Tiny Dancer

It's definitely been a while since I've been able to post. I guess being pregnant really gets you ready for having no life because I haven't even been able to spend a half an hour on my computer talking about how amazing my daughter is!


I cannot wait to meet this precious little girl! She's got so much spunk and personality already - who knows what 14 more weeks of development will do for her. I've nicknamed her my little "Spitfire". If you know my family very well, you'll know that my father-in-law is a pilot and that his love of flying rubbed off on my husband. In turn, that love rubbed off on me. My favorite plane is a WWII Brittish fighter, the Spitfire Mk. IV and Spitfire definitely sums up Evey's personality so far! We're going to have our hands full, but in a good way!


Something I never realized about pregnancy is that once you started feeling the baby move, you never stop feeling the baby move (not that I'm complaining... feeling Evey move is the best feeling in the world!). I've started singing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" to her, but instead of a tiny dancer in my hand, mine's in my belly! The other day that song came on the radio and she started wiggling - it was such an awesome feeling.


Christopher was finally able to feel her move last Thursday, 25 weeks 2 days into the pregnancy. We were both thrilled! I was so glad to be able to share her with him at last. Since then, he's felt her hundreds of times! This morning, I apparently slept through some pretty tough kicks, but her daddy was able to enjoy them for me and I was able to enjoy a little sleep!




We had our 24 week check up a couple of weeks ago and our doctor said we both look healthy! We did the glucose screening and I had blood drawn three times to check my sugar levels. Christopher wasn't able to take more time off of work, so my daddy went with me and we spent the day at the hospital. He said if I didn't cry, then I could get some ice cream. I was a big girl and I got a half-gallon of Private Selection Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream at the end of the day and boy was it good! My results came back a couple of days later, and we found out that I'm definitely NOT diabetic (praise the lord) but I do have low iron.


I was perscribed an extra iron supplement and the pharmacist told me to take them first thing in the morning on an empty stomach with a glass of orange juice, so that's what I did... and they made me CRAZY! One of my co-workers said it was like i was on uppers and downers. One minute I'd be fine, and the next I'd be lethargic and cranky, barely able to hold my head up. I decided that I was going to take the supplements at night instead and after a few weird mornings my body started to even out and handle them better. I'm feeling much better now, and I have so much more energy. Hoepfully they will continue to bring me up throughout the pregnancy.


We've been working constantly on Evey's nursery and it's coming together so nicely! I can't wait for it to be finished. Then we can start getting the rest of our house together and "baby-ready!" We'll post pictures once it's done, which should be soon!

Namesake*

I've had a lot of people asking about where we came up with the name Evey Emaline, so I'm explaining the many origins that combined to give our little girl her name.

If you know me very well, you know that my chosen art form is motion pictures. I love the way movies take so many aspects of art (theatre, photography and cinematography, costume design, writing, etc) and combines them to make this wonderful bit of entertainment that takes you to a different world for two hours. Evey's name is mostly from a plethera of movies that have impacted Christopher and myself in some way.

Her second name, Emaline, is actaully from a song that Christopher and I have loved since we first started dating. Eight years ago, Christopher said "we should name our daughter after this song" and now we are! Who knew that the crazy plans of two kids in love would ever come to completion?!? Here's the song that inspired us.

Her first name wasn't quite so direct. If you take another look at the ultrasound picture from our "Seven Weeks Today" post on December 19th, that's where the idea for her name started. That was the first time we got to see our little fetus and she reminded us of the adorable little "EVE" robot from Disney's Wall-E. Everyone else said "Oh! It looks like a grain of rice!" But Christopher and I weren't convinced. From that moment, our baby was nicknamed Eve-a (based on Wall-E's pronunciation, of course).

When we were discussing names for a girl, I kept coming back to Eve. I guess I'd called the baby that so much, it just made sense to keep on calling her that if she was indeed a she. But I wasn't a fan of Eva because it's such a latino name and we have no latino background and I wasn't a fan of plain old Eve because it's much more common. We loved the movie "V for Vendetta" and Natalie Portman's character, Evey Hammond, was so well written. We decided that "Evey" was uncommon enough to support our character, and we liked the different spelling as well.

We got on babynames.com to find out the meaning of both names when we decided that it may be in the running - and this is what really gave made it our #1 choice.

We had to search by the name Eve, but it's origin is Hebrew and it means "life". Emaline was listed under Emmeline or Emmaline, but it has an English origin and means "work". So her name essentially means "life work" which fits her to a T. We tried for so long to get pregnant and expanding our family has been our number one priority that she really is our life's work. And now that she's really coming, our "life work" will continue forever.

Of course my brain references everything to pop culture, and as soon as I read the meaning I thought about one of my favorite children's books, Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White. The spider, Charlotte, lays her egg sack - her "magnum opus" - her "life's work", if you will. I absolutely LOVED that connection, and one day Evey and I will read that book together and I'll tell her about how her name came to be.


 

Halfway Home

Our countdown to Evey has now made a turn for the best... We're over the halfway hump and now, we can really start "counting down" to her arrival!

I can't believe five months has gone by so quickly and in the amount of time that I've had her to myself, I'll have to share her with the world! I'm not sure I'm ready for that one yet... ;)

She's definitely a fiesty little girl. Sometimes, I think she's having a party in my belly - and I'm okay with that. I love feeling her move around more than anything. Christopher and I were playing with a fetal heartbeat monitor the other day and she was so active. She did not like us invading her space and she'd move into the doppler to push it away. Christopher can't feel her yet, but he was able to put the sound and feeling together as he held the microphone and got a chance to feel his daughter for the first time. It was such an awesome experience!

We had our 20 week ultrasound and anatomy scan last Tuesday and we got some great pictures of our girl. She was a little uncooperative, which meant that we'd have to have another ultrasound at our next appointment (and we were dissapointed that we'd have to have another "medically necessary" ultrasound then - not!). I made sure to thank her for being so crazy!

In this picture you can see her perfect profile. You can see the places for her eyes and ears as they're beginning to develop and you can also see her nose and lips. She's playing with her feet, but she was all over the place during the scan. We got to see her opening and closing her mouth, wiggling her fingers and toes, and sucking her thumb (this she got from me). When it came to the "important" parts of the scan, she curled into the fetal position and wouldn't come out of the ball (this is a trait directly from her dad)!

Here's a picture of her legs from a top view. The big round spot is her tummy and you an see all her bones developing through her legs and feet.

Here are her arms and hands which are both developing perfectly. Our ultrasound tech was a little flaky and I had to ask what everything was. I even dropped hints like: I'm a nosy mom - I want to know what everything is! and she still didn't get it!


When we got in to see our doctor after the scan the report stated that my amniotic fluid was "subjectively decreased". Typically, numbers are provided and you're supposed to be around an 8, but our tech didn't give us a numeric reading at all. Our doctor said that she had no idea what this meant, and that she wasn't worried, but she was going to send us to the high risk specialist just to be safe. They asked if I had been drinking enough water, and I thought I had, but I didn't want something that I wasn't providing enough of to harm our girl.


I went home that night and started chugging water... I drank so much, I was using the bathroom every 15 minutes. And I'm not talking a few sprinkles - I'm talking like full-on, 100%, pee-like-you're-never-going-to-get-another-chance trips to the potty. Finally, Christopher said I should slow down and I heeded his advice.




When we went to the specialist the next morning, I was definitely nervous. I tried so hard not to worry, but there's just so much that can go wrong during pregnancy and even though I was smiling on the outside, my stomach was churning on the inside.


Our nurse began the scan and immediately said there seemed to be plenty of fluid in the placenta. When the doctor came in, he barely glanced at the screen and said he didn't even know why we were there... Christopher and I both breathed a huge sigh of relief. The readings for our fluid came out at a 10, which is 2 over the ideal amount. I suppose all that chugging did some good.


Since we went for a scan in the morning, she wasn't super active while it was going on, so the nurse was able to get all the info she needed. We got to go through the entire anatomy scan again and Evey is growing perfectly. We even got to see some views of her that we'd never seen before! She weighs 13oz and her heart, lungs, kidneys, bladder, arms and legs are all functioning the way they should. The dotcor also told us that her nasal ridge was developing properly. If it wasn't developing, that's a sign for downs syndrome, but we seem to be free and clear.


I asked our nurse if we could have new pictures from our visit and she was more than happy to provide them.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! The white stripe in the middle is her foot and you can see the outline of her hand where she's holding it. Her profile isn't as clear as the first picture in this post, but behind her leg, you can see her umbilicial cord. The nurse said we have a 3-vessel cord, which means it's exactly as it should be. Evey seems to have a great time hanging out in my belly.

This is the first time we saw her portrait. Her face is on the right and you can see her eye sockets, nose and mouth. The biggest round portion of the ultrasound is her belly. The two dark circles are her lungs. Her arm is at the bottom of the ultrasound, but she's got it up by her face.


So even though it wasn't all good news at first, we got to see Evey two days in a row and I wouldn't trade that for the world! I'm so glad she's perfect and her swimming pool is big enough. Looks like we should make it through the pregnancy unscathed, and she will be here before we know it!!

We're happy to introduce...

Evey Emaline Davis 

Our anatomy scan is on March 15, so we'll be able to update you on size and weight then, but for now, we're happy to introduce our beautiful daughter. Her heart beat at 153 bpm today, and even though she was a bit stubborn (takes after her mom) our ultrasound tech was 100% positive that she wouldn't be growing any "extra parts". 

She's absolutely perfect, and we couldn't be happier. I've attached our ultrasound photos from today. 

 This one shows her cutie patootie. The three little white lines that the arrows are pointing at show she's definitely a girl. 

In this one, you can really see her spine. She curled up into a ball and wouldn't move. We got to see her sucking her thumb and that was awesome. 

I can't wait to see how she's going over the next month, and now I'm more excited than ever to see her come August! 

Old Wives Tales

Okay! So next Monday Jenni and I are going into the doctor for a gender scan to see if we have a little boy or girl. This being said, Monday night I will be closing the baby pool so now is everyone’s last chance to enter their guesses. Before that, Jenni and I decided to take a look at some of the old pregnancy wives tales to see if we are having a boy or girl, so here are some of the wives tales we found.

Heart Rate They say if the fetal heart rate is over 140 beats per minute, the baby is a girl, and if the heart rate is less than 140 the baby will be a boy. At our 12 week appointment, the heart rate was 168bpm, and at 16 weeks was 148bpm. One for girl.

Belly If the mother is carrying high and large you will have a girl, if you carry low and straight out in front, it’s a boy. Jenni is low and straight out. One for boy.

Ring Test If the mother holds her wedding ring on a string over her belly and it swings side to side, it’s a girl, if the ring swings in a circle, it’s a boy. Well… when we did this test the ring swung side to side for about 3 oscillations and then proceeded to swing in a circle and then back to side to side and so on and so forth. So I guess that is two for girl and two for boy. But could this mean twins?

Necklace Test The necklace test is the same as the ring test but someone else holds a necklace over the pregnant woman’s hand, with opposite results as the ring test. Three for girl.

Face If the pregnant woman’s face gets fuller you have a girl, if the face gets thinner, boy. Jenni’s losing weight in her face. Three for boy.

Key If a pregnant woman picks up a key by the top round part, boy, if she picks it up by the key part, girl, if she picks it up in the middle, twins. Without knowing the wives tale I had jenni pick up a key, four for boy.

Mayan Tale According to a Mayan tale, if you add the mothers age with the year of conception and the total is even, you will have a girl, if the total is odd, boy. Well 26+2010 is 2036, four for girl.

Drano Its said that if you mixed a tablespoon of the pregnant woman’s urine with a tablespoon of Drano and the mixture is green, you will have a girl, if its blue, it’s a boy. Well needless to say, we were a little weirded out by this one so this test was inconclusive.

Acne If the expectant mom has acne she will have a girl. All clear of pimples so that’s five for boy.

Cravings If your cravings are salty you will have a boy, and sweet if you have a girl. Sweets make jenni sick so that’s six for boy.

Cravings Also if you tend to crave more protiens you will have a boy, after weeks of beef jerkey and corndogs, I’m saying boy on this one too.

Smell of garlic If a pregnant woman eats a clove of garlic and the smell comes out of her pores you will have a boy. Jenni absolutely refused to eat a clove of garlic, so that’s another inconclusive test.

Eye test If you pull the skin under the womans left eye and you see a “v” or branches on the white of her eye you will have a girl. Jenni most definitely has a “v” so that is a girl.

Parental history Okay, this one is a bit complicated. You can predict the order of kids a woman will have by following the children of her parents starting with the next kid in line. So if the mother to be was the first born, you start with the gender of the second born and so one. If she was the last born, you start with the gender of the first born. Jenni is the first born so the gender of the next born in her family is a girl, so, girl.

Conception Whoever was more aggressive on the night of conception the gender will be the opposite. Well we know our official conception date if Halloween, but we don’t remember having sex that night and not sure which day the deed happened on so yet another inconclusive test.

Legs If the woman gains weight in her legs it will be a boy, if they stay lean it will be a girl. Once again jenni is losing weight so girl.

Attitude They say if the future mom is moody you have a girl. Jenni is most definitely moody. Girl.

Chinese chart According to an ancient Chinese chart that is said to be 90% accurate we will have a boy.

Beauty They say that because a girl needs to take beauty away from the mom to get pretty, well Ive never seen her as beautiful as she is now. So that is a boy.

Gender dreams If the mom has dreams about a boy, you will have a girl, and vise versa, well if you recall one of my earlier posts, Jenni dreamed about adopting girls, so another boy.

Clumsiness If the mother gets more graceful, you will have a girl…

Boy.

Toddlers If a toddle boy shows intrest in a pregnant woman, she will have a girl, if not you she will have a boy. Well no toddler boys have shown any interest so that’s another boy.

Side you lay on If a woman lays on her left side, they say she’ll have a boy. If she prefers her right side, it will be a girl. Most nights, Jenni sleeps on her right side, so again… girl.

Hands When asked to show her hands, if the mother shows palm up, it’s a girl. If she shows palm down, it will be a boy. Once again, without knowing what I was doing, I asked Jenni to show me her hands and she held them palm down. Score one for a boy.

Dad’s Weight If the expectant father gains weight during the pregnancy, you’re expecting a girl. If he doesn’t, you’re having a boy. Despite the fact that my wife swears I’ve got a baby bump of my own – I haven’t gained any weight. Boy.

Breast Size If her left breast is larger than the right, expect a girl. Expect a boy if the right breast is larger. Maybe this is a little bit too much information, but Jenni’s left is larger, so we’re having a girl.

Morning sickness If she’s having “morning” sickness ALL THE TIME, she’s got a little girl on the way. If she’s not quite that bad, she’s got a boy. Jenni hasn’t had a lot of actual “sickness” – just nausea, so we’re calling this one a boy.

Feet If mom has a hard time keeping her feet warm, you may be having a boy. If her feet stay nice and toasty, it may be a girl. Jenni’s feet are always freezing… take it from my ice-cold legs after she uses my body heat to warm her feet up every night. Boy.

Leg hair Jenni can’t keep her legs cleanly shaven, so I guess we’ve got another boy. If her hair was growing slowly, it would be a girl.

Hands If she’s always begging for lotion to keep her hands most, you’ve probably got a boy. Jenni most definitely has dry hands… No girl this time.

Headaches Little boys cause their moms to have more headaches, and little girls are a little easier on their moms. Even though Jenni’s doctor gave several other reasons for the headaches she’s been getting, we’re calling this one a boy.

So the tally based on the wives tales listed above as well as some Jenni wasn’t comfortable listing are as stands. 23 boys, and 10 girls. So my guess is standing as a boy but you all can make your own guess. I you have forgotten the address here it is again. www.bebepool.com/thedavis baby