The Baby

The husband and I have an announcement, which I'm choosing to broadcast today (Friday, October 13th) for good luck.

Baby Price, two months ago.

One baby.
Girl.
Currently 23 weeks.
Coming February 10th.*
1 + 1 = 3!
We will be parents.

*This is actually a very real possibility. Keenan is early/punctual to the extreme (one of those "on time is late" people... so we get to church before the senior citizens have even left their houses), but I am late to everything (one of those "why should I come early if I'm just going to have to wait for everyone else" people). If this child proves to be a mixture of the two of us, she will be right on time!

I have graduated from, what I call, first trimester. It took me about 10 weeks longer than every other expectant internet mom, but better late than never. I surface from the valley of death! Since second trimester is supposed to be the best part of pregnancy, I am glad to finally be here! For a bit.


I am getting quite plump. My wardrobe is from the same line of pants that ate Fred Mertz.

Me and Keenan. 

My awesome mother has exploded into grandmother mode. The poor thing has had to squelch these grandmotherly urges for so long that she is a fire-hydrant of baby preparation, and I love it. Every week, she sends me a new hand-made blanket or clothes or toys...

Supplied by a soon-to-be grandma.

My brother and sister have been chomping at the bit to become an uncle/aunt forever. This is what they gave me and Keenan for Christmas last year (you know, 6 days after we got engaged).

I wonder what he's hinting at?

My sweet in-laws think that one of my pregnancy cravings is chocolate ice cream, and generously supply me with it... I'm going to let them keep thinking that it is purely pregnancy and not that I actually always love chocolate ice cream. (Though the fact that eating a chocolate ice cream cone literally brings tears to my eyes might be pregnancy related... is it normal to tear up about that?)

Becoming a parent is a big deal. Thank heavens everything you need to assemble for a child is straight-forward and simplistic. That would be really unfair to have to grow and raise a child and need an advanced degree in engineering to assemble their equipment.

Oh wait, never mind about that...YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR NASA TO KNOW HOW TO PUT ANYTHING TOGETHER!!!!

I was putting together the crib last weekend, and GOOD HEAVENS. I've seen blueprints for skyscrapers that were less complicated. That thing took hours to put together. The stupid drop-side that doubles as a finger-pincher was the hardest part. Glad to see we still use the 1960's design for cribs. It's probably the Russians. They did this to us just to distract us from getting to the moon first, and we're still trying to figure the silly things out. Hopefully the negative energy I was definitely exuding during the assembly process doesn't discourage our Little One from sleeping at night.


We haven't found a name yet. Keenan (and all other male family members, in stereotypical fashion) really wanted boy, so there were some strong emotions in the sonogram a few weeks ago (my elation, Keenan's devastation).

We'd kind of assumed it was a boy all along, but in August I started teasing Keenan about having a girl. To get him excited about the chance of having a girl before we found out, I started listing the most horrendous girl names possible (an unfortunate decision). He was not amused. During this, the song "Eglantine, Eglantine, oh how you shine!" got stuck in my head for weeks. And then, since I was singing the song constantly, we had to watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks... And then we realized that--oh my goodness--Eglantine's last name is PRICE?????

And then, after all that, the baby turns out to be a girl??? You can't plan things like that!!! Coincidence? I think not. These are signs, Keenan, not to be ignored.

Eglantine Price, the 1st.

Maybe she'll get just as excited as the original Eglantine about brooms and have an innate desire to clean the house. I'm sure she will at least know how to change annoying people into rabbits.

So the baby's nickname is Eglantine. Now that's what I call her all the time... poor little baby. It made sense at the time-- I mean, she came from an egg, I really enjoy watching people's reactions when I tell them that's what her name's going to be, if I want people to stop holding her I can just say "Lego of my Eggo!"

It all started in jest, but it's kind of stuck. So if we do, in fact, end up naming her Eglantine...........

...just kidding. That won't happen.
Probably. 

We are really thrilled. I am so incredibly happy, and I'm feeling very lucky.

With all the awful, depressing, terrible things happening in the world right now--particularly in the last few months--this little life is a ray of sunshine. To me, she's already a symbol of hope: evil and horror may rage about us, but God's goodness can always be found when you search for it.

Now, Eglantine, you are coming to our home a bit sooner than we expected, which leads me to believe that you are going to take after your dad. But my sweet little girl, I have waited so long for you, and we will be ready! I'm excited to be your mom!