34 weeks

Hi everyone! Praise the Lord, baby and I have made it to 34 weeks. Today was day 16 in the hospital and things are nice and "calm".

A BIG thank you to those of you who live locally and have come out to visit me in the hospital. It always brightens my day to have visitors! And, helps that day go by faster. I know this hospital is way out of the way for most of you and that makes your visit all the more dear to me. And, those of you who bring me Starbucks, well, those are some yummy days for me to say the least. Hospital coffee is NOT a Starbucks white chocolate mocha, that is for sure!

Thanks also to those of you who have helped out making freezer meals, helping out with the children, and taking the kids to your house for a play day. All these ways of helping us blesses us so much and is helping to make this time I have been on bed rest and this extended time in the hospital bearable for the whole family.

One last thank you to those of you who have sent gifts for the baby from our registry, sent cards, sent or brought flowers to me, etc. I feel so encouraged and blessed by your gifts of love and helping us be ready for this little boys arrival!

Here is the latest news as of today, Tuesday. If things stay "calm" and there are no more bad bleeds, they will do an amnio on the 20th, the day I am 36 weeks gestation, to check on the baby's lungs. If they are deemed healthy/mature, they will deliver him by c-section on the 21st.

Plans can change in the blink of an eye, but this is what the plan is today. I believe most of the high risk doctors are on board with this plan, so that is good. There had been some talk of doing an amnio next week, but we have all talked about it and decided that giving the baby an extra week will give the baby a better chance of having his lungs ready and more developed over all.

Please continue to pray for baby and I here in the hospital. And, for David and the children at home. We now have web cams set up so I can see and talk to the children every day, which is really nice!

Lord willing, baby Liam will be born two weeks from today!

Name game

A few of you commented that you'd like to help us with our "name this baby" problem. Sounds like it could be fun, and amusing. As I have already mentioned today, amusing me is very helpful, even therapeutic, during this long season of bed rest.

Yet, I wonder if you fully understand what you are getting yourselves into? You see, not only have we already used 14 boy names (first and middle names) that we COULD agree on, but we also have RULES.

Yes, we have had name rules since our first was born. Here they are:

1. First name must have more than one syllable.
2. Middle name must be a family name (someone's first or middle name from either of our families).
3. This one is more of a guideline than a true "rule": We usually use more traditional/classic type names. (this one is starting to sound like a home design show.... oh I do love to watch HGTV when I'm in the *hospital!)
4. Prefer biblical names for the first name, but again, more of a guideline, as we haven't stuck to this one each time.

You probably can't begin without knowing what names we have already used, right? So, in alphabetical order, here are the 14 boy names we have used:
Adam, Austin, Bryce, Christopher, Daniel, David, Geoffrey, Isaac, James, John, Joseph, Joshua, Patrick, Paul.

Now, lets also look at the family names that we are thinking of using as a middle name this time around, and there aren't many left, believe me!
Jesse
Emerson

The ONE first name hubby likes and seems to not want to budge from, at least right now, is Liam. To be honest, I was okay with this name several months ago. But, the longer I thought about it the more it just didn't seem to fit with rule #3. Don't get me wrong, it is a fine name, just a bit more "trendy" than we usually go with.

Here are the names I am thinking about:
Andrew (Jesse)
Jacob (Emerson)
Elijah (Jesse)

Are you totally confused yet? Do you see why this is so hard? Argh!

Oh, and while we are at it, scratch the names Dustin, Travis, Benjamin, Samuel, Ethan, Micah and Owen off this list of possible first names. Already been used amongst cousins.

If you haven't already clicked over to watch HGTV online, instead of reading all this post, and I don't blame you, and you have some name suggestions, BRING THEM ON! I mean, leave your suggestions in the comments section please.


* We don't have broadcast or cable TV at home... just use it to watch DVD's.