3 days (give or take)

When the months turn to weeks and the weeks turn to days, time almost seems to slow to a crawl. I'm not even to my due date yet, but I'm definitely to the "I'm ready to be done being pregnant and I want to hold our baby!" point.

Yesterday I started hopping around the house, hoping maybe the motion would start something. When my aunt was pregnant with my cousin, she wanted him to come before her doctor went out of town and so that he could be born on St. Patrick's Day, due to her husband's Irish heritage. So, the story goes, she did jumping jacks to start labor. Jumping jacks didn't seem all that comfortable and I'm not "overdue", so I adapted the method to the one foot hopping. Not all that comfortable or helpful, so far.

I'm sure this baby will come when he's ready.

And I'm working myself out of being nervous about going anywhere alone for fear that I would go into labor in the middle of a store or other place. Today, I went to the movie theater by myself for the first time. There was a special showing of To Kill a Mockingbird today in celebration of it's 50th anniversary. It is one of my favorite books and the movie is pretty great! I didn't feel weird about it at all. There were a couple dozen people there and it played in a huge theater, so there was lots of room to spread out. I got myself some overpriced snacks and just enjoyed the time out. It was wonderful to see the movie on the big screen.

Here's to hoping the days turn to hours and hours turn to minutes really soon!

What’s In a Name?

John and I picked out a name for our little dude a couple months ago but we’re still working out the middle name. We’re close, but I think that we’ll make the final decision at the hospital.

It’s in picking a middle name that I realized my preference for a family middle name. John suggested several lovely middle names, but they didn’t feel right to me. I figured out that because of the naming in my immediate and some of my extended family, I was used to family middle names. My parents both have their mother’s maiden names as middle names and Jenny and I each have one of our grandmother’s middle names (or a variation on that name).

We’ve kept the baby’s name a secret. My mom and sister try to trick me into saying it. My mom even pulled the grandma card in asking about it. So in the meantime, my parents and my sister have come up with nicknames for baby. And John still uses some of the joke names in the beginning.

• Rupert/Rufus (Jenny and friend)
• John Michael (mom – she thought she was using the grandpas’ names, but John’s dad’s name is James). She also sometimes calls him John David
• He-Man (dad)
• JTT (Jenny)
• Rigoberto (John)
• Baby Flake

At a shower recently, the guests were invited to suggest names for Baby Flake. Here are some of the funny ones:

• “Dan”iel D. Ruff Flake
• Francisco Freddy
• Rayson Brandt Flake (it took me a minute to get this one!)
• Lorenzo Snow Flake

John and his brothers love the name Daniel Woodruff Flake, which like the first suggestion from the shower, would make him Dandruff Flake. I stand adamantly against this name. While it’s a good name and the joke is funny, I don’t want the baby’s uncles to think his name is funny.

In just a couple weeks, we’ll be meeting this little boy, and we’ll give him his name. I’m so excited!

Want to guess what the name is? Or come up with other funny Flake names? Feel free to share in the comments.