Three months since our last post and here we are, almost five months pregnant with our second girl!!!

I thought I’d share the story of how we landed on the name Goldie Louise (Goldie Lou!). The easy part was Louise – it’s Javier’s mom’s middle name (well, the English version – in Spanish it’s Luisa). We knew we wanted to honor Javier’s mom somehow with our second daughter’s name (Penelope’s middle name is a tribute to my grandma Joan) so we had different versions of either Maria or Luisa as part of several different name combos.

I kept the original name list that we pulled Penelope Joan from back in 2017 when we were first picking out Penny’s name, and Goldie was on there but we had crossed it out early on. Javi glanced at the list this time around and randomly said that he was partial to Goldie June, and we both really liked that combo, but it didn’t have any family tribute at all. So we eventually narrowed it down to Goldie Louise and Maria June…and I’m still hanging on to Maria June in case of the infinitesimal chance that we have another girl someday (cue Javier’s heart attack).

Anyway, I think we were closing in on Maria June at around 3 months pregnant when I had some sudden and serious pains, and my doc asked me to come in for a quick scan for the heartbeat. They couldn’t find the heartbeat with the doppler (which is normal for 11 weeks, but still made me nervous) so they sent me in for an ultrasound…and there was my second daughter, WAVING AT ME. It felt like the most mischievous, attention-seeking move ever…scare me with pains and don’t show up for the heart scan just so we can put you on the camera and see you wave!? It felt like my daughter was already showing her personality, and that personality did not match the image I had of a “Maria June.” Maria June seemed too proper…too by-the-rules to pull a stunt like that. Goldie seemed a little more playful and mischievous. I know I shouldn’t ascribe ANY personality traits to my kid, especially this early, but that little episode just sent me directly down another path as far as her name was concerned and there was no turning back.

So here she is, our little miss Goldie. It’s been another pregnancy of morning sickness, which ended with Penny by around 15 weeks but is still showing up here and there with Goldie now at almost 20 weeks. Yay! Between the sickness, low energy, and actually catching real sicknesses like strep throat from Penny and not being able to take any meds besides <a href="http://<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J24FMIE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01J24FMIE&linkCode=as2&tag=losrodriguezl-20&linkId=6e9567daf8749528d988217920f8d151">Tylenol Extra Strength Caplets with 500 mg Acetaminophen, Pain Reliever & Fever Reducer, 100 ct</a>Tylenol, the first trimester wasn’t great. Keeping up with a toddler when your energy level is below zero is ROUGH…I had it so easy when I was pregnant with Penny and all I had to do was curl up on the couch with Chupete when I felt sick. Anyway, now that I’m well into the second trimester and my energy is leaps and bounds beyond what it was, I feel relief and excitement and…so many other things. But mostly excitement. We can’t wait to meet you Goldie Lou!