The woman had her Week 39 baby-Doctor appointment today. Until now we both really thought that he would come ahead of his due date which is July 25 (next Wednesday). But there’s been no changes since last week and its starting to look like he could be overdue. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but guess it doesn’t make much difference, as long as it doesn’t cause any difficulties.

Since praying for a boy on here worked for me, I’m gonna try again…

God, please let him come next Friday so that I don't need to miss band practice next Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks.


=)

I hope this is my last post concerning my sons name. If there’s another one, that means something drastic has happened, and I just don’t need that. Anyway, I thought I would just document some of the thought behind the last round of the naming process.

JONAH: It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is “dove”. The name is ultra-biblical (unlike me). In the story, Jonah was on board a ship when God caused it to sink. Sailors have traditionally used the name to personify someone who brings bad luck. And that is absolutely the last thing I need. I’m certain that jackasses would butcher this name into “Joe” the same way they do to my name, and that would be annoying.

It’s also super trendy.

EMERSON: It is of Old German origin, and its meaning is “Son of Emery”. I have absolutely no personal connection to the name Emerson. All I think of is Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which I also have no opinion of whatsoever. It’s a nice sounding name, although it is becoming common for a girls name as well.

Its popularity is on the rise.

DARWIN: Darwin is of good ol’ Old English origin, and its meaning is “dear friend”. Dear friend sounds nice. Much nicer than “son of emery” or a bad luck charm for sure. Everyones first thought for better or worse, is of course Charles Darwin; the first major exponent of human evolution. Aside from being a genius, he represents my beliefs far more accurately than a biblical name ever could.

It’s very unique, and he’s unlikely to have a friend with the same name.

Last night I decided that my son needed a name. Immediately.

I typed our 3 final choices (Darwin, Jonah, Emerson) into a page on my PowerBook, duplicated them several times, printed it out, and cut out the names. Each one was folded in half and placed in a small box. An iPhone box actually. =) The idea was that my woman and I would take turns blindly choosing a name from the box, until one name was drawn 10 times. It was damn close, but Darwin was the first name to reach 10.

Oddly enough, a few of those “Darwin” sheets appear to be larger than all the others. Whoops.

As a wise man once said… IT’S EVOLUTION BABY!

I don’t have much to write about right now. I’m really anxious to meet my son, and I just thought I would take note of that. He has tons of clothes, and some pretty funky little toys, and I just can’t wait to get his little ass over here to hang out.

My son really needs a name. There’s not much longer to go, and I’d like to have a name for him once he gets home. We’re entering week 34 (of 40), and there’s always the chance that he’ll come a bit early. This is getting pretty urgent.

I never met a guy named Darwin.

Here’s a basic rundown of my morning.
I went to bed at about 1:15 AM. I fell asleep sometime after 2, only to be woken at around 5. The woman was short of breath, having some extremely bad back pain, and some “stabbing” chest pain to match. I asked if she wanted to go to the hospital, but she avoided it for a few minutes. She paged the Baby-Doctor, and his people suggested going to the Emergency Room (like I had already suggested). Off we went.

And man, if you ever need to go to the ER, bring a pregnant woman with you. It is a drastically different experience for sure. We were in a room with a brain-having nurse before we even had a chance to sit down or fill out a form. Amazing. Anyway, several different hospital-types came in the room to perform various tests, including taking her blood pressure about 79 times. After a pretty solid wait, blood test results came back, and they came back positive. As we all know, blood test results are the one time in life when “positive” is actually quite negative. I forget exactly what it tested positive for, but basically it was something that led one doctor to tell us “We’re concerned that you may have a blood clot in your lung”. SAY WHAT DOC!? Yeah, a fucking blood clot in her pregnant-girl lung, also known as a Pulmonary Embolism. They’re fatal in plenty of cases.

He then tells us that the next step would normally be a CT Scan of the lungs, to see if there is in fact a blood clot. The problem there is the fact that a CT Scan scatters all kinds of radiation all up in the patient, and in this case, the patients as-yet-unborn child. That’s generally considered a no-no. So now the options we’re faced with are:
A) Don’t do the test, and let Mom and baby die from a blood clot.
B) Do the test, and risk turning the baby into the incredible Hulk or some shit.

We opt for the test. And after another long wait, the results came back negative (which is a positive). So we’re about 95% sure that there is no Pulmonary Embolism. The discomfort and breathing issues could simply be caused by the baby growing and pushing on the diaphragm and just generally causing trouble in there.

Imagine that. My son, a troublemaker.

My son is growing, and in turn, so is my woman. I have to admit, I was slightly worried at the prospect of her body changing so much, but so far I’m digging it. In fact, it’s pretty damn cool. I feel him bump around in there everyday and he definitely moves around more when we’re rocking out to music. I guess that means he really likes it, or it’s really pissing him off. Either way, it’s pretty funny. At this point I’m just anxious to have him here. But don’t get me wrong, I’m cool with him waiting until after the DDC record is finished.

Speaking of which, this new music is really interesting. It’s shaping up to be my favorite DDC music ever. Right now it’s probably the 3 of Seven ep, but this will surely top it in every way.

For the last couple of weeks, my baby-momma has called me over to her once or twice a day to feel the baby move when she feels it. I would reach over, place my hand on the big melon… and I wouldn’t feel a friggin’ thing. I think I may have felt one tiny bump, once. Well tonight, that little sucker was having a party in there! I felt him doing whatever he’s doing in there like 10 times, and it was pretty damn cool. It doesn’t seem like much of a big deal, but I have to say it put a smile on my face.

Sometimes this whole pregnancy deal can be kinda rough, but moments like these seem to outweigh the rest. I really can’t wait to get my hands on the little dude and show him how to use a Mac.

Now that I know it’s a boy, I’m going to need a name. If anyone out there has a good suggestion, by all means send it my way. As I mentioned once before, I have a set of guidelines that I’m sticking to. They aren’t 100% required, but so far the formula seems like a good idea.

The name should be 2 syllables. It should include a long O sound, as in jOseph. And it must not end with an R, because that sounds bad with my last name.

I had a list of around 20 names, but as I deleted the ones I totally hated I wasn’t left with very many options. You have to include the last name, since sometimes a name that sounds good on its own get all screwed up when used with the last name.

1. Milo Rose
2. Jonah Rose
3. Noah Rose
4. Otis Rose

I had Bowie on the list too, but I’m afraid that people would shorten it to “Bo”, which is totally not something I want my kid to be called. This is hard.

YES! It’s official, my son has a penis! The moment I heard “it’s a boy”, it felt like a huge weight was lifted. I’ve spent a couple of weeks preparing myself for the news that it would be a girl, just in case. This rules.