Musings on baby nicknames

Judging from the pregnancy websites and online forums I've been perusing the last few months, it looks like most parents-to-be have some cute nickname by which they refer to their little ones. Most common are things like Peanut or Sweetpea, followed by one of the cute little produce analogies used earlier on in pregnancy (like Blueberry or Poppyseed).

I always figured I'd want to use one of these cutesy nicknames whenever I got pregnant. And it's true, I very much did -- but David wasn't so hot on Peanut or Sweetpea. So we tossed around a few ideas, but didn't really land on anything we loved at first. We knew we wanted something, though -- you can't just keep referring to your baby as "the baby," y'know? We definitely wanted something more personalized and endearing than that!

Of course, "KeddieCub" was coined by a dear friend as soon as we made the public pregnancy announcement -- many thanks to Emily for that sweet nickname. :) And we use KeddieCub as a sort of public "brand" image for our little son -- it's the title of the Facebook album with our sonograms and bump watch photos, and it's up at the top of this blog in our pregnancy countdown ticker. And it fits in very well with our family lore (click to read about how "Keddiebears" came to be).

But KeddieCub isn't actually the nickname that David and I use when we talk to our baby or refer to him in conversation with each other. (And yes, we do talk to our baby -- I'm sure he can totally hear and understand everything we say to him!)

In a stroke of inspiration one day last summer, we decided to go with the nickname "Eggi." It's our cutesy transliteration of the Korean word for "baby." and as one of our med student friends commented, it works as a reference to one of the stages of fetal development... :) And "Eggi" has really stuck -- so much so, in fact, that I fear we're likely to call our son Eggi for years and years to come... :)

When I feel kicks, I tell David to come quick and touch my belly, "because Eggi's trying to say hi!" When I complain about a particularly bad bout of heartburn, David turns to my belly and says, "Eggi, stop pushing your mama's organs up into her rib cage!" It's really cute, and really fun.

And we figure it's also a great way to honor one half of Eggi's ancestry. We'll use the in utero nickname "Wee Bairn" for our second baby to honor the Scottish half. :)

The nickname has become such a part of this pregnancy that I felt I had to chronicle it here... Apologies for the cutesiness! But hey, if you can't be cutesy about baby-related things, when can you be, right?