Ultrasound Results-no gender reveal but name reveal

Today's appt was amazing.  We went around lunch time so dh could join.  We did the "big" ultrasound late because we were going to a perinatologist and ob didn't want to send us back if we were too early.  We are 22 1/2 weeks, so for those wanting to know gender it would have been a killer, but we aren't finding out again so we didn't mind.  What we found out today is basically everything is awesome.  There is something so great about hearing the baby measures on for a Nov. 9th due date when Nov. 7th is your date by conception.  I mean, after all that business during miscarriages about maybe your dates are wrong this and that and I wanted so bad to believe that, but come on!  There is no chance this Creighton girl doesn't have her dates right.  Seriously.  Wanna know the hour?  lol  (Pics from the ultrasound are below).  The only annoying thing about today? The perinatologist said " I find very little to complain about."  Seriously?  I have been perseverating on the wording all day and I know how ridiculous that is, but why didn't I just confirm that was her dumb way of wording it?!  I am gonna leave that behind now.  Btw, usually a perinatologist is reserved for bigger risk problems than mine, but ob had to send me out of the office due to insurance and he trusts these folks the most.  So I was happy to have a super experienced highly trained doc for at risk cases do my ultrasound v. a tech.

Just some random thoughts on the gender discovery topic.  First, I totally get the people that find out.  Dh and I are not hard core in the "don't find out camp."  Secondly, oddly enough dh and I are incredibly anal planners.  We are also financially conservative in a lot of ways.  Which is why we would go gender neutral regardless so finding out wasn't a huge deal in that respect.  But we both figured we would want to know.  But when it came time to talk to dh about it we were both so...impartial.  Seriously.  It was spooky strange.  I recall saying, "if we don't really care one way or another, let's wait.  We can always change our minds."  And so we waited with Charlie.  And it was only crazy hard the last three weeks when we wanted to meet him so bad we could taste it.  He was one week late so that didn't help.  Anyway, I am sure everyone's delivery date is a big deal, and we have  nothing to compare it to, but it just felt so special with dh announcing the gender to me and then to our families.  So here we go again. 

I will say I do find it a little odd, though not bad, to know the exact gender AND name of my friend's babies.  But then I never liked new and different and this is new and different for them to refer to a child by its name with such certainty before they are here.  I am a creature of habit.  Surprise on at least one or the other is my preference.  As far as keeping names a secret, again personal choice.  And again, dh and I are sort of impartial-odd.  I swear we are normally really opinionated, lol.  It seems we have no firm rule and tell some folks and not others.  In some ways I am pro telling b/c I think people take your name less if it is public.  But I have other friends who say the opposite.  We had two names for Charlie-Annabelle Grace (spelling not confirmed) and Charles Raphael.  For this baby, we are likely going with Anthony James or Annabelle Grace.  Like finding out the gender, we tell ourselves we can change them at anytime, but in reality they've been set since about a week in.  We are funny that way.  Both my sisters didn't have a name going into delivery and it was checkout time at the hospital before they filled in the birth certificate.  So not my style!

Here is how dh and I choose names.  I do homework.  I look up saints and feast days, significant people in our lives, etc.  I have had lists since childhood.  I like to look at the meaning and see how they sound with our last name.  I like very feminine for the girls' names (I won't give away all the others, but flowy "anna" type names...) and very classic for boys' names.  I like names that are different because you either don't hear them that often (like a classic coming back, an old familiar shoe!) or names that are just a tad off the beaten path (Isabelle is popular, I have only heard Annabelle once, on an adult).  I like names with personal and spiritual meaning.  Nothing too crazy, but something that isn't a dime a dozen.  But something that is comfortable. So I do this and then I start throwing them out.  And dh starts rejecting them.  And he says why-so and so was named X and he peed his pants in elementary school (blah blah blah).  Ha!  But sometimes he has no reason except they are new and we like familiar.  In that case, like Annabelle, I just keep bringing it up.  I make it familiar.  Am I mean or what?!  So then I told dh (when preg with Charlie), we need to have a girl name.  And he says, don't we already have one?  lol.  Love that dh!  Did I mention he spent hours picking out glasses once and chose the exact same ones as he owned before.  We like familiar!  It seems that if dh doesn't reject a name immediately, he actually may like it. 

That is how we got our new boy name Anthony.  I looked up saints on our due date, Nov. 7th.  I liked the name.  Okay that is shallow, but true.  I don't even know his story and keep forgetting what Anthony to look it up.  Sheesh.  But that is the truth.  We both agreed no "Tony".  No offense, but it just doesn't feel right.  My dad's name is James, and most of you know by now that I am a variation of that so that is how we got th middle name.  We both like A.J. as a nickname, maybe when he is a little olde.r  I must say, I don't like that James means surplanter (sp?) when I looked that up, but getting over it...Annabelle means "lovable" and of course Grace is "gift from God."  By the way Charles is named after his grandpa (paternal).  He passed when dh was 12.  Most of you know where Raphael comes from, but it is all in the archives if you want to look it up-it's worth it, trust me!  So Charles Raphael means "strong man" (that) "God has healed."  Love it!  And Anthony?  "flourishing."  I swear.  Look it up.  (And ignore the one that says "drunk.")  I am not kidding!  lol  I mean, really, what does a newly pregnant IFer want to hear about her son/daughter-that they are flourishing of course!  Love it!  So those are our names.  But you have to wait for the gender. :)