Tuesday 27 August 2013

The one where Shmily gets a new name

Yesterday was the big day.  The anatomy scan.  Shmily hit 20 weeks of age yesterday as well and we were told it was the last possible day that we could have our ultrasound.  So even though we had been out of the office for nearly 3 weeks my husband and I "had" to take half of the day off yesterday and head into the city for an ultrasound.

No matter how we tend to think of them there is a lot more to an anatomy scan than just the sex determination.  So let's get the serious stuff out of the way first.  Our baby is completely normal from what they could say.  Yes, those words that will strike anxiety into our hearts on baby's academic record, describing our pride and joy as merely average are the sweetest words a mama-to-be of "advanced maternal age" can read.  Our baby is normal... boring almost.  Shmily is measuring at 19.8 days on average which is only a few hours smaller than expected.  So a pretty nice size so far.

I personally am rooting for this baby to maintain size on the smaller side, I have no desire to push out a record sized baby.

The results weren't perfect.  The radiologist wants us to come back in two weeks for a more detailed analysis of the heart and brains, but the comments we were given were that it was due to baby's positioning and poor visibility not because of a red flag... so I am oddly comforted and not panicking at all... so not my normal attitude.

Now for the news that gets way more attention.  The big reveal.

I had always pictured this moment as being one where with my husband standing by my side holding my hand the ultrasound technician would  reveal the baby's sex.  But apparently our hospital will not allow the technician to discuss this information with the parents.  Instead, you receive a report after waiting in the waiting room for (in our case) an hour and a half.  You read through the words quickly and you feel the tears start to well up as you read the words:

"likely female"

a girl.

They think we are having a girl.


While we were on one of our many flights over the last few weeks my husband and I took our onerous list of 120 girls names and 145 boys names and weeded them down.   We went through the lists and if either person objected to a name is was crossed off.  We were left with a list of 12 boys names and 17 girls names.

We each then ranked the names and then tallied up the combined ranking.  We both ranked our little girl's name as first choice.  This process wasn't meant to be as decisive as it was... just a way to kill time while we were on an airplane.  But we had both fallen in love with the same name.  Neva.  (pronounced with a long E)

Neva means from the place of snow in Italian, which we thought was appropriate for a little girl born in January.  It is the name of a river in Russia, my husbands father's side emigrated from Russia so we felt like it went well with our last name.  It isn't common but we don't think it is freaky weird, or too You-neek in spelling. 

We haven't shared this information with our families yet... we are going to reveal the gender to my family on the weekend, but we are keeping the name a secret in case we change our mind.  But for now our little girl will be Neva Margaret Rebecca P.  And we are looking forward to meeting her.

9 comments:

  1. Omg, a little girl!!!! How very exciting! So glad everything looks great. I think all people struggling with infertility long to hear and feel average, so I can see how amazing that was to hear.

    And loooove the name you've picked for her. It's beautiful.

    Have fun with the reveal this weekend!

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    1. Thanks so much... I am over joyed. Everytime I see her name I well up with tears. Margaret is for my mother and Rebecca was the original name given to my husbands mother when she was born. She is Jewish and born around the time of the war so her name was changed from Rebekah (my husband doesn't like this spelling) and the last name was changed from Schecter (sp?) so that the family blended in and weren't sent to concentration camps.

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  2. I love this post! I can't believe you're having a little girl and I love her name!

    By saying "likely female," are they going to double check when you go back in, or do they just have to say that so you don't sue if you pop out a boy?

    I'm so happy for you guys!

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    1. I think it is so we don't sue. I overheard another couple that had gotten their "likely male" report a few minutes before we did. The tech even told us they will never give a money-back guarantee. We are just happy that she is doing so well on all of the tests so far and seems to be very healthy. At my age that is the most incredible thing.

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  3. A girl! That's wonderful. I can attest that girls rock. Shopping for their clothes is so much fun!!! Congratulations!

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    1. My sister-in-law (a mother of two boys) has already threatened to buy a bucket load of cute dresses if we have a girl. Little girl outfits are so cute and after two nephews I am excited to have someone so special to buy a little dress for.

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  4. Congratulations!! A girl! I am so excited for you both, and I really like the name and its significance. I think it's unique, but definitely in a way that your daughter (!!!) will appreciate. Yay for little girls =)

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    1. We were hoping to have a name that was uncommon but not You-neek. I'm not a big fan of names where you have to guess the spelling. I fell in love with the name years ago and I hope fortunate that my husband liked it too. We've been testing it out and so far so good.

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  5. Lovely name!! And yes, that was our exact experience in finding out the sex, too, and seeing the words "likely male" was just such a blah moment for some reason. I think next time, I want our OB to just read it and tell us in a more excited, "Congratulations, it's a.... !" tone of voice. :)

    Jealous that you guys had such an easy time choosing a name -- we are STILL bickering and fussing over that one. Ugh.

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