About a week and a half ago, Jeremy and I found out that we are expecting another little GIRL!! I went to my 17 week appointment (I could not schedule a 16 week appointment because of the holidays) just expecting to hear the heartbeat. I was wrong! Once again, our little Houdini played a trick on us! The doppler could not pick up a heartbeat, so I was scheduled for an ultrasound. I was really nervous because we NEVER had problems picking up Ava's heartbeat. From 12 weeks on, we heard her heartbeat every time we went to an appointment. Little Greta is a bit different!! :) I think she wants us to see her on camera!
We got into the ultrasound room and saw our baby. The heart rate was a very healthy 150 bpm. I asked Jeremy what his gut told him. He said he didn't know. He has been saying another girl since the beginning of this pregnancy, but I really thought we might be having a boy this time because everything has been so different. It took the technician a while to find her "gender" because the umbilical cord was between her legs. Finally, we got a good shot. The technician said, "that's a little girl." Jeremy and I smiled at each other and told Ava that she was going to have a sister! She didn't know what she was supposed to be happy about, so she just smiled and clapped.
We called our family first and then close friends. We went ahead and told the name because we wanted to share it this time. Everyone was really happy for us! Now when we pray with Ava, instead of praying for the baby, we call her Greta. We want Ava to go ahead and learn her name. We are so thrilled!!
Why We Chose Greta Elizabeth
I have said before that Jeremy and I have three girl names picked out and one boy name. Ava was the name we picked our for our first girl. We chose her name before we were married. We didn't decide on Greta until the day when we found out that Ava was a girl. I know that sounds wierd, but we started planning ahead, picking names that would "go" together.
I have never seen a movie with Ava Gardner or Greta Garbo, but obviously that is where we got the idea for "matching" names. I think I said in an earlier post that when I was 16, I saw that Heather Locklear named her daughter Ava and I had loved it since. I did, but I also wanted a second daughter to have a matching name. Greta was it. And I also should point out (as Jeremy did to me) that when you re-arrange the letters of Greta, it can spell GREAT! :) It can also spell GRATE or TEARG, but we won't get into all that. :)
Another neat thing about Greta's name is that it is a short form of Margaret. Margaret is my mother's name. It means pearl. I always look up names before we decide on them because I don't want any child of mine to have a name that has an awful meaning!
We chose Elizabeth as a middle name because it is my great-aunt's middle name. Aunt Jane is my grandfather's sister. When I was little, she would take me to the library on special occasions to let me see children's films and special characters. She also took me to the circus for the very first time and let me ride the elephant! I have lots of special memories with her! Every year when Aunt Jane and Uncle Bob make their pilgrimage to Washington DC for her DAR convention, they always manage to stop by our house or meet up with us in Birmingham to do something special with us. She means a lot to me!
It is only fitting that our second daughter should be named after my Aunt Jane when Ava is named after her mother, Elna Catherine (my great-grandmother) This is just another way that we wanted our names to go together.
I explained all this because I know that the name Greta is pretty uncommon. The most common question I have had for the past week and a half is, "How did y'all decide on Greta as a name?" I thought I would give a good lengthy explanation here on my blog for my readers and for my sweet little second daughter who will be reading this one day. :)
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