What is in a name?

"...That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - Juliet (Shakespeare)
"What, you want me to name someone? You want like a name? ... the pressure of a name..." 


If you don't have children yet, you may not understand exactly how difficult it is to choose a name for someone! Just think - this little helpless person that you are responsible for will have to use this name for the rest of her (or his) life! So much pressure!


It seems that everyone I talk to recently wants to know "So, have you picked a name yet?" Well, the answer is no. We still have no idea what we will call this child. Hopefully we will get some inspiration soon! At the very least, I would like to have her named before she is born!


In the meantime, enjoy this recent cartoon from one of our favorite websites, http://xkcd.com/

A few pictures

I am so far behind on pictures! We have a ton of pictures on our camera that haven't even made it to the computer yet, much less to someplace like a blog, or Shutterfly, or Facebook, where they can be shared with friends and family! But I do have a few pictures I would like to share with you!
First, here are a few of our baby girl. In the third picture, you can see she it looks like she already has super long legs!:

Here are a few from the Easter season. Wells and cousin Finn got their faces painted at the Easter Egg hunt at Earle Street Baptist Church. They also enjoyed the live bunnies at the Easter Egg Hunt at Legacy Park:

This is a picture from the Great Cloth Diaper Change Event at one of our new favorite Stores, Natural Baby, in downtown Greenville.

And finally, one of my favorite somewhat recent pictures of Wells:

Buying new bottles

When we found out I was pregnant again, I really didn't think we were going to need to buy much. Since we didn't know if Wells was going to be a boy or a girl, we bought all of the big stuff to be gender neutral the first time around. And, we have a lot of newborn clothes that can be used for this baby, too, even though she is a girl!

But now we have decided we need to buy all new baby bottles. Have you heard of BPA? Well, most products don't use BPA in their plastics anymore, but apparently there are new chemicals that have replaced BPA that might be just as harmful. Bill got a little freaked out about it, and I started doing some research. We had pretty much made the decision to switch to glass bottles, and then this article was printed in the New York Times on Sunday. Granted, it is an opinion article, but it highlights a lot of our reasoning for switching to glass.

We plan to use these bottles made by lifefactory (www.lifefactory.com). Now we just have to make the investment!

Has it really been 8 months?

Obviously, I am pretty bad at being a blogger! I can't believe I haven't posted anything here in 8 months. I promise it isn't because there hasn't been much to say. Actually, the opposite is true. I guess we have just been so busy living life, that we forget to keep you updated about it!

For those of you that we don't see or talk to on a regular basis, here are some of the things that have been going on:

• Wells is growing, growing, growing! He is running around and into everything. He has a crazy vocabulary for his age, and loves to sing and read books. (technically, we are the ones reading...he isn't that advanced!) I can't believe he will be two in just over a month!
• I changed jobs this year. I am working for a virtual high school called Palmetto State E-cademy. That has allowed me to work from home, although Wells is still in daycare. It has been a good change, though!
• Our biggest news is we are expecting a second baby! Our due date is August 9, and it is a girl! We are all pretty excited to welcome her into our lives. I have no idea what Bill and I are going to do with a girl, though. I am sure the grandmothers will make sure she is spoiled!

I am going to try to be better about posting here. I can make no promises.

Wordless Wednesday

This time last year

I was getting my epidural...finally! Our baby was due June 10. On Thursday, June 11, I had an appointment at the OB office at 11 am. The doctor told us that I was not close to having the baby. He said I would probably make it through the weekend without a baby. Bill and I left the doctor and went to Corporate Deli for lunch. Then we came home and watched a movie (which neither of us can remember right now) while a thunder storm started outside. Toward the end of the movie, around 4 pm, I started having contractions. I had been having braxton hicks contractions for awhile, so I thought these would pass. I got off the couch and went to lie down on the bed. I thought if I took a nap, I would feel better. After about 10 minutes, I gave up.

I came back to the den and told Bill to start timing contractions. They were getting stronger and coming more often very quickly. By around 6, I was ready to go to the hospital. We gathered our things, got in the car, and started calling our families. We got to the hospital around 7, and I was taken to maternity admitting. They kept me in a "holding room" for way too long, because the hospital was crazy busy. By the time they took me upstairs around 9, I was begging for an epidural. Sadly, that didn't come until 10:30. Dr. Bailey came to examine me as the anesthesiologist was leaving, and I was already dilated to 7 mm. He left to deliver another baby, and when he got back, I was ready to start pushing. I started pushing around 12:30, and our beautiful baby boy was born at 1:05 am on June 12.

I really can't believe all that was a year ago. Time really flies. Bill and I also cannot believe how blessed we are. Wells has brought so much joy to our lives, and we are so excited to see him grow!

Randoms

Wells is growing, growing, growing! I can't believe he will be one in just two weeks.

Here is a picture from the latest gathering of the cousins. Bill's cousin, Missy, has a son named Lawson who was born in December, and our nephew Finn was also born in December. Wells didn't quite understand that Finn and Lawson are not as big as he is. He just wanted to play with Finn!

Last year at Relay for Life...

...and this year!

And, in other news, I got my hair cut. It is a little shorter than I thought it would be, but I like it!

Before (at Easter)

and After