We Can't Call her Dumbo….

I am now in my eighteenth week of pregnancy, which mentally means eighteen going on 6,000.  We have been able to peek in on the nugget two more times, and thanks to another not-scary-at-all, really fun experience of having blood leak out of my vagina for no apparent reason whatsoever, an unplanned trip to the doctor where we got to hear her heartbeat for the first time!

For you loyal readers (Hi Momma Bear, Hi Kel) I can just hear you exclaiming "HER? Whoa whoa whoa, it's a girl?!" Sorry to keep you in the dark for so long, but we found out during an elective ultrasound that Nugget has a vagina and is now going by the name Marlowe.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't actually keep my family in the dark about her sex longer than 3 minutes after we knew.)

It's a pretty interesting experience picking a name for your child.  Jeff and I have been set on a boy name for at least 5 years, which obviously meant that we were going to have a girl.  We tossed around a lot of names during the years when we were never actually considering conceiving a baby and we liked a couple (Maggie, Mattie) but never really honed in on one.  I came across the name Marlowe on another blog on the interwebs and instantly fell in love.  Jeff?  Not so much.  We have had lots of conversations along these lines:

Me:  Can we please name her Marlowe?
Him:  Sure.
Me: But I want you to like it.  I mean like, really like it.  I don't want to bully you into it.
Him:  OK.  I don't like it.
Me:  Fuck you.


Me: What other names do you like?
Him:  Madison.
Me: Over my dead body.
Him:  Well that's the name I like.
Me:  Fuck you.


Me:  I think I can feel Marlowe kicking!
Him:  You can feel the baby?
Me:  Yes, Marlowe is kicking!
Him:  I wish I could feel the baby moving!
Me:  Her name is Marlowe.
Him:  That's a boy name.
Me:  Fuck you.

Then, because I married an amazing man and because he is 1,000% a better person than I'll ever be, he agreed to the name Marlowe.  I only had to remind him 10 or 12 times that my vote counts twice.  But, he said he had a dream about it and woke up seemingly on board, and I'm so selfish that I am just running with it.  I absolutely love her name and I hope she actually materializes into a real live human baby that the hospital allows us to take home and raise so I can call her that every day of my life.  We are still waiting for the myriad of nicknames to start rolling in.  Kel already calls her Lowie, which I also love, and my mom, Kel and I call her Shit Baby 2 (Charlie being Shit Baby 1) so I don't think we will have a shortage of excellent names to torture her with when she's older.

Another interesting little bit of news to share is that between weeks 15 - 18 Jeff was convinced that she only had one hand.  I would take down the ultrasound pictures on our fridge and show him both hands, but nevertheless, he stuck to his belief that she'd one day need a hook for a hand.  When we went in for the 18 week ultrasound I immediately threw Jeff right under the bus. With a smile on my face I explained to the lady that Jeff is scared she's only got one mitt, and she graciously took the time to point out BOTH hands.  Phew.

Here are two 15 week shots (sorry to expose your lady bits Marlowe) and one from 18 weeks.