Why Lima Bean?

Some of our family members latched on to the name "Lima Bean" quickly. We even had one suggest that we call it "Limey."

Even our friends took to the moniker, choosing it over the other option of "Baby H," which really is so lab-like.

Of course one of my sisters verbally guffawed at the idea that we would use "Lima Bean" as a nickname. Since her complaints came after we had already started this blog, I chuckled as I told her the name was, obviously, here to stay.

So how did we come up on the name Lima Bean?

It started at our first ultrasound, on Jan. 22, when I was at Week 8/Day 1. This was our first official prenatal appointment and an ultrasound was done to make sure there was a heartbeat.

When the picture came up in the screen, we saw a little blob that can best be described as looking like a lima bean! Our doctor told us that it was also the size of a lima bean (1/2 to 3/4 of an inch). So, of course, when we described what we saw on the screen to family members, we kept repeating the "lima bean" description.

Pretty soon, it stuck.

Beans, it turns out, are a common way to describe the early growth of a baby. According to pregnancy books and Web sites, an embryo at Week 6 is the size of a lentil bean (0.08 to 0.16 inch). By Week 7, it turns into pinto bean (0.16 to 0.2 inch) only to morph into a lima bean or kidney bean (1/2 inch) by the start of Week 8.

So, for those who don't like the name Lima Bean, just think, it could have been worse.