After approximately eight months of insisting that “her” baby is a boy named George, my daughter has recently changed her tune. Charlotte is now convinced that the baby is a girl named Evelyn.
“Well, what if the baby is a boy?” we asked her a few nights ago.
“Don’t be silly,” she told us. “It is a girl and her name is Evelyn.“
Well, then.
Charlotte has also recently become very curious about the baby. She wants to know when the baby is kicking and when it is sleeping and when it will be born. Will her baby like to play Candyland? Will her baby be able to skip or turn somersaults? If her baby does not like storytime, will I still tell her stories? Will her baby go to preschool too?
And now that she’s thinking about it, what was SHE like when SHE was a baby? Was she very small? Could she talk? Did she like toys? How big were her fingers? Did she take many naps? Did Grandpa let her help him plant corn? How often did she fart?
Over and over again, I answer her questions about the baby and every day there is more understanding, more awareness, and more curiosity.
I forgot to take photographs this weekend, so this is all I have right now! Will update in the next couple days!
The pregnancy itself is still chugging along nicely. For a long time, I was pound-for-pound the same size I was during my pregnancy with Charlotte (you can see me at 33 weeks pregnant in this post), a phenomenon I have found endlessly fascinating, but at some point recently that seems to have changed; at this point during my pregnancy with Charlotte, I had gained thirty pounds (my total weight gain over nearly forty-one weeks was thirty-four pounds) but in this pregnancy I have only gained nineteen or twenty pounds thus far. Donald and I have also been fascinated by the difference in how I am carrying this child. I have put on less weight on my sides and in my face, the baby is rounder and sticks out from my abdomen more, and I am carrying higher.
I have an appointment with my obstetrician tomorrow that should lay to rest the gestational glucose intolerance concerns once and for all – and an appointment next week with my midwife to verify that my blood counts are high enough for me to commit to an out-of-hospital birth.
After that, it is (hopefully) clear sailing.
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Crystal - I can’t speak for what your healthcare provider is open to, but my midwife didn’t offer any alternatives even when I asked for them. My OB on the other hand, who I only started seeing when this happened because I wanted a second opinion but am now going to be consulting throughout the rest of the pregnancy and the postpartum period because it turns out he’s remarkably more knowledgeable about this than my midwife, had an entire list of alternative tests (including whole grain pancakes with real maple syrup, three days in a row of blood draws after fasting and after a breakfast of toast, poached egg, tomato, and orange juice, a quantity of jellybeans, etc. What he really recommended, though, was avoiding the GD test in the future and using a glucometer to test my blood sugar levels for four to seven days at 20, 25, 30, and 35 weeks in subsequent pregnancies. The glucometer is a more reliable measure of what my blood sugar levels are maintained at on my regular diet and mine have shown themselves to be very steady and healthy whereas the GD stress test did not have the same results.
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Evelyn is the name I wanted for my daughter. It is the name I fought for for my daughter. It is also the name my husband vehemently rejected. She is not Evelyn (except sometimes in my head)
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Can’t wait!!! SO happy for you. You should show Charlotte the pictures of herself as a newborn. Don’t want her disappointed that the new baby won’t be turning somersaults….LOL
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My guess is it will be a George.
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Megan - If it is, I have a PERFECT hand-me-down shirt from Charlotte with a picture of Curious George on it that says “Curious Little Monkey” =)
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Crystal, I have reactive hypoglycaemia and as a result, I flat out refused to take the GTT because of the effect so much sugar would have on my system - after a bit of debate, my doc suggested I do the finger prick testing for a week instead - much more accurate and far healthier too!
My daughter is Evelyn (Evie) so I definitely approve Charlottes choice! Only 2 more days til my EDD so I should be finding out VERY soon if I am having an Elizabeth (Ellie) or an Ethan, to go with my Evie ;)
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Ooh, Emily, congratulations and good luck!!! =)
Evelyn is my great-grandmother’s name so I approve of Charlotte’s pick too! If it were up to me and me alone, I think a girl would be named Evelyn, Hazel, or Magnolia and a boy would be named Avi, George, or Felix. I guess that goes to show where Charlotte’s picking these names up from LOL!
Alas, Donald likes to have some say in the matter…
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Thanks :)
Funnily enough, Evelyn was my husbands choice! I wasn’t too fond of it at first but it grew on me. Ethan was also one he came up with so if it is a boy, he will have chosen both our kids names! (I have chosen the middle names at least)
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I’m with Charlotte, it’s a girl and her name is Evelyn! I LOVE that. Evelyn was at the top of my list when I was pregnant with Norah, couldn’t love it more!
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Emily - You know what’s funny? I wasn’t too fond of Evelyn in the beginning either. We were considering my great-grandmother’s sister’s name - Lena - which we both LOVE LOVE LOVE and for some reason we were saying all the names in that generation out loud (Edna, Lena, Anna, Carolina, Ella, Adeline, Mabel, Evelyn, Dorothy, Sophie, Rosalyn, etc.) and Evelyn just popped out. After that, it started to really grow on me, and the next thing you know, I’m begging Donald to think about it lol =)
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You look great. Good luck getting an out of hospital birth!!
Charlotte is so cute. My daughter decided on her little sibling’s name too. Brynna if it’s a girl, Boybee if it’s a boy. Just based on that, we were glad to be told it was a girl LOL.
By on September 17, 2012
I’ve been following your concerns with gestational diabetes testing, and as a result, I became concerned for my situation (which is a bit different from yours).
I have polycystic ovarian and insulin resistance. My body doesn’t process sugar the way it’s supposed to. That means I have to be careful about carb choices to ensure my body functions as well as possible. I am currently in my second trimester, and because of PCO, it is protocol to begin testing for GD early.
Here’s my issue: if we already know my body doesn’t process sugar, how is it beneficial to push a sugary drink (that I would NEVER drink) through my system all at once and then take blood to see how my body processes the sugar we already know it doesn’t process?
Are there alternatives to this type of testing? This is my first baby, and I’m terrified of GD—particularly since my body does what it does.