14 Weeks!!!

Feeling so much better... not sure if it is because my friend Laura took the 5 older ones on a picnic 3 hours ago and the twins have been napping, but I'll take it!!!

I worn a nursing bra for the first time yesterday and my regular tee shirts are too short- becoming belly shirts... I think it is time to go shopping for me... but that doesn't sound like fun...

There is so much that I need to do around here and none of it sounds motivating... the couch draws me in so much more than my cluttered dining table...

I feel like I am just beginning to show, which I am so excited about- I LOVE my big fat belly with the girls... I am bummed that this one probably will not get that big since there is only 1 baby and I hope it doesn't grow to the 10 pounds of baby that I was carrying with the twins... that would be scary!!!

I am feeling that this is a boy, who will be born on St. Nicholas Day- December 6... which will be @ 3 weeks early... If so, Pat has agreed to name him Nicholas Alexander- only if he is born on St. Nicholas Day...

When we decided we were adopting, back in 1999, it was very important to me to give our adopted children family names since we were not passing on genetics... I thought it would give them one more connection to our families...Plus I had always planned on using family names when I thought all of our children would be genetically related to us...William was named after my mom's dad/my grandfather, Patrick after Pat as he was the first child we decided to adopt, Elizabeth was named after me (Jennifer Elizabeth with Elizabeth being my confirmation name), Jack is named after Pat's Dad, Nary Christine after Pat's Mom and her birth mom, Sarah is my Mom's baptismal name , and Anna (Ann) is my Godmother/Aunt's and my Mom's middle name...

When we accepted William and Patrick's referral for adoption and it was time to choose names, I asked who had named the boys in Russia and we were told that it could have been a hospital nurse, orphanage caretaker, or perhaps their birth mom... no way to tell... so even though both of their birth names were favorites of mine, William was named Alexander and Patrick was named Nicholas, we decided to give them family names...

I have always loved the names Nicholas and Alexander and before William and Patrick came home from Russia in 1999, I told Pat that if we ever had a genetic son, I wanted to name him Nicholas Alexander- in honor of William and Patrick... Pat completely disagreed then and only has agreed now because he thinks this is a girl and the odds of it being a boy and being born on December 6 are not worth fighting over, plus I already reminded him who will be filling out the birth certificate... Pat did tell me that he would call him "Nick", not "Nicholas" as he knows I prefer long names... I just laughed...

If all of this happens, I will have a long talk with the boys and make sure they feel honored by this choice and understand why I want to use their Russian birth names for their baby brother... I think they will agree... if not, I'll give it more time...