Remember when I said, you won't see me posting pictures of my baby bump in various outfits? I lied. Sometimes you have to do things for the greater good.
Above are both pictures of me at 20 weeks on the same day. The left is a pair of $198 Seven for All Mankind skinny jeans. The right is a pair of $35 jeans from Motherhood Maternity.
Yes, the camera angles/poses are different but honestly, I think the Motherhood Maternity pants looked even worse than they do in the picture. If I hadn't tried on the expensive pair first, I probably would have run out the dressing room pantless and screaming.
It was a sad lesson I learned that day. Sometimes, things are expensive for a reason.
Last week, I started a new column on Alphamom called "The Yay to the Nay". Every Friday I will be doing product comparisons. Last week I did maternity jeans, this week I'm doing booster seats, and next week is up for grabs.
If you have any ideas (maybe you're trying to decide between a potty that tastefully matches your bathroom decor and a Dora-themed singing potty that your toddler would probably trip over herself to sit in) let me know in the comment section below.
I'm gonna need lots of ideas!
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Thank you so much for all your baby name ideas. Seriously. The comment section of "Naming a Baby Would Be Easy Without My Husband" is better than any baby name book I've flipped through thus far.
If you haven't seen Mike's brutal responses to your suggestions, I promise, it's worth a look.
FOR EXAMPLE:
What about Piper? She was my favorite witch on "Charmed." Or Willow (a la "Buffy?")
Mike responded…
I'm glad you're suggesting names based on old WB shows. "Was I named after a family member, Dad?" "No, you were named after a minor character on One Tree Hill."
How about Malia?
Mike responded…
Malia sounds like a disease. Get some ointment- I have Malia!
Another suggestion was from Heather, who said I should do a bracketed baby name tournament where everybody gets to vote, narrowing it down to the finals right before the baby is born.
That sounds like an AWESOME idea. If I was the most obedient member of the Kardashian family and my life was actually a scripted reality show and not in fact REAL.
So, I will be revealing the name of our baby when she is born and then you can all leave comments like, "I love it!" while secretly being disappointed that I went with something trendy/misspelled/unoriginal/already taken by Octomom/etc.
I can tell you that Mike and I have two names currently in the running that were both mentioned in the comment section. And it's not TEXASSIANCE, as tempting as lifetime passes to the Texas Renaissance Festival might be. (Thank you, Kristin Sue, for alerting me to that potential windfall.)
To Rachel, who said her boyfriend is currently trying to convince her to name their baby "Vodka Marie", BE STRONG!!! "Cognac Marie" could be a great compromise.
And finally, to Katherine Rose who said her mother almost named her brother Darth Vadar but settled on Jason, I hope you were kidding.
Darth Vadar is much better suited for a girl.
Or as Mike responded…
Darth Vadar would have been much better than naming your brother after the serial killer in Halloween. Poor guy.
Here's another question: What's the worst name your significant other suggested for your child?
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Today on Babble, I've got The Life of a Toddler in NYC with tons of Mazzy pictures (and Babble has changed the slideshow format so it will be 1000X less annoying to click through!).
Thomas Jefferson Perea.
He was set on it. Thank God we had a girl. Beverly Mae.
Ok now I’m dying to know the two top names!!
As you know, my 2nd’s nickname is Scrumplet. Which is fine and cute for a nickname. The husband suggested we actually named him that for realz. Not even kidding. Okay, maybe a little.
Forgot to add – cute belly!
Also, things to compare: sippy cups, slings/ carriers, bouncy chairs or the like, baby shampoos/ washes, maternity and/ or nursing bras!
Pickle. Pickle Wickham. Not as a nickname, not a middle name. A serious, first name.
When we were naming our 1st daughter, my husband had 2 “stripper names” he wanted to throw out – Crystal Chandelier and Camille Toe. His rationale was all based on money – 1. She could pay her own way through college and 2. She’d be so disgusted by men that she’d probably never want to marry one and we’d be off the hook for a wedding. Needless to say, we didn’t go that route, but now I’m pregnant with girl #2 so I’m sure some great suggestions are coming my way.
Your maternity jeans experience is haunting.
I still think you can do the bracket thing — including your top contenders, and then let us vote. Then we can all laugh when we find out that the name you picked got eliminated in the first round in favor of “Mystique” or something 🙂
-Heather 🙂
I think I had those Motherhood jeans. Wore them once and cried for a week.
My brother wanted to name their baby boy Larry.
I mean really. How do you hold a precious newborn and say, “this is my new baby…Larry.”
Thank goodness they just found out it’s a girl.
Kal El. He was totally serious.
oooooo lordy!! I have those exact motherhood maternity jeans and I HATED wearing jeans while pregnant because of them, they were horrible! and i’m a jeans lover! Nothing like looking fat and frumpy while pregnant. The jeans made me cry too! Next time around I will spring for more expensive one.
Elle Evans…aka Elevens, and then her number in sports could be 11 and life would be perfect: ) Seriously, I am not making this up. Thankfully, we had a boy and the debate was settled on its own!
My hubby fell in love with the name Makarios for a boy. Aparently it is the Greek word for blessing. My husband is not Greek. I am, but by way of Puerto Rico, so I suggested Benicio, but he doesn’t want people to think ‘del Toro.’
Also, I really hope one of my names is in the running!
My husband loved the name Sebastian. Which isn’t THAT bad. Then immediately after mentioning it he stated, ” And then we can just call him BASTIE for short!” That is just BEGGING for him to be called bastard for the majority of his poor life.
My husband was dead set on Xerxes, Balthazar, or Icarus. He was 100% serious. Thank god I just kept saying no – we ended up with a Kieran.
Pickle is my son’s nickname….he had a green swaddling blanket as a newborn.
My favorite maternity jeans were the $15 ones I got from Target, they were dark skinny jeans and I lived in them. I actually bought two pairs because I loved them so much.
My husband desperately wanted to call my son Dragon. That is why I had my tubes tied.
My first husband suggested that if the baby was a girl, I could name her and if the baby was a boy, he would name him. I am so glad I had a girl and no other kids with him. He wanted to name our boy Darius Odin. Yuk!
Hmmm compare diapers? Not fun I know, but lots of room for poop jokes…and I am always confused. Should I try cloth? What is the difference between pampers and luvs? if i try cloth, what type of cloth? can i hire a service?
Soooo many questions. Which is why I follow the path of forgetting to buy diapers until I am completely out at 11 p.m. and running to the nearest open store to buy whatever looks cheapest. It’s a crappy system.
My husband wanted that, too. Luckily I got him to stop suggesting it when I pointed out that Nicholas Cage named his son Kal El and he turned out to be a maniac. Not very Superman-like.
Haha! Our son is named Sebastian and we made it very clear to everyone that there would be no nicknames. Almost four years later, still no nicknames. =)
We considered naming our son Remington until my uncle made a joke, “We could call him Bang!” You know, because of Remington guns.
My husband wanted to name our son Eugene.
I vetoed
I agree that Motherhood has horrible jeans. I didn’t mind the ones from Pea in the Pod though. $80+ compared with MM’s $30+. Still cheaper than 7 Mankind though
Thankfully my husband only wanted Clark. I am hoping Kal El never enters the conversation. ***Note to self: don’t let him read this part of Mommy Shorts**
My daughter is Fiona. I had strong concerns about her being called FiFi like a poodle. Thankfully the family has been shamed into not calling her FiFi. Daycare on the other hand…….they love their little “FiFi” and I cry a little on the inside every time I hear it. She now calls herself FiFi sometimes…Sigh.
Winner for making me lol ” that is why I had my tubes tied” snort.
Seven. My idiot husband suggested Seven. Of course, he felt the same way when I suggestion Sebastian. But, as we all know, Sebastian is a name and Seven is a parenting fail.
So funny! Look at my comment below! I wanted a Sebastian. Hubs vetoed.
I don’t remember my husband suggesting any dorky names, he was more a Mike aka The Blocker.. Boy names harder than girls I find – to find something cutesy for a baby that evolves into manly. We did the his-name-for-a-boy, mine for a girl, boy name was ok … but I loved the girl name so am glad my kiddo cooperated and was a girl! 🙂 Now we are trying to sort out a name for a puppy .., and I thought KID names were hard, yoy! (I refuse to give pet people names because everytime I meet a dog or cat with my name I want to punch it. Ok, no I don’t. I want to punch the owners! But to then try and find a non-people-name that isn’t “Princess Buttercup SunshineGlitter” ( what my eldest wanted) is … hard. P.S. My name is not actually Kande so no complaints from owners of pets named Kande. If people have been bestowed with pet names then all bets are off.
I can’t stop staring at those craptacular MM jeans. I’m hypnotized and amazed that someone who looks killer in those 7 jeans could look so, what?, puffy-chic?, in the MMs.
Please tell me they were two sizes too big?
They were definitely too big- but they were a size medium and I’ve never been a small in my life. I think the fact that they come in small, medium, large as opposed to number sizes says a lot though.
Also, how can something be too big but also make you look like you have a cameltoe???? It boggles the mind.
OMGosh… I can’t stop scrolling back up to look at the differences in those jeans!!!
I gotta go read the name post now… your hubby is hilarious! And I cannot believe that is you in BOTH of those photos above. I mean, WOW. ANd I cannot tell you what name I did not like that my husband suggested for K because I know people who have kids with that name. But I refused it because I’ve just known TOO many dogs in my life with the same name. He’s still mad.
I’m sorry all I remember from that entire post is “BABBLE CHANGED THEIR SLIDESHOW FORMAT.” Huzzah!!!!
also, those belly shots? HOT. work it, girl.
Seven is already taken. By George Costanza.
My husband and I picked out two names, one boy and one girl. For a boy we wanted to name him Charley Slade. For a girl, my husband suggested Natielle, named after a “girl he knew in high school”. I’ve never even heard the name before and I probably can’t spell it correctly. The point is I couldn’t FIND it anywhere, in any book or on any website, and I’m grateful we had a boy because I would never be able to live with myself if I’d had a daughter whose name I could not spell. Not only that but why the HELL would I want my daughter to be named after a girl my husband “knew” in high school???
Emily – I too have a daughter Fiona and I literally could cut and paste your comment as mine. Exact same experience Too funny. – Emily
I’m going to mourn little Texie… so sad.
LOL at Mike’s comment to my suggestions. I’d say, sorry I don’t have any bad baby name suggestions, except that apparently I already did. lol
my daughters name is faye and i stupidly told everyone before she was born…his family hated it he chose her middle name, zoe, and they all insisted it should be her first…um no. they called faye an old lady name bull you there were 3 zoes in her class and have not met another faye! they all tried to call her zoe and fromthe time she could talk she would yell at them “THAT IS NOT MY NAME!!!!’ this time around i tell no one until the little one is here. nobody needs to hear that others think the name sucks!
Rocking Republic also have awesome maternity jeans! Nice jeans make a huge difference. They make you look small everywhere but your stomach.
My husband loves to hunt and I JOKINGLY threw out the name “Dyani Hunter” … Dyani in some language means Deer so her name would be Deer Hunter…I was joking but he loved it. 🙂
We don’t have kids yet and if we ever do I am NOT reminding him of that name.
OH and … my Dad wanted to name me after my Oma (Grandma) . her name was Friedel Helen. Thank heavens my Mom stood up to him and they settled on just her middle name. 🙂
judge.
kind of cool, right? not when your last name is laws. judge laws. and what if he wants to be an attorney? attorney judge laws. or better still, judge judge laws.
our compromise was getting a dog. his name is judge. and he’s plush.
It’s a tie for my son… Russell Thelove Musil
(my last name is pronounced muscle)? Does that sound dirty to anyone else or just me?
For my daughter he refused to talk about names so he decided we were going to name her… Pinecone. Yep Pinecone. Turns out that if you tell your husband that he could get a laptop for the naming privilege of your baby girl then you both win!
We are not pregnant, but in discussing potential names, my husband suggested Nimrod. my response – do you hate our future child??
This isn’t so much a bad name, but a stupid suggestion. We already have a Jack, and when pregnant with #2 (a boy), my husband suggested Zach. I don’t think words can describe my bewilderment at his stupidity.
My ex wanted to name our son Sylvester Cyrus. I asked if that meant we needed to enroll him in karate the day he was born to protect himself from Tweety lol!
I don’t know if it was me or what, but I couldn’t wear the over the bump variety of jeans. My faves were Target and Gap. I’m sure I would have loved a pair of sevens, but I couldn’t justify the money. I wore scrubs all day, so spent very little time actually in real clothes. I also didn’t plan it very well, so my pregnancies spanned all 3 seasons here in the Pac NW.
I think my earlier post on names got deleted (most likely offensive, sorry). My hubs wanted to use his beloved uncle’s name as our first son’s middle name. He was known as Morrie, which I would have agreed to. But he wanted the proper “Maurice” version of it, so I had to veto it. He shot down nearly every name I threw out, so I figured I got a pass on that one.
about the Darth Vader/Jason thing – I hope you got the satisfaction of pointing out that Jason was not the name of the serial killer in the Halloween series (that was Michael), he was the Friday the 13th series killer (and technically it was his mother).
Darth Vader would still be a better choice than Anakin though
I loved my seven maternity jeans and kept on wearing them after I delivered baby. I always got complements on them and asked where I got them. Ha!
People were shocked to find out they were maternity.
So worth the money. I wore them almost two years until I gained weight after stopping breast feeding. Now I can’t fit into my cute skinny maternity jeans anymore. 🙁
Actually know somebody who named their son “Cevyn” his nickname? George.