What's in a name?

We've had a little confusion about the name of our little one so I thought I'd step in and help out a bit. Freja is pronounced "Fray-ya." Two syllables. The second syllable is pronounced like the first part of my name. So Freja = Fray-ya.

Where did we come up this name? First off, we knew that there aren't many names that go with Koorn and those that do are typically from Northern European areas like Holland, Germany or the Scandinavian countries. As most of you know, I lived in Sweden for a year and have an affinity toward Scandinavian culture and I suggested Freja. In Norse and Viking culture Freja was the goddess of love and beauty. She was also the leader of the Valkyries, the female warriors of the vikings. Additionally, it is largely believed that Freja is the origin of the word "Friday" (which is a day that all of us can agree is pretty cool :o) and our little Freja was coincidentally born on a Friday.

Maxine fit nicely between Freja and Koorn. Maxine is the feminine form of Maximilian which means "the greatest." After seeing her born I can assure you that Freja Maxine is the greatest!

Anyway, that is the background on our sweet little girl. Love you all!

-Jan

Freja Maxine Koorn!

Freja is here, she's finally here! Freja Maxine Koorn arrived on Friday, February 18 at 2:27 a.m. weighing in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 19.8 inches long. Jan & I are so thrilled to have her here, after all those months of wondering what will she look like and who will she be. Now we are getting to know her more and more every single day, and we honestly can't remember life before Freja.

We're taking approximately 1,000 photos of Freja every single day, and instead of uploading all of the individual pics on a how-cute-is-this basis, we decided to create an online photostream to share photos. Please check the Flickr Photostream link to the right to keep up with our latest favorites. As always comments on the blog or to the Flickr photostream are welcome!

Lots of love to all of you, thanks for checking in on the Koorn family!

And Waiting...

Today marks three days to our due date of February 15. Jan has decided this baby likes to sleep in and/or be fashionably late, just like her mom. He just might be right on both counts! Yesterday and today I went on a long walk to see if that might get things moving (the attached picture was taken today on the bike path in Emma, near our house), to no avail. Tonight we're planning to have extra spicy food for dinner. If nothing's happening by tomorrow we'll resort to a horseback ride and/or long Sunday drive on a bumpy road. Let us know if you know of any other old wives' tales to speed this thing along!

Still Waiting!

We had a checkup & ultrasound for week 39 today. Happy to report everything is just fine with mom & baby! The pic at left shows one of her chubby little feet. They tried to get a good picture of the baby's face but she had both hands up in front of her face (and one arm in her mouth for most of the time). Best guess for the baby's weight is about 7 1/2 pounds right now, give or take. Yet another reason I hope she decides to come soon - I don't want her getting much bigger than this for delivery! For now we'll just see if she does come this week, and if not we have another appointment scheduled at week 40 which is the baby's due date.

Clearly my prediction that the baby would arrive on Super Bowl Sunday was off! We've got a few hours left to meet Julie's prediction of today, otherwise our next guess is Jan & Arie's vote for Wednesday, Arie's birthday. Stay tuned.....!

Weekly baby update for week 39:
You're in the home stretch! After nine months of growth and development, your baby is ready to be born, or nearly so. At week 39, your baby is fully developed and anywhere from 17-23 inches long and weighs 6-10 pounds. Don't be frightened if your OB-GYN says your baby is large: It's extremely difficult to judge a baby's weight accurately from the outside. Your baby is adding neural connections and growing hair and still gaining weight. Researchers have theorized that when babies are ready to be born, they send a chemical signal of androgens to the placenta, which increases the production of estrogen and leads to labor. If so, it's proof of the old saying that "only a baby knows when it's ready to be born."