Spike

Lots of women give their unborn fetuses nicknames. Like my niece, Miriam, was "Flipper" in utero because she flipped around so much. Missy's baby was "Turkey Baby" because she was due on Thanksgiving. Lili's baby was "Gnocchi" because she was being born into an Italian family. And Melissa's was "Peanut" because, at the time Melissa named him, she read that he was the size of a peanut.

Well, my baby is "Spike." Strangely enough, I named it that because I was singing the Tom Petty song of the same name while walking to a meeting and touching my stomach. (It all comes down to music with me, doesn't it?) The funny thing is that the lyrics are, according to Tom Petty, about a "really kind of ignorant redneck guy who is kind of shaken up when he sees a punk rocker":

Oh, we got another one, just like the other ones
Another bad ass, another troublemaker
I'm scared, ain't you boys scared?
I wonder if he's gonna show us what bad is?
Boys, we gotta man with a dog collar on
You think we oughta' throw ol' Spike a bone?
Hey Spike what do you like?
Hey Spike what do you like?
Here's another misfit, another Jimmy Dean
Bet be's got a motorbike,
What'a y'all think?
Bet if we good we'll get a ride on it
If be ain't too mad about the future
Matbe we oughta help him see
The future ain't what it used to be
Hey Spike, you're scarin' my wife
Hey Spike what do you like
Please Spike, tell us 'bout life

Okay, it sounds really strange, but it is performed in a very sing-songy way that it very catchy. (Click here to hear a sample--it's number six on the sample list, which is about halfway down the page.) So Spike stuck in my head and that's what we're calling it--until we know the gender, anyway. Besides, the concept of a bad-ass fetus makes me laugh--like it's spray painting graffiti on the inside of my uterus while it swallows amniotic fluid!

If my kid grows up to be a rebel with a dog collar as a fashion accessory, then I have no one to blame but myself.