OP- Like you said, it's a nickname. Don't worry, she loves you. :)

Call your Mom an Ami-liebchen---I'm sure she'll love that. This is the derogatory term given to women who fell in love with American soldiers after the war. It means: little American lover.

maybe she's a hick and is saying "feller"

That's terrible.

Honestly, there are cultural differences, so ask her about it. My grandmother is from Russia and what she essentially calls us are "shitlings", but it's diminutive, so not bad. Odd, but, yeah.

Your mum is a hag

I can see how in some languages or cultures that differ extremely from each other this may be not that big of a deal, like 89 described some differences in Russia for example...but I am German and "Fehler" is just that, a mistake! Nothing else. And to the person who said Fehler can also mean "boo-boo" so it´s not that bad...look up the definition of boo-boo in American Heritage Dictionary: Inflected forms: pl. boo-·boos Informal 1. A stupid mistake; a blunder: “the petty talking points, peripheral issues, tactical boo-boos, and small-bore scandals that regularly intrude on campaigns” (New Republic). 2. A slight physical injury, such as a scratch. But @OP I would assume that by calling you her "little Fehler" she simply means that you may not have been a planned baby, but that she is very glad she did get pregnant with you. After all she´s calling you LITTLE Fehler, I doubt she´d be doing that if she actually saw you as a bad mistake she made. I assume your Dad is American or from another country where they now both live. So maybe she had just left her country and moved with him and wasn´t quite ready to have a baby yet...it all depends on your family´s whole situation. :)

Haha, deine Mutti ist das Beste.

To add onto 89, in Chinese parents call their kids "little ghosts" ... which also sounds very strange. I'm sure it's just a cultural thing :)

Das ist zu schlecht. Es tüt Mir leid.