Baby Names

So, I was just reading the blog of a friend who is having a little girl soon and asking for ideas on baby names. And even though I think we have some good ideas for names for this baby, I thought I’d just see if anyone could think of any other baby names that we might like better. We are pretty sure on the girl name we have, and we have a boy name we like, but could possibly be up for suggestions. So, any ideas?

If you care to know how I decide on a baby name, here are some things that I take into consideration (yes, I know I am pretty picky about baby names). I don’t like names that are really common (like John, Mary, Joshua, Kathryn, etc.) [and then there are some more common names that I quite like, such as Samuel or Benjamin, but I just don’t want my kids to have to be Sam B. all through school because there are 3 or 4 other kids in their classes with the same name], but I don’t like names that are so weird that you can’t pronounce them either. Michael is more likely to lean towards names that I consider more common than I am. And I have to think that the name goes well with the other kids’ names – like all of the boys have two syllable names (I know, Elijah is 3 syllables, but he goes by Eli most of the time), and I wouldn’t choose a name that sounded too similar to one of the other boys’ (I like Levi, but it’s too close to Eli, and I like Caleb but it sounds kind of like Kolby). And then you have to consider nicknames – I love the name Jeremiah, but dislike Jerry or Jer, and I think Miah sounds a little girly. Or Ezekiel (many of you know that this was almost Camden’s name), but almost everyone’s first reaction to the name was “Oh, Zeke the Geek.” (I know that kids can think up a mean nickname for most any name, but if that’s the first thing that people think of, it’s probably not the best idea). And then there are a few names that I think are really cute, but Michael automatically vetoes (for some unknown reason) J like Easton, Weston, Riley, Franklin (but I don’t like Frank), Harrison, Quinn, Lincoln, Keegan, etc. Oh, and Michael usually doesn’t go for names that are used for boys and girls, except for Aaron (because everyone knows that Erin is a girl and Aaron is a boy). [As you can tell, I am mostly thinking about boys’ names – we have quite a list of possible girls’ names, and are kind of running out of boys’ names we agree on.]

Yes, I know, I put way more thought into this whole baby naming business than most people probably do, but oh well – I’m going to have to be saying these names for the rest of my life, so I guess I’d better like them.

Yep.

So, yes, I am pregnant. And the guesses from the last post were right – 15 months between Kolby and Eli, 20 months between Eli and Camden, 13 months between Camden and Isaac, and now 15 months between Isaac and ?????? (actually, it’s closer to 15 ½ months, but I think rounding down is always a better idea than rounding up when it comes to pregnancy). So, baby Bradshaw #5 is due on February 8th. I am 12 ½ weeks along now, and am looking forward to when the morning sickness totally goes away (although it has been better lately than a few weeks ago).

One thing that has been giving me trouble this time around that I haven’t had to deal with before is a really bad gag reflex – actually, that has always bothered me a little bit in past pregnancies, like I couldn’t stand to hold a pencil in my mouth or anything like that, but it has been much worse this time – I can’t swallow pills. I can usually get by if I have to take a little tiny pill, but prenatal vitamins always seem to come in the horse-pill size. Even if I’m not feeling nauseous from morning sickness, if I try to take medicine it will make me gag and throw up. Any suggestions? My midwife gave me a prescription for liquid prenatal vitamins the other day, and I have been to two different pharmacies and got a call yesterday from the second one that they couldn’t find anything like that available anywhere. I know there are also chewable ones, but have heard that they taste really terrible, and I don’t know if I could handle that when I am feeling morning sick. Well, I guess I’ll get past this.

So, we will find out in about 6 weeks if the baby is a boy or girl. Ideally I would have liked to wait until we knew the baby’s gender before announcing to everyone that we were pregnant, but after you’ve had 4 kids things start to become obvious a little earlier, and I thought people would be able to tell I was pregnant before then. So, just so everyone knows, we are excited to be pregnant, and we would be happy with either a boy or a girl, really. I know that lost of people I talk to think I am secretly wishing for a girl for the last one, but I think 5 boys would be great. I think this one will be a boy (although I’ve been wrong on that every time with the last 4 kids, so who knows). So, we’ll keep everyone updated when we find out if this one is a boy or girl, and we’ll let you know then what name we’ve decided on.