Friday, November 14, 2008

The Girls


Thank you for all your congrats! I had to laugh about the name suggestions that have been slowly coming in. Marina, Asia, Laken Joy, Seas.... but here's some you've forgotten! Pacifika, Brooke, River, Moana (ocean in Maori), Wave, and Aqua.

Well, this isn't an invitation for names, but I know I've started something now. Knock yourselves out. I don't think we're going the matching name route. I was never one for matched names. Ooh! It just occurred to me I might get to do matching girls outfits next year! Ok, *slapping hand* I hated it, but maybe the girls will love it! <---- That's the first time I've referred to them as the girls. SO CUTE! Reminds me of my... ENTIRE ... life with two sisters!

I have been noticing a trend lately where parents share the sex of their child, but not the name, until it's born. I like this! With Oceana we didn't have any patience. We promised we wouldn't say we were pregnant and all of 2 minutes later were blabbing it around. Same with the name, but with her name we didn't even try not to tell. I never considered keeping Joshua's name a secret. We hadn't planned to know his sex, but when I realized something was wrong, I knew I couldn't ask people to pray for 'the baby with a problem'. I needed to know if he was he or she, and wanted to talk about him as though he was already here.

But this time, I think I'll be keeping the name a secret. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - as Matt keeps telling me, we have 21 weeks left to decide(he always tells me exactly how many weeks, no fudging over and saying "20" or "a few months". Nope, he's counting every day. *I like fudging those dates over* - "I'm nearly 20 weeks", "I'm almost 5 months", etc. Don't tell me you didn't do it too!

Or we could be like friends of my parents who were having trouble naming their son. Dad had heard a few options when he went to visit (they were already home from the hospital). Three weeks later they had him dedicated at church where my dad was the pastor. He turned to them and said, "And the baby's name is.......Evander?" They looked at each other, shrugged, and nodded. Dad thinks to this day he actually named the poor boy. He'd been the boy or the baby for three weeks! No, okay, I won't be that bad!

******

In other news. Thanks for checking up on Oceana's appointment. Basically - I was right. There is something wrong, but it's not major and it's not something that would need to be corrected anyways.

Her right femur rotates in a bit more than it should, so when she runs her foot turns in from the momentum of running. I guess this is pigeon-toed, but the doctor never called it that. He kept saying femural rotation blah blah blah. I didn't ask him to write it down, as much as I'd love to be googling it. Basically, instead of her feet turning out into a basic 1st position (ballet), they don't make it. Instead they rotate in and over one another in a complete inverted 1st position. (Her feet cross over one another in the middle). We had noticed this, but didn't put it together with her foot turning in.

She's had an x-ray and will go back in a year to make sure she's growing out of it. He said she may grow out of it complety, or she may not - but that it wasn't something that needed corrective measures. Her pelvis is growing fine (no deformities) so it's only that her femurs turned themselves in a bit when she was growing in-utero.

As we have been saying right along, it's not something that stops her from doing anything. She still does everything. She just might have a an uphill fight doing technical ballet.

I'm not worried. The doctor's not worried. No biggie. :)

Oh, if you notice your child doing this, it's not because they walked early (Oceana did), but they shouldn't sit on their knees because this encourages the rotation more (Oceana does this ALL the time). We're really having to stay on her to not sit that way.



10 comments:

  1. I'm pretty amazed @ the info on Oceana. My Hanae does similar & yes, she was an early walker (you said that didn't matter but) & she also used to sit on her knees! Gotta love military drs who won't tell a mom anything.

    The name thing cracked me up! The only girls names I could ever come up w/ we used. Oh, though I love the name Katherine but Hanae was Hanae.

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  2. I wish we had kept our name a secret until after she was born. I got really sick of everyone's 2 cents being added. It's much more difficult to criticize a name after the baby has been born and it's official.

    As far as matching names go- we recently met a family that have 3 little girls and one on the way. Their names are Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine and the new baby will be Belle. All Disney Princess! That should be interesting as they get older, lol.

    I've never heard that sitting on your knees can cause any problems. My boys do this all the time too. I'll have to put a stop to that...

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  3. Well, if it makes you feel any better, my husband is pigeon-toed, and he is one of the best ice/inline skaters I've ever seen, and he's a really fast runner...our 3 year old is slightly pigeon-toed, too, and she's the most coordinated out of all 5 of our kids. None of the other kids are pigeon-toed. Coincidence? I think not.

    I was cracking up at all the names...and as for dressing the girls alike - my two oldest loved it when they were 4 & 5, hated it by the time they were 9 & 10, and now at 10 & 11 they do it all on their own. LOL

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  4. Just thought I'd throw in the spelling (at least the American version): Femoral rotation (either internal or external). Sounds like Oceana has internal femoral rotation.

    I had our daughter evaluated by the GP and then by a physical therapist for her toe-walking and being pigeon-toed when she was four. Both said she'd grow out of it. She's five+ and doing a little better. She seems to run and play around just fine. She has a very bouncy walk, though. She seems to "prance".

    Praying for you and your growing babe in the womb!

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  5. I'm so glad Oceana's legs are fine!! I worried about my 4 year old's legs because they were bowed & he outgrew it..I hope she does, too!! I use "the boys" all the time because that's all I have but my sister & I were "the girls" growing up, too! Sisters are wonderful! My sis & I are still very close! I hope you have a wonderful weekend & congrats again!!
    Emily in Mississippi

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  6. I work with kids who get physical therapy all the time and the therapists HATE hate hate when kids "W sit" (bottom on the floor, feet splayed out on either side of the bottom, knees touching the floor, like a W, like you said) so I'm overly obsessive about my son NOT doing it. it also weakens their hips and ligaments which can let their legs rotate too much. glad they don't think it's anything too big, but they do have "twister cables" (a belt around the waist attached to a cable and a cuff around the leg) to keep the leg straight that a child can wear for a little while to straighten things out...just FYI. sorry i'm in child development and way overly involved! my poor child gets "tested" by me all the time at home! so glad things are going so well with your family, congrats on the new baby girl coming soon!

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  7. "The Girls"...that sounds so wonderful! And not only is Oceana the big sister, Joshua is the big brother!!! I'm sure he will be very protective of his little sister.

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  8. Okay.Im home. And your having another girl!! I was wrong but I'll get over it .lol. Thats so exciting!! And I have a name suggestion.lol. Addison Eleana... That was my girl name that I doubt will ever get used.lol. Congrats and Im glad that you have some answers about Oceanas legs...now the fighting starts trying to get her to stop sitting on her knees! good luck!

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  9. My feet did that also when I was smaller. My parents would put my shoes on the wrong feet and that slowly straighten them out. Just a thought.

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  10. I know nothing about this, so I've no idea if when the doctor says femural rotation whether it's a bone thing and the two ends of the bone are slightly rotated to where they should be, or muscular, where her muscles are slightly imbalanced and pull it round - if it were the 2nd, ballet may well help her, early on they only seem to expect the kids to try and stand in the right position and with not very much turn out, because it is something that develops with strength, not just how our bodies were made. Even if it's the bone, I wouldn't be surprised if doing ballet encouraged growth in the right direction, just as sitting on her knees is discouraging it. Not that doing ballet right now would make much difference, all the classes we've looked at seem to focus a lot more on movement and musicality and it's only when they are about 5 or even 6 that they start doing more ballet looking exercises.

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