Grandma names: LOVE

Two friends of ours have recently had baby girls. Both in Quebec (thus needing a bi-lingual name), too. I just love the names I've seen coming up!!

Our first friends from church to have a baby girl, other than us, named her Audrey Erna. Ahhh, I'm such a sucker for old lady names, though Audrey isn't exclusivly known as being from our grandparents (though it's definitely got some history), Erna is just classic. Pure heritage name, and I LOVE IT! If only I could get Brad on board such such things...

Then we just heard the news that our friends Chuck and Sarah had a baby girl and named her Lucie Jane. Melt.My.Heart. LUCIE!?!?!? J'adore. Both classic, historical, even heritage type names. I can picture a grandma with either name, yet also a baby... Maybe because these type of names are more in these days? Either way, two beautiful choices that I just love.

Now if only I could get Brad on board for my classic, heritage name of choice: Beatrice! He says it's not happening any time soon :(

50/50

Looks like this time around, people are less certain of the sex of the baby!

With Lily I often heard "I hope you have a girl" and "you look like you're having a boy". I've learned neither of those comments are particularly helpful. First of all, hoping someone will have a certain gender expressed that there's a preference, and that you think one is better than the other. I've been tempted here before. I really wanted a girl, even if all the rest were boys. But thinking that is so dangerous because if that girl never comes, I've set myself up for disappointment. If I have all boys, am I missing out? When I meet someone who has many boys and is pregnant I'm tempted to hope they have a girl, but why? Because I value girls over boys? I'd say no, but that's really how it looks. And whether it's true or not, it's just plain old unhelpful. So lets (me included) cut it ok? Deal?

I have said I hope baby No. 2 is a girl. I'll admit it. It seems it would be the easiest since they'll be so close in age and sharing a bedroom for basically forever since we'll always be city-dwellers in small spaces. Plus we have the clothes. Oh the clothes! It would be a shame for all of those tutus to never be worn again :) But I need to stop it! We'll find out in a few weeks and basically, it's a 50/50 shot either way, so why concern ourselves with it? Why have I set up in my head an ideal? A baby is ideal. Not a girl.

Preachin' to myself. Thanks for listening.

That baby grew...

I remember being about 4 months pregnant with Lily, into my 2nd trimester and enjoying more energy and experiencing a day out of the blue of PURE fatigue. Like I could hardly stay awake ALL day. When I posted on facebook about it, my friend Sue said "that baby grew!". It was mostly a joke, but made sense in my mind... My non-medical-school-taught mind :-)

Well tdoday was that day again. After 2 nights in a row of 6 hours of sleep max and no naps, I slept like a baby last night and took 2 naps today... And it sill wasnt enough! It's 8:30pm and I'm exhausted. Thankfully, I'm still on mat leave and will be until August, and Lily takes two 2-hour naps each day...so guess what I do? Yep. Zzzzzzzz

With all the fatigue pregnancy brings, I'm actually not sure how I would do it, for the 2nd time this year, if Lily were older. I mean shes still a BABY which has its tials, but babies NAP people!! So even though I'm up at 7am with her, I can nap at 10am and 2pm, which is basically around when my mind and body decide to shut down from total fatigue. I seriously think this is EASIER (dare I go there...?) than my 1st pregnancy, even with a babe at home... Working full time pregnant was SO HARD. I'll likely never do that again, but looking back, it was really something. Having a baby at home makes SOME things way harder, but the whole sleep thing is really working for me this pregnancy.

Something to think about in regards to child-spacing ;-)

GIVE AWAY HAPPENING TODAY!

Just a reminder, at my other Blog - {our nest in the city} there is a give away happening NOW!

It's for 1 free print from the Etsy shop, Naptime Diaries, and you can choose from prints like these:

Beautiful, aren't they? So pop by and enter. The give away ends tonight @ 11:59pm.

re-framing how we see the expense of adoption

Consider this: Adopting a child internationally costs about the same as BIRTHING a child locally, if you don't have medical coverage. Kristen @ Rage Against the Minivan blogs about adoption and parenting and she has a couple kids from her and her hubby and through adoption. She recently broke down the costs of one of her adoptions (they adopted two boys, both from Haiti, at different times) in answering the common question "why does adoption cost SO much?" You can read it here. What I found fascinating is that her adoption of Kembe from Haiti cost slightly more than her c-section birth of Karis. Both were "out-of-pocket expenses", which I interpret to mean they had to pay for it themselves (though I could be wrong).

Now, I'm Canadian and have free health care as a Canadian citizen. I thank God for this regularly, and though I pay a lot of it out in taxes, I'm thankful that my government values making this free. To birth Lily and stay in the hospital 2 nights after the birth, it cost $354. That fee would have been free, but Brad and I opted (and were so glad we did) for a private room, which was $177/night. I don't take this lightly, especially after reading of an average American woman paying $26,000 "out-of-pocket" to birth her child. But it does get me thinking. Why are we so hung up on how expensive adoption costs? In most countries, there are high fees to stay in a hospital and see as many nurses and doctors and specialists as one does when they have a baby and we never say "how do you justify having a BABY?" though people are asked every day how they financially justify adoption or even considering adoption. As Canadians, it's easy to be put off by $26k for a baby, because for us it's free to birth a child, but the concern and general distaste for the fees of adoption are worldwide, not just in Canada. I'm sure in the USA, people grumble just as much about how expensive adoption is, and they pay the same amount to have their children (if they aren't covered 100% by a health insurance company).

In my heart of hearts, I believe adoption is for more people than we think. It's easy to say "adoption is too expensive" and shrug it off because it's a great excuse. $26k IS A LOT OF MONEY. Don't get me wrong. I don't have that sitting in the bank and I don't think everyone should spend that amount today on adoption. But I do think more people would consider adoption if they could get past the cost. While the cost is not likely to drop any time soon, maybe re-framing our thoughts around the issue are more urgent. 

Considering that birthing a child costs the same amount, that adoption fees add up over time (it's not a wam-bam-thank-you-ma'am payment all at once), and that ultimately a human being is worth far more than $26k is a good place to start.

can't wait

Tomorrow, as my husband reminded me today (where would I be without him!? missing appointments to say the least...) is my first doctor's appointment with Dr. Hall for baby No. 2. Which means we get to hear his/her heartbeat! What a sweet sweet sound. I have to admit I'm always a bit nervous that we won't hear it or find it. Until tomorrow we've just assumed everything is perfectly fine, but we won't know anything until we hear that heartbeat. Now, with this baby I'm far less concerned. Partly because I've had one healthy baby and all my worrying for Lily was for naught, and partly because Lily is such a great distraction that my mind just can't always go 'there'. It's too busy being present, with her. But it's always a bit scary...

Things that lead me to also worry less (and should have the last time I was pregnant but probably nothing could ease the worries of my first-time-mom-psycho-self) are my growing belly, the slight movements I've been feeling (though 13 weeks is early for that and I didn't feel Lily until around 16-17 weeks), and my continuous nausea and fatigue. It's funny how horrible all of that seems to be, but how wonderful at the same time, because it is all, indeed a sign of LIFE. 

Anyway... tomorrow is the day! Please pray with us and a healthy heartbeat and everything else :)