The Name Game

I think the hardest decision of my life was choosing my childs name.
I remember sharing updates about our pregnancies at prenatal yoga, and all of the first time moms found it so difficult to pick THAT one name. The perfect name, the right name, the name that no one else has, the name that will get them through elementary school, high school, carpentry school, law school, and one day will be hopefully on their business card.

We went to the hospital with a list of about 12 names. But while in labour still at home, while NPE was asleep, I was already practicing writing HER name. I knew what it was going to be, and so did he. We just avoided talking about it in those last weeks because we had exhausted the subject for months.

The nurse came to me at 8:00 am the morning after she was born to fill out the baby's stats (full name, mothers name, fathers name). NPE was still not back at the hospital since he left at 5:00 am after her birth. I had no idea what to do! I was panicked, not only because I had this alien creature that I had no idea what to do with, but also because I could not reach him by phone because it was off the hook at home! I was completely alone...and yet I would never be alone ever again.

He came to the hospital (finally!), frazzled, freshly showered, and a new father. He looked at her and me and said, so do we still like M? I said, yup. That was it. Writing it on the official government forms was surreal.

Today, at her first Gymnastics class at the ripe age of 22 months, the sign read "sit on the bleachers and we will call your childs name". We sat with our friends until our name was called, and joined our new little group. I was the only mom who went with her child, but I knew there was no way she could participate on her own. Janna approached the name-caller-outter and said that we were supposed to be in the same group together and her daughters name was not called. So after a bit of ringamaroo, 7 months pregnant Janna and Lily joined M and I on the mats. The other kids in our group that were older (minus their mothers) were able to tell the coach what their names were. There was Austin, Aidan, M...what? TWO girls with the same name?

So, we were in the wrong group entirely. I jumped up when they read the M name, thinking it was MY kid with a unique name...nope, there is a girl probably about one year older than MY M with the same name. Janna and I trudged with toddlers in tow to our Baby Bears group, where every kid had their mother with them.

I've already started my list of names in the possibility of baby #2. There are names we have always liked, names that pop up, names that we absolutely loathe (that I won't mention here so I won't offend any parents, but my friends know what those names are!) That possibly will be the 2nd most difficult decision of my life.