A rose by any other name...

This post comes to you from my bed, which I have taken to in the manner of an over-vexed Victorian Lady after my weekend in Yosemite. A full post on that to follow, but because I left my camera in the car I am relying on Pauline, the lovely Anglo-French intern in my husband's department on sending me hers once she returns (most of the group are coming back today, but we left yesterday since we have a second road-trip to do this week.)

So today I am staying in bed with the air-conditioning on full blast, bruised and aching from a hike I should NEVER have attempted (it's listed as 'strenuous' in the Yosemite guide book. One day I will learn to read the guidebook before I get home from the trip...) with an extremely angry cat who was left alone (but well catered for) for a grand total of 48 hours and is now hell-bent on making us suffer for it.

The weekend was marvellous, as was last week. We discovered on Tuesday that our little girl is just fine. And very female. I did not believe this at first, but our lovely doctor spent a good few minutes showing exactly how female she is- it was indisputable. We then rewatched the DVD at home a few days later and were reminded that she is definitely a girl. I am so glad I found out that she is a she. I now have the next 20 weeks to get my head wrapped around having a daughter. My husband's plans for the baby remain unchanged-  now she, instead of he, will be an international footballer with science as a back-up plan. I don't think I really have plans for the baby beyond 'keep growing til we can safely get you on the outside' but I was glad he wasn't disappointed. 

Week 18, then week 20. Not a big difference, but definitely feeling it!

As I mentioned the other week, having a baby girl presents us with a problem. We have ZERO baby names for a girl. Well, we now have one potential thanks to my amazing friend Kathryn, who sent me a pretty impressive list during one of her 4am feeds, and we modified one of the ones on her list a bit and came up with another that met our criteria. If we use it, the story will always be the Auntie Kathryn named her since mummy and daddy are rubbish. So- our criteria. We have a few rules. Not quite in a Katie Hopkins style, but a few things we generally agreed on in order to filter things down a bit...

1. Nothing made up. Not that I have a massive problem with making up a name for your baby at all, but given that we already feel like we have too many options, it's an easy way to narrow it down.

2. Must have a nickname attached. This one is on me. The name Lorna does not shorten down to anything at all. I have spent my whole lifetime nickname-less. It makes me quite sad to have missed out on the immediate intimacy of having my friends and family call me something different than the man at the bank. By the same token, no nicknames as full names (eg Penny or Sammy) since this goes both ways.

3. Nothing gender neutral. No real reason for this, and subject to change. I AM totally open to boys names as nicknames, but would prefer not to have a full-on boys name for a girl (I think my reasoning behind this might be that I feel a bit sorry for the boys. Especially here in the US, the girls are just taking over good boys names and leaving boys with fewer options. Having written it down, I am now aware of how crazy I am.)

4. My husband must be able to spell it. He has the worst spelling of any clever person I have ever met, and this is his main rule. This largely rules out anything traditionally Scots or Irish, but given that we are currently in the US and these names would be routinely butchered, it's probably for the best.

5. Must not be associated with a ghastly child I have looked after. I cannot really be any more specific with this unfortunately, but so many names have been ruined for me forever either through bad behaviour (Cara, Adele, Ruby, Olivia) or something upsetting and tragic (Olivia, Paige.) We definitely have it easier here because we're having a girl (my boy's name banned list is longer than my arm...) and as my mother-in-law pointed out, both her and her husband were teachers, so they only had 2 names to choose from since between them, every name they could think of had a bad association for at least one of them. 

So there you have it. Have I made too many rules? Is this why we are struggling to come up with the short-list we want to have in place before she arrives? Any and all suggestions gratefully received...