Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Our Son's Room

I bought our first house in January 2001; it had three bedrooms as did our 2nd home that we bought in 2004. During the time we lived in those two homes, we only used one of the three bedrooms. I made the mistake of turning one bedroom into a nursery in the summer of 2002 since we were ttc. I painted the walls, put up wallpaper border (Boyd's bear theme), bought a matching crib set, etc. I gave that crib set away when we moved in 2004. In our 2nd home we did actually use one of the other bedrooms for 2 1/2 months since Nadia arrived before we moved. Our current house has four bedrooms, and three have been used right from the start since we made one of them into an office for Paul. I hadn't decorated the fourth bedroom yet. We had a set of twin bunk beds in there which were used a couple of times by guests, but 99% of the time the door on that room stayed shut. Well that will be changing in a few months! For the first time since 2001 ALL the bedrooms will be used on a daily basis. YAY!











In February 2005 when we thought we might have an adoption match with a birthmother expecting a baby boy (whom we planned to name Ian Alexander), I had picked out a transportation theme for his nursery (in primary colors). Although I saw many very cute bedding sets in other themes (such as jungle animals), I still found myself wanting to go with the theme I had picked 4.5 years ago. As with Nadia's room, I don't want to pick a theme that is too babyish. I don't want him to outgrow it at say the age of four which is what I think would happen if I picked Winnie the Pooh or something like that. I also didn't want to go the sports route just in case our son happens not to be too crazy about sports. Animals would probably also be a safe bet, but since the kids' bathroom is in a monkey theme I thought I'd pick something different. Even if you narrow it down to primary colors/transportation theme there are MANY choices - construction vehicles, trains, fire trucks, cars, etc. Wow! In the end I think I'm going to go with Travel Time (by Bedtime Originals). I really liked most of the items - lamp, mobile, wall hangings, and border.












I'm not crazy about the valance that goes with it, and it didn't have a coordinating hamper, but I found a hamper & valance in another collection that I think go well with the Travel Time stuff. I found other curtains that were much cuter (also had a transportation theme), but it was hard to find one that seemed like the colors would go well together. I started a baby registry at Walmart and Babies R Us last night although I doubt that's necessary for a second child; it's probably one of those things you usually only do with your first. However, since Christmas is about one month before he's due, I thought the registries would serve as idea lists for family members as to what to get us for Christmas. The only bad part of going that route is I want to start decorating his room NOW. I don't want to wait until after Christmas! :-) We'll see if I have the patience to wait and see if I get any of the items as gifts, or if I end up just buying the stuff myself before then.



I'm now up to 2 acid controller pills a day. I took two yesterday (one every 12 hours), and I felt much better than I had the previous few days. At least I'm still at the point where 2 pills is enough. For much of my pregnancy with Nadia even with 2 a day I still had heartburn. I gained 2 pounds in the 11 days in between my last OB appt and my perinatologist appt. I am going to try to be more careful about what I eat. I also am planning to make an appt with Dr. A (who delivered Nadia) to see if she still thinks VBAC is a good option for me. If she does, I think I'll start seeing her instead and plan on delivering in the same hospital where I had Nadia. Hopefully this time we can avoid both a c-section and the NICU. :-)

Monday, August 24, 2009

BIG Day!

There are three reasons why today is a big day for our family. First, we found out that baby is a BOY. He was shy during the first part of the ultrasound as he was in a breech position with his legs crossed. Nadia was head down in every ultrasound, but that's not true of this little guy. Thankfully though he did let us get a few good looks between his legs toward the end of the ultrasound. Everything looked fine. They want me to come back at 24 weeks for one more ultrasound so they can thoroughly examine the heart. I am very excited that Nadia will have a brother! I am following the pattern of my two sisters who both had a girl first and then a boy. Now we need to pick a name as Deborah Marie will not work for a boy, LOL! I also want to start looking at options for decorating his room. I have been searching on Craigslist for a crib, and I finally found one a couple of days ago that was reasonably priced ($50 and that included the mattress). They live near Paul's family, and since Paul's dad has a truck, they can pick it up and bring it to our house the next time they come up.
Second, Nadia turned 14 months old today. I still consider her to have a 5 word vocabulary (with "up" being the word she says the most often), but I think that will change dramatically in the next month as she's now starting to try to repeat words when I ask her to say a certain word. She will say "up", "Mama," etc. on command if I ask her to say one of those words. She's still a very good eater and generally sleeps at least 14 hours a day (11-12 of those are at night). I know the morning nap probably won't last much longer, but so far she still seems to operate best with 2 naps a day. Pointing is one of her favorite ways to communicate her wishes. She enjoys waving "hi" and "bye," clapping her hands, and giving someone "five." The last 14 months with her have been sooo wonderful, and I look forward to seeing all the ways she'll grow in the coming months! The highlights of my days are seeing her smiles, hearing her laughter, and cuddling with her.

Third, the fall semester began today for Paul. He is taking his last doctoral class. He's not excited about taking this particular class, but thankfully he won't be a TA this semester (as he was last year), and he's only taking one class (whereas he took 2 a semester last year). He plans to take his comprehensive exams in the spring. I hope this class goes better than he thinks it will. My fall semester begins one week from today so I am enjoying the last week of my 3 week vacation.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Nursery Woes

I probably mentioned it before, but I really dislike "church shopping." When we moved to our new house last September, I visited 3 churches, picked one of those as my new church, and in January joined the choir at that church. There were times I wasn't convinced I had really found "the" one we should go to; so I decided when the choir was on a break in the summer I'd visit some other churches in the area. Since I dislike church shopping I still ended up going to the church I had been going to several times this summer, and some weekends we were away (at my parent's church in MD, etc.). Including the one I went to today, I've visited 3 other churches in this area this summer. One I immediately ruled out. The second I really, really liked the preaching, and the people were super friendly, but it was a small church (around 100) so there wasn't a choir. I liked the preaching at the one I went to today, and although it's also small, they do have a choir (not in the summer though so I didn't get to hear them yet).

The only problem we experienced today was that Nadia was very, very unhappy in the nursery. She cried when I first dropped her off, and when I went back to check on her 5-10 minutes later she was still screaming. So I took her into the service with me. That worked for awhile, but then she wanted to get down and run around. So I took her back to the nursery and stayed a bit until she was happily playing and then tried to sneak out behind her back. It didn't work. I checked back 10-15 minutes later and a lady had in her in her arms outside the church building, and Nadia was still screaming her head off. The woman said she was willing to keep Nadia outside the rest of the service, but I didn't want her to cry that long so I took her back in church with me. When Nadia was 6 months and younger it was fine to keep her in church with me, and when she gets older it will be fine again, but it's not a good plan when she's 1 year old. I don't really think it was anything about the nursery or the nursery workers but rather today she was for whatever reason really clingy, and of course this nursery and the ladies in it were unfamiliar to her. I plan to visit this church again. Hopefully Nadia will be happier in the nursery the next time.

Yesterday we had a nice visit with my friend, Joyce, and her family on our way to Paul's aunt's house. Joyce used to teach 2nd grade at the school where I was principal. I have many fond memories of things we did together including we both bought our wedding dresses at the same time (same shop) when a bridal store was having a $99 sale (her dress was originally over $700 and mine originally over $500). She got married 1 year before I did. She is exactly 2 days older than me so we always celebrated our birthdays together, and she grew up on Long Island so we made a few trips out there together as my dad has some relatives who live on Long Island. We haven't seen each other as often as we used to since she got married in 2000 and moved to Harrisburg. It was wonderful to be able to introduce her to Nadia yesterday and to see how much her two kids had grown since the last time I had seen them (ages 6 & 8).

Then we went to Aunt Debbie's house. She was very touched that if jellybean is a girl we're naming our baby after her. Uncle Bill said we are having a boy, and evidently every time he's made such a prediction (such as with his own 3 children) he's been correct. I'll find out tomorrow morning if his accurate streak has continued or not. I did the Chinese gender prediction thing before I found out Nadia was a girl, and it predicted girl. This time it says "boy." Of course all these "methods" have a 50% chance of being right. :-) It was nice to see Paul's mom's side of the family as we usually only see them in December or January at Aunt Deb's annual Christmas party. Nadia enjoyed eating her grandma's famous baked beans. I need to get her recipe!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Little Pampering

Well it has been about 2 1/2 years since I had a professional manicure and about 1 1/2 years since I had a professional pedicure. I had decided a couple of weeks ago to get one today. I didn't want to get it before our trip to the Poconos since chlorine eats away nail polish, and I thought it would be nice to get it done before school started. I picked today since we're going to a party this afternoon with Paul's mom's side of the family (at his aunt's house south of Harrisburg). I got a manicure and had my toenails painted (not a full pedicure which saved me $13). I was starting to regret my decision when I saw the other ladies getting their calves and feet massaged. That's one of my favorite parts. Unfortunately the guy doing my manicure didn't put any lotion on my hands or massage them at all. That also is one of my favorite parts of a manicure! My fingernails haven't had nail polish on them for over a year so I'm actually adjusting to having red fingernails, LOL. I have painted my toenails ever since the weather was warm enough to wear sandals so red toenails doesn't look out of place to me.

I went while Nadia was napping. She was kind enough not to wake up until 6:50 the last two days (which meant she slept almost 12 hours). Yesterday that translated to a very short morning nap, but thankfully she slept from 8:50-10:20 this morning so she was asleep most of the time that I was out. I first went to a yard sale and bought her a pair of pjs for next summer (2T) for $1.50. There were MANY yard sales going on near our house, but I restrained myself from stopping at any others. It's funny because for the first 36 years of my life I never shopped at yard sales. Then I made a quick stop at the library before heading to get my nails done.

Yesterday 14 members of my family joined the 3 of us at our house for about 2 1/2 hours. I fed them lunch (ravioli, garlic bread, and blueberry crisp), gave my sisters and their hubbies tours of our house, and the kids enjoyed playing with Nadia's toys. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play Boggle. Hopefully we can at Christmas, which is the next time we'll all be together hopefully. They are planning on coming up here as I'll be 36 weeks pregnant, and since that's when I gave birth last time I don't want to be in MD that late in the pregnancy. We do plan to travel to MD for Thanksgiving, but my sister and her family (who live in Chicago) won't be there.

My sister took lots of pics over the last week. She got a few really good ones of Paul, Nadia, & I. I'll post them once she has a chance to edit them and such. We didn't order the one of the 3 of us that was taken at Picture People. I put the new large group photo in our bathroom (with a different frame as the old frame didn't work with the new print), and I put the pose of my dad with his 4 grandsons in a frame on the refrigerator. Switching the frame worked out well as the white frame that used to be in the bathroom looked better in Nadia's bedroom than a frame I used to have in there. Yesterday my family helped us move two doll cabinets from what is now the spare bedroom down to the dining room. Monday we'll find out whether that room is going to be for the baby or Nadia!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Rides and Blueberries

Yesterday my sisters decided to head to an amusement park (the one that we used to live 10 minutes from before we moved). So Nadia & I met them there instead of at the resort. We left after being there 3 hours because it started raining. The rest of the family stayed another 2 hours, which proved to be a wise move, as the light rain stopped soon after we left. I was fearing it would turn into a downpour. Nadia went on one ride with Adam (see pics in yesterday's post). That didn't work; she cried. She went on two rides with me - helicopters and cars. Wendy got a couple of good pics of Nadia & I in a car. She did fine, but it didn't seem worth spending more $$ on her riding rides. I think she's still a little too young to really enjoy it. She did enjoy watching all the people walking around the park and sharing some black cherry soft ice cream with Mommy. She's a girl after my own heart. Ice cream is the only food that she cries over (tears and all!) when it's all gone. Daddy likes vanilla milkshakes, but other than that he doesn't eat ice cream. One time Nadia said the word "ice" when I was feeding her ice cream. I haven't counted that as a new word since she only said it once thus far. Her favorite word these days is still definitely "up;" we hear that many, many times a day!

In preparation for my family coming to our house today, I stopped at the blueberry farm yesterday evening so that I could make a recipe my cousin's wife had posted on her blog recently. I had to taste a little last night, and it's very yummy!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Velcro

Nadia has learned how to take off her sandals. She is most likely to take them off while sitting in her carseat. Her nose seems a little better today. Hopefully her cough will also go away soon. She's been getting a lot more sleep; I think that should help. Yesterday's naps plus her nighttime sleep last night totaled close to 15 hours.

Yesterday when we arrived at the resort the other kiddos were about to go down for their naps so we hung out with Drayton and my parents in their suite for almost 2 hours before heading to the indoor pool. We swam for over an hour. It was fun to have all 8 kids in the pool at the same time (see pics in yesterday's post). Then we had dinner (pizza and ice cream sundaes) in one of the suites. I was hoping we'd be able to get in a game of Boggle before 7pm, but that didn't happen. Hopefully we can play Boggle together today or tomorrow. While the kids were napping , Yvonne & Joe played tennis, and while we were in the pool, Drayton and my dad were playing tennis. Joe, Drayton, and my dad were scheduled to play racquetball this morning. Yesterday 5 of the kids had pony rides and some of them also had their first experience with archery. Tuesday they all went miniature golfing. Nadia & I are planning to go up again this afternoon, and tomorrow they're all planning to come to our house as my sisters haven't seen our new house.

On Tuesday when Nadia was taking her 2nd nap, Gabby, the 6th grader who watched Nadia while her mom was also here 2 weeks ago, rang the doorbell and gave me a book/CD for Nadia on the ABC's. She said she paid for it with her own money. How sweet! I think she might be trying to drum up more babysitting business for herself. Her older sister is the one who watched Nadia while we went out to dinner on our anniversary. I told Gabby that Nadia was napping so she came back later and the three of us played together for 2 hours until it was time for Nadia & I to eat dinner. The kids go back to school on Monday.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

18 Weeks

Well tomorrow I'll be at what was the half-way mark of my last pregnancy. I'm hoping to make it to 39 weeks this time so hopefully I'm not half-way done quite yet this time around. I still haven't been feeling the baby move. I keep reminding myself that I saw and heard the baby's heart beating less than a week ago and that I didn't feel Nadia moving until 20 weeks. Just five more days until we find out if baby is a girl or a boy! The heartburn has been increasing, but so far I am able to keep it manageable with just one pill a day. For many weeks I was taking 2 a day when pg with Nadia.

It has been such a relief to have naps and bedtime go back to being no big deal. She either doesn't cry at all or cries less than 1 minute. I am not sure why she had so much trouble at the resort, but I am glad those problems vanished as soon as we got home. Last night she slept 11 hours and 15 minutes since I put her to bed at 6:45pm, and her first nap this morning was 2 1/2 hours whereas a normal morning nap for her is 90 minutes. Hopefully soon her nose will stop running and her cough will go away. Her 2nd nap will hopefully be en route to the resort. Nadia & I plan to spend about 5 hours with my family. Paul is spending the night in State College at a friend's house. He had planned to spend Tuesday and Wednesday night there, but he came home last night since Nadia & I had come home from the Poconos four days earlier than planned.

We haven't missed having a landline at all, and in general it's been wonderful to have 2 cell phones instead. It makes easier for Paul & I to keep in touch throughout the day, and it also has meant I've talked on the phone far more with my mom than I had in the past. The downside of course is that people can reach you anytime, anywhere. Two examples come to mind. The Sunday we were in NYC my phone rang while we were in a PATH train station on our way home. I only answered the phone because I thought it might be Paul's dad calling us (they were watching Nadia). It turned out it was a prof at another college wanting to know more about our new middle level program since ours had been approved by the PA Department of Education recently and theirs hadn't. I let her know it wasn't a good time to talk, and I called her back on Monday. Two days ago the same thing happened in that my department chair called me while we were in the Poconos. Well the positives far outweigh the negatives; I'm sure the cell phones are here to stay in our family.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Water Park

























Yesterday we went to an indoor water park about 10 minutes from the resort. Everyone had a blast! The bigger kids (and some adults) enjoyed the water slides, and three of the men tried to go surfing (Paul, Joe, and my dad). I don't have any pics of my dad surfing because he did it after we left to take Nadia back for her afternoon nap. Nadia spent most of her time in the wave pool with Daddy and also in the kiddie pool (which went from 6-12 inches deep). The yellow slide was one of her favorite things to do during the 2 hours she spent in the water. The other kids stayed there for almost 6 hours! In Antigua she cried if her head went under water, but she doesn't mind any more. She's getting so brave!
Sunday night was not a good night for Nadia & I. She went to bed much later than usual, and then she was up from 12:30-3:00am. She slept from 3:00-6:45am in our bed. Paul slept on the couch. Normally she sleeps 13-15 hours a day with 14 being the norm. Well Sunday night plus Monday naps only totaled 9 1/2 hours. Not good. What made it worse was the fact that it wasn't the first day she had lost several hours of sleep. Although she went down for her 2nd nap on Sunday without a peep, generally being put in her crib led to many tears, and I felt it was rude to let her cry. At about 2am (early Monday), I was about ready to get in the car and head home. Although I had planned to stay until Friday evening, I decided I would head back on Tuesday night if she didn't get more sleep on Monday night. On Monday night when I was trying to put her down at 7pm, I did let her cry a little since I figured no one was probably trying to sleep near our room at that time of day. I could tell it wasn't going to work, and I decided I couldn't take it any more. Paul was playing billiards with Joe and my dad. He was planning to leave for home shortly. I told him I wanted to go home also. So it turned out we could have ridden together in one car since we all ended up coming home on Monday night. Oops! I went and painted Susie & Jenna's fingernails and toenails since I had promised to do that for them on Tuesday, and then I helped Paul finish packing and we left. Thankfully Yvonne entertained Nadia for us while we packed.
It was a very hard decision to make. Of course I wanted to stay with my family whom I don't often get to spend much time with. The reasons I decided we needed to head home earlier than planned were #1 Nadia's physical health and #2
my emotional health. Nadia had one other cold (in March) and that one lasted 2 weeks.
Yesterday was the 2 week mark for this cold that I believe she got in MD (lesson learned - listen to your hubby when he says he doesn't think we should go to MD). Instead of seeing any improvement with her runny nose (which had been her only cold symptom), her nose was still running like crazy plus she was starting to cough. I believe the problem was lack of sleep, which was also the reason I was extremely thin emotionally. Since I've been pg, I've been averaging 9 hours of sleep at night plus a 1 hour nap. I wasn't getting anywhere near that amount the last few days since I was up with Nadia so much during the night and since I don't sleep as well when she's in bed with me. Well I am now certain I made the right choice as Nadia cried less than 1 minute when I took her to bed last night, and she slept 10 hours last night which was much closer to normal. We didn't leave until 8:15 pm. If we had left at 7:00 I believe she would have slept her usual 11 hours. Her first nap this morning didn't involve any crying, and she slept 1 hour and 55 minutes. YAY!
Since we only live about 65 minutes from the resort, I am planning to make a trip or two up there over the next few days so to spend time with my family (maybe 2-7pm or something like that). This way Nadia and I can both sleep in our own beds. I also missed my gargantuan pregnancy pillow. Right now it's time to head to the grocery store as I had left our refrigerator pretty bare in terms of fruit, milk, eggs, and such. I'm looking forward to a day at home, and I'm also looking forward to swimming and dinner with all my family tomorrow back up in the Poconos.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Co-Sleeping

It has been more than 8 months since Nadia has slept in bed with me. When she was much smaller, I did let her nurse in bed several times, and sometimes we’d both fall asleep. Usually Paul would then pick her up and carry her to her crib. Well she’s slept on top of me in bed several times the last few days. Normally she goes to bed and sleeps for at least 11 hours without any crying, but over the past 2 weeks that hasn’t been the case. First it was the fever and ear infection, then teething 2 molars, and finally being put to bed in an unfamiliar location. I couldn’t bring myself to let her cry it out when she was sick, and now at the resort it would be rude to let her cry it out as the sound carries to other rooms down the hall. Friday night she went down at 7pm without any crying, but then she woke up several hours later (I forget exactly when but it was between midnight and 2 am). I gave her some Tylenol and put her back to bed. She cried, and we let her cry longer than I would have had I realized how the sound carries so easily. Since then I haven’t let her cry. A couple of times she’s gone down easily without crying for a nap, but most of the time she’s fallen asleep in our bed before I’ve carried her to her crib. During her morning nap today I actually let her take the entire nap in our bed, and I wasn’t sorry I did that in light of the fact she slept 2 hours and 15 minutes. Every night she wakes up once during the night (often around 1-2am), and it usually takes at least 30 minutes to get her back to sleep. I’ll be glad when her nose stops running, she’s done teething these 2 molars, and we’re back in our own home even though I know there will be a bit of a rough transition. I will miss the snuggling although 2am is not my preferred time of day for snuggling.

Friday night Nadia and I got here first. I am very glad I don’t usually travel without Paul. It was a challenge to bring in the luggage and such by myself while pushing Nadia in a stroller. It was also a challenge taking her to the pool as the suite we’re in is about as far away from the pools as possible. I didn’t know I’d have to go up two flights of stairs, or I wouldn’t have taken her in the stroller. Thankfully I can carry her and the umbrella stroller if necessary. We were headed to the indoor pool, but it was closed for maintenance, so we headed out to the outdoor pool instead although the water was a bit chilly especially at 6pm. Nadia had a lot of fun though. She enjoyed the water even more than she did in Antigua in May. Paul arrived a little bit before her bedtime.

Saturday morning we tried again to go to the indoor pool and again ended up in the outdoor pool instead. Paul didn’t get in beyond his ankles as he only gets in warm water. After her second nap, we were able to go in the indoor pool which was very warm so Paul got in with us. Around 6pm the rest of my family arrived, and we ate at a barbecue on an outside patio at the resort near. My nieces and nephews were not too interested in their food as they were looking longingly at the outdoor swimming pool. After dinner Wendy & I took a trip to a grocery store to buy breakfast and lunch food for everyone, and Paul played billiards with my dad, Joe, and Drayton. Unfortunately Nadia didn’t get to sleep until 9:45pm which is why I was very glad her morning nap was longer than usual this morning as she still got up at 6am even though she went to bed almost 3 hours later than usual plus was up for 30 minutes during the middle of the night.

This morning we three went to the indoor pool after her morning nap. My parents came and visited with us for a bit in our suite after she woke up from her afternoon nap. The other three suites are all side by side, but unfortunately ours is not very close to the other three. Later in the afternoon we loaded up 2 vans and 1 car and headed to Wilkes Barre for our photo session at Picture People. I’ll post some of the poses in another post. Let me say it was a challenge with 8 children age 6 and under especially when some were hungry, some were tired (it was their naptime), and Nadia wasn’t feeling well. After that we went to Olive Garden for dinner. The food was very tasty, but it was a challenge to have so many young children at one large table. I think we’ll stick with take-out the rest of the week. Nadia did like the breadsticks this time. J Right now as I type this, Nadia is sleeping, and Paul is out bowling with my dad and brother-in-laws. He’s making the most of his time since he’ll be heading back home tomorrow night. Nadia & I will miss him!

One problem of so many young children is that they all have different nap schedules, and we each need to be in the room with them while they’re napping, so it makes the time that we can all spend together rather limited. So far the only time I’ve spent with my sisters and their kids has been dinner the last two nights plus the photo shoot today. Hopefully we’ll get to spend more time together the next few days. Tomorrow we plan to go to an indoor water park which should be a lot of fun!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Poconos Here We Come!

Nadia & I are going to leave our home at about 3:30 this afternoon to head to the resort where we'll be spending the next week. Paul will leave about the same time from State College. Nadia & I will be swimming for a bit before he gets there. My parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. There will be 9 adults and 8 kids (age 6 and under). It should be a very special time! I plan to take LOTS of pics, and we are all going to Picture People on Sunday afternoon for a group photo session. It will be a miracle if we can get all the kids to smile at the same time, but that would be awesome! It's been 20 months since we've all been together, and at that time there were only 5 kids. Paul will be coming back home Monday night as he can't take another week off of school. Nadia & I will be staying until next Friday. I am hoping that she will sleep well even though she'll be in the pack 'n play instead of a crib. Last night I gave her Tylenol when she went to bed, and she awoke screaming around 11:40pm. I gave her more and rocked her for about an hour before putting her back to bed. Another molar broke through yesterday so she now has 6 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom. These molars are definitely causing her a lot of pain!

Ten more days until THE ultrasound. We've chosen a girl name - Deborah Marie. Paul picked both names. If baby is a girl, she'll be named after Paul's mom's sister (his Aunt Debbie) and my mom (as my mom's middle name is Marie). I like the sound of the names and the fact that they represent special people on both sides of our family. I am trying to forget that the names mean "bee" and "bitter." Of course last time we only had a boy name picked out prior to THE ultrasound (Ian Alexander), and that time about 2/3 of the people on my poll guessed we'd be having a boy. I'm assuming this time we'll find out we're expecting a boy since #1 we've only picked a girl name and #2 about 2/3 of the people who have voted have picked girl this time, but who knows...maybe the majority will be right for once, LOL!