The Inspiration Behind the Name

I'll admit, I've been trying to think of a title for days, but nothing was coming to me. And I mean nothing. Until today (10/26)...today is the day we found out our baby is a baby girl! We are first and foremost excited beyond belief to hear that the baby is healthy and includes everything she should. The technician did a head to toe scan of every essential part, including the different parts of the brain, the upper lip (to check for cleft palate/lip), the stomach/liver/kidneys/bladder, the spine, the arms and hands (5 fingers on each!), and the legs (which are long!) and feet. Everything checked out great. The technician gave us both a scare during her loooong pause while looking at the kidneys. Every kidney problem imaginable came to mind during this long pause, which pretty much included, my baby doesn't have kidneys. But, finally she said "and there are the 2 healthy kidneys!" Phew! Last on the list was to check for the gender. When she first saw what she needed to see, she gave the technical name for the parts she saw, and I was so nervous that the name sounded so foreign to me, and I kept trying to figure out whether Justin or I had the necessary part. Then she announced, "It's a girl!" (thank you for the clarification, why couldn't you have started with that!) She described again what she was seeing, and I followed up with, "so are you pretty sure, definitely sure…just how sure are you?" She explained that they are only allowed to say "80% sure", and she said (in a definitive voice) "and I'm 80% sure." I took that to mean, she was as sure as it comes.

Justin and I were both shocked to hear the news. I've been thinking boy. Often I have accidentally called the baby a "him" but never accidentally called the baby a "her". Everybody else, and I mean everybody, thought I was having a girl.. that is, except for the nurse from my appointment 2 weeks ago. I told Justin going into the appointment that I wasn't interested in hearing a nurse's guess about what the baby is simply based on the heart rate. I wanted to know “for sure” (or as sure as they could be, which again is 80% sure) what the gender is. Without asking or any prompting, the nurse proclaimed she thought the baby was a boy because the heart rate was slow and steady. She went on to explain that girls are more anxious than boys, and therefore have a faster heart rate. I wasn't going to put much into her prediction until she proclaimed she had a 90% accuracy rate, but that the doctors will tell you she's 50-50. Well that clears things up...not. So we left that appointment thinking there is a good chance the baby is a boy. However, apparently I should have listened to all my friends and family, as indeed we are having a girl. And, we could not be more excited!!!

Sooooo, back to the name of the blog. My fabulous friends that I met in rm 219 at work have nicknamed me Doodle. This actually came from 2 of the 3 knowing/having cats named Abby. One of them had heard her brother call his cat "Abby-Dabby-Doodle!" so many times that it rang in her head when she said my name. Eventually it was shortened to Doodle. Personally, I love the nickname. It's 100% fun. This nickname has of course transferred to the baby, being nicknamed Baby Doodle, and today was the day we were going to find out if the baby was Mr. Baby Doodle or Miss Baby Doodle. SO, when I emailed my friends to give them the details on how the day went, I signed it, Doodle and Little Miss Doodle. L.M. emailed me back saying "Little Miss Doodle might be the cutest thing ever." And I have to agree. Cutest. Thing. Ever. Hence, littlemissdoodle.blogspot.com.