If Kindle were to name the baby...

Lots to write, but for now just wanted to jot down some of the names Kindle has come up with today for our baby:

• Markie (after her buddy Mark @church)
• Baby Ruth (she thinks she made this up and she and Armour had no clue what I was talking about when I told them that is a candy bar...)
• Key
• Bruland (Sister Bruland is Armour's Sunbeams teacher...not a bad name for a boy though.)

There were more, but those the the ones I coudl remember.

Yeah for another nephew!

Congrats to Andrea, Jeremy, Jaxon, Kyara, & Ender who just found out today that they will be welcoming a baby BOY in December!!! We are so excited for you all!! Congrats! We know Jeremy is already excited about his own personal golf foursome, and that Jaxon and Ender are totally stoked to have another wrestling partner. I just want to say to Kyara and Andrea that although I am sure you were secretly hoping for a girl to even the odds at your house, just think about all the great girly time you 2 will get to spend together! How special for you to just get to have one on one girl time! And how great to have a cute baby boy!! We are excited for you all!!

(Doesn't he make it so the boys outnumber the girls again on our side Andrea? Wow-Dad is finally getting the boys he never had when we were in the house, huh?! Do we have a basketball team yet?)

Last Chance...

OK, Baby will be here on Tuesday, and in case anyone is taking bets or gambling on the baby's name, this is your last chance to guess. Though I am not revealing anything, I think Wes and I are pretty sure of the name...good luck with your guesses... :)

Of due dates...

OK-you may have noticed that I have like 3 different baby counters on this blog with all different countdowns and due dates...let me explain...According to my last menstrual cycle (August 17th) the due date would be May 23. However, my doctors office put it down as May 25th (we learned this week that some of the wheels the offices use are 2 days off-evidently my doctor's office has one of those wheels). In the first 2 early ultrasounds that were done (and that are supposed to be the most accurate) the due dates were May 23rd and May 17th. The one that said May 23 was done by a tech in the hospital about a week and a half before the one that said May 17th. That one was done in the doctor's office by an OB that did a fellowship in ultrasound. So, obviously there was some discussion as to whether the due date should be changed to the 17th or not. I have, since then been going with the 17th due date-it seems to me to be the most accurate based on all the information through the whole pregnancy. But, officially they have not changed the date from the 25th. In this later part of this pregnancy this has caused some hassle because there has been some question as to how far along I am. But, regardless of all that crap, I am being induced on Tuesday, May 13th (yes in two days)...Yeah!

Baby update

Well, It's looking good for Solace and Heidi to win...induction is still set for May 13th (15 days)!!!! I am so glad to have an end in sight. I also do not have to be so strict on my bed rest anymore since I am officially over 36 weeks now. But obviously it is better to go as long as possible, so I will still be trying to take it pretty easy until the induction on the 13th! I spent only one (partial) morning dealing with my kids and man, I cannot wait for Kris to come on Saturday! Thank goodness for all my great family!

Baby J #4

No, she doesn't have a name yet...

This morning I am going in for an exam and appointment as soon as I get the kids to school and Angie to the airport. At this appointment they are going to make sure I am "favorable for induction." And if I am too far dilated, they will send me in to have a baby today we think. But the plan for now is to be induced on May 13th.

BTW-for those that might be thinking that I picked that day so my kid would have a 13th birthday like me, you are mistaken (although I do think it is super awesome...). The reason it is the 13th is that he wanted to do it 2 weeks before the official due date, and he said that many of his partners would not be willing to induce me that early so we had to schedule it the day that week when he was the one on call that would be doing it, and that happens to be the 13th...

So, unless I go sooner than that naturally, looks like baby is coming on May 13th...which according to the guesses on the side of my blog taken long ago in this pregnancy, means that Solace and Heidi (Seabury) Jacobs will have the winning guess...Nice work Solace! (If I go earlier Ender is still in the running as he has mentioned a few times...)

Silver lining?!

I am frankly not feeling well enough to post but these are pictures of the baby yesterday.

Names, Names, Names...AHHHHH

OK, so not to revisit this name thing over and over (and over and over....) but here is the name saga as it stands now. As many of you know, and as I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have some definite ideas about the names my children get named. Namely, they must be unique, and they would (preferably) have some meaning or significance. The unique thing is the big, huge one!!! It is big enough that Wes and I always go though this whole process in choosing them.

Before I explain that, I should mention that the Social Security Administration has a website that tells you the most popular baby names for the previous year in the US based on the Social Security cards issued for new babies. It also has a place where you can see the popularity of a name from any (or all) year(s) in the past 100 years. (If you want to check out what I mean, click here.) So, this process Wes and I go through in choosing our kids names is that we come up with names we love that seem unique to us, then we go to that site and check to see if those names have ever been on the SSA's top 1000 names anytime in the past 100 years. So far, none of our children's names have been in the top 1000 names anytime in the past 100 years.

At this point (if in fact you have made it this far in this story) you might be thinking, "What the heck is wrong with Beckee that she is so concerned with having SUCH unique names for her kids?" This is a question that I myself have thought a lot about recently, and I think the answer stems back to my elementary school days. For one thing, I NEVER have any school classes without at least one other "Becky/Rebecca" in it. This would have been OK (not ideal, but OK), if it hadn't been for my 4th grade teacher. That class was a particularly Beckee/Rebecca filled class. There were I believe 5 of us in there. All of us were named Rebecca, and all of us went by Becky. This was confusing and unacceptable to my teacher, and since none of us would willingly go by any other name but Becky, our teacher decided to assign us names, yes...assign us names. One was lucky enough to be Becky, one Becca, one Rebecca, (I cannot remember what the 4th had to go by), and I, the 5th, was assigned Reba. That's right, Reba. A name I had never been called, and a name I did not like. I obviously refused to be assigned a name like that, and began experimenting with different spelling options for Becky (I believe it was Beki that whole year. It wasn't until 9th grade that I settled on Beckee). This spelling change has been my only unique feature of my first name since then. This common name thing only got worse, much, MUCH worse when I married a Johnson. Now I had a common first and last name. (As a matter of fact, when I got married I was working as a teacher on a temporary drama project in an elementary school, and there were 2 other teachers named Becky Johnson working there as well.) So, I think that is why the unique thing has been such a big deal...(Also, I should note that I am aware that having a unique name is not always everyone's favorite thing as they get older, so we have given all three kids common names as well in case they decide to break my heart and go by some other name than the ones Wes and I painstakingly chose for them.)

So, now that you are caught up on the psyche of Beckee and the reasons I want unique (or to quote High School Musical 2 that we just watched before bed time-I need something inspiring to help me get along...I need FABULOUS!!!). This is the deal with our names right now. Since I had Solace, there have been many names I have come across that I LOVED and wanted to name my next girl. Some of the names have become unusable (like for example, Paris-obviously now you cannot name a child that thanks to that Hilton terror). There is one name that I was pretty much totally set on, and Wes also liked it. So, I pretty much thought we were done with the name game stress. Oh boy was I wrong!!!

The other day I was at a playgroup with a couple women here discussing the name I love. One of the other women is also pregnant with a girl, and due in 6 weeks. She and her husband also happen to be good friends of ours. so, I was talking about this name of mine, and she mentioned that the name is also the name her husband wants to name their child. Immediately this puts a damper on the name for me, but does not totally count it out yet-just because they like it too doesn't mean it is super popular. Then my friend said "We looked it up on the Social Security page and saw it was like 30 most popular name, so we figured you and Wes would never use it anyway." OK-now it was out and I was devastated. And I realized that I had skipped the crucial step of checking the SSA page in my baby name decision this time. After spending the next 2 nights literally waking up with nightmares about the baby not having a name, Wes and I sat down with the laptop and got on the SSA page. ALL 4 OF OUR TOP FOUR NAMES ARE ON THERE!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH....SO, now we are branching out and have a list of about 15-20 possible other names for baby, but none of them are clicking for me as much as my favored name (or any of the other 3 in the top 4). So, there you go-my name trauma! Will this child have a unique name? Will it be one I like? Will I go crazy thinking about this?! Probably...

Great "4-D" shots of our daughter

Yesterday I had to go back for another ultrasound and a perinatal consultation at the hospital (FYI-all is well, baby is just big). I was a bit discouraged to be paying another $250 to be at another ultrasound, and even more disappointed to hear I will be returning to the hospital for another whopping $250 ultrasound in 7 weeks (Just to check baby's growth as she is huge). However, That aside, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to see the "4-D" ultrasound pictures of baby, and to have a good experience at the ultrasound this time with a tech that was really good and really knew what she was doing! We were able to verify pretty solidly that this is in fact a sister for Solace!! (This week we were also able to verify that my name of choice is no longer a possibility, but that is a whole other post I'd say.) So, The awesome tech gave me about 30 pictures of baby, about 8 of which were the "4-D" ones. I just thought I'd post a few of them. So, here they are!

She is a total thumb sucker and we had a hard time getting any pictures without her thumb in her mouth and her hand blocking her face! But these were pretty good shots I thought! Doesn't she look just like her siblings?! I think so...Cute as can be!!!

Wahoo-Solace gets a sister!!

Well, yesterday was the big ultrasound, and I am happy to report you can all stop sending boy names (We are still happily accepting girl suggestions though). As I am sure most of you know, they never give you 100% when they tell you it is a girl, but it really looked like this is a girl! So, We just wanted to share our exciting news with you all. I am including a few of the pictures they gave us (though not the crotch shot-Wes just didn't want me to post that one, but I promise, there are no boy parts visible). Also, FYI this ultrasound put the due date at May 15th. Here are the pics of baby girl Johnson...

This is a profile shot of baby poking herself in the eye with her thumb.Baby's face smiling at us.
Baby yawning.

Baby Johnson #4

Earlier I wrote a blog about what we should name this next child we are expecting in May. Now, as we are getting closer to this, you may have noticed I added a thing on the side where you can guess what day the baby will be born. Here is the pertinent info you might want to be able to guess. This baby's due date according to the date of my last period is like May 26th, but I have had 2 early ultrasounds which both said May 17th would be the due date. This also happens to be my 7th Anniversary and the HUGE fundraiser at the kids preschool.

My previous kids were all early:

Solace was due Dec 11 and born Dec 8
Ender was due April 14 and born April 5
Armour was due August 10 and born July 26.

So, make a guess as to what day you think this child will be born, and I will add it to the list on the side. Solace and Ender have already made their guesses. You can email your guesses or just add them as comments to this post! Oh the fun...

What's in a Name?!

So, every time I get pregnant (and even sometimes when I am not pregnant), I think about names. What will I name this child?! Well before I even know if it is a girl or a boy, I generally already have thought of a number of names. Of course at this point, I have definite requirements for names, the main one being that they need a unique name. I just cannot imagine going around saying "These are my kids, Solace, Ender, Armour, and Bob." Just doesn't really fit with the rest does it?!

My other requirement has been that their name has to mean something. This requirement has becomes harder and harder to fulfill. Solace Rebekah-Solace means peace & comfort, and Rebekah is named (not spelled thought) after her mama. Steven Enderton-Steven after his dad, both his grandpa's, an uncle, & a great-uncle, and Enderton after my maiden name. He's basically a walking tribute to my dad... :) Armour Wesley-Admitedly "Armour" doesn't have the meaning behind it that I had hoped for in a unique name, but it was a unique name that Wes and I both really liked (and stole from a professor of Wesley's), and Wesley, is obviously after his papa.

So far, all the names we have used are ones Wesley has come up with. Thank goodness I listened to him! Otherwise Solace would be Paris (this was before Paris Hilton really became famous). And if I had been choosing, I would have a boy named Creighton by now (but now that we are going to be living in Omaha for another 4 years-do I really want a Creighton? It is not so unique of a name there.)

I have a few ideas for this baby-all very cute and unique, some with great meaning, others are just names I love (like Armour was). This is your chance to voice your opinion. Please feel free to add your ideas to ours using the comments option on this blog. (Andrea-if your husband is submitting names, they may need to be sensored through you first, I know how Jeremy gets when he is coming up with "unique" names!) :)

Let the names flow in, and remember-you can leave comments on this blog even without a google sign in. It will be left as "anonymous" though, so please leave your name in the comment somewhere. Just so I know who to thank for the wonderful ideas! :)

Surprise

Well, we got an awesome surprise last week! We were not expecting this right now, but we could not be happier or more excited! It is still really early, and most people wouldn't even mention it this early, but most of you know, I cannot stand keeping great news like this to myself for even a second! It was horribly hard to be quiet for a week! Baby Johnson #4 is due May 23. I will post more about how we found this out, and the funny story of Solace, and how we told the kids later, but for now, I am finally getting tired (at 12:15), so I will try to get some sleep!