We Have a Name!

We have finally settled on a name for our little boy! We couldn't agree on anything for the longest time. Naming our first 2 children was relatively easy. We always knew we would name our firstborn son Gerritt to honor my American father Gerry. Gerritt's middle name Jinwon was meant to honor my husband's father. Then when our daughter came along, we named her Sophia because her name was feminine & sounded so beautiful. Sophia's middle name Christine was chosen after my American mother Chris. We started thinking about names for our second son pretty early on, however, it was harder than we expected. Name Jacob came to us only about a week ago.

Jacob is currently one of the most popular boys' name in the US, & we liked it because it sounded strong & masculine. It is of Hebrew origin, & the meaning of Jacob is "he who supplants," or takes by the heel.
There is a meaningful biblical story that goes along with this name. According to the Bible, Jacob was the son of Isaac & Rebecca & the grandson of Abraham. He was the 2nd born of a set of twins & he came out holding onto his brother's Esau's heel. Later, he talked Esau into trading his firstborn inheritance for a bowl of soup & tricked his father into giving him the blessing reserved for the firstborn.


I am going to pretend that werewolf Jacob Black from one of my favorite book series Twilight didn't influence me at all...

Despite this story of ambitious trickery, Jacob was chosen by God for greatness. Notable moments in his life include reconciling with his brother, dreaming about a stairway between heaven & earth (commonly referred to as "Jacob's Ladder"), wrestling with the angel of God until he received God's blessing, & receiving the new name Israel from God (which means "God prevails"). Jacob was also the father of the 12 sons from whom the 12 tribes of Israel descended (read Genesis 25-35 to learn the story of Jacob).
We are still pondering our son's middle name, but I am so relieved we already chose a purposeful & worthwhile first name!

13 Weeks

My ultrasound at 9 weeks 6 days (the embryo is about 2.8 cm long). What a relief - only one baby!

I wasn't going to do any ultrasounds at all in this pregnancy, however, I changed my mind. This time around, I had to experience something that so many pregnant women complain about - morning sickness. It wasn't just there in the mornings, but in the mid-day & evenings, & even woke me up during the night. In fact, I am still having nausea daily at 13 weeks along. I've heard that every pregnancy can be different, & the fact that I didn't have nausea in my previous pregnancies wouldn't necessarily mean that I would be spared this time. However, the thought of twins kept crossing my mind over & over. With an ultrasound machine so readily available at my work it was too tempting not to do a basic ultrasound. It showed that I had only 1 baby inside my uterus (whew!), there was a heartbeat, & a little one already had arms & legs! It was great to know I am not just sick (even though I feel that way most of the time), but I am growing a human being. Hopefully, I'll feel better in another week or so.


Oysters - a new craving this week

We've been thinking of baby names lately. It is so hard not knowing whether we are having a little girl or a boy! I wasn't going to find out the sex before my home birth (to give myself another reason to push the baby out naturally :-)), but I may have to change my mind on that too. Here are some of the names that crossed our minds in no particular order:

For a girl - Camilla, Kelly, Rose, Victoria, Alexandra, Giovanna, June, Alice, Dominique, Esme, Nina, Mila, Maria, Katya, Michelle, Kate, January, Emma

For a boy - Thomas, Alexander, Adrian, Stefan, Christian, Nicholas, Dimitri, David, William, Brock, Brice, Ryan, Cameron, Hudson, Ren, Jacob, Jason

As you can see, it's much easier to come up with a girl's name. We definitely want to avoid the top 10 name category & trendy/celebrity one too. Nothing sounds quite right yet, so we are still pondering what name would fit this child. I even listened to the Baby Names podcast from mothering.com to help me come up with baby name ideas. If we were to follow old baby naming traditions from Scotland, for example, we would name our 2nd son after my father (Yuryi) & our 2nd daughter after my husband's mother (Young). I am not too excited about those two...


Still craving pickled vegetables

I had to post this photo because the cruelest thing happened. I was so happy to find a large jar of pickled mushrooms at the Russian grocery store, but, unfortunately, I was unable to open it! My husband & I both tried to take off the darn lid using towels, rubber gloves, a jar opener & hot/cold water - all without success. My craving for something sour was so strong, I pickled my own cucumbers the same night (which is something I've NEVER done before). The pickles turned out to be a success & I had yummy crunchy cucumbers at almost every meal during the next week. :-) P. S. We were able to open the mushroom jar eventually by drilling a hole through the lid.


Despite my seeming inability to open jars, I've become a sound sleeper, almost like this jaguar from our recent trip to the zoo. :-) I can barely keep my eyes open while reading 3-4 bedtime stories to Gerritt. Once the lights are turned off, I am out in less than 5 minutes.
More updates to come!