Notes from the Underbelly

• Ate half a container of lime sherbet last night. Felt queasy for an hour after. Would have had more willpower had it been Moose Tracks or something else fatty.
• Threw up at Rafferty's Saturday. Soonafter realized my belly button ring had fallen out. Waitress found the bottom part on bathroom floor, but top ball had come unscrewed and was lost. Am now less-cool prego-lady a few months earlier than anticipated.
• Watched with great interest as married-couple bloggers I read documented their 34-hour childbirth experience on Friday. Congrats Matthew and Jessica (yeah, that's right. They live in Nashville, too.) The child made his first video-blog appearance at only 30 minutes old.
• Felt queasy just now at work. Ate preggie-pop. Immediate relief.
• Back to work now. Just six months til maternity leave.

Phoebe Songs*

Are you in there, little fetus?
In nine months, will you come greet us?
I will buy you some Adidas...

--The One with the Embryos (1998)


They're tiny and chubby
and so sweet to touch.
But soon they'll grow up
and resent you so much.
And they're yelling at you
and you don't know why,
And you cry and you cry and you cry.
And you cry and you cry...

--The One with the Birth (1995)


*It's a Friends thing, if you don't already know that and just think I'm crazy.

Gestating is Hard Work

I thought I was out of the woods when I went three days without getting sick. Turns out, that was just Baby's first birthday present to Mommy. I do appreciate it, even though I was sick again this morning.

I took long naps Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The rest is great, but reminds me what I'd rather be doing every afternoon. It has been really hard to get through the work day, this past month or so. The fatigue is actually getting better, though. I've discovered Cranergy, by Ocean Spray, and while it has a funny aftertaste, I'm thankful for the energy. I actually cooked dinner and stayed up til 11:00 last night. I even got on the elliptical machine. (I say "got on" because "worked out" might be overstating it, but even my menial effort at exercise was better than laying on the couch for the thirtieth night in a row.)

It's amazing how growing a tiny little human can take so much out of a person.

It's a Boy!!!

This morning we took the Intelligender test to determine the sex of our baby, and it turns out it's a boy! (Well, technically it's a 90% chance) I (Matt) am extremely excited to have a son, and while Jessica was hoping for a girl, she's excited, too. We recorded the moment we saw the test results, which you can check out below.

His name will be Wesley Matthew Kelley. And no, John Wesley is not the primary reason for the first name, although this is very Methodist of us! He'll go by "Wes". My (Matt) middle name is Lloyd, after my father, so we're continuing the family tradition. We'll have another ultrasound at 20 weeks (about 2 months from now), and we'll post the pictures then. Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of us!

What's so great about boys (or girls)?

Matt and I are planning to take the Intelligender gender prediction test tomorrow morning. It's my 27th birthday gift to myself. The over-the-counter, urine-based test will tell us, with 90% accuracy, whether we are having a boy or a girl. As I've mentioned, the competition is fierce. Matt and I each have a strong preference, in the obvious directions. The poll Andrew created is showing girl 3:1, and several amateur clairvoyants have "feelings" in the female direction, but I'm thinking our chances are still 50:50.

So, with under 24 hours to go before "the big reveal," I want to know--what's so great about boys or girls? Other than loving them just because they're your child, why are you thankful to have a boy? Why do you love having a girl?

I really want to know! Please comment!

The Name Game

Matt and I had our boy and girl names picked out almost immediately, and we’ll most likely stick to them. (Stay tuned—we’re taking the Intelligender test on July 4!) Occasionally, however, other names flit through my mind before I realize they don’t make the best combinations with our last name.

For example:
Luke Kelley (Lou Kelley?)
Jake Kelley (Jay Kelley?)
Micah Kelley (Mike Kakelley?)
Melanie Kelley (Mellie Kelley?)
Stephen Kelley (Steve & Kelly?)
Grace Kelley (nice, but kind of a bad omen for our little princess)
Scarlett Kelley (is she red or green?)
Declan Kelley (even uber-Irish hubby thought that was going a bit too far. “Sounds like an IRA bomber,” he said.)

Plus, it’s very important we avoid gender-neutral names. I get called Kelley (or worse, Kelly) at least once a week. So does my sister-in-law. We find it very annoying. This is bound to happen for our daughters, assuming Kelly is still a popular girls name in the 2020s. I’d like to avoid that happening to our sons, however, and it seems that clearly-male names keep that from happening (so my husband and brother-in-law’s experience would tell me).

Same thing goes for surname-sounding first names. I remember poor Carson Lilly in my 6th grade class. Substitute teachers somehow just assumed there was a mistake on the roll and called him Lilly Carson. I wouldn’t want that to happen to poor Sullivan Kelley.

So, it’s a good thing our original names sound pretty good (in our opinion). I think they both sound like TV news correspondents, personally, but I promise we won’t send them to Future Broadcasters of America camp or anything…unless they show an aptitude for it…we do watch a lot of CNN in our house…