Big Woman vs. Good Pelvis

Had a Dr's appointment this week and we either have the most modest baby of all time, or the most stubborn. He/she (this week it's a he, we're practicing the name Noah) had his legs kind of crossed indian style, but tucked under himself in a way that made it just impossible to see what we were hoping to see the most . . . so there is no drum roll followed by joyous and exciting gender announcement. We are, nonetheless, very happy and grateful that our baby is looking normal and active and healthy. He's about the size of an apple (i'm 15 weeks) and he can pee, make faces, move his jaw and all his joints, and even though his eyelids are still fused shut, he can see and will respond to light. Cool huh? But what I want to know is how do his eyelids get unfused? The Doc had to leave the office shortly after I arrived for my appt to go deliver a baby, and when she came back she was saying that it was a big baby, 4.5 kilo's. But her disclaimer was that it was ok and they didn't need to do a C-section b/c she was a big woman. So then I asked her to define what a big woman is, because women here are just scrawny, skin and bones! So tiny and petite. So there was a kind of funny pause (while she tried to avoid telling me directly that I am a big woman in her thinking) and then she just agreed with me that these women are very small. Then I asked her directly, so am I a big woman? She was uncomfortable and changed the subject by saying that she expects that I will have a good pelvis! What in the world? So congratulate me. Not only do I have a healthy baby so far, I also am expected to have a good pelvis! :)

Being a Mom

I've been looking at friends' blogs today and I'm feeling a bit old. I'm about to become a first time mother and I will turn 31 before that happens in Dec. So many of my friends have multiple children and they seem like seasoned old pro's at the whole mothering thing. Matt will be 36 by the time we have the baby and I'm trying to see the bright side of being "older parents". I guess one of the good things about becoming a mom older is that HOPEFULLY, I'm a little wiser for the extra years I've put on. (And speaking of putting on, I'm starting to put on the pounds!) I think for me, becoming a mom a little behind the average has made me take the enterprise of motherhood a bit more seriously. Or maybe it's my personality type, but I feel like the seriousness of motherhood is heavy on my mind. My sweet mother in law sent me a little book called "1001 Things it Means to Be a Mom". This is meant to be a fun, happy little book, but after only a few pages of little anecdotal mothering suggestions, I was in tears. Not laughing till I cried, more like overwhelmed till I cried. Maybe this has to do with the fact that I was helping to babysit four children earlier in the day and things did not go well. It started fine over lunch (in spite an outbreak of dipping bread into their lemonade), but it started to turn ugly while all four of them were in my backseat and we were stuck in traffic for about an hour. . . how many times can we play the quite game? So as I was trying to tolerate the circus act in the back seat, all I wanted to do was knock their heads together like a couple of coconuts and tell them to shut up. And these are good kids. Kids I usually like, who are usually well-behaved! So what kind of mother will I be?



Number 18 in the book was: "Being a mom means sometimes not telling your child what you really think of them." At least as I've gotten a little older I've learned (mostly from my incredibly diplomatic husband) how to say less and listen a little more, and how to tone down my initial reactions (that are usually off the charts opinionated). Maybe it's not so bad to be an older mom. I'm taking this job VERY seriously, I'm a little wiser than I used to be and hopefully A LOT more flexible (living on this side of the pond has helped form that in me, as well as multiple re-locations and re-starts over the last 2 years). So, to all of you young moms, who are light years ahead of me and popping out number 3, anything you've learned that I need to know? And to you fabulous mom's who have survived the marathon of the first 18 or so years of motherhood, what do I need to learn from you? And from those in the same boat, getting a slightly later start at this race, what have you loved/hated about being an "older" mom? I will add them to my little book of 1001 mom things . . .

What's in a name?

Well, matt and I have discussed baby names since before I was pregnant. And we haven't really followed "the rules" when it comes to not telling people you're pregnant until after the 3 month mark, and all of that. So I think we're not going to follow the rule of don't talk about baby names until the baby is born b/c people will make comments about the names you like and discourage you, and then you won't want to use them. I don't care. Let's talk about them. Top runners for a girl are: Zoe (I forgot which middle name we liked for Zoe) but we liked this b/c of the Greek word zoe, as in zoe life. Ooh, i just had a thought. Maybe we could do Zoe Aiysha (b/c aiysha means life in Arabic!). Our other favorite girl name is Maya Grace. Maya means water in Arabic. We really want to chose names that will enable us to talk about what is true when we share with people what our kids' names are. We would also love to use Arabic if we can come up with names that sound ok to people like you guys back in the states. For boys we are really struggling. The last name Jacobsen limits first names b/c you don't really want to have a first and a last name that end in the same sound (like Jason Jacobsen, Jackson Jacobsen, etc.), so that kind of rules out all en/on ending names. We don't like most Arabic names for boys b/c there are very few that aren't very Islamic, that sound good to us, that have a good meaning. We like Noah, and there's an Arabic pronunciation for it that we like. But that's about all we've agreed on so far. Not even a middle name. So, we are open to suggestions. What do you think?