We have 4 name pairs (first and middle names) picked out that both of us like. I’ve stuck with these pairs for awhile now, though the order of preference changes regularly. I remember doing that with my dog, as well, alternating the 2 names I’d chosen during the drive back from getting him. I’ve been trying them on for size, alternating each day. We are not sharing our choices IRL because of the opinions of our family (we have different tastes and offense is often taken when their advice isn’t) and we don’t want it getting back to them, so… I’ve shared with a couple of online communities, though I’m not sure if I’m ready to discuss it here. Part of me wants to as a record of everything in my pregnancy, part of me is constantly afraid of family members finding this blog, though I’ve done my best to hide my identity.
I have 4 names – each evoking a different feeling in my own mind – my Southern belle name, my Irish lass name, my sophisticated tomboy name and my classic lady name. I have nicknames picked out for 2, but for one, I think I prefer using the nickname more than the full name. In theory, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I did not learn my own full name for years – and was almost never called by it. I essentially had to switch schools (college) to get people to consistently call me by my full name instead of my childhood nickname. Even my husband and my in-laws refer to me by my childhood nickname, since they met me before college. Do I want to saddle my daughter with that? Of course 2 of my best friends (my childhood best friend and my current best girlfriend) actually prefer their younger-sounding nickname to their full name and even in their late twenties, they go by these names – who is to say my daughter won’t prefer that as well?
There is always one name (and it is consistently the same name) that is my 4th choice. I love the names in general, but it has always been more of my “fall-back” name. Like “well, if we can’t come up with something we like, this will do.” I’m thinking of bumping it to the background and replacing it with another option. I may have even found one, but I really only recently proposed it to Mr. Moose (and by that I mean this morning, via email though it’s been brought up before).
We registered over the weekend – it was long, a little stressful (as Saturday’s at Babies’R’Us tend to be very busy) and a lot of fun. Mr. Moose got burned out well before I did, but once he finally convinced me to stop and settle down, I realized how amazingly tired I was, too. I bought a sleeper that is very girly and yet incredibly practical. I will be an ideal “going home” outfit if I don’t find something else, but no matter what, I bought her the first girlie outfit. Maybe that’s silly – but it meant something to me.
I’m quite excited about the preparation of getting ready for baby. We began looking at the guest room/soon-to-be nursery over the weekend. I’m frustrated because we’ve been using the guest closet as a catch all for storage since we moved in – extra blankets/pillows/wrapping paper, games, trinkets, decorations that are too delicate to be left in our sweltering garage, etc. I have no place to put these things yet (obviously, some of them will be discarded in some way) and therefore I have no place to put the baby stuff, either. I’m ready to get organized and I can’t. I’m raring to go and get the space ready for the baby.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Sugar and Spice and EVERYTHING nice
It’s a girl!
After a lengthy wait (my sonogram was scheduled for 11, with a follow up midwife appt at 11:30 – we got into the sonogram room around 11:50) and quite a bit of time convincing her to uncross her legs enough to see what was there, we saw our little lady had lady parts. I was so thrilled, since I wanted a girl so badly to start with. We got a few 4D pictures, which I’m hoping to post soon for you to see. I cried twice during the sonogram this time – everyone always asks if I cried and I always think, “why on earth would I cry?”
It took what seemed like forever to get to “that part” of the u/s. I remember thinking “okay, I’m glad everything seems to be formed right, but this is a little baby, how many parts are you going to check? Get on with it!” Finally the tech said, “ah, there’s the problem…” and typed on the screen after she pointed out two little lines “A DAUGHTER.” She explained that the 2 little lines she showed us were the bones under the labia or something of that matter. She was pretty confident that it was a girl.
That night our little lady started tapping around a lot more, much more regularly and much more definite. She’s pretty consistent in her movements now, especially when I have something sweet/caffeinated to drink.
Once we finally got out of the office (we had a rushed meeting w/ the midwife, had issues w/ the DVD of the session recording properly, had to schedule an appointment w/ a receptionist who was on a personal phone call…) we started making calls. Mr. Moose called his mother and two older sisters and got voicemail repeatedly. My mother answered quickly, got the “it’s a girl” news, squealed with joy and then informed me that she was with a patient and would call me later. I tried my BFF (who I later remembered was in her first day of practicum student teaching and couldn’t answer the phone) and called my grandmother. Meanwhile, Mr. Moose had tried his grandmother and finally his little sister. As LP’s phone was ringing he said, “if no one from my family answers, then I’m not telling any of them”, but she did and was the first on his side to hear the news. His sisters and eventually his mom called later. My grandmother was thrilled beyond belief, though I know she would have been happy either way. I was concerned that Mr. Moose’s sister J would be disappointed, as she has been the most vocal about wanting him to have a son to carry on the family name, but ultimately, I think she was thrilled either way. My dad, who rarely shows any emotion, seemed pretty excited, as well. He told me “I like girls best!” and the email he sent to my aunts was pretty happy, too.
We have bought the base coat and the main color of paint for the nursery (a shade of sage green called “Christopher Robin’s Swing”) and Mr. Moose seems to be in project mode regarding starting the painting and clearing out of our little girl’s room. I am so incredibly happy and yet, in some ways it seems a little surreal to me that
I am going to have a daughter.
After a lengthy wait (my sonogram was scheduled for 11, with a follow up midwife appt at 11:30 – we got into the sonogram room around 11:50) and quite a bit of time convincing her to uncross her legs enough to see what was there, we saw our little lady had lady parts. I was so thrilled, since I wanted a girl so badly to start with. We got a few 4D pictures, which I’m hoping to post soon for you to see. I cried twice during the sonogram this time – everyone always asks if I cried and I always think, “why on earth would I cry?”
It took what seemed like forever to get to “that part” of the u/s. I remember thinking “okay, I’m glad everything seems to be formed right, but this is a little baby, how many parts are you going to check? Get on with it!” Finally the tech said, “ah, there’s the problem…” and typed on the screen after she pointed out two little lines “A DAUGHTER.” She explained that the 2 little lines she showed us were the bones under the labia or something of that matter. She was pretty confident that it was a girl.
That night our little lady started tapping around a lot more, much more regularly and much more definite. She’s pretty consistent in her movements now, especially when I have something sweet/caffeinated to drink.
Once we finally got out of the office (we had a rushed meeting w/ the midwife, had issues w/ the DVD of the session recording properly, had to schedule an appointment w/ a receptionist who was on a personal phone call…) we started making calls. Mr. Moose called his mother and two older sisters and got voicemail repeatedly. My mother answered quickly, got the “it’s a girl” news, squealed with joy and then informed me that she was with a patient and would call me later. I tried my BFF (who I later remembered was in her first day of practicum student teaching and couldn’t answer the phone) and called my grandmother. Meanwhile, Mr. Moose had tried his grandmother and finally his little sister. As LP’s phone was ringing he said, “if no one from my family answers, then I’m not telling any of them”, but she did and was the first on his side to hear the news. His sisters and eventually his mom called later. My grandmother was thrilled beyond belief, though I know she would have been happy either way. I was concerned that Mr. Moose’s sister J would be disappointed, as she has been the most vocal about wanting him to have a son to carry on the family name, but ultimately, I think she was thrilled either way. My dad, who rarely shows any emotion, seemed pretty excited, as well. He told me “I like girls best!” and the email he sent to my aunts was pretty happy, too.
We have bought the base coat and the main color of paint for the nursery (a shade of sage green called “Christopher Robin’s Swing”) and Mr. Moose seems to be in project mode regarding starting the painting and clearing out of our little girl’s room. I am so incredibly happy and yet, in some ways it seems a little surreal to me that
I am going to have a daughter.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Work rant and plastic issues
Do “real” parents worry about packing their kids lunches in Ziploc baggies? Seriously? My mom never did and she’s pretty environmentally conscious. Maybe there is some new info out there that I haven’t seen, I’m just trying hard to picture my mom (or myself) getting worked up over tossing my pretzel stick snacks or grapes or whatever into a Ziploc instead of something “safer” and reusable. I’ve heard the thing about not microwaving plastic, and, okay, maybe – but for basic stuff? I’m so confused! More research to do, I guess, but I’m having trouble getting behind this being an issue. Maybe when my child is born my sense of safety will change or something?
I just learned that my vacation time will not carry over into next calendar year. I had been carefully hoarding my nearly 2 weeks of PTO all summer long, despite the fact that Mr. Moose has nearly a month coming to him and we could have, in fact, taken a vacation. When I began here, nearly 3 years ago it was unclearly explained and my review of the employee manual fed that assumption that while sick time doesn’t roll over, vacation time does. Ironically, I am the benefits specialist at our company now and have explained it improperly to many of our current employees as well. They pay 50% if you cash out in December your remaining time, but they want to clear the books for the year, so they won’t roll it over. This gives me 2 months to use or lose my vacation time and I am TICKED. I was planning to use that time for the early part of my maternity leave. There is no way I can accrue very much time in 2 months (13 hours, approximately is the total of what I will have if I go into labor on my due date while sitting at work), which is going to put an even bigger financial strain on us during my maternity leave. What really frosts my cookies is that if you quit, they pay you in full for your accrued time off – not 50%. They’re treating ex-employees better than current ones. I’m stressed and ticked off and Mr. Moose is now more than ready to get me out of here. We’re going to test run in November what life would be like without my income (we’ll sock it all away for baby expenses and the like) and I’m discussing my options for other work, etc.).
I know most people rarely ever feel like they are paid what they are worth – I truly don’t even have a number in mind for a salary that would make me feel like I was getting paid what I am worth – I’ve never bothered to try and figure it out and I know I create a lot of down time for myself because I have trouble focusing for long periods of time on one thing. (and I like it that way) But lately, I feel that not only don’t they want to PAY me even close to what I’m worth (for example, there is only one person at the office that has been here longer than me – their first employee when the company began under it’s current ownership/name 5 years ago. I am also the LOWEST paid person in the entire company – which includes the girl they hired to replace my old position who does less than I do and has an attendance problem), but they don’t respect the amount of work I do, the amount of info that I have on their company and what they would do without me. Seriously, the President of the company’s favorite phrase lately seems to be “Mrs. Moose can do it.” (Of course, he doesn’t call me Mrs. Moose, but you get my point.) If I were to stick it to them and walk out (as Mr. Moose as suggested a few times), they seriously would be up a creek. Even if I took my two weeks notice to write out the info that would need to be passed on – I’d run out of time to do it. I remember trying to do that for my old position replacement – and she was only taking 1/5 of my jobs – the info took 5 pages! I don’t know what they’re going to do when I’m on maternity leave - I seriously expect multiple phone calls over my 12 weeks off.
I just learned that my vacation time will not carry over into next calendar year. I had been carefully hoarding my nearly 2 weeks of PTO all summer long, despite the fact that Mr. Moose has nearly a month coming to him and we could have, in fact, taken a vacation. When I began here, nearly 3 years ago it was unclearly explained and my review of the employee manual fed that assumption that while sick time doesn’t roll over, vacation time does. Ironically, I am the benefits specialist at our company now and have explained it improperly to many of our current employees as well. They pay 50% if you cash out in December your remaining time, but they want to clear the books for the year, so they won’t roll it over. This gives me 2 months to use or lose my vacation time and I am TICKED. I was planning to use that time for the early part of my maternity leave. There is no way I can accrue very much time in 2 months (13 hours, approximately is the total of what I will have if I go into labor on my due date while sitting at work), which is going to put an even bigger financial strain on us during my maternity leave. What really frosts my cookies is that if you quit, they pay you in full for your accrued time off – not 50%. They’re treating ex-employees better than current ones. I’m stressed and ticked off and Mr. Moose is now more than ready to get me out of here. We’re going to test run in November what life would be like without my income (we’ll sock it all away for baby expenses and the like) and I’m discussing my options for other work, etc.).
I know most people rarely ever feel like they are paid what they are worth – I truly don’t even have a number in mind for a salary that would make me feel like I was getting paid what I am worth – I’ve never bothered to try and figure it out and I know I create a lot of down time for myself because I have trouble focusing for long periods of time on one thing. (and I like it that way) But lately, I feel that not only don’t they want to PAY me even close to what I’m worth (for example, there is only one person at the office that has been here longer than me – their first employee when the company began under it’s current ownership/name 5 years ago. I am also the LOWEST paid person in the entire company – which includes the girl they hired to replace my old position who does less than I do and has an attendance problem), but they don’t respect the amount of work I do, the amount of info that I have on their company and what they would do without me. Seriously, the President of the company’s favorite phrase lately seems to be “Mrs. Moose can do it.” (Of course, he doesn’t call me Mrs. Moose, but you get my point.) If I were to stick it to them and walk out (as Mr. Moose as suggested a few times), they seriously would be up a creek. Even if I took my two weeks notice to write out the info that would need to be passed on – I’d run out of time to do it. I remember trying to do that for my old position replacement – and she was only taking 1/5 of my jobs – the info took 5 pages! I don’t know what they’re going to do when I’m on maternity leave - I seriously expect multiple phone calls over my 12 weeks off.
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