Hi Baby,
Well, we made it to the second trimester. I am now 13 weeks pregnant with you. What a relief! The chances of me losing you at this point are low. It was a bit scary hearing so many people’s stories of miscarriage during their first trimester. Now you are three inches long and have developed all your vital organs. I got to hear your heartbeat again on Friday. 164 beats per minute. A couple weeks ago your dad snuck home a heartbeat monitor just so we could check. On that day your heart was beating really fast – 180 beats per minute! The OB nurse says that’s normal this early on.
Since it appears we are in the clear, we are telling more people about you this week. I went to see the movie Breaking Dawn with a couple friends, Monique Fernando, Tracey Greenland, and Alicia Arthur on Monday. They were all happy to hear the news and had lots of questions. They wondered if I am going to find out ahead of time if you are a boy or girl, what your name will be, what pregnancy symptoms I’m having and so on. I do not want to know if you will be a boy or girl. I’m just excited to be having you!
Speaking of Breaking Dawn, if you are a boy, I really like the name Cullen, but know that it has nothing to do with the Twilight series! The reason we chose that name is because a month before your Grandpa Crain died, Steven and I visited a part of New York that was settled by my family named “Cullen” or “Cullenwood”. It is a crossroads out in the country which used to be owned by Col. William Cullen Crain, one of your ancestors. There’s a church there called Crain Memorial Church and a private cemetery with many of your ancestors from the 1700s and 1800s, including the woman I was named after – Perses Narina Tunnicliff. She was married to William Cullen Crain. We learned a lot about your family history there and talked about it with my dad shortly before his death. We loved the name Cullen at the time and decided then that if we had a boy some day we would name him Cullen.
So if you are a girl I am sorry to have wasted your time with that story. I am sure your middle name will be Elizabeth and there is a story to that too. Your middle name Elizabeth comes from many important women. One is your Aunt Betsy, whose real name is Elizabeth. Another is your great grandma Elizabeth Wickes Crain, my dad’s mom. Also, your namesake is in honor of queen Elizabeth I, the first woman to lead England to freedom and defense from attacks, as well as sparking a renaissance in which artists and scientists made many breakthroughs which are still famous today. She was a courageous, wise, noble person who led her country to greatness. I expect the same from you. Just kidding! You don’t have to rule a country.
I already love you and know that you will do great things. I am so looking forward to seeing you open your eyes and smile and laugh and start developing into a person. I have been reading about your development and looking at drawings of what you look like each week to get an idea of who you are now. I can’t wait to meet you in person, but for now I am trying to keep you safe and surround you with love.
narinaschulz 