nursery,  pregnancy,  strangers

Bonus Symptoms, Categories, & the Name!

Pregnancy 101: Symptoms

There are so many things people don’t tell you about being pregnant. Sure, you hear about cravings and back aches, but I guarantee you haven’t heard of the million little ways carrying a baby blows up your body. Brenna the Schartz came to visit one day and we attempted to compile a list of random stuff that I want to document for future reference, if for no other reason than to laugh. If this were a “women’s only” channel, it would be much more exciting, but you can just ask me for the juicy details in person.

  • General lack of oxygen
  • Overall discomfort while sitting, standing, or laying down
  • Unforeseen hiccups and/or burps in the middle of conversation
  • Belly button taking on ghastly shapes
  • Side cramps
  • Nasal passage blockage
  • Motor skills vanishing completely
  • “Dropsies” – fingers and hands failing to hold anything for more than 2 seconds without dropping it
  • Itchiness in odd places
  • Freakishly weird, very detailed dreams
  • Failure to sleep normally
  • Hysterical outbursts at inopportune or ridiculous times (i.e. eating inside Joe T’s instead of on the patio)
  • Burning balls of fire in the throat and chest area (also referred to as heartburn)
  • Inability to form or finish a basic senten
People say the darndest things

Remember that show with Bill Cosby? I don’t know why we stop at kids. Adults say some darndesque things, too. Any time there is a major event (marriage, pregnancy, death, sickness…life in general), people feel the need to bestow wisdom, offer suggestions, etc.

I had a conversation with someone recently whose child had medical issues a while back. In order to deal with the weird comments people made to their family, they came up with categories of comments for comic relief. It was brilliant. We’ve started coming up with categories for our pregnancy so far. I’m sure we’ll have plenty to add once baby B is actually here. Until then, here are a few:

The Long-lost Relative
This is my favorite category. I’d imagine that getting pregnant is a lot like winning the lottery; all of the sudden, dozens of “family members” come out of the woodwork. Conversations of this nature often begin at church, with sweet old ladies who talk in the third person: “Ohhh I just can’t wait for this baby to meet his/her Auntie Sue!!!” It’s not really PC to retort with, “Ma’am, I really appreciate your passion for babies, but I’ve honestly never seen you in my life. You will not be my child’s aunt.”

The Weatherperson
This one is understandable (and even acceptable). Since we first found out in November that baby B would be born at the very end of August, people have always commented on precisely how hot I will be during the Texas summer. I have had 6 months of mental preparation for just how miserable I will be in the coming months. If you need me, I will be spending all of my time in a kiddie pool filled with ice in my front yard.

There is one off-shoot of the Weatherperson species that is less-than acceptable: the type that tells me how she had her baby in early June, that it was a record-high summer, and that she thought she was going to die of heat exhaustion. Not encouraging. Not encouraging at all.

The “Good luck”er
Certainly the worst category. It is probably best explained with a story.

Immediately after the gender sonogram, Taylor and I had to meet with the health benefits coordinator. We walk to her office straight from finding out we were having a boy, so we still have mega-grins plastered on our faces while we sit and try to focus. She asks what we’re having, we tell her a boy, and she says, “Oh, well good luck with that. If I’d had my boy first, there’s no way I would have had other kids.” Seriously?

Let’s all vow two things:
1. Don’t react violently once you’ve heard the gender of someone’s baby. Even if your boy is a punk or your girl is a diva, keep it to yourself.
2. Don’t react violently once you’ve heard the final chosen name for someone’s baby.

What a great segue…

Name & Nursery

I have had a girl’s name picked out since about week 2. Boy names have been much harder for Taylor and I. For some reason, we have severely failed to agree. I wanted something different to combat my experience with what seemed like 16 Sarah’s in my class in elementary school, he wanted something traditional so people wouldn’t gawk or mispronounce his name easily. How can you compromise when one person wants “Wolfgang” and the other wants “Donald”? (Neither of those was in the running…just to clarify)

Alas, after 2 books of names, several rounds of eliminations, and final cumulative averaging, we have decided on a name:

Wilson Beckett Brooks

He’ll go by Beckett (…Wilson is a Brooks’ family name). Beckett Brooks. I know you love it – you don’t even have to tell me. I can see it in your eyes as you read this.

We also picked out bedding:And a color scheme:

Don’t let the bedding fool you – I am not collecting owls. Apparently your 3 options for nursery themes are ridiculously expensive custom bedding, creepy jungle themes with lions playing basketball, or “modern” which tends to only be in the owl-variety. I think it’ll be super cute though.

I’m secretly hoping that the owls on his crib bedding will instill wisdom in him by osmosis. I do not hope they instill in him the ability to stay up all night, turn his head completely around, or ask, “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” Just the wisdom part would be fine.

Because I have 3 months of free time on my hands, I’m up for some creative genius in his nursery. I have some furniture I want to paint, but I need ideas for the walls, art, etc. Any ideas? Seen anything so super cute that would match well? Do tell.

5 Comments

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    Rebecca Gibbs @ gibbgabb

    love this post, Sarah. Hiiilarious. LOVE LOVE his name! Ok… so the owl/tree bedding made me think of something we did for Whitney Kettren/Sheets’ baby shower…I’m going to try to describe it clearly…Someone got a medium canvas and painted the top half light blue/bottom half light green, then painted a big tree that matched the bedding (without the leaves). Different color scrapbook papers that matched the bedding were cut out into the shape of leaves and at the shower, one word blessings were written on each leaf (ie…laughter, joy, love,etc…) then each person would glue their leaf on the tree until it was full of blessings and voila….ahdorable artwork for sweet mister beckett. Hope you’re enjoying this cool weather…cause you’re gonna be miserable this summer…haha… jk

  • Avatar

    The Mundies

    Someone I know had a mural of a tree painted on one of the walls of the nursery, and then they hung family pictures from the branches… it turned out really cute! Just an idea… and I love the name!

  • Avatar

    Kelly Mann

    Sarah! LOVE the name! Seriously, it’s perfectly unique!! Great job! I don’t have anything great and unique in mind for you, I know… sorry! BUT I’ll definitely keep my eye out if I think of or see anything!

  • Avatar

    Sarah Brooks

    Ooooo good ideas!! Sounds like the some sort of tree is a good way to go. Now…which of you wants to come help? All? Great.

    And Kelly – I’ll be expecting a genius idea from you soon, ma’am.

  • Avatar

    brenna

    Inability to form or finish a basic senten

    can’t lie.. that got me good. I miss you and your clever wit.

    anyway, good luck with this heat. Cant wait to be auntie to little bracket… i mean beckett (too far? i was trying to cover all my bases)
    love you!
    p.s. i’m moving back to fw. most likely keller.

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