very content, happy, and thrilled with life. :)

Hard:
1. In-taking 1200 mg of calcium a day - I'm just not used to having the equivalent of 4 8-oz. glasses of milk a day to get this much calcium digested! It's a lot of calcium! Luckily, I've picked up some calcium gummies that give me 500 mg when I take two. That helps a ton.

2. Gaining an appropriate amount of weight - In my case, I've gained way too much weight already, and I was told I needed to NOT gain any weight between the last check-in and next week's check-in. So hard! But I know it's better for me in the long run; I don't want to be that woman in FL that delivered an 18-pound baby.

3. Figuring out what baby needs - With the huge and ever burgeoning baby industry the way it is, it really is little wonder that first-time parents are overwhelmed with what they need to get for their baby. I'm starting up a list of items and researching whether it's a necessity or a want, the various brands, the price... There's so much to look into! We went into a baby store recently to check out strollers and car seats, and we were completely out of our element. As soon as we saw the rows of strollers, our eyes kind of glazed over. It took a seasoned sales clerk to show us how everything worked, what parents typically look for in a stroller/car seat combo, etc. We were so thankful to get that walk-through. Honestly, you can read up all you want, but until you touch and play with it yourself, you have no idea what will work for you. Don't even get me started on the daycare search...yikes.

Anyway, overall we are still super happy and excited to be doing all this prep for Baby Chong. Can't wait to meet the little guy in the fall. Until then, I'm giving him loving belly rubs and telling him all the reasons why he should love me more than Dad. ;)

Mommy at the end of 18 weeks!