2013 and Baby stuff!!

Well 2013 has come and has had a great start. Pishi and I were off for 8 days for the holidays and it gave us time to tick off some of the baby tasks. Those included, decluttering the apartment, Phase I was the closets and now is phase II, which is the  baby room prep. I am almost done with the kitchen and I will be boxing some of the dishes that we seldom use. I want to have as much room as possible in the cabinets to ensure the baby stuff that needs to be put there is ready. Also we have started archiving and boxing all different documents and nothing gives more pleasure to get rid of old weight!

I have to increase my exercises frequency but I think I have become lazy! I am planning to start more frequently. The problem is that every time I go for an hour of gym, I feel she is moving down in my belly and makes me nervous that she might pop out ;-)! The midwife indicated that it wouldn't be the case and I shouldn't worry about it. Tomorrow, I will be tested for the gestational diabetes and I am eager to see the results, considering that I have gone home with sweets during this pregnancy!

Since last I updated, I have progressed in baby name category! Sabt e Ahval has a website that lists all the baby names and I find it very useful, as it has both both the names, the popularity and the meaning. The only problem was that it is not very user friendly, I had to spend almost a full day to export the names to excel! My criteria for choosing the names were that, it has to be of Persian origin, it has to have a strong meaning, it has to be easily pronounced by other cultures. I also considered the possible meanings of the name in other languages and also the popularity of the name.
This is how we narrowed it: First, I chose the ones that I liked from the list of more than 600 baby girl names based on alphabetical order and the criteria that I mentioned above, I narrowed to about 35 names. Then pishi chose the ones he liked from the ones I chose.
Before the start of the holidays, I got to meet with my university friends. Based on Pishi's narrowed list, I asked my friends to look at the names individually and chose whichever they liked. Then I asked them to pronounce it and see how they pronounce it. The results were actually interesting! As all of them are from different background, they gave great insight on their choices.
I wanted to have an unbiased approach so I decided to involve my family and Pishi's family in choosing the name, so we had debates on all 600 names. Actually Christmas day we spent the whole day reviewing the names! we had it shown on the TV and got votes based on different colors! The results of those discussions were 12 names.
In order to prioritize the names, we gave weights to the votes of family members, my self, pishi and my friends. Based on that we are at the final 5! I am sure we will get "the" one in time before she is born!

So far we have bought her stroller, car sit, play pen, bed, mattress and dresser and baby monitor. I must confess if it wasn't for Pishi we wouldn't have been able to buy the best options for our baby girl. He has done extensive research on each one and almost done with the baby registry. We are planning to have our baby shower some time end of February. I am trying to stay away from gender specific colors. I do not want to her to be trapped in that zone. Also this way, if our next one is a boy, he can use these colors as well!

Pregnancy has brought some back ache for me and since end of December, I have been going to Massage Therapy and I must confess I love it! It is extremely relaxing. I am intending to do so every 7-10 days until delivery, I have already come up with the schedule;-)

Friends and family have been great with all their advise on what is needed and what is not and we are deciding what's best for us.

Work has been great, I am not stressed at all, my boss is very understanding and no more crazy long hours. I still get emails from head hunters for other companies, which is great to know I still got it!

Our baby girl, has been kicking more every days, most of the time she is quite during work hours and as if she knows when to start being naughty! She usually kicks before I go to work and when is close to lunch time and when after work. I hope she continues to have a routine when she is born too. It would be good for all of us!

End of this week is our Lamaze session, pishi and I are looking forward to participating in the class and learn what to expect!

I am going now to research baby shower theme and games!