I’ve reached a lull in baby-conversation… a period of calm before the storm, 23 weeks in now and going by quickly, with so much left to do (nursery, baby registry, birthing classes, parenting classes, tour of the hospital, catch up on the reading I haven’t done in about 8 weeks…) and too much left to think about.  But I find myself at a point where I can’t bring myself to do anything pregnancy related, save for chill out and enjoy these first few real kicking THUDS I can finally feel through my belly (and with my hand), as opposed to just coming from somewhere deep within.

The real top of conversation lately has been a name.  We know Bebe is a boy.  Narrows it down.  I know I want it to have an Italian first name to go with his Italian last name, and I am vehemently opposed to something ‘vanilla’ and ‘common’.  Sorry Johns, sorry Mikes… Love ya, but I also know how it feels to go to school with 8 other Jennifers.   We have a few names picked out, but as you can imagine, everyone has an opinion, and there’s always someone who has their own personal vendetta against a certain name.  So with that, we’ve only shared our Stage 1 ideas with family and close friends to get their reactions, and to let it marinate for a while.  It will not be posted in the court of public opinion known as Facebook.  And once we do decide, that’s that.   We still have time… and in the meantime, baby is known to us as “Bebe” [bay-bay].

But the desire to give my child a cool, rare name also balances out with the need to keep the jokes and references at bay.  I mean, don’t wanna torture the kid, ya know?   I mean, did you know that there’s a child out there named “Hashtag”?  Yeah, like #YourParentsAreJerks, or #LifetimeOfTherapyAhead.   That’s just one example keeping me in check and not letting me go overboard with the baby names.   Check out Babble’s list of outrageous baby names