37 Weeks!

As of today, this baby is officially full term!

I didn't mean for this first picture to turn out as a silhouette, but it actually shows off the tummy quite nicely.

So, about being 37 weeks along...

Three weeks does not seem like very long at all. It's a little bit frightening. I am very, very excited to meet our little girl, and I love newborn babies. Which is a good thing, because I'm not sure how the whole multiple children thing is going to go. It just kind of seems like we already have plenty going on. And I'm not looking forward to labor. At all. Please pray.

Even though I'm not exactly comfortable these days, I may be the first pregnant girl to say that I wouldn't mind going overdue. Is that horrible? 

I do love you, Baby, and you will be welcomed into the world with lots of smiles and kisses!

The Artist

She loves her smock from Aunt Andria,

and she used up all of her paints a week or two after Christmas.

I could have guessed she was an artist when she started telling me that everything was "too boring."

The outfits I pick out for her to wear: "too boring"

The yogurt I offer her at breakfast: "It's boring"

Putting away her toys: "No...that's boring"

What's in a Name?

I've decided that naming girl #2 is much more complicated than naming girl #1. 

Suddenly, we can't just pick a name that we like. Now it also has to fit with Poppy's name...but it can't be too matchy, because I have a thing against themes. So no more flower or nature type names. And no more names that end in a "y" or an "ie" sound. Names that end in an "s" are also not a good option for our last name...things start to get difficult to pronounce, and I don't like to be forced to over-enunciate. 

And of course we can't choose something too common or trendy, so it needs to be unique but also sound established and substantial. Bry thinks I'm ridiculous because I automatically cross off any name that's in the top 1000 most commonly used...or sounds too much like a name that's in the top 1000. (I'm exaggerating a little, but not much.)

Which brings me to the small matter of you and your husband agreeing.

Another important criteria is that we like the name to be meaningful, not just something that we came up with out of nowhere. History and family names are special to us. And I really want the name to fit the pregnancy and feel right for each individual baby...so I'd prefer to have one of those supernatural, "this is it!" sort of experiences if possible.  

Can you see why we've been having a difficult time with this whole naming process? There are a lot of names on our list that we like a lot, but finding the perfect one is another matter. 

So this is Poppy Louisa...

...with her grandma Lori Louise and her great grandma Louise. 

I fell in love with the name Poppy when I found out that she was the size of a poppyseed, and her middle name goes back through the generations on Bry's side to the first Louisa to come to America from Switzerland. I knew from the beginning that's what I wanted to name her (it took Bry a little longer), and it fits her very well. 

Why couldn't it be so easy this time around? And how is it possible to have 40 weeks to decide something and still feel like you're running out of time?

Well, despite all odds, we finally found it. The name!

Well, we thought so anyway. And then our lovely daughter decided that this baby would be named something else...something that we had mentioned months ago as an option, but had decided against. We hadn't said anything to Poppy about this other name since then, but suddenly she was set on it, and there's been no convincing her otherwise. Could it be a sign from God? Either way, I think there's going to be a scene at the hospital if we don't go with her on this one.

So, how much say do you give a two-year-old when choosing the new baby's name? And are there any other name perfectionists out there who maybe, just possibly, over-think things?