19-20 Weeks

I thought I'd share just what's going on inside of me that is causing all these change on the outside. I get these great emails from http://www.babycenter.com/ that tell me how the baby is developing each week. Matt and I look forward to the emails every Saturday night so we can see what piece of food they compare the baby to - this week it is the length of a small zucchini - or 6 inches. It weighs about 8.5 ounces and is starting to sprout hair - yeah!

We also like learning that the baby can now hear our voices and will soon show a preference towards mine, since it will hear me talking away all day. Not to be outdone, Matt likes to have regular conversations with my abdomen to make sure the baby knows his voice too. He will be a great dad!

What's in a name?

So, when you don't know if you're having a boy or a girl, it makes choosing a baby's name even more difficult. Now we have to find TWO name that we love - a boy name and a girl name.

While we want our family to know about the names are are thinking of, we decided not to tell anyone our final choices because inevitably there will be someone who hates the name, has an ex-girlfriend who was an awful human being who just happened to share the same name, or they will think of about 10 ways to instantly make fun of it. We are interested in the potential for personal ridicule, not in the names of exs or school bullies.

For example, my mother-in-law Betty is always on the look out for new names for us to consider, which I really appreciate. A week or so ago at dinner, she announced that she had a wonderful boy name for us: Aubin. I had never heard of the name before, but you could almost look around the dinner table and hear the wheels turning to see who would be the first to think of a way to make fun of the name.

Matt's oldest brother Aaron busts out with "Auuubin workin' on the railroad, all the live long day!" It was classic! These are the moments that spare our child from a name that might cause years of teasing and/or explaining their name, its origins, or crazy spellings (there are now about 35 ways to spell the name Mackenzie...).

So, here are the names we like so far (and we promise, the resemblance to the list of characters from the TV show Lost is a total coincidence):

Boys

• Luke
• Quinn
• Aidan
• Liam
• James
• Elliot
• Evan
• Brady

Girls

• Kate
• Claire
• Sophie
• Madeline
• Zoe
• Penelope
• Marae (a combination of Marie, Mary and Ray... not sure if it will fly. Maybe a middle name)

Cute Babies

So, I know that every baby is cute... to its parents. My fear is that ours just won't be cute to everyone else :)

The kids born to both sides of our familes so far are adorable... we have some pretty fierce competition for cutest baby. My sister Becky's baby McKinley was the first grandchild for my parents, something that as a fellow first grandchild, I thought would be my honor. But, I will gladly relinquish this position to the Kinster because she is the cutest baby ever! I wish we lived closer to them, and now that they moved to Placerville, we are even farther away. At least I can now see all of my family with one visit home.

There are far better things to worry about... besides, Matt and I were both pretty cute babies... but what if we cancel each other out? See, I am already starting to be a mom - worrying about things I can't control or change must just come naturally.

Is it too late to change our minds?

Today is the fifth Sunday of the month - I can remember looking forward to the 5th Sunday as a kid because that meant that the young women got to help in the primary at church and be with all the little kids. Now that I am the Young Women's President, it takes on a whole new meaning... I divided my time today between junior and senior nursery (our ward has so many young families that we have about 25+ kids in nursery), the Sunbeam class which featured a professional wrestler named Miranda who was throwing chairs and small children to the grown (yes, they are 3 years old in Sunbeams), and chasing around the nursery kids and the young women who were trying to escape.

If I wasn't already pregnant, I might just back out of the whole deal. I guess that's why you usually just have one at a time... taking on too many at once makes you never want to have kids. Everyone tells me it's different when they are your own flesh and blood. Ask me after September 20th and we'll see if it's true.

I am now about 20 weeks along... close to the half-way mark. Matt and I have decided to not find out the sex of the baby, which leads to discussions about how hard it is to call the baby "it" all the time, and how I would really like to know how to decorate the nursery in advance, and on and on. But Matt wants to surprise the world with this little Hiller, and since he doesn't really ask much of me (I am the high maintenance one in this relationship) I have given in. Our ultrasound is on May 9th, so I guess I have just about a week to change his mind, which is surprisingly resolute on this matter. I think I'll post later the pros and cons of being in the 5% who do not find out if they are having a girl or a boy. At least we know it's one of the two.