Mommin' It Up since 2004!
Yesterday morning, we welcomed a new member into our family.
My little sister had a baby.
This is Lilly.
Is she cute or what?
Joshua likes her.
Sammy does too.
Kate’s just glad she’s a girl.
We’re all so glad she’s here.
Welcome to the world, Lilly. We love you already.
Today my famous Uncle Paul wrote a very funny diatribe post on what I should name my wee little baby. You know, after I find out it’s gender. (I have an ultrasound today to determine how far along I am and all that jazz, and I’m gonna ask ’em to look real close and see if perhaps my child has developed it’s genitalia early. Just in case.)
What Uncle Paul may not have realized as he was writing said post was that once again, I have got this wrapped up. Both my babies were named MONTHS before they were born. Bobby and I had that all wrapped up and nailed down. We called the babies by their names as soon as we found out whether that kid had a pee-pee or a vajayjay. As a matter of fact, when we had our 20 week ultrasound with Sophie, and found out she was a girl, we didn’t quite have her name finalized yet, and I told Bobby we could not leave the doctor’s office until we had decided what our daughter’s name would be (we were pretty sure, so fortunately it didn’t take long.)
So, that’s how we roll. We already have a couple ideas that we (well, I) really like for this baby, but it’s not decided yet. However you can bet your sweet bippy it will be engraved in stone by July.
Then, there are some people (read: EMILY) who not only don’t find out the baby’s gender, they also have no name picked out before the blessed child arrives. Even though they have had NINE MONTHS to think about it. I will say in Emily’s case, that with both her babies, she at least took a SPREADSHEET of possible names with her to the hospital. While this is totally nerdy, at least she had it narrowed down to more than the entire contents of the Book of 10,000 Baby Names.
Now, continuing with her sister’s maddening tradition, my beloved cousin Anna is also carrying a nameless child. HOWEVER! She does know that it’s a GIRL, which is very exciting for me, because it means that I also know it’s a girl, and I am not DOOMED to wonder until she gives birth. But although she and her hubby have known the baby’s gender for um, EVER, they still haven’t picked a name. As you may have guessed, this is driving me bonkers. So I thought I’d take a page from Uncle Paul’s book and suggest a few of our family gems from Emily, Anna’s and my shared family history. At least you can add these to the spreadsheet, Annie.
America – our great-great grandmother’s name. Patriotic! And since the baby’s gonna be born in July…I think it’s a lock. Or, you could name your daughter what America named her daughters -Florida and Alabama. (Florida was our great-grandmother.) That way your kid’s name can represent family history, Disney World, and the deep South all at once!
If you don’t like those, you could always name her after Grandma’s Aunt Shin. Everybody loves a good baby-named-after-a-body-part. Elbow, Clavicle, Uvula, I think you’ve got some good options there.
And of course, there’s always Jenny. I mean after the late 70’s, I am pretty sure no one is ever gonna name their kid that again EVER, so at least she’d be unique for her generation!
But if you don’t like any of my suggestions, feel free to check out Uncle Paul’s post and steal some name ideas from the other side of the family!
How about you my dear readers? Did you name ’em months in advance or not ’til you saw their perfect little faces?
Growing up I always wanted a big family. First I would say, “I want five or six kids.” I remember once when Bobby and I were talking about it early in our marriage and he said he thought two was a good number and I was horrified. Then I had one, and even though he was a pretty easy baby, I thought, ok, “I’d like three.”
Then I had a second, and she was, um, let’s say, difficult. Because I was violently ill for about the first 15 weeks of my pregnancy with her, I was already feeling before she was even born, that there was no way I could possibly go through that again. Still, when I was on the operating table after Sophie was born, when my doctor asked me if I wanted her to tie my tubes, I said no. Because I was 29, and I just wasn’t ready to say that my childbearing years were over.
And then in the ensuing weeks, the transition from being a mother of one to being a mother of two pretty much solidified it for me. I was done. Even though, after I decided that, I would get sad thinking of that bunch of kids I wanted to have that I was not going to have.
But now, over three years later, I wonder. I’m 32, if we’re gonna do this, we should do this. But can we? Do we want to? I’ve already told my mom to put away her hopes and the high chair she keeps in her dining room.
I’m doing so well on my depression/anxiety meds, do I want to mess with that? I really don’t.
But sometimes, looking at our two amazing kids, Bobby and I look at each other, and say, “Wow we make amazing kids. Maybe we need another one.”
And seeing baby Marler be born…it made me sad that I’ll never have that again.
All our baby stuff has long since been given away. We would really have to start over. And we don’t know if we want to or not.
So how did you know when you were done?
(P.S. Mom, please do not get excited.)