25-26 wks

25 wks – stress, panic and crying

The to-do-list is stressing me out. I’m afraid I end up having this baby without the proper preparations. Work is stressing me out as well, because no matter how much I do, nothing seems to get done. Whenever I get stressed these days, I cry. But of course not for the right reasons. I cry because I can’t get my omelet to bake the way I want it, because I look fat in that outfit, because the cat won’t come back inside.

That last example is probably the worst one. Let my cats out on the patio, because I want them to be normal wild outside cats by the time the baby arrives. Scout & Louis (my cats, as you’ve probably guessed) are very enthusiastic about this idea. They spent last weekend outside all day and slept all evening, totally exhausted. On Thursday I get home at about 7pm and decide to give them another outing-opportunity before nightfall. My mistake: I fed them first. So Scout & Louis storm out without any vital reason to come back that night. When the sun goes down – no cats. When I call for them, Scout, the nerdy, scaredy cat comes back, but Louis, the crazy-warrior-type does not. I grant him another half hour, then call him again. It’s pitch black out by now. This time Louis calls back to me, and he sounds panicky. When my eyes are adjusted to the dark, I can kind of spot him two yards over, trying to climb a tree that would get him on the wall that would get him home. But he keeps falling out of the tree, because he can’t clearly see where to jump anymore. Finally, he gives up and sits still in the yard, without even answering my calls anymore.

I panic and call a friend. This friend is one of the good guys of this planet. A very good one. He jumps on his bike straightaway to rescue my cat. Or me. He even brings me a brownie! By the time he gets here, though, Louis has quietly managed to get into the tree and hurry home. He’s drinking some water when my friend hands me the brownie.

26 wks - Baby names

Most common Dutch names for a baby boy: Jayden, Milan, Luc, Sem, Thijs, Lucas, Daan, Jesse, Tygo and Thomas.

Most common American names for a baby boy: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Alexander, Anthony, William, Christopher, Matthew.

Most common Ghanaian names for a baby boy: Abeeku, Kobena, Kwodwo, Nkrumah, Yaw, Adusa, Akwasi.

Weirdest names for a baby boy: Locadio, Milagro, Juton, Detroit, Beckham, Hardock, Tao.

Which factors to take into account when finding a good name for a baby? This is what I came up with:

· Cannot rhyme with/resemble some very bad nicknames. This might cause some very embarrassing playground moments while growing up. So no Rik, Pepijn or – and sadly – Eli.

· Has to be cute and informal while growing up, but serious enough when thirty something and trying to build a career. No Billy, but no Johannes either.

· Cannot alliterate with last name. Eliminates all names starting with ‘P’.

· I want it to be English, because of my love for the English language, but not SO English that grade school teachers in my town won’t know how to pronounce it properly, so my kid will have to correct his teachers all the time, which is annoying by itself, causing him to eventually give up and be called some kind of pseudo-English-name with a Maastricht accent. So definitely no Jayden or Ethan!

· I like two-syllable-names for boys. I loved the name ‘Noah’ for a long time. Now I love my sister’s son Noah even more.

· I want some kind of link to the past, to people that came before him, whose name he could carry and thus whose stories he will take with him. Doesn’t have to be family in particular. My father’s name is out, ‘cause Noah’s already got it.

· Second and third names are kind of cool, I think, but I’m not crazy about women’s names for boys.