Crossing the due date

So my due date was 4th May 2015, the day I completed 40 weeks of pregnancy. During pregnancy, I somehow ended up expecting the baby to be born before 40 weeks and I was hoping for an April baby. This made my waiting period increase by 2 weeks.

I was ready to go and deliver by 38 weeks and there were no signs or symptoms of labor. Still arent! You are frustrated and irritated by the end of the term. You just want to get it over with.

Every morning I have my friends and family checking up on me, that feels nice! People who remember and care to ask how you are holding up.

I am visiting the hospital every 2 days now. Have got 2 NSTs done. NST stands for Non Stress Test. It involves placing a monitor on the abdomen to check the fetal heart rate. A graph gets plotted of the heart rate - when the baby is at rest and when moving around. So the NSTs have been fine and I am told to wait for labor signs.

Baby seems to be loving being in the womb.....for now...waiting!

Baby Names

Naming your baby is difficult. Very. You do not want to end up naming your child something which they do not like / appreciate / or downright hate. After all it is going to be their identity for the rest of their lives. There are so many names or different origins, different meanings that you feel it would be easy to find one which you like. Sorry to disappoint - Not true! You will end up having a feeling that there are no nice names left in the world and your child will be left nameless!

When I was in college (which was a decade back) I had a list of names I liked. If I came across any new interesting name, I simply added it to that list in my diary. I went and looked back at it - oops! All filmi and typical names were on that list. So I had to toss it away and start afresh. There are innumerable sites for searching baby names, some specific to the origin as well.

The criteria for a baby name has changed over time. It should be easy, unique (totally hatke), with a good meaning and if you are Indian, the name should also be easy to call out in western countries. the name should also be easy to call out and sound well with the middle and last name. I had similar criteria in mind. However, the more hatke name you choose, probability is that it would have become common in the age group of 0-5. Also, you are not the only one choosing the name - your spouse has an equal say in it. To come to an agreement is difficult.

Since in India we do not know the gender, we have more work to do in this department. Find names for both genders. From personal experience, I can tell you that there are nice names  My friends expected me to have the name finalized in the first month itself. Here I am, past the due date, yet to finalise the name! I just have shortlisted 5 names for each - boy and girl!

Lets see which name we end up naming our baby with!