He has a name!

The little boy kicking inside me has a name! His first name is Oliver, which is the third boy name Paul had suggested this pregnancy (not counting the two boy names he likes that I had rejected when I was carrying Ian). It's not a name I would have come up with, but I like it much better than the other ones. Aside from wanting to like the name, my other criteria are that it can't be too popular, and I also care about the meaning of the name. Oliver has been gaining in popularity over the past 11 years - from #305 in 2000 to #78 in 2011. However #78 is not "too" popular in my opinion. Of all the names we've selected, the one that is the most popular is Alexander, but since it's Ian's middle name, it doesn't bother me that it's a very popular name. The only "strike" against the name Oliver in my mind is that some people might try to call him "Ollie," and as much as I love to buy books at Ollie's (a discount store), I'm not keen on that nickname for our son. Part of the reason we picked Nadia and Ian were that those names don't lend themselves to a nickname. We're not totally opposed to nicknames. If this baby was a girl, she would have been called Deborah, and we were okay with the nicknames Deb or Debbie. Neither of us like "Ollie" though so hopefully that won't be an issue. At first I wasn't keen on the meaning of Oliver because the first few sites I looked at listed the meaning as olive or olive tree. However I did a little more digging and found that the Norse meaning is "affectionate" and the English meaning is "peaceful." I can see the connection between an olive tree and peace/peaceful. One other meaning of Oliver (my least favorite) is "elf army."

His middle name is Elliot. I came up with that name. Out of the six names we've picked (first and middle), two were my suggestions (Renee and Elliot) and the other four were Paul's suggestions. Elliot means "my God is the Lord," and I definitely like that meaning. Elliot is a form of Elijah. The other meanings listed for the name Elliot include "believes in God," "God on high," and "Jehovah is God." Elliot has also been gaining in popularity (from #468 in 2000 to #272 in 2011), but it's not an overly popular name (and the popularity of the middle name isn't really important to me). I think Oliver Elliot has a nice ring to it, and I think Oliver sounds nice when listed with Ian and Nadia. Agreeing on a name isn't easy for Paul and I as our tastes are very different; so I feel a huge sense of relief that our son has a name! Of the names we've picked, my favorite is definitely Nadia Renee, in part because Nadia means "hope" and Renee means "reborn," and considering the difficult journey we traveled to become parents, it was extremely appropriate.

Yesterday I wasn't surprised that they didn't bring me what I had ordered for breakfast because I figured my meal had been cancelled due to them not allowing me to eat or drink anything. However, I was surprised when my lunch tray wasn't what I had ordered. I told the hostess that I had filled out seven day's worth of menus on Thursday. They did track down my menu and bring me what I had asked for at dinner last night, which was a big relief. Yesterday I had filled out another menu for today in case they didn't find my menus. Even though I filled out two menus for today (turned in one on Thursday and another yesterday), I still wasn't given anything I asked for at breakfast.  When I mentioned it to the hostess at 9am, she took the tray back and said she'd fix it. At 10:50am I was given another breakfast tray, which had some of the things I had ordered, but the plate that contained a piece of french toast (which I ate) and a cheese omlette (which I did not eat) was totally cold. The plate was chilled as if it just came out of the refrigerator. I don't like feeling like a picky patient, but I asked the nurse to microwave the plate. This is so vexing. Hospital food isn't that great to begin with (in general - there are a few foods they serve here that are rather tasty); so it's really frustrating when I don't at least get to pick what I'm served (I've learned which things they make to avoid because they are inedible to me like the steak fries they served me yesterday). I am not sure why it's so complicated. I would think filling out the menu would do the trick. If I end up being in this hospital for several more weeks, I hope this meal situation improves. The nurse told me that they typically goof things up for patients in this ward, but that usually they do a better job for the women in the antepartum unit (9th floor). I am very grateful that there is a pantry. I might be living off of cereal three meals a day until Oliver is born!

At least they are letting me eat. It could be worse! I'm grateful that today I'll be allowed to take a shower. The only condition the doctor gave is that I must sit while I take my shower. Val (one of the nurses) was very kind in trying to get the blood off of me on Friday evening with warm towlettes, but still I'm really looking forward to the shower. I'm also going to be transferred upstairs, which means no more iv, and the fetal/contraction monitoring will go from 24 hours a day to 2 hours a day. This means it will be so much easier to go to the bathroom. Of course I'd rather deal with all these cords than go back to having to use a bedpan, but still it's complicated unplugging and plugging everything before and after I go to the bathroom. Hopefully my stay will be longer this time around. I shouldn't have trouble staying longer than I did on Friday night since I was only up there for 30 minutes that time, ha ha!

Paul and the kids were here for about 2.5 hours yesterday. It was great to see them although it was a bit tricky to keep them out of trouble in this hospital room. The nurse on duty at that time was great at tickling Nadia while she was hiding behind the privacy curtain. That nurse graduated in 2006 from the university where I've been teaching since 2004. Paul brought me more clothes, a DVD from Netflix, and 9 more library books.