35 Weeks...and counting

This picture was actually taken on Valentines Day, but I saved it for today because today I am 35 weeks pregnant! And just like the title says I'm counting down. I know I shouldn't be counting down already, it's just going to make the last few weeks take FOREVER, but I can't help it. As you can see, I'm huge. It makes doing everyday things pretty difficult, breathing, sleeping, eating, tying my shoes, changing Lincoln's diaper, sitting in the car for long periods of time, you name it. So that's why I'm counting down. I keep asking Aaron questions like "Hey Aaron, after Lincoln was born I had energy again right?" and "Aaron, after I had Lincoln, I started feeling like cooking dinner again, right?" I guess it's been so long since I was normal (whatever that is haha!) that I'm afraid I won't ever be again. But really I shouldn't complain because the pregnancy is going well, and I am healthy (except for the stuffy nose I've had non-stop for eight months!) and the baby is healthy, so that's good. I don't want him to come prematurely, but after he's full term, bring it on!

Moving on to more exciting topics than the woes of pregnancy... the baby's name! I was going to wait a week to let everyone guess the letters, but the suspense was killing me. Haha! Plus, my mom already guessed it (which she did with a lot of help from Suzy's guesses, so good job Suzy!) so I might as well say so. We have decided to name Shark Bait Ivan Erastus Swan. So far no one but us is really thrilled about that name, but that's ok because Aaron and I are in love with it, and that's all that matters. But let me explain why we picked it.

Ivan is Russian and means God is gracious. Ivan is a name I have always liked. It was on my list of names to name my kids before I ever met Aaron. I like it because it's not a common name, but when you see it on a piece of paper you can pronounce it just fine, and most people can spell it first try. Aaron really likes names with strong sounds like "n" "v" "c" "x" etc. And for our boys we wanted to pick strong sounding names. Ivan is perfect. It sounds good yelled at a baseball game, "C'mon Ivan, hit the ball!" And it also sounds good as a general authority, "Ivan E. Swan of the seventy will be our concluding speaker." :) It sounds like the name of someone who could look you in the eye and give you a firm handshake. I like that. Plus, it was one of the few first names Aaron and I agreed on.

Erastus is Greek and means Loved. Since Aaron is taking a Family History class this semester, we have been working a lot on our family history, and are both getting really into it. We thought it would be really cool if we could find a middle name from our family history. As it turns out, Aaron's dad's grandfather's name is Charles Erastus Swan. After we had picked out Ivan, we tried out a lot of other family names as the middle name, but nothing felt like it flowed really well. Aaron was the one to suggest Erastus, and I immediately liked the sound of it, not to mention the fact that it's not your typical middle name. So we looked it up and discovered it meant Loved. We also happen to really like names that have a cool meaning (as opposed to the ones that are like "from the grassy hill" or whatever). We tried it out, checked the initials to make sure they didn't spell anything awkward, and pretty much fell in love with it. And that is how Ivan Erastus Swan came to be the name we chose.

Maybe once the little guy is born and is absolutely adorable the name will grow on everyone as much as it's grown on us. We hope so. And mostly we hope that he likes it and feels like it's a name he can be proud of.