What's in a name?

When we were expecting both our girls we knew what their names would be pretty early on. We always liked the way Isabella sounded and how it would remain the same no matter which language we pronounced it in. We come from 3 different backgrounds, Italian, Greek and Belgian and English is our main language at home, so we knew it had to be a name that could be easily translated into many languages. With Francesca, I just loved the name and for some reason it seemed as if she was telling me she was called Francesca. I knew she was Francesca before I even knew she was a girl.

Now with a boy, we are having a difficult time figuring out what to call him. We always had difficulty figuring out boys names but we always like Gabriel but now we really have to come up with one name it is proving to be so difficult. Gabriel changes into Gabriele in Italian and other names in all our other languages and on top of it one of my dad's cousins is Gabriele and they don't get along and as a result they have ruined the name for me. One name that sticks out at the moment is Ruben, I don't even know why or how but it does sound like it could be 'the one. It would stay the same no matter the language and I just love the sound of it. One small problem is that D does not love it as much. I completely respect his decision and of course it has to be a name we both love. With Isabella he was really set on Sofia, he liked the sound of it and the name generally but he respected the fact that I didn't love it. I liked it but I didn't love it. Then he suggested Isabella and it instantly felt right. We both loved it. So I think of Ruben as the male version of Sofia. 

As a result we have been searching and keeping our ears peeled in case the right name is called out or spoken. So far no luck. D has suggested a few namely Eden, Valentino and I like Paolo. They are all excellent names but none of them have taken my fancy as much Ruben has.  So we keep looking and hoping to hear his name... hopefully before or shortly after he is born.

Little miracle

I am pregnant. My baby is perfect, no health concerns, just a healthy baby boy. Baby is due 15 days after Bella's birthday, so October is proving to be our lucky month. Not only we met in October 14 years ago, then our daughter was born in October and now our son could be born in October. 

It took me a long long time to grieve and process the loss of Francesca in 2012. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss her, that I don't think of how our life could be like with her in it. I went through some dark dark moments but made it through. What really helped me was acupuncture especially to regulate the hormonal imbalance left after the loss and the anxiety and panic attacks. I never felt such peace and calm after a session of acupuncture. The first time I was hooked. My doctor was very direct but very good and she knew exactly when to stop. 4 months after stopping my sessions I got pregnant, naturally so. 

We did genetic testing to see if we are carriers of chromosomal abnormalities which we are not. After that we thought of trying again naturally seeing it happened before. It did. We conceived the baby just before Valentines day. I knew I was pregnant. I kept it quiet for 2 whole days, waiting for the test results to come back for my blood work. I didn't want to tell D and then it being a false positive. All very unlike me. I made him a lovely video which at the end said he was going to be a daddy again... He was floored and so so happy. 

We waited to tell everyone until we got the all clear at the 13 weeks much dreaded nt scan. Everything was absolutely clear. Everything was perfectly fine. Baby was healthy, normal Nuchal translucency, bowls were inside his body, he had a nasal bone and his heart was perfectly formed. We were in tears, we brought our daughter along, even though we didn't want to it ended up being that's way. She was super excited to have a little baby in our house. That night we told everyone, we shouted to it to the world. We could not contain ourselves.. We were and are so happy. We know how blessed we are. Life is good, actually life is Bloody Great! I haven't blogged in years... I have missed it.