So, we did end up taking Laylee to the ultrasound and I’m so glad we did. She was fascinated by everything, especially the part where the baby peed right “on camera” and the doctor replayed it a few times for her in slow motion.
He then said, “You know what that is?”
“Is he spitting something out?” I asked.
“Nope,” he and Dan both answered, “Wrong end.”
Oh.
Laylee thought that was hilarious. And the doctor informed us that from the pee pattern it was very obvious that my 100%-sure-it’s-a-boy baby is actually female in nature and very healthy from all outward indications.
The doctor was extremely thorough, even bruisingly so, measuring every major bone and heart valve. When I asked if he was completely totally for real for real sure it was a girl, he said, “As I said,” with such authority that I had to believe him.
I was shocked at how happy that made me. All along I’ve thought this baby was a boy. Before I was ever pregnant, I KNEW our next little guy was a little guy. I had no doubt about what his personality would look like. I was fine with a boy.
But when my sisters left earlier this month, I told Dan through my tears that a part of me wished it were a little girl. This could be our last baby and I think every girl needs to have a sister. I know that boys would likely say that every boy needs a brother but I have never been a boy so I can’t vouch for that.
My mom knew it was a girl all along. She says it’s because of a premonition she had while picking out clearance baby clothes at Kohl’s. So her shopping wisdom trumps my parental intuition and two medical professionals’ ancient Chinese gender tests. She IS a great shopper.
So yay. Any baby name ideas? We had the boy named and ready to go. But little Wanda’s got nothing in the way of an offline name. If I use the name you share with me, I promise to email and let you know.
..just athought, try Anessa, this name gets MANY compliments (i cant tell you why!! 😉 ) and it roots from Agnes, which has a beautiful meaning! 😉
Yeah for a healthy baby! Yeah for a girl! I agree that every girl needs a sister. I have 2 sisters and I’m glad my girls have each other. It helps to have a sister on speed dial to dish about “Can you believe Mom actually said this???” I have a great Mom, but you know…
Good Name ideas:
Charlotte, Eliza :-), Isabelle, Violet, Zoe 🙂
Bad Name ideas (names that I used to like before they were taken over by bad role models):
Brittany, Paris
I’m excited to hear your baby’s personality! I have three daughters, so I think it’s great for Laylee to have a sister.
As far as name ideas, http://www.nymbler.com is a fun site where you put in names you like (boys and girls) and it will tell you other names in your “naming style.” I wonder if you put in Laylee and Magoo, if Wanda comes up…
We named our daughter Alice. It’s a family name and when we picked it, I was a little worried about how it would fit or go over with people. I’ve loved it ever since. There’s one other Alice at her school and we hear it every now and then so it’s not so uncommon, but it is not at all overused so we love it.
And she’s blonde and blue eyed so when she was 4 we did Alice in Wonderland for Halloween. So cute!
Anyhow, that’s just my idea…
BTW, congrats on the girl! I know Laylee will be a great big sis and I’m sure Magoo will be a wonderful big bro!
I agree with Alice! What a timeless, feminine, versatile name! And the nickname possibilities are endless.
You mean you don’t want to name her Patience? 😉
I’m glad to hear that someone else’s maternal intuition is as spotty as mine is! If I’d been right (ever), we would have a very different family dynamic.
I’ve always been partial to Madelyn 🙂 and I also really like Chloe, Isabelle, Brianne and Avery. How fun to have another little girl! Is Laylee over the moon with happiness?! Congratulations!
PS I’ve always really liked Laylee’s non-computer name too, but you already have one of those 🙂
I just love the way you write. How you describe your mom’s shopping prediction just cracks me up.
Thanks for sharing your gift of gentle humor!
Fun Fun Fun! I love picking out baby names. Ok so my daughter is Lael (Lay-Elle) Sorry you can’t have that one! ;o)
But some of my other favorites are Kaylani (if I ever have another girl).
I also am a fan of Zoe, Autumn, Gabriella, Lily, and Ella.
Good luck and congrats again!
The picture of you and Laylee is so adorable. Congrats on the fun news. 😀
Alice has almost all the same letters as Laylee’s other moniker. My brother’s wife is having a girl, and they’re thinking of either Cecelia or Amelia. I love them both. I was going to name mine Zinnia, but then she was something else. Calvin’s choice for her was Sparkly. You could go with something vegetal like Aubergine or Courgette. They both seem like girl names, no?
Hurray for another girl!!! Congrats, I was hoping you’d post soon with the results! I’m glad things look healthy and good in there, keep up the good work 🙂
my first son was going to be Jet (he’s actually Joel), then my daughter was going to be Jette (she’s Emme Ryan), and I am mostly convinced that when we have a third it will really, finally, be Jet/Jette–it’s a dutch name and I have dutch ancestry.
just pick something that is meaningful to you and you will be happy! congrats! thanks for blogging:)
I have always loved Avery Rose. If I were to have had a baby and it was a girl it would have been Avery Rose.
I also like:
Amelia
Amanda (my great-grandmother’s name)
Ruth
Ella or Ellie
and finally
Claudette or Claudia
Melissa Anne was also a baby girl name. She was going to be my second girl
I still vote with Magoo. Lightbulb it is!!
I think you should name her Laylee…just for fun 😉 I’m so excited! Congrats!!!
Congrats on the little girl! Sisters really are a blessing.
I have always daydreamed about having a boy, so I mostly have boy names picked out.
Which makes the one girl name I have picked out extremely special: Karin.
I also like Gabrielle and Isabella, but those aren’t my first picks. They have cute nicknames, like Gabby and Bell or Izzy.
I also like Aunt Murry’s suggestion of Amelia. It’s unusual yet classy.
Good luck picking one out! 🙂
I love Mia, Lucy (my top choice for a girl but hubby won the battle and we got Leslie), Charlotte, Maggie, and Elaine 🙂
Congrats!!!
Yay for peeing babies on the ultrasound! My son would find that freakin’ hilarious. We just found out in our ultrasound last weekend, to our shock, that there are actually 2 babies, so we are trying to adjust to that reality!
Girl names that I love, but we have already picked ours (if we have a girl), so I can’t use them:
Celeste
Olivia (although very common now)
Isabella (very common now too)
Maura
Good luck choosing! Has your morning/all day sickness abated at all?
Congrats on the girl!! I’m so glad you took Laylee–that seems like such a cool bonding moment for her to have in preparation for a little sister!
And now NAMES! Names are so important. I did a whole research project on names when I was in school–a whole bunch of academic studies and linguistic research outcomes and historical process information later, I learned something really important: shockingly most parents are idiots and don’t spend use any actual brain power when it comes to naming their baby.
Now we’re expecting and I’ve been super duper anal in promising myself that we would use our BRAINS in the whole name-picking process. We’ve found two indespensible resources in our own search:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
First, the whole site it really cool, but the voyager part is my favorite. It’s a cool program based on historical data where you can type in any name letter by letter and it will show you spelling and usage/popularity trends over the last 100+ years. It’s super cool to watch the chart visually change with each letter too…definitely a new addictive internet toy. 🙂 There is also a really cool naming book that they put out with naming styles and how to construct your own unique name and sibling name suggestions and so on (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Baby-Name-Wizard/Laura-Wattenberg/e/9780767917520/?itm=1).
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
Second, being the tech nerds we are, we downloaded the Social Security Administration’s top 500 most popular names. We plopped these names into MSexcel and combined our last name with each of them to get an accurate visual effect. From there we started deleting. I got the first go-round and deleted half of them. Then the hubby got the next go-round and he deleted half of what was left–rule was I couldn’t balk at any that he deleted, since I’d gotten the first whack. Then the rest of the rounds we deleted together until we got to our top 20. In less than a week we had pretty painlessly found 20 normal names that we both completely agreed we’d be more than happy using!
From there we’ve spent our time researching our top 20 names: getting input from family and friends, bribing 6-10 year olds to use their most creative mocking skills, googling for crazed serial killers with the same names, and so on…we’re whittling down to the top 5-10 and choosing the name at the birth.
If you’re interested, I can email you a copy of the excel file that we started with…but if it sounds like to much analytical nerdy work, I totally understand if you want to pass. 🙂
Good luck! and Congrats again!
A girl! Awww.
And you know, when I had MY baby girl, I was very relieved because then my Boy wasn’t being usurped gender-wise as well as being forced into the middle kid spot. See how well we both planned that? We’re smart.
I can’t THINK of any names off the top of my head. A bunch of great suggestions will probably come to me in the middle of the night, though….
I met a centarian once named Hazel (very nice lady) and I’ve liked it ever since. And I’ve always thought that if I ever had triplet girls I would want to name them Faith, Hope, and Charity. Of course the chances of that are about 0 (thankfully 🙂 ), so I guess my kids will have to settle for normal names. Although they could work for middle names, right?
Congratulations on a healthy baby girl! We have two girls and I think girls are great. As for names, I have 2 rules that must be followed….first, any possible name must be dissected to see all the different ways it can be made fun of to limit future teasing. If you knew mine and my husbands real names, you would totally get why! ;o) The other rule is that it has to have a good feel when yelled. Not that I ever yell my children’s names or anything.
Here are some names I love and maybe they’ll inspire you to find Wanda’s real name.
Eliza
Ginny (we have redheads so that wouldn’t work for us!)
Lilly
Gracelyn
Violet
Abigail
Maggie
Leila
Ruby
Yay! Naming baby girls is fun. Good luck!
Wow! How exciting to know.
You know, I have always been SURE that my next one would be a boy, but now you’ve proven mother’s can be wrong. But why then do we feel it so strongly?? Maybe another will come? My sister in law said it took her 2 weeks to believe that the girl she’d given birth to was not a boy.
Funny!
Haha your mom is hilarious. 😀
Tristyn is a lovely name.
My daughter’s middle names are Azalea and Elloise and I’m kinda wishing I hadn’t used them for her middle names because they’re so darn cute that they would make great first names. I’ve started to notice a trend of more Loiuse names popping up but I haven’t seen any little Eloises. (or Elloise)
Some other names I used to have on my baby girl lists are:
Leander
Brielle
Helena
Caitlin
Elora
Eila
Oh, and my daughter’s first name is Matilda. While I’m not fond of the idea of that name becoming popular I’m not going to try to stop anyone from using it 🙂 Congrats that you’re having a little girl. Hope the rest of the pregnancy is smooth sailing!
Congratulations! And congrats to Laylee, too, on getting a sister. 🙂
I don’t know about names. I’m partial to traditional ones, such as Ruth, Caroline, and Joy. I really like some of the suggestions other commenters made above, such as Alice and Lucy. Those are cute. Good luck!
If we had had a girl, she would have been Genevieve or Clara. I would suggest Lynette, because I’ve always been happy with it, but I find it hard to say names when the first ends with the same sound that the last name begins with.
I love the name Caitlin. Hilarious that Laylee got to see the baby peeing. So funny.
Congrats!
I read through the list of all the baby names for the past year in our province and then chose the top 5 that were not so common, but not weird.
Although we could not come up with a girls name. As I was in labour we were still looking up names, and then out came a boy.I think he got tired of our name struggle and thankfully put an end to it. I hate picking names. I’m still trying to come up with internet names. Maybe one day…
I followed the links WarriorWife gave and I came up with some more I like:
Ellen, Naomi, Miriam, Joy, Nellie, Esther, Maryellen, Lucy, Marianne or Marion, Caroline, Charlotte, Viola, Clara, Grace, Molly, Adah, Ester, Anne, and Abigail.
Congratulations and good luck!
Erin is a good name. 😉 And Lynne (my baby girl’s name) is a winner.
I love Elizabeth (which I can’t use) and Jennifer (next on our list), Emma, Olivia or Livvy, Natalie. I could go on and on.
I was going to say Katherine, but… 🙂
Congratulations on another little girl! Laylee will LOVE having a sister. I know, I have several : )
Take Care,
Trixie
Less-traditional:
Alyssa. Sarai.
More tradtional:
Catherine. Elizabeth.
Used-to-be-traditional:
Vivian
Would-use-but-maybe-too-popular (ymmv):
Emma
I think every girl should have a sister too! I have only one daughter and it makes me a little bit sad that she may never have a sister.
I like the names Kaitlyn, Riley and Lacey for a girl. I also like the name Nora.
I’m the librarian at a school of 850 kids and I know nearly everyone’s name (a goal of mine this year). Send me a list and I’ll rule out the ones that are way too popular. 🙂
Pronunciation problematic names that immediately come to mind:
Ariana/Aryana
Briana/Brianna
Madeline/Madelyn/etc.
So, I took the don’t-name-your-baby-this route. I’m just helpful that way.
Peeing on camera?! You DID see the personality of your baby! 🙂
Congrats on another girl! I really like all the girls that I know in your family, so I think another one will be AWESOME! 🙂
I have always loved the name Indigo. I know it is different but I love it. I have a cousin named Indigo, I named my business Indigo. I just love it.
I also like:
Amelia
Claire
Anais (ahn-na-EES)
Yay for healthy babies! I’m pretty sure we’re having a boy, but as I was right-on with our first two the doctor thinks I should be wrong this time. It really doesn’t matter to me! We decided not to find out. We’re good to go with a nice masculine name, but girl names are alluding us right now too so I can’t offer you any suggestions 🙂 Although, perhaps, I should take a clue from this wonderfully exciting blog post and get a move on. Just in case.
Congratulations on a healthy girl! I am lurking here in your comments scoping out girls’ names myself. I was also SURE this next one was a boy and even two months after I was told otherwise, I’m still undecided on a name. (In my defense, this is my 4th daughter and I’ve used most of the girls’ names that I just loooved already.)
Congratulations on your little girl!
We just found out a few weeks ago that we’re having a girl too! Since we already have a little boy, and we’re not likely to have any more babies, I’m pretty happy to be getting a daughter. My husband has known we were having a girl since the HPT came back positive. “Two pink lines – must be a girl!” he announced.
I’m really enjoying reading everyone’s suggestions for girl’s names! At the top of my own list right now are the names Lillian (Lily)/Gillian/Vivian. I also like Maggie, Molly, Lucy, Elanor(Elle/Ellie), Kira, Haven, Jane and Ceili (pronounced Kaylee). But the middle name we have planned ends in an “ie” sound, so I’m leaning away from picking a first name that also ends in the same sound.
Adeline
Cecelia
Megan
Try mixing two grandma’s (or great g-mas) names
OH! You’ve no idea how overjoyed I am that that everything looks happy and healthy and well. And of course a HUGE congratulations on your little girl!
Names I like?
Charlotte (Lottie for short)
Abigail
Grace
Lucy
Claire
Caroline (I loooooove this one)
Miranda
Avery
Elizabeth
Penelope (Penny for short, and if I ever get pregnant and have a wee girl I think I might have force my husband’s hand on this one because I never tire of how beautiful it sounds)
Clementine (ditto for this one)
Trudy
Fiona
Rose
Sharon
Okay, I’m whispering this because I love, love, love this beautiful name so much that I hesitate to even write it for fear of boosting its popularity, as we intend it for our next daughter.
::whisper:: Aubrielle
A combination of Aubrey and Brielle. It’s an extremely rare name now, but I can foresee it rising in popularity because of several appealing factors: 1) it’s unusual without sounding outlandish, 2) it fits in with currently-trendy classically-feminine names, such as Emily, Isabella, Olivia, Elizabeth, etc., and 3) it positively bursts with nickname opportunities.
I actually “invented” the name myself one day several years ago when I was playing around with name combinations and was disappointed upon Googling it and finding that someone else had already come up with it!
I’m rather fond of my name and no one has put that one down. Just make sure you spell it the right way. No extraneous a’s or e’s or y’s or n’s. Joni.
My favorite girl names almost all start with E, but the ones I like that haven’t been mentioned yet (I think?) are Evelyn, Eleanor and Emmeline. I also like the name Madeleine – they’re all fairly classic names that aren’t overdone -and they have more modern nickname possibilities (Evy, Ev, Ella, Ellie, Emmy, Maddie, etc.)
Congratulations!!
Congrats on the baby girl! You know, I was 100% absolutely positive my youngest was a boy. When we went to the ultrasound and found out she was a girl, I was really upset for 4 days. Then I warmed up to the idea. How funny that God knows what we really need though! My youngest is the most amazing little girl and I can’t imagine life without her! How silly I was to be upset! 🙂
My daughter played with a little girl named Norma yesterday. And that old fashioned name on such a cute little girl was perfect. Marilou is popular in France right now, as are Margot, Lucie, Clara and Pauline.
I am not a fan of names that you look at and wonder how they are pronounced. I think that’s hard on kids when they are constantly correcting people.
Just don’t call her Reneesme, or anything like unto it. If it looks/sounds like Bella would have used it, ditch it immediately.
Naming? Check out BabyNameWizard.com (or there is a book, too) since I don’t know what Laylee and Magoo’s names are IRL. 🙂
My daughter’s name is Caroline which I absolutely love. Her middle name is Abigail which is another favorite. My top 5 before we chose Caroline were Megan, Allison, Rebecca, Lorelai, and Cathryn (but your name is Kathryn, right? so maybe not). I also love the name Lorelai.
Healthy and a girl!!!! woohoo, yay.
Go your mom’s intuitive shopping, LOL
Names – hmmmmm. We took 10 days to name our 2nd girl and in the end she got all three that we had whittled the list down to: Tamsin Briar Louise.
Her 5yrs older sister (Jessica Marie) hated it (we were in the car driving somewhere when we gave up and went for all 3) and was yelling no she’s called Amber!!!! So, be warned that Laylee probably will have some strong views on the subject…
Movie faves: Isabeau, Ella, Tiffany
Vibes for a healthy, no-more-sick, rest of the pregnancy and a stress free birth.
hugs!!
I have never been a fan of the multiple middle names thing, but I just have to say, yous is the first that my reaction is “That sounds REALLY good together!”. They really do flow so nicely. Good job!
When my family growing up had one older brother, two sisters, and a new little sister on the way, my then 5 year old sister was insisting that she be named Cinderella. Needless to say, she did not get her wish. I think my parents named us well. Heather Jean, Tawnya Jo’Lynne, Kimberly Anne. (then the two boys, but who cares about boy names in this post, right? Just because, they are Justin Matthew, and Nathan Tyler.)
My own family consists of three sons! A 5 year old, and twin 18 month olds – but our girl names are:
Amelia Jean (or perhaps Emily Jean)
Kayley Michelle
Julissa /Alyssa Joy
I also like:
Hannah Elizabeth
Sariah
Savannah
Sarah
Starla
Liberty
Liana
Matilda
Leah
Mariah
Audriana
If I had another girl I would name her Annabelle/Annabel. Can’t decide how I like it spelled, which is one of the reasons our six month old is named Elisabeth!
I also love, love, love Bettina, but couldn’t use it because our last name begins with an S.
How about Caroline? Or Jillian. Or Meredith. Or Mallory. Or Kate.
Or Francesca.
But mostly, Annabelle.
I am so excited for you! I had my 3rd girly last month and named her Stella. There can never be too many Stellas in the world so feel free to name away.
Some other favs are:
Cosette
Julia
Ava
Myla
We went with a kind of unique method for choosing our 7-week-old’s name (Gwendolyn Rhiannon). We had already decided we loved Rhiannon, but couldn’t see ourselves using that as a first name. To find a first name, we started with http://www.behindthename.com, which lets you search by origin, and looked at lists for female names from the British Isles (Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc.)
We found names we liked there, then compared them to the SSA and BabyCenter’s most popular lists. If the name was in the top 50, we threw it out. That came from my being one of 8 Jennifers in my high school graduating class, and one of 4 that went to the same elementary school. There were always at least 2 of us in the same class, and I absolutely hated it. I didn’t want to do that to my daughter.
However, as a substitute teacher, I’ve seen some of the really strange things people have done to their children name-wise, and I don’t think your child should have to constantly correct people on how to say their name.
I liked what my client’s grand daughter was named.
Neriah
LOVE THat you are having a GIRL!!!