I can’t believe how long it has been since my last post! This pregnancy has been a blur. I’m not sure where to begin, and maybe this is why it has taken me so long to finally make a post. So here’s a quick summary of where I’m at…
All my monthly appointments with a sage-femme (midwife) have been reassuring. No problems with the baby and I’ve been gaining the appropriate amount of weight. If you’re a longtime reader, you may remember that I gained WAY over the regular amount with my last pregnancy. I’m now in my 9 months and am still active, energetic, and feel good.
Ultrasound appointments also showed the baby is developing as he should. We had our last ultrasound at 32 weeks (I’m now 36), and she even showed us our son in 3D. It was a bit bizarre… looked like he was melting.
I didn’t take any preparation classes this time around. I forgot. When I remembered and got scheduled into a class, I forgot to go to the class. I have a terrible memory while pregnant! I didn’t do well with managing pain when giving birth to Juliana and was really hoping to get into some classes this time. Now I’m thinking I should watch some videos online and find a good book… I’m not feeling like driving 30 to 40 minutes each week to go to a 2 hour class. I waited too long.
My days and nights are all mixed up. This happened to me last time as well. For some reason, I can’t fall asleep before 3 to 6 am. Of course, this also means I wake up really late. I’m lucky that my husband has been able to take over taking care of our daughter in the mornings while he works. Juliana has been amazing all through this.
Our daughter has grown up so much during this time! Not a day goes by where I’m not in complete awe of her. The woman who used to come to our house 3 hours per day, 3 days per week (since September of last year) to watch her while we work is now an assistant maternelle (and we are so blessed to have found her!). This is our first month of having Juliana go to her home… I’ll have to write an entire blog post about this subject. Short summary, we were pleasantly surprised at how easily Juliana handled the transition. Actually, it made me a little sad because she cried last time she returned home! She was having too much fun playing with the woman’s 8 year old son and chasing chickens around their yard.
Sorry for the long gap between posts! I can’t wait to start updating you about our house. Yes, that’s right! We’re buying a house in Provence!!!
Here’s some recent pics of my sweet baby girl…
Our son is due on June 19th (French due date) or June 12th (USA due date). Juliana was born exactly on her French due date and I’m HOPING he doesn’t take his sweet little time. 🙂 I’m so ready to meet him.
We have not decided on a name yet. We have one in mind, but are still open to new ideas. It’s hard to find a name that sounds good in French and in English that we both like. I would like to have 3 or 4 names in mind so when we see him, we can choose one that fits him the best.
Any suggestions?
Kelly-Green-Jacotin says
I sympathize with your naming predicament! Girls’ names make a linguistic bridge much easier than boys’ names. My husband is French, living in California, so we have done a lot of thinking about names that sound good in both languages. We have two daughters with lovely franco-American names, but if we ever were to have a son, he would be Blaise. Félicitations!
French Mamma says
Definitely much easier to find a name for a girl. My first choice if this baby was going to be a girl was Anne-Sophie. It’s my husband’s cousin’s name and I thought it is beautiful. Blaise is a great name! I’ll propose it to my husband in the morning. Thank You!
Marine says
I’m glad you’re okay, and looking forward to learning a little bit more about this house in Provence ! For baby names, I love Mathieu (I’m french), that translates beautifully and easily into Matthew. Or Victor, which is a little less common in France. Can’t wait to know what name you’ll choose !
French Mamma says
Thank you! It’s funny that you mentioned the name me and my husband have been thinking of – Matthieu (not sure if we’ll have two T’s or one). It’s a classic and the pronunciation is similar in both languages.
Liz says
I’m American, married to a Frenchie (and living in France), and 7 months pregnant. Choosing names has become almost impossible!! We finally agreed to just let it rest until we see his/her sweet face and then make a decision then (of course, people here think that’s crazy, but whatevs). Well, girl names aren’t that bad, but boys… we decided to have a surprise, so we have to prepare for both.
Somebody else mentioned Arthur, which I second. It’s adorable in French and it’s starting to make a comeback in the States!
Best of luck to you!
Liz says
p.s. I have a cousin in the States with the name Mathieu (spelled that way), so it can work. Of course, we’re from Louisiana, so you can see all kinds of French-like spellings around there. He just ends up being “Matt” anyway 🙂