Name That Baby!

OK--the moment all you readers have been waiting for...the opportunity to submit your favorite name for our Great Expectation.

Sharon is 25 and a half weeks pregnant, and we have no idea what the new little one (who will hopefully not be here for another 12-14 weeks or so) will be called. Last time around in that we were able to finalize the girls' names by about 21 weeks or so, but this time, no sudden inspiration has hit us, and so we are still calling her 'the baby who has no name.'

What we do know about her is that she is running great, size-wise. At the anatomy scan on Monday (25 weeks, 2 days), the baby was about 799 grams (1 lb. 10 ounces), and was just about true-to-her-gestational-age in all ways, except that her humerus is really long (she's going to have monkey arms like Hallie and consequently, like her big sister, will be grabbing at stuff on the table that she shouldn't have. Great.)

Sharon's cervix has also been virtually unchanged over the past 6 weeks, and is about 33 mm long, and there's no funneling, no contractions, no nothing. We hope this remains the case for a long period to come, but meanwhile are quite grateful that things are going as smoothly as they are and for every passing day. Of course, we are still very much aware that we are in that window where an extra 24 hours of stability counts and will be for some time.

OK--so back to naming. What are the parameters? First, it has to go with "Eble-Schrader," which is the baby's rather long last name. Second, it should not "match" Hallie's -- in other words, we're not looking for "Callie" and "Sallie" and "Molly" and "Milly" and the like. I already accidentally call Hallie "Bailey" (our old dog's name) and we don't want to add to the confusion! Third, it cannot be Sarah, Megan, or Hannah since these are Hallie's cousins' names. (Funny aside: Hallie's cousin Hannah recently voted for the name Emma, loudly declaiming that "I love the name Enema!" I think Emma is a lovely name, although quite common, but I'm pretty sure "Enema" is out!)

Otherwise, the field is wide open (part of the problem). We both like classic names and ones that are SLIGHTLY off-beat. Gender-neutral names are fine, though we haven't found one we love. We don't particularly want the new baby to have the same name as every other kid on the block, so we've got a slight bias against the top ten (obviously, we're flexible about this: Olivia was number two when we chose it and that didn't stop us last time). Anyway, that's pretty much it. So let us know what you think, and give us a middle name if you have one, too, since we have none of those either!

I can't wait to see what you come up with....so, like they say in Chicago, vote early and vote often.