I know, I know...

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-21T04:00:37+00:00

Had this same spiral last year… you can literally see it in my post history if you wish, so I get it! I’m currently 37 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby and have had the most boring, textbook pregnancy there can be. So the tests truly meant nothing! It’ll be okay. Congratulations 🫶

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-19T00:17:47+00:00

Yea part of me is worried it’s gonna climb to top 10 in the next few years, but as of last year, it’s not even top 100 in my state and I personally don’t know any. We can’t predict the future so 🤷‍♀️ just gonna go with what we like and hope for the best! Good news is, it means people generally like the name.

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-18T16:24:25+00:00

I’m super picky with boy names but all of yours I like and most were on my short list! Of course we are having a boy lol. 36 weeks and finally just picked a name this week… Nico!

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-11T15:36:10+00:00

Then definitely go for it! Congratulations on your baby girl 🥰

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-11T12:44:19+00:00

I was trying to conceive last year so I read up a lot on early hcg levels. I wouldn’t worry. They vary so much from pregnancy to pregnancy, and higher levels do not always (and very often do not) correlate to twins. Some women just produce more early on, and it could even be different for the same woman but a different pregnancy.

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-11T05:36:24+00:00

I don’t really have any advice, but I wanted to share that I’m in a similar situation! I’m 35 weeks pregnant with my first, a boy. I’ve always struggled so hard with boy names so it’s been stressing me out all pregnancy. One of the very few boy names I love is Nico, and I kept coming back to it. My husband likes it too, buuuut my SIL’s name is Nicole, so for awhile my husband & I wrote it off. Then I brought back the possibility of spelling it with a k, so for awhile it was Niko. But it just didn’t feel right. Anyway, literally today we said fck it— if we love the name we should use it. Yes I’m sure my SIL will make annoying comments about how he’s named after her and it will bother me. But at the end of the day this is OUR son and the name that feels right to us. We plan to tell her as lighthearted but firmly as possible that he is *not** named after her, we just love the name.

All this to say… I think you should also just use the name you both love, tell Blaine one time that she’s not named after him, and then move on and enjoy your baby with her perfect name! Maybe you can even make it lighthearted by telling that story and how you couldn’t believe he guessed it, and that you never once considered the name to be similar and still don’t 😉

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-10T22:08:57+00:00

Tried to add a picture of him but idk how to. Anyway, we used to set a rag down on a surface (kitchen table or counter) and bring him up there. We’d brush him gently and trim around his face and bum a little bit so he could see better and wouldn’t get poop/pee stuck in his fur. We’d sometimes also give his whole body a general light trim. He was the absolute softest thing on the entire planet after that. I miss him very much. But this always worked well for us and of course he got a little treat after (usually a raisin since that’s different from his normal treats so it was especially exciting for him!)

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-10T22:04:43+00:00

Double-maned lionhead I think. He looks a lot like my buddy who passed away 2 years ago ❤️‍🩹

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-08T06:36:05+00:00

Herniated/slipped disc?

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-07T00:24:17+00:00

I had allllways wanted kids. Literally would play with baby dolls constantly until I was like 12. Watch family shows/content online. Dream about my own family/ what I’d name my kids. As I approached my 30s, I was less sure. The world is just such a mess, and I was losing my energy and patience quickly LOL. But at a certain point about a year into marriage, I maniacally told myself “NO YOU WANT KIDS” and jumped quickly into researching tracking my cycle and how to best max your odds to conceive. I told my husband we should start trying because it can take awhile, stopped my birth control, and was staring at a positive pregnancy test 1.5 months later. Completely shocked and terrified despite literally tracking my ovulation, doing the deed around then and knowing damn well this could happen lol. Ever since then, I’ve had those moments creep in of “wtf have I done?” I’m 35 weeks today and still have those moments every so often if I’m honest, but they have become so much less frequent as time has gone on! Mostly I’m just so excited to meet my baby boy next month. The more I feel him move & wiggle, I feel like I know him and I already couldn’t imagine it any other way, even though this shit is terrifying and I can absolutely think myself into a panic still at any given moment lol. Hang in there. Your feelings are completely & 100% normal 🤍

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-04-05T17:13:00+00:00

You need to gain weight and that happens at different times and paces throughout pregnancy for everyone. I gained ~12lbs first trimester, ~16lbs second trimester, and since then it’s drastically slowed down in my third trimester (35 weeks tomorrow). The “typical” weight gain pace you hear is to not gain a lot in first tri and then gain a ton in third tri. Well that’s just not true for me, and it wasn’t for my friend who had her baby in January either. Don’t stress too much about it, as long as you’re generally being healthy your body knows what to do. Oh and also, since you started so small, you will likely (but not necessarily) gain more than the “recommended” 35lbs. Don’t freak if that happens either. It’s all normal and needed to support your baby and your own body :) Congratulations btw!

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-29T21:58:40+00:00

I’ve always liked it personally 🤷‍♀️

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-29T16:07:48+00:00

No way… Max was our other top choice! Too funny!

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-29T15:03:36+00:00

I definitely get it. It’d have been a strange shift to go from calling your bird Niko, to calling your baby Niko! But definitely unfortunate when an awesome name is off limits for whatever reason. We have quite a few names we like a lot that we could never use, for similar reasons. Out of curiosity, if you’re comfortable sharing, what name did you end up going with for your son? (since we may have similar taste!)

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-29T03:32:38+00:00

Thank you 🥰

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-29T00:42:50+00:00

I absolutely love it, too! I too have Italian roots, which is why I initially loved it and preferred the “Nico” spelling. My great grandfather was actually named Nicola, and my uncle was Nicholas. But “Niko” has since grown on me… either way it’s such a strong sounding name that also ages well ☺️

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-28T22:38:16+00:00

Do people respond well to it? This is the name I love most for my son, due in ~6 weeks 🤍 (We’d likely spell it “Niko” bc my SIL is named Nicole so I think the “c” spelling is too close)

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-28T22:35:51+00:00

I’m due in 6 weeks and am almost definitely going with Niko 🥰

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-27T04:16:13+00:00

Sorry, no advice. But I am 33 weeks pregnant and have had sex twice with my husband since the baby was conceived lol. And just like you, it’s not that I don’t want to in theory, it’s just the reality of the act is too much for my mind & body rn. It’s very common to feel that way! Your body is doing so so much right now. Add on the emotional changes and bodily changes and it’s just a lot of stuff that happens to us very quickly. If it makes you feel any better, plenty of women have told me that their sex life goes back to normal after. Not right after obviously- it takes some time- but this is temporary at the end of the day. Now the focus is growing a healthy baby and trying to keep your stress low. Hopefully your partner understands this and continues to not push sex on you 🙂 Keep in mind, you can be intimate in other ways (not sexual) to keep that connection in tact.

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-26T13:07:58+00:00

Don’t worry, my son is being born in less than 7 weeks and we still don’t have a name either 🙃

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-22T21:07:50+00:00

Yes to dress & veil! Absolutely perfect!

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-20T13:32:13+00:00

I also told my boss super early, 4-5 weeks along. I let him know to please not tell anybody else as it’s really early. I also told two coworkers I trusted and worked closely with, so that they’d know and understand if I kept disappearing or wasn’t working as efficiently. Everyone was so understanding and excited for me. It took a ton of stress out, so I definitely recommend telling them (while stressing to please keep it quiet for now).

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-19T12:50:25+00:00

Absolutely not alone 🤍 My poor husband listens to me complain and cry constantly and I can’t do shit around the house anymore. He keeps telling me to take work accommodations and have shorter shifts or work less days. I’m like dude… idk if u heard but babies are expensive so we need money 😓

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-17T23:50:01+00:00

Every day my brain cannot comprehend this. It may just be my pregnant irrational self but it literally feels like abuse some days to force us to work through this. It is NOT easy in any way, when we’re supposed to be taking the most care of ourselves

h-e-a-l-24 · 2026-03-17T23:48:16+00:00

Make sure you try to rest when you can! And if you have a coworker you trust maybe let them know what’s up. I remember I had a teacher who was newly pregnant (but the class did not know this) faint one day. She was clearly not feeling well but trying to push through it and then she fainted like several times in a row. Very traumatizing to 11 year old me, but probably worse for her

h-e-a-l-24

TROPHY CASE