Name Contest Winners!

Now that Oskar is 8+ months old, we figured that it was high time to announce the winners of our Name the Baby: The Sequel Contest!

We asked for creative suggestions so that we would end up with something as cool as "Anders Rocket". We like unusual names, Scandinavian influences, vehicle/space/science themes, and something that could work as a codename (ala Rocket). Thankfully, you were all up to the task. Here were some of our favorites, with the submitter(s) listed!

FIRST NAME
Oskar
Julie H., Atif C.
We obviously liked this name, since we used it. Oscar (with a 'c') is in the top 200 most popular boys names in the US, but we liked it well enough anyway. The 'k' in Oskar gives it both Scandinavian and German heritage, representing ancestry from both of our families. But it's still obvious how it should be pronounced (at least the American way). Oskar was actually the name of Corinne's grandfather who emigrated here from Norway.

BEST MAD SCIENTIST
Max Q
Tara W. & Jason R.
This is an aerospace term for the maximum dynamic pressure and also a great nerd super-hero (or super-villain) name.

Atlas Vems
Brian J.
Vems is actually a Swedish name, but it can also represent escape velocity, i.e. V_e (m/s). Atlas pairs well with that.

Sigurd Apogee
Kelly H.
Sigurd is a hero from Norse mythology (check), and Apogee is a term from orbital mechanics (check).

NAMES THAT MAKE AN 8 YEAR OLD LAUGH
Ragnar Poopypants
Dean C.

Baby McBabyFace / Baby McBoatFace
Marnie H., Dave S., Tabitha C.
Every good online naming contest needs a good Boaty McBoatFace entry.

It's not actually that hard to make an 8 year old laugh, but those do it every time.

NAME THAT MAKES A 45 YEAR OLD LAUGH
Lars Dumptruck
Marnie H.
This one just reminds me of a Mad-Libs every time I hear it. "Scandinavian Name? Vehicle? Done."

MOST PROLIFIC SUBMITTERS
Tara W. & Jason R. (31)
Abby F. (33)
We had a lot of great submissions, but these folks were the most prolific by quite a bit. Must be something about people who have lived in Denmark.

BEST WORDPLAY
Will Ship Daly
Ben J. (with assist from Birgit M.)
I've heard a lot of "Daly" jokes over the years, but as a name for someone who is the child of two software developer parents, this one is just too good. And ship is a vehicle!

Nice Moniker
Ben J.
This one wasn't actually a name suggestion, but it just happens to be an anagram of the names Mike and Corinne. Pretty sweet.

LONGEST NAME
Breton Second Stage Lift Vehicle
Dr. Rat
This one wins for the longest suggestion. But it's not much longer than the name we actually chose.

CLEVER BUT STILL PLAUSIBLE
Claus Copter
Atif C.
Satisfies all of the criteria and does kinda roll off the tongue, no?

Soren Comet
Tara W. & Jason R.
Get it? Soarin' Comet?

Otto Bus
Doris & George K.
Otto => Auto. (I think I'd have a little bit of a hard time naming someone Bus, though.)

GRAND PRIZE
Eon
Tara W. & Jason R.
We really liked the combination of short, kinda tech-y, kinda space-y, but not too specific. Since Oskar arrived on pretty much the same schedule that Anders did - that is, 3 weeks early - we didn't really have that much time to use it as a codename. But it stuck as a middle name. And Oskar Eon IS just as cool as Anders Rocket, and we think they sound great together.

Believe it or not, Tara & Jason actually WON the previous name contest as well! Some people are just good at naming, I guess. (Although not everyone has the benefit of having an engineering degree AND living in a Scandinavian country.)

We really had fun reading and considering all of the names suggested, and we were inspired by your collective creativity! Here was our final "Top 10" list of first names (in no particular order): Alton, Apollo, Archer, Kai, Kell or Keld (the d is silent), Kelvin, Kian, Nils or Niels, Stig (pronounced "Steeg"), ...and Oskar, of course. Our other finalists for middle name were: Apollo, Comet, Lander, Mercury, and Jett, but Eon was the odds-on favorite from the start.

Thanks to everyone for all of the fun! Come visit us and meet Oskar Eon Balto Ilvedson Daly yourself!

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, and Oskar Eon

32/52 - Start of a New Eon

Now that we've had a few days to recover from the big change in our lives, here is the story of Eon's arrival.

The baby had been breech since early May, with no signs of moving on his own. When the ultrasound at what would be our last weekly prenatal visit showed that he was, indeed, still in the same position, we decided that we would schedule an External Cephalic Version (ECV) (aka version, aka turning the baby) for as soon as possible. Waiting longer only increased the chance that Corinne would go into labor and we would have little choice but to do an emergency C-section. Medical protocol required that we wait until 37 weeks into the pregnancy, so we scheduled for the first available day just 3 days later, on Monday.

Over the weekend, Corinne made a point to take it easy, avoiding exerting herself as much as possible. The last thing we wanted was for her to go into labor before we had a chance to attempt the turn! Meanwhile, Anders and I took a break from baby prep to visit the Hood River County Fair.

Thankfully, Monday arrived and the baby hadn't. Since there is always a chance that the version could either induce labor or stress the baby, preparations are made for a C-section, just in case. Therefore Corinne couldn't eat or drink anything starting that morning. After an acupuncture appointment in the morning - also intended to help the baby turn - we departed for the hospital with our overnight bags and infant car seat, just in case.

Corinne was hooked up to an IV for a few hours before the version to rehydrate her, then the doc arrived around 4pm to start the ECV. I'd never seen one before, but it looks like what it is: trying to push the baby around with your hands.

Our doctor tried turning him one direction, then the other. After about 30 minutes, she declared the version unsuccessful. Both Corinne and the baby were monitored during the whole procedure, and the nurses continuously commented that "the baby was happy". Corinne's monitors, however, showed that she had some mild contractions even before the ECV had started. She couldn't feel them beforehand, but after the version attempt she started to feel them. Our doc wanted to monitor her for a couple hours before deciding what to do, though we both started to get the sense that we probably wouldn't be going home that day.

Waiting, waiting through mild contractions...

Working while waiting in what would turn out to be our home for the next 4 days

Two hours later, Corinne was still having mild contractions and was slightly dilated. A few more hours later at 11pm, with contractions still present and dilation progressing, the path was clear: we were having a C-section that night. Just 45 minutes later while on the operating table waiting for the start of the surgery, her water broke, thereby confirming the wisdom of that decision. No turning back now!

Once the procedure had started, it took only about 10 minutes for Oskar to emerge at 12:24am on Tuesday morning. For the sake of the squeamish readers out there - not to mention Corinne - I will leave out the details of the C-section procedure itself. I will say that it was very cool to be able to watch. I guess all of those medical dramas and graphic horror movies finally came in handy; I was fine.

During the operation, they did discover the most probable reason for why he wouldn't turn: the umbilical cord was fairly short, somewhere less than 18 inches long. Between that and his breech position, we are pretty thankful that it all happened the way it did. We are pretty sure that Corinne had started labor before the version. By already being at the hospital that day, everything was calm and procedural. We didn't have the stress of deciding when to leave home or whether to make the 1.5 hour drive to our preferred doctor; given how she presented in the hospital, the labor would likely have progressed pretty quickly.

C-sections are a mixed blessing. They are sometimes the only option (like in our situation) and involve less pain during the delivery, but the trade-off is a much longer recovery time. It is a fairly invasive surgery, after all. We would be in the hospital until at least Thursday so that the hospital staff could monitor both patients. Oskar did have an orange pall, indicative of possible jaundice. But unlike with Anders, Oskar's bilirubin (the substance that makes him orange) never reached the level requiring any light therapy. On his 2nd day, Oskar's temperature and blood sugar were low but those were resolved over the next day.

The hospital is certified as Baby-Friendly, which among other things meant that Oskar stayed with us in our room for the whole visit.

Enjoying a double-nap

We were in the hospital through Friday, staying an extra day to allow for additional Oskar monitoring and to fix his ankyloglossia, aka tongue-tie. His tongue ended up being fixed with a simple scissor snip that made Corinne cry even though Oskar barely noticed.

We had wonderful nurses and became pretty friendly with them. As it happened, during our stay the hospital was doing a promotional video about one of the nurses and the educational program through which she became a nurse. We got to be part of the shoot! The hospital makes souvenir (aka not a legal document) birth certificates with the baby's footprint; we received an extra one signed by the film crew.

The final video and still photos should be available sometime in the next couple months; we'll post them when they are. It was great fun!

Finally, on Friday we were cleared to go home. Now the real journey begins.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and Oskar

Introducing...

We have chosen a name! Introducing...

Oskar Eon Balto Ilvedson Daly

Yes, you read that right: he has three middle names. We are those parents, the 21st century version of '60s hippie parents who named their child Sunshine Rainbow Flower Blossom.

Oskar is a solid Scandinavian name, particularly with the K spelling (which shouldn't trip up American's trying to pronounce it). Anders and Oskar sound great as a pair, and we liked the Α to Ω aspect of the two names together. Oskar was also the name of Corinne's paternal grandfather who immigrated from Norway in the early 20th century. It is more popular in the US than Anders - #181 (for the American spelling Oscar) vs #745 (for Anders) in 2014 - but still uncommon enough that he might be the only Oskar (or Oscar) in his school.

Eon is where our real nerd shows through. We set ourselves a pretty high bar for interesting names with Anders Rocket, and we wanted to stay with a science or space middle name. Eon is just cool. Scientifically, it means a billion years, or more colloquially, a really long time. This reflects how long we have worked and waited for him to arrive. It also is used to mark astronomical time periods, and this certainly qualifies as major line of demarcation in the life of our family. Thanks to Jason & Tara for the awesome suggestion!

Balto is a name Anders chose, based on a book he had just read about Balto, the sled dog. Balto (the dog) was actually named after Norwegian-Sami explorer Samuel Balto who helped explore Greenland, so it even fit with our overall theme. We have a college friend whose parents let each of their kids provide one middle name to each of their younger siblings, so that put the idea in our head to use Anders's suggestion in that way. If Anders had his way, his brother would be named Balto Asteroid Ilvedson Daly.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions in the naming contest! They were lots of fun to read and did inspire our final choice. We'll do a separate post with the naming contest winners.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and Oskar

Here's The Baby!

On Monday, we went to Mt. Hood Medical Center to attempt to manually turn our breech baby. The turning didn't work, but remember that part where we said there was a small risk that attempts to turn the baby may cause us to actually deliver? Well, guess what?

We are delighted to announce that our baby boy has arrived!

Name: Baby Eon¹
Weight: 6lbs 5oz
Length: 19.5 inches long
Born: August 2, 2016 at 12:24am

Mom and baby are both doing well. We'll save the rest of the story for later. But for now, enjoy this photo of our "splayed chicken", about 10 hours old. (Breech babies often look that way.)

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and "Baby Eon"

¹ Eon is what we have chosen to call the baby until we make a final decision on his real name.

31/52 - When's The Baby?

As of July 31st, we have entered week 37 of this pregnancy: officially full term. Hooray! We're still driving in to Portland every week for monitoring and ultrasounds. Baby is approximately 47% percentile overall, with an estimated weight last week around 5 lbs, 11 oz. We're in the home stretch, and everything still looks good (mostly - see August 1).

Probably the most common question that an expectant family gets is this: When is your due date? For us, that answer for us is easy: August 20, about three weeks away. But while that is the question people ask, it isn't really the question that people want answered. What they really want to know is: When will the baby arrive? That is, of course, a question that is much more difficult to answer with any certainty. But here is what we know...

Wednesday, July 27
Anders was born at 36.5 weeks, just shy of full term. If this baby had only made it that far, he would have arrived last week.

Monday, August 1
This baby is breech. The normal position for delivery is head down, and most babies naturally orient themselves that way as the delivery approaches. But ours has not. He's been hanging out hammock-style for the last two and a half months with no signs of turning on his own. On Monday, we will be trying to manually turn him, and by "we" I mean our doctor and a group of specialists, of course. There's a small risk that the attempts to turn the baby may cause us to actually deliver - but hopefully not.

Saturday, August 13th
This is when we reach 39 weeks. As a consequence of "advanced maternal age" (i.e. over 35...), our doctor recommends scheduling a delivery for some time this week.

Saturday, August 20th
40 weeks, aka due date. It is very unlikely that the pregnancy will proceed this far.


Of course, the other question that people ask is about gender. We have known the answer for some time, but here is an ultrasound photo from a recent visit just in case.

Meanwhile, we're doing the last minute planning and packing. We've made progress on choosing a name, down-selecting from the original list of ~200 down to a final 10. The newly arrived infant car seat is loaded in the car (the one we saved from when Anders was a baby had expired - doh!), and we're packing our hospital bags.

Wish us luck!

- Mike, Corinne, Anders and ??

Name The Baby: The Sequel

At 32 weeks, we're getting pretty close to the end game for this pregnancy. (If he comes when Anders did, we're only 4.5 weeks away! Yikes!) Must be time for another Name The Baby contest!

Periodically over the past several months, we have been reading through baby name books looking for boy names we like, with each of us keeping an individual list of any that appealed to us. So far, none stand out overall as obvious winners. Here is your chance to help! We got some great suggestions in the first contest 8 years ago, even after discarding all of the names suggested in the original girl's name round.

This baby hasn't had a codename so far, so we're including that as a category. (We've just been calling him little brother - boring.) It's also important that the name be equally as cool as Anders Rocket; in fact, Anders has stated that his brother should have a vehicle for a middle name, too. So Best Pairing with Anders Rocket is another category.

We'll be picking winners in the following categories:

• Most Creative (First+Middle Name)
• Most Likely To Be Used (First+Middle Name)
• Best Codename
• Best Pairing with Anders Rocket
  

In general, we tend to like less common names (at least in this country), with Scandinavian influences or space/science related names getting extra points.

30 weeks

You can submit your entries in any fashion you like: email, SMS, social media, postal service, telegram, etc. Contest is open until the baby arrives. Participants may enter as often as they like. Be creative! Be entertaining! Have fun!

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and <your entry here>

21/52 - Entering the Third Trimester

Here we are, about to enter the third trimester of Corinne's pregnancy. It's hard to believe that we're here already! Time for an update.

For a variety of reasons, we recently switched to an ob/gyn clinic in Gresham. The upshot is that when the baby is ready, we will be driving to the hospital in Gresham for the delivery, about an hour and 30 minute drive from our house. (Unless, of course, things don't go according to plan.) But it also means that we have access to more advanced equipment, including nice ultrasound monitors. Here are some of the pictures from our most recent appointment.

Face, profile

Face, portrait (aka "Voldemort")

Bicep

He's at about 26.5 weeks and is looking remarkably like a real person. Corinne is still doing well with no major issues other than some sciatica pain and a little less energy than usual, both within normal pregnancy expectations. Onward we go!

---

Meanwhile, we have another child. As we have mentioned before, Anders is a reading junkie. He had a definite preference for non-fiction over fiction, but the Magic Tree House series has helped us to strike a better balance. Out of the 54+ Magic Tree House books, he only has about 3 more that he hasn't read. They are often finished on the same day that they come home; on other days, he is reading 3 at the same time, switching between them indiscriminately. Within non-fiction, he has branched out to more than his past favorites of wildlife and vehicles. A sampling of topics from his current library books includes Greek mythology, The World Series, Pope Francis, Obama, and giant squid. When he is engrossed in a book, the house becomes pretty quiet.

On the not-so-quiet front, about a month ago he decided that he wanted to learn how to whistle. In fairly short order, he went from being able to make a very airy, barely tonal sounds to full-on whistling. It has now become a default action that he seems to do without thinking; when we're playing a game, riding in the car, or even reading to him, he is usually whistling. His two most frequently whistled tunes are Hail to the Chief and The Imperial March, sometimes with the two songs interleaved. (One or more of those songs will be useful to know come this November.)

We're pretty happy that he was able to pick it up on his own. Now, if we could just get him to put it down sometimes...

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and ??

Big Reveal

We've been working on quite a few large projects, including a new heating system and a major thinning project in our forests. But this project tops¹ them all.

Yes, that is what you think it is. This August 20th (give or take), we will be a household of 4!

This has been a long-term project for us. Back when Anders was around 2 years old, we decided we would go for our second (and final) child. A couple years after that we saw our first specialist. Then we did two rounds of in vitro fertilization in Portland. Then we did two more rounds of IVF at one of the foremost centers on the procedure in New York City. We finally had success using an egg donor, and here we are. We are excited!² (BTW, we have lots more information on the processes involved and would be happy to talk with anyone who is interested.)

Now is a good time for a Fight Club moment where we revisit situations over the last 4 months in light of new information, such as: why Corinne isn't learning skiing with us; why she is drinking masala chai instead of lattes; and that when I went to NJ for a week in January, she had to self-administer all of her IVF-related injections. Go, Corinne!

With the IVF and egg donation procedures, we conducted lots of genetic and chromosomal testing to ensure a healthy embryo. One of the outcomes of the testing is a highly reliable answer to the question of gender. We won't be surprised this time! The doctor has known the gender since before the embryo was implanted, but we weren't ready for the information at that point. So we had her write it on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. Now that we're past the first trimester, it's time to find out.

We wanted to do something fun to find out. So we took that envelope and gave it to a local baker with instructions to make cupcakes with an appropriately-colored filling: pink for a girl, blue for a boy. We picked up the cupcakes on Friday, and Saturday afternoon we sat down to take our first bite of what our future holds for us.

I know you are all anxiously awaiting the results. So, without further ado...

That's the photo we sent to our families on Saturday evening. Not nice, I know - but fun. :)

Here is the video of us finding out - for real - what's coming in August. Enjoy!

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original post

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and ???

¹ I just can't bring myself to use the word trump.
² ...although we occasionally have doubts about introducing a disturbance into a well-oiled machine.