Sierra - Return of the Strawberries and New Babies

[VelociRapture]

@QuiverFullofBooksI got my due date very early on - like 5w6d or so (one year ago this coming Saturday.) We were shocked to actually see our baby on the ultrasound that early, let alone hear her heartbeat. Due date was January 14th, but she decided it was lame to go fullterm. She was born relatively healthy and safe December 5 - at 34w2d gestation.

My Doctors normally don't do a dating ultrasound so early. I had a prior miscarriage and irregular cycle though, so out of an abundance of caution they scheduled me early and kept a very close eye on me the first trimester or so.

I would say that Sierra likely hadn't had any appointments when she made that video. If she's due in January then it might have been a tad early for one of those boutique ultrasounds to see anything. I'm guessing she's dating from either her last period or, like me, from when she ovulated.

And, if it's ok to say, congratulations on your pregnancy! I know how scary this time might be for you. I went through it myself. Balancing the worry and the fear with the happiness and excitement is horrible. Just try to remember this is a different pregnancy and what happened last time is not guaranteed to happen again. I'll keep you in my thoughts and I hope you get to cuddle a healthy and sweet little baby early next year. If you need to talk at all then send me a message. 

ETA: Trying this again because it got deleted.

I'm wading into the racist name discussion once more. I was the one to introduce the topic and I was the one to stupidly not think to include a link debunking the urban legends. I honestly didn't think the conversation would take the turn it did because I figured more people here realized they're just racist stories. I apologize for that.

I am, however, really disheartened to see that so many people kept sharing stories on here that are pretty obviously urban legends designed to poke fun at minorities after links debunking them were posted. And I'm disheartened to see so many people claim the stories must be true despite evidence to the contrary - such as a medical professional discussing identifying details about a patient, which should be barred under US law.

I'm including a link to snopes now (I believe it's the same one offered earlier.) I strongly urge anyone reading here who is thinking of sharing one of these stories to read through it first. And I really hope people reading this will take the time to call this type of racism out online and offline from now on - if you don't, you're enabling racism and you're part of the problem.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

To any black people or people of other maligned minority groups, I'm sorry my poor decision introduced what may be a tough or painful topic into this thread. I'll try to do better in the future.

[Elegant Mess]

Just noticed that Sierra's Instagram went private.  It had to have happened sometime within the last 24 hours, because I looked at it yesterday.  

[Pasta]

I just wanted to note that I didn't realize these names were racial things. I just thought they were silly names that people used so I apologize about the names that I had said I didn't realize that they were jokes poking fun at anything and that they were false in their entirety so sorry about that guys. 

[meowfundiecatz]

54 minutes ago, Elegant Mess said:

Just noticed that Sierra's Instagram went private.  It had to have happened sometime within the last 24 hours, because I looked at it yesterday.  

It will be public again, I imagine.  Someone told her in a live video that if she sets it to private right before a live video then the spam comments won't happen. She had at least 5 spammers commenting on her live video the other night.

[Pretzel]

10 hours ago, Rachel333 said:

I don't get why people can be so judgmental about parents who choose popular names. If they like the name so what if other kids have the same name? I get wanting to choose a unique name for your own child, but people can get really judgy about other parents' choices.

I think names are interesting but I hate all the racism and classism that inevitably comes into play in these discussions.

My take on this is name your child whatever you want. It wouldn't hurt to check beforehand if the name may pose problems for the child in the future, though. I do draw my personal line when the spelling is so complicated the child's name will always be spelt wrongly and will merely pose a hassle for the child.  Furthermore, when the name sets the child up for severe ridicule and/or bullying (I realize that basically any name can be ridiculed because children are creative and mean, but there's childish ridicule and then there's serious bullying). Apart from that, the question whether there are future issues beyond the above to consider (e.g. when naming your child after questionable people) isn't that hard to ask yourself (general you) assuming you have roughly 9 months to think about it. 

All the urban legends put aside, there are kids stuck with -and you may call me judgmental here- names like Heistheway or Spurgeon, or Peaches or Apple, which do make people, myself included, wonder what their parents could have possibly been thinking. 

I hate the racism and classism as well, especially when the term 'low class', which I find questionable in and of itself, is mentioned and characterized by working class/low income/poor. If there actually is a 'low class' then it has nothing to do with money or how well-off people are. It is, however, not deniable that certain people of certain groups show tendencies to give their children names that show certain similar characteristics and I don't think stating that is immediately classist. Then with frequency of certain names among certain groups comes certain connotation to the names in question and so on. 

It would really be interesting to research for numbers and see how much these numbers would bear comparison with common cliches. It goes without saying, though, that maybe these cliches are merely exceptions to the rule and naming in general is much more leveled out than people may think. 

@VelociRapture IMHO no need to apologize. As I said before, the urban legend names in German do not have a racist context at all but are silly puns (Reiner Zufall- 'pure coincidence') or obscene innuendoes (Rosa Schlüpfer- 'pink underpants'), nevertheless they belong to the department of urban legends of names that probably no man ever got yet a discussion of these is interesting and justified. If anything this discussion you sparked raised awareness in people, so we can all watch out for urban legends in the future and be aware of how easily these are believed. 

[JesSky03]

When I was still working on campus of the hospital I work for, I overheard a pair of nurses discussing the weird names they've encountered. It was on the public elevator and they weren't trying to be quiet. One of them couldn't believe someone named their child after a Pokemon. I couldn't believe they were openly discussing patients like that on a public elevator - one of the busiest in the hospital even. It was an easily identifiable name in a smallish city- the high chance of someone knowing the child on the elevator was/is a risk I would never take. 

[Elegant Mess]

9 hours ago, meowfundiecatz said:

It will be public again, I imagine.  Someone told her in a live video that if she sets it to private right before a live video then the spam comments won't happen. She had at least 5 spammers commenting on her live video the other night.

Indeed, you're correct.  I can see her Instagram page again this morning.

[Carm_88]

Sierra couldn't leave her instagram private, how could she sell us things that way?  

[O Latin]

The only time I've ever heard the Lemonjello/Orangejello story in real life it was presented as "upper class people trying to make themselves sound even more upper class by giving their children pretentious, fancy names," so I didn't realize until reading this thread that it had racial connotations (I was aware of the racial connotations of most of the other names in these urban legends). It always brought to my mind an image of white kids who go to boarding school and have a tennis court in their backyard. 

The only other one of those stories I've heard outside of FJ was a classmate who claimed to actually know an "Abcde." She was usually the type to be very aware of stereotypes (of all kinds) and try to avoid perpetuating them, so I don't know what was going on there. 

[picklepizzas]

Ok I don't know if she's private or not bc I follow her so I won't post the screen shot but there's a comment she made about how surprised they were about this pregnancy given that she almost died after the last one. 

[JillyO]

13 minutes ago, picklepizzas said:

Ok I don't know if she's private or not bc I follow her so I won't post the screen shot but there's a comment she made about how surprised they were about this pregnancy given that she almost died after the last one. 

Holy fucking shit. Since she's no longer private (I don't follow her), here's the comment:

 

 

[SuhrEnity]

3 minutes ago, JillyO said:

Holy fucking shit. Since she's no longer private (I don't follow her), here's the comment:

Despite almost dying last time we still won't do anything TO KEEP ME ALIVE because embryos are oh so important and children don't need a mother because they have God and Jesus and that will be enough to sustain them if I die giving birth. Is this woman nuts?????

[JillyO]

3 minutes ago, SuhrEnity said:

Despite almost dying last time we still won't do anything TO KEEP ME ALIVE because embryos are oh so important and children don't need a mother because they have God and Jesus and that will be enough to sustain them if I die giving birth. Is this woman nuts?????

No kidding. "I almost died last time so that's why we're grateful I'm pregnant again"!?!?!?! Nope. Just nope.

[karen77]

On 5/13/2017 at 5:11 PM, Bad Wolf said:

I went to school with 2 girls with the last name of Hogg -- Ima and Meeta. Just out of curiosity, I googled their names. There was an Ima Hogg born in 1882 who was known as the first lady of Texas. Apparently she signed her name I. Hogg, or Miss Hogg. Obviously, not the one I went to school with.

I was friends with a set of twins with that last name, they had an older brother too, but no crazy plays on the names, Jodie  was one of them.

my neice's name is Joyclynn, she's adorable, but I just can't get into it with her name....they don't pronounce like it's spelled it it makes me crazy!

[Carm_88]

1 minute ago, JillyO said:

No kidding. "I almost died last time so that's why we're grateful I'm pregnant again"!?!?!?! Nope. Just nope.

That makes absolutely no sense. What in the hell? I mean I know she's a fundie, but come on! 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

I just want to add to the name topic. My grandmother and her siblings were all born in the 1920s. They were Athene, Ariel and Vesta (Roman/Greek goddesses). Apparently, their mom got pregnant again in her 40s and gave birth to a boy. The girls were in charge of naming him. They went with Bob.

[OyToTheVey]

I used to teach K thru 2. Weird names aren't just a myth. I've had kids with apostrophes in the name and names spelled backwards and a bunch of weirdly spelled names. I had one kid whose name is Semaj. I wish I was joking but his mom named him James backwards. Sweetest kid ever stuck with a weird name. I won't say the apostrophe name because it's very unusual and I doubt there's many kids named that. And this is across the board of every parent. There's a lot of kids out there with names that don't sound right next to CEO. But I'm a huge supporter of naming your kid a 'professional' name. Trendy, not trendy, weird, not weird, just make it so that the kid doesn't grow up to use an initial.last name. 

[2manyKidzzz]

How about giving the child a name with THEIR needs in mind. I mean, Spurgeon....really? Think about all the times your child will have to introduce themselves. Nobody enjoys having a strange name. 

[JesSky03]

Ugh to apostrophes in names. An old neighbor of mine named her daughter Ma'Jesti. It took me a while before I realized its supposed to sound like "Majesty". Her next kid she names Khenadi (Kennedy). I also know someone who just mushed together her name with her SO's name and came up with Majella. They nicknamed her Jelly. 

1 hour ago, JillyO said:

No kidding. "I almost died last time so that's why we're grateful I'm pregnant again"!?!?!?! Nope. Just nope.

No thought for her 5 living children whatsoever. Hopefully the complication was just a one time fluke and her future pregnancies are healthy and safe. 

[eandre31]

First off- how crazy is it that Sierra "almost died" after/during the birth of Edyn and is grateful and excited (not SCARED) to be pregnant again.

Secondly - does anyone remember her having medical trouble after Edyn? Did she ever mention it before? I dont remember that and I even took a look back through her insta and didn't find anything about this.

[Incognito22]

I was wondering the same thing.  you would think if she almost DIED we would have atleast heard a shout out to Jesus!

[ladybug15]

21 hours ago, bjr70 said:

We had an intern last year who was a Krystyna. That must've been fun to spell constantly. The "y" thing needs to stop.

A new poster here, but long time lurker. Hi,

I just wanted to point that Eastern European names have a lot of ys in them. The intern could very well be an immigrant or first generation Polish-American. That happened to be my mom's name spelled correctly in Polish:) Not very popular among recent generation but quite popular in the 50/60s in Poland.

[OyToTheVey]

I have a friend named Krystyna but only cuz immigration spelled it that way. As you said a lot of Eastern Europeans have ys in their names but some immigration officers are brutal. I know families that all have the same last names spelled differently, ie Smith, Smyth, Smythe, it's just bad. Almost as if they did it on purpose. 

[PumaLover]

Wow. Semaj has to be one of the worst names I've ever heard. Why would you do that to a child?

And this fundie obsession with having babies at all costs, your own health be damned, just makes no sense at all. I just don't get how having your 6th child is more important than making sure you are alive for all your other existing kids.

That said, if it came down to it and a fundie had a major life threatening condition where the absolutely should NOT get pregnant again, could she justify getting her tubes tied? Would that be God's way of telling her that her family is the right size?

[ladybug15]

16 minutes ago, OyToTheVey said:

I have a friend named Krystyna but only cuz immigration spelled it that way. As you said a lot of Eastern Europeans have ys in their names but some immigration officers are brutal. I know families that all have the same last names spelled differently, ie Smith, Smyth, Smythe, it's just bad. Almost as if they did it on purpose. 

Correct, and if I am not mistaken they claimed it was to help americanize the immigrant. However the past 30 years at least, it is rare for them to do so as you need to go to to the embassy for a visa in your country of origin. Your name on visa and password have to match. They mispelled my brother's name 25 years ago on SS form and we got to correct it. My father however came here 35 years ago, and his name of Ryszard is spelled Richard and he never changed it.