Her Name Is...
We have never really known what we'd like to name our kids before we found our their sex. For me, I know I didn't want to get set on a name and not be able to use it due to the child being the opposite sex. Nevertheless, immediately after knowing if we were having a boy or a girl, I wanted to assign that baby a name so I could start calling him or her by that name. It was no different this time. Once we found out that baby #3 was a girl, I wanted to know her name. With James, we were in the third trimester before we could decide. Luke was earlier. But with this girl, Ray and I sat down, looked at family names, talked about lots of names one evening, and decided by the time I was about 20 weeks.
With the previous names, I wanted most if not all of these qualities in a name:
- Biblical name
- Family name
- East to spell
- Easy for anyone to pronounce
- Common, but not popular
- Child is called by their given name (no middle names / nicknames)
There are not near as many biblical female names as male ones. So I knew early on in my quest for a girl name that I might not have that quality. As far as a family name, I have always wanted to honor my mom by using her name (Cathy James), but there are so many variations of Catherine/Kathryn that I didn't want to go down that road... And obviously, James is named after her. So when Ray called his grandmother to tell her the news that we were having a girl, the first girl on the Bower side in 56 years, we asked her about names. She said that she had a sister, Anne. And Ray's great-great grandmother was Anna. I suddenly thought, I kinda like those names! So we played around with it. I liked a lot of A and E names. I liked Ava, Elizabeth, and Eliza, so Anne and Anna were very much in line with what I liked. As we thought more about it, Ray and I both decided that we really liked Anna. It's a biblical name, it's a family name, it's easy to spell, it's easy for anyone one to pronounce, it's common but not popular, and we will call her by her name. So now all we had to do was decide on a middle name. My middle name is Lee and I've always loved it. I'm named after my grandmother, my mom's mom. And Ray's grandma Bower's middle name is Lee too. So - all that said, we decided that her name is:
Anna Lee Bower
Anna means grace and it is from a Hebrew origin as a variation of Hannah. Anna is a prophetess in the New Testament and she recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Other current characters with the name Anna are in the TV series Downton Abbey and the Disney movie Frozen - And I like the characters in those movies - it didn't hurt the name for me!
These days James loves hugging and kissing my belly and calling her Baby Anna. He knows he needs to be gentle with me because Anna's inside. When I was away from him for a whole day, he came home and said "I missed baby Anna! I need to hug and kiss her." And I asked him if he missed mama and dada and he just responded, "No, I just missed baby Anna." He's almost always willing to give her affection - even if he's not in the mood for me.
How's pregnancy these days? I'm doing very well overall. I'm 25 weeks today. 3 1/2 more months to go! Of course I'm getting bigger - she's growing about 6 ounces a week these days (let's hope it's just 6 ounces and not more!) - but I'm not uncomfortable yet. I've been wearing maternity jeans since the first trimester, but I have yet to pull out most of my maternity shirts... I think I'm just lazy. So far I've gained about 12 pounds this pregnancy. The weight has been coming on much faster since I hit the halfway point. I'm eating clean, healthy foods. The biggest challenge is making sure I'm not eating too much because I am very hungry. Of course I'd love some dessert - chocolate cake, peanut butter pie, a hot brownie with vanilla ice cream and fudge, a hot apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm... My cravings are intense. But I'm not giving in because I want to be in the best shape possible to deliver a (*hopefully much smaller*) healthy baby. I exercise almost daily. If I don't go to the gym, I do a 50 minute walk with lots of squats and lunges along the way. I'm so thankful for the gym where my kids love to play and for kids who are content to be in a stroller for an hour while I walk - It makes exercising fun and enjoyable for everyone.
With the previous names, I wanted most if not all of these qualities in a name:
- Biblical name
- Family name
- East to spell
- Easy for anyone to pronounce
- Common, but not popular
- Child is called by their given name (no middle names / nicknames)
There are not near as many biblical female names as male ones. So I knew early on in my quest for a girl name that I might not have that quality. As far as a family name, I have always wanted to honor my mom by using her name (Cathy James), but there are so many variations of Catherine/Kathryn that I didn't want to go down that road... And obviously, James is named after her. So when Ray called his grandmother to tell her the news that we were having a girl, the first girl on the Bower side in 56 years, we asked her about names. She said that she had a sister, Anne. And Ray's great-great grandmother was Anna. I suddenly thought, I kinda like those names! So we played around with it. I liked a lot of A and E names. I liked Ava, Elizabeth, and Eliza, so Anne and Anna were very much in line with what I liked. As we thought more about it, Ray and I both decided that we really liked Anna. It's a biblical name, it's a family name, it's easy to spell, it's easy for anyone one to pronounce, it's common but not popular, and we will call her by her name. So now all we had to do was decide on a middle name. My middle name is Lee and I've always loved it. I'm named after my grandmother, my mom's mom. And Ray's grandma Bower's middle name is Lee too. So - all that said, we decided that her name is:
Anna Lee Bower
Anna means grace and it is from a Hebrew origin as a variation of Hannah. Anna is a prophetess in the New Testament and she recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Other current characters with the name Anna are in the TV series Downton Abbey and the Disney movie Frozen - And I like the characters in those movies - it didn't hurt the name for me!
These days James loves hugging and kissing my belly and calling her Baby Anna. He knows he needs to be gentle with me because Anna's inside. When I was away from him for a whole day, he came home and said "I missed baby Anna! I need to hug and kiss her." And I asked him if he missed mama and dada and he just responded, "No, I just missed baby Anna." He's almost always willing to give her affection - even if he's not in the mood for me.
How's pregnancy these days? I'm doing very well overall. I'm 25 weeks today. 3 1/2 more months to go! Of course I'm getting bigger - she's growing about 6 ounces a week these days (let's hope it's just 6 ounces and not more!) - but I'm not uncomfortable yet. I've been wearing maternity jeans since the first trimester, but I have yet to pull out most of my maternity shirts... I think I'm just lazy. So far I've gained about 12 pounds this pregnancy. The weight has been coming on much faster since I hit the halfway point. I'm eating clean, healthy foods. The biggest challenge is making sure I'm not eating too much because I am very hungry. Of course I'd love some dessert - chocolate cake, peanut butter pie, a hot brownie with vanilla ice cream and fudge, a hot apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm... My cravings are intense. But I'm not giving in because I want to be in the best shape possible to deliver a (*hopefully much smaller*) healthy baby. I exercise almost daily. If I don't go to the gym, I do a 50 minute walk with lots of squats and lunges along the way. I'm so thankful for the gym where my kids love to play and for kids who are content to be in a stroller for an hour while I walk - It makes exercising fun and enjoyable for everyone.
So that's about it! We are in the middle of redoing our bathrooms just to get it done before Anna arrives. Ray and his dad are working on it on the weekends. We transitioned James to a toddler bed over the weekend and he's doing well. I wanted to get that out of the way before she arrived too. Right now everything is pretty sweet and I'm enjoying the second trimester bliss. I have enough energy to cook, clean, and play with my kids. Life is good. I hope I feel this way for 3 1/2 more months!
And here's a belly shot at 25 weeks... Apparently my uterus is the size of a soccer ball this week. I can see it...
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