It was Meant to Be

I just realized that our daughter's initials will be C.O.W. (Caitlyn Olivia Wu). This ties in perfectly with my cow theme! Or it could completely backfire and make her the butt of adolescent jokes. 

The Verdict's In

After months of deliberating, I was beginning to think that we might never have a name for our baby. However, a verdict has finally been reached. With three names (Rosalyn, Caitlyn, and Olivia) vying for the coveted spot, the wife ultimately picked Caitlyn as her final choice. And just as promised, I supported her on her decision. 

As a consolation prize, I was able to pick Olivia as the middle name. There’s no way I’m missing out on putting ‘elf army’ into our baby’s name!

One Ring to Rule Them All

Unsatisfied by recent name options I’ve given Jessie, I messaged her this morning and told her that I liked the name Olivia. She responds back and tells me that it is a cute name. A few minutes later, she asks what an elf army is. Elf army? What does Olivia and an elf army have to do with anything? Apparently a lot. 

It turns out that the name Olivia means "elf army." I don’t even know what to say about this except for the fact that it reeks of awesomeness! While most children’s names have ho-hum meanings such as ‘peace’ or ‘beauty’ or ‘flower blossom,’ I don’t think too many people can lay claim to their baby’s name meaning elf army and then proceed to give the other speechless parents a detailed rundown of the history of Middle-earth Elves, the many valiant battles they’ve fought, including the epic Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Lord of the Rings, and how our Elven daughter can kick any of their kids’ asses since she is more quick-footed and agile than the common man.  

 

And the topping on the cake is that our daughter’s middle name can be Arwen, in honor of Arwen Undómiel, the youngest child of Elrond, Lord of Rivendell. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Liv Tyler? Hugo Weaving?

The Name Game

At this point, we still have no definite name for our baby. Jessie still like Rosie, but not Rosalyn. So, putting the old noggin’ to work, I came up with the name, Caitlyn, which also has the –lyn pattern. You can also use the nickname, Caitie. However, Jessie likes Caitlyn, but not Caitie. What a conundrum! Maybe there’s some way I can meld Rosie and Caitlyn together to make a name that satisfies the wife. 

I’ve also realized that instead of spelling the names Rosalyn and Caitlyn, I can spell them Rosalin and Caitlin, which incorporates Jessie’s last name of Lin. Cute, right? 

Either way, I’ve decided to let her have the final say on our baby’s name. I realize that I’ve been dominating all the decision making thus far and have pushed all Jessie’s opinions to the side. I need to let her make some decisions too. Just pick Rosalyn/Rosalin, ok? Pretty please?

Stretch Marks

As the wife’s belly has been growing in size over the last few months, she’s been increasingly getting more worried about stretch marks. Now this is an area where I’ve got some experience. You probably don’t want to know, but I have stretch marks on my butt cheeks. Lots of them.

Stretch marks occur when the body expands and skin stretches faster than it can adjust. This results in the skin tearing, which causes a scar. Don’t ask me how I got mine. I don’t know because my butt is pretty flat with no fat to help cushion me when I sit. 

Back in high school when I used to play the cello in orchestra, the chairs we used were very hard and uncomfortable to sit on. It was more or less bone touching skin, touching hard plastic, when I was sitting down. Sitting on those seats for an hour created an unbearable pain that made my ass sweat profusely. 

At the end of class, there would always be a nice sweaty imprint of my ass left on the seat when I would stand up. Embarrassed, I would usually wait until other people had gotten up and left before I would do so, or I would deftly move my bottom from side to side in an attempt to wipe up my sweaty mess. 

Point is, I don’t have a big butt. Which is why for the longest time, I thought the stretch marks on my butt cheeks were from my parents spanking me when I was a kid. I never really thought of myself as a really bad kid, but I must have been because I often got spanked. We had this feather duster with a bamboo handle that was a favorite tool my parents liked to use on me. I just figured over the years, all those lashes created scars on my butt. 

But enough about me. Last night, after Jessie showered, she asked me to inspect her stomach for any stretch marks. I noticed some small red marks beginning to show underneath her stomach. She immediately began panicking and ran into the bedroom to slather on her stretch mark cream. 

Unfortunately, there’s not much that she can do to prevent stretch marks from happening. There’s no proof that creams, oils, or salves that claim to prevent stretch marks actually work. About all they do is keep the skin moisturized and help prevent itching.

Approximately 75-90% of pregnant women will get stretch marks. The odds are not in the wife’s favor.  The most important factor as to whether or not you will get stretch marks is genetics. If your mom or sister didn’t get them, you probably won’t either. The good news for Jessie is that her sister Sally didn’t get stretch marks. 

So maybe there still is hope for her. Maybe the small red marks will just remain small red marks and won’t become the long, unsightly lines that have come to define my butt cheeks.

P.S. No need to worry. The above picture is not of the wife's belly. When it does actually become like that, I will definitely be snapping some pictures and posting them up for your entertainment. OK, no I won't. That wouldn't be right. See, honey, I am changing! Self high-five! (smack!)

And So It Begins

Today, we went to go exchange some items we had gotten at a baby store and to also buy Karen’s baby a birthday present. Because we spent enough money, we were able to get a gift certificate. The wife asked what I wanted and I immediately knew I wanted to get a cow-patterned pacifier clip I had seen the last time we were at the store. I'm gung-ho about getting the ball rolling on my cow theme. However, now that I’m at home and have opened it up, it doesn’t look that great anymore. That’s buyer’s remorse for you. Sigh.

Squeeze and Open

While at work, I found some articles about signing to your baby. I had read about this before, but never paid much attention. This time, I spend some more time reading up on it. It’s an interesting concept – teaching your baby to sign before they can talk so they can communicate with you. 

No more frustrating attempts trying to understand what your baby wants. They can directly sign it to you. Or at least that’s the theory. And even though there are a lot of concerns about it, studies haven’t shown it to cause any speech delays. 

As I was looking at some YouTube clips of a baby demonstrating some signs (the baby looked like it was just flailing her arms around randomly), a co-worker walked by and asked what I was looking at. I said I was trying to learn some sign language to use with my baby. She hadn’t heard about this before, but gave me a gold star for wanting to do more than most deadbeat dads. 

However, she did have a bit of advice for me. She said, “Maybe you should learn how to change a diaper first before tackling sign language.” She has good point here. Maybe I’m in over my head trying to learn over 300 hand signs with my baby. I’m trying to do way too much all at once. I have never changed a diaper in my life before. How can I possibly progress to the next level if I don’t even have the basics down. 

But on a positive note, I now know the hand signal for milk (squeezing and opening your hand).