What's in a name? ~ 17 1/2 weeks

I've noticed that some expecting parents have asked friends and family to contribute ideas for baby names, and in some cases don't settle on a name until several days after the child is born. Doug and I have already chosen names, which we'll share with everyone once the baby is born. We'll share the sex as soon as we find out -- about 10 days from now -- but you'll just have to wait on the name.

In case you're feeling unfairly excluded from our naming process, you should know that long before we were married, Doug and I had already decided on a name for a girl child, if we ever had one. It took us a little bit longer to settle on a name for a boy. I had thrown one outrageous boy name out there just to be silly: "Constantine Bob" Puett. Doug was lobbying hard to name a boy something "awesome" out of Beowulf... like Hrothgar. I wasn't too excited about either comforting my poor bullied son or dealing with the results of his warrior-like exploits, should he live up to that name.

In the end we settled on two names which sound "just right" to both of us. Both first names are not uncommon in Scotland and Ireland, but they're fairly rare in the US. They are the names of characters in a story that's dear to both Doug and me, and our story. The girl's middle name was once quite common, and based on a character from a book; the boy's middle name is unusual, historically significant, and actually an obscure family name from Doug's family.

So there you have the story of the names!

In other news, nothing much new is happening. When I'm sitting still I can often feel Baby bouncing and scooting around in there, but it can't be felt on the outside of yet. My belly still isn't pooching out all that much, unless I eat a really big dinner, and I'm just generally thicker than usual through the middle. The books say that Baby is the size of a green Bell Pepper and that the whole pregnancy is about the size of a canteloupe.

That just makes me hungry. I need a snack.