Picking a Name

I am just realizing I never discussed how we came about naming Addie.  So let's take a step back.  As any other young girl, I had dreamed about the life I would one day have, the size of my house, my career, and the names of my children.  What you don't realize at that age is how different that dream looks from reality.  My house is not at all like I had pictured, I didn't turn out to be a dentist and I don't have twins named Brock Cole and Brook Lyn.  I know, I know, what was I thinking name my daughter after a city in NY and my son after my favorite vegetable.  I guess it's a good thing that dream didn't turn out how I had hoped!

You may remember reading about our pregnancy journey and the battles we faced to finally bring a baby home with us.  Much like any other couple who finds out they're pregnant, one of the very first things we did was start planning names.  Rick and I both quickly agreed that if we had a daughter her name would be Addison Grace.  But miscarriage after miscarriage, the name seemed like it wasn't meant to be.  It didn't feel right naming the daughter we would bring home the name that we hung onto for so long.  We had to let the name go.

Through the first several months of my pregnancy I didn't want to even think about names.  I was still trying to figure out how I would get through the next 6 months worried about every doctors appointment.  I couldn't let my mind think about a name in the event this pregnancy didn't stick.  But as the baby grew from month to month and the scale inched further and further up, we knew we had to start discussing names soon.  We both agreed to discuss the names with each other and tell no one our choice.  We didn't want our babies name to be judge by anyone we told. It wasn't their baby so their opinion didn't matter to us at all.

Interestingly enough, we couldn't decide.  Rick wanted more traditional names and I wanted a unique name.  We both knew we would give her the middle name of Grace but for months debated potential names for her.  We continued this debate on the way to the hospital after my water broke, again during the 20 hours of labor, and again as they prepped me for surgery.  We couldn't agree.  At this point we knew there were a couple names we both liked but didn't want to make a decision until we saw her.

The first time I heard her cry and saw her face hanging over the curtain in the operating room, the very last thing on my mind was her name.  So she remained nameless for nearly an hour until Rick and I were sitting in a triage recovery room by ourselves checking out our new baby.  We quickly pulled out our list of potentials and when we came across Adalyn we both quickly agreed.

And so our little baby was now named Adalyn Grace.

How did you decide on your babies name?  Tell us about it and come share over at Toddle Along Tuesday.

-stephanie