We had a great visit to the midwives’ office. It turns out that our long-time friend Vicki was our lab technician for the ultrasound, and it was wonderful to have such a good friend show us around our baby. It’s about five inches long now, head to bottom, and looks like a baby instead of a seahorse, which is definitely a step in the right direction.
Vicki checked for various problems and everything looks good. It was incredible to see the little one squirming around in there. As fuzzy as ultrasounds can be, when they’re in motion they look remarkably like babies. And the 4-D ultrasounds they have now are extraordinary. I’ll post some of them when I get back from Guatemala. They’re so much clearer and more multi-dimensional than conventional ultrasounds. The downside is that they produce strange little anomalies, so the beautiful little critter may appear to have huge lumps growing out of its head, for instance.
We started out calling it “Flipper,” after reading that it was developing “flipper-like arm buds” early in its development. After we heard the heartbeat we re-named it “Thumper.” Now it’s pretty much “Lumpy.”
So here’s the thing… we live near Asheville, NC, the alternative spirituality capital of the south. Thus, we have lots of friends who had pretty strong ideas about the gender — and they all agreed!! Deanna and I had the same idea, too. It was all but unanimous. OK, one disagreed. Other than that, everybody had the same idea.
When Deanna and I talked about names we could only think of girl names. We each had a beloved grandmother named Sarah, so that was a no-brainer. The middle name was a little tougher, but we had some good ideas, I think. The conversation always ended with “y’know, we’ve got to think about boy names too,” and I would agree, but we would never quite get around to it.
When we were done checking all of the health questions and marveling a bit, Vicki wrote the gender on a little card for us and sealed it up. Leaving the office we called my parents and asked if they could meet up with us for a few minutes. We all met at the playground in Montreat, said a prayer and opened up the card, which said “It’s a boy! And I love all three of you! Vicki”
Wow.
So we’re perfectly happy, of course. I don’t think either of us had a preference, but somehow it’s so much more real knowing that part of who this little one is.
Given the difficulty we’re having thinking of boy names, Deanna’s latest suggestion is “Voldemort,” or rather “He-who-must-not-be-named.”
And how could I forget Woodrow (Wilson, Wilson Guthrie, Wilson Smith (okay, the last isn’t a peacemaker, and he’s fictional too, but then so is “You-Know-Who”). Or I’ve also heard (and liked) Guthrie as a name.
Oh, and just to throw my sweetie’s names out there: Jeffrey means gift of peace and Logan means mountain.
Whatever you do, not Jackson. Bella has 3 Jacksons and a Jack in her class of about 20!
Well, Dark Lord does start with D and L. And it has a nice anti-racist bent to it. Kind of imperialist, though.
If you are going to name him after someone famous, though, I think instead of a serial murderer you should perhaps choose a peacemaker or social justice activist! Here’s a few to mull over:
Martin (Luther King Jr. and also Niemöller)
Nelson (Mandela)
Elie (Wiesel)
Desmond (Tutu)
Oscar (Romero)
Gordon (Kiyoshi Hirabayashi)
Thomas (Merton)
Henry (David Thoreau)
Ernesto (Cortes)
Roy (Bourgeois)
Abraham (A.J. Muste)
Pete (Seeger) (hmm, and didn’t someone write a song called “Peter”? Could be a good parental line: “I meant what I said, Peter”!)
or Jack…My name is LaMotte…Jack LaMotte…kind of has a folksy woodsy feel to it
Congrats on having a boy!
Andy is a great name by the way. 🙂
I have a friend who has nicknamed her son The Dark Lord V, and other variations. I can’t even remember his real name off the top of my head….
You will come up with something great, I’m sure!
how ’bout mufasa? 😉 congrats!!!
Love the news. Love the comments about the news!! Little people are a LOT of fun.
Wow that is so exiting!
BTW: They told us we were having a girl and you have met my son 😉
Eric
Congratulations! Boys are so much fun.
Have a great trip to Guatemala.
I meant, too hard, of course.
Congrats! I am sure that you will get a lot of suggestions for names. However, I am equally sure that he will whipser his name to you at a time when you are not thinking to hard about it. It will be more difficult to hear him if you are.
*eyes widen at the prospect of David joining the hordes of celebrities giving their kids unusual (ok, fine. weird) names*
Erm…
Actually, Im really not one to talk.
i think his first and middle names should start with “d” and “l” respectively . . . something that invites respect and signifies peacemaking . . . like . . . ummm . . . dalai lama lamotte.
Whooo! Congrats! Hopefully youll have better luck with that ones name than my parents had naming me. They didnt decide on anything until after I was born and just before they filled out the birth certificate. My dad finally said something like “How about Sandra?” and mom was somewhere along the lines of “Whatever”…or maybe an exasperated “Fine!”
Gee.
If all else fails, theres always David Jr. =D
Congrats again.