Name That...Baby

Well, as we get closer to the delivery of our little girl, we find that we are not any closer to completely deciding on her name than we were several months ago - we've been at the same stand still since then.  It seems like we have a harder time deciding with our little girls.  Cash was named almost as soon as we found out we were having a boy, where Vanna Marie wasn't named until she was two days old.  Is that the fate of our new little girl too?  We think we have it narrowed down to three names and the whole family is pretty set on our first pick (as you'll see below) but we haven't committed completely to it yet so things are still a bit up in the air.  Here's what we've come up with:

1st pick:  Rosalie Kae or K. Bazil - We all really like Rosalie.  I remember a little girl, Rosie, from my home town and I always thought she was so adorable, with a matching adorable name. Ty liked it right off and it fits his criteria which is that he doesn't want to give any of our children unisex names (such as Taylor or Payton, etc.) simply for the reason that he feels so bad when he refers to such a name as a girl and it turns out it's a boy (he runs into this a lot at work as he's talking to parents about medications for their kids and without seeing them, he hates having to guess if the name refers to a boy or girl).  So our girls will be blessed with very feminine names that can't be mistaken for boy's names I guess, and Rosalie fits that description.  

I've always wanted to name a little girl after my mother in some way who I love and respect as much as humanly possible.  Her name is Karen and so Kae or K. will likely be our baby's middle name/initial.

This name is everyone's favorite and the kids have already kind of taken the name on as if it's set in stone.  I just have to add that it's so darling to hear Vanna call the baby "baby wosie" (she's not real great with her "r's" yet).   Our only hold up is if the baby is born with red hair, which could happen easily with the red hair in Ty's side of the family. Ty's not too sure about the whole combination of red hair - red rose name idea.  But you never really know what hair color a baby will really have.  Lots of times, their hair falls out and comes in a different color, or it lightens or darkens.  I guess we'll see.

2nd pick:  Lia Kae Bazil - Ty and I really like this name too because it encompasses both our mothers in the name.  Ty's mom's name is Orillia and since I've always liked the name Leah, I thought, "Hey Ty, what if we used the name Leah but spelled it differently to take in the end of your mom's name?!"  And then, of course, Kae is after my mom (as I described above).  It would be kind of neat for her to be named after both her beloved grandmas I think.  And we both think Lia would fit a little red-haired girl perfectly :).

3rd pick: Heather Kae or K. Bazil - Again, Heather is a very pretty and feminine name.  It actually has a connection to my name as well which is a small part of the reason we're considering it (Heather means Erica in Latin - not that we speak Latin or anything :)  And I like that although it's somewhat a common name among my generation, you don't really hear it much among our younger generation and I guess I like that it would be a bit uncommon.

So what's your vote?  Not saying it will hold any weight in the long run (and who knows, maybe we'll decide on name that 's not even listed above) but I'm curious as to what my friends like.  Or if you have any other great suggestions, I'm all ears. :)

Just a little update below on things for my own records (you're welcome to read, but I'm warning you - it's long!)

Our baby girl is very active  and seems very strong (reminds me a lot of my pregnancy with Cash).  I often just watch my stomach to see it just rolling and changing shapes as the baby moves around to change position/get comfortable.  I first felt her hiccups (or "pickups" - as Vanna would say) when I was at 29 weeks and nearly feel them once evey day now.  I love to sit/lay still the entire time she has them and feel their rythmic movements. I find them so fascinating  - pregnancy in it's entirety is so fascinating.  It's amazing all the changes a woman's body makes to accomadate a little one, and likewise, amazing the changes in development that take place as a little one grows.  What a blessing to experience such a thing - such a miracle, again.   

We're anxious to meet our baby girl and learn more of her personality.  And apparently she is very anxious to meet us too the little stinker (perhaps she's inherited a bit of impatience from her mama - we're hoping she can be just patient enough to last a couple more weeks though at least :)

Speaking of our little girl's impatience, here's an update on what's happened in the pregnancy over the past few weeks. 

My last update talked about when we first found out I was low on amniotic fluid (possibly as a result of being on Sulindac - a medication to help prevent contractions) so I was taken off that medication and put on Nifedipine which also helps prevent contractions - just not quite as effectively - but doesn't have the possible side effect of lowering amniotic fluid) ...so to start where I picked off...two weeks later, 32 weeks along, we went in for an ultrasound that showed my fluid levels had gone back up a bit (it was at 6.6 and went up to 10.8, again, normal is from 10-20) as a result of being taken off the Sulidac.  Yay!!!  BUT it did show that my cervix was still continuing to thin.  At that point, it now measured at .99cm (again, regular at this point should be 3cm). 

That same week, my dear sister brought our kids home for a quick hello over the weekend!  Oh, it was sooooooooooooo good to see them!  We had a great time.  I just loved their company and they loved playing with Dad.  Ty said afterwards how funny it is that you forget how much they wear you out.   I think it really eased the kids' minds too, to realize that they will be home soon for good and that everything is still here and just waiting for them (their toys, their beds, etc.).  They even left good too.  I was a little worried that after coming home for a couple days, they wouldn't be willing to leave again to be with Grandmas and Grandpas for another couple weeks but they did really good when it came time to say good-bye.  Such good kids!

I don't know if it was from having the kids home (which to me, was highly unlikely as I really didn't do anything more than usual) or what, but nearly as soon as the kids arrived, I began having contractions that were more noticeable than usual.  They continued all through that Friday and early Saturday morning (about 4am) I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep as they became for painful and more frequent.  So...a couple hours later, we headed into the hospital.  They had to give me a couple shots to stop the contractions and boy do those things sting - ouch!.  But they did the trick and my contractions stopped, thank goodness.  My doctor wondered if the Nifedipine wasn't strong enough to help me with my contractions so he again put me on the Sulindac and asked that I come back into the office on Monday for another ultrasound.  This ultrasound was supposed to just be to measure my fluid levels again to see where we were starting from at the time of starting the Sulindac - then we'd have another one in a week to see if the medication had had the same effect on me as before and was lowering my levels or not. 

I went in for my ultrasound on Monday (33 weeks along in my pregnancy) and we found that after only taking the Sulidac for two days, my fluid levels had dropped way down to the start of being critical.  My fluid level was down to 4.09.  I was so disappointed because I felt so much better when I was on the Sulidac and it seemed to work for me so much better than the Nifedipine at preventing contractions, but when I'm on it, my levels dropped.  After discussing things with my doctor, we decided I would take the Nifedipine throughout the day and take just one Sulidac in the evening (when my contractions usually picked up) and see if after a week, things had improved or not.

One week later (34 weeks now), the ultrasound showed that my fluid levels had risen back up to 6.6 which we were comfortable with AND my cervix length had not changed.  What good news this time!  So we are just going to keep doing what we're doing and check things out again in another week.  At that point I'll be at 35 weeks which is a huge milestone for me.  Even by hitting 34 weeks, I've found some of the weight of worry starting to dissipate and be replaced with excitment.  We are making it pretty far really and with every week, even every day, our little girl has such a greater chance at being healthy when she's born.  My goal is to get to 37 weeks, at which point my doctor said he'd take me off bed-rest.  Yay!  AND I'm almost to the end of my weekly hydroxyprogesterone shots (that help to strengthen my cervix) - after about 35 weeks they usually stop giving them, so I have just one more left.  Yay again!

I've now been on bed-rest for just over 5 weeks - ahhh!  Just a couple more weeks to go and if we make it that far, they'll take me off medications and bed-rest and I'm assuming we'll have her right away.  Who knows though - she might trick me and after all this trouble, change her mind and decide to wait it out for the whole 40 weeks.  Hahaha!  Seriously, what a ride it's been!