Names

Choosing names for our children has been more difficult than I thought it would be.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane. 

Remember when Joseph was born and we named him Christopher David? He still has a quilted blanket from my aunt with that name embroidered on it. We liked the name, but it wasn't the right one for him. So when he was 8 weeks old, we changed it to Joseph Ephraim, and that name has fit him very well. [There's more to the story, but that will suffice for today].

When Kathryn was born, we took our time naming her, to make sure we got it right the first time. Five days was all it took to settle on Kathryn Grace.

We knew David's first name before he was born, before I even knew I was pregnant. So, he was easy...except for his middle name. We still debate that one. His birth certificate says Jesse, but when he was blessed, David (his daddy) didn't include a middle name.

Sarah was the easiest to name. We knew that we wanted her to share her middle name with her birth mom, and we also consulted with her birth mom to make a list of acceptable first names. We had it down to two choices when she was born, but after meeting her it was easy to decide on Sarah Elizabeth.

Fast forward to January 24, 2012 when we welcomed this little lady into our family -

We tried to have a short list of names to choose from when she was born, but by Christmastime all the kids had started calling her Anna. I thought it was a nice name -- one that honored both of her grandmothers (LouAnn and Marian). But I wasn't convinced that it was her name. Before she was born I spent hours on baby naming websites, skimmed through three different baby name books, and even polled my friends. 

After she was born the kids continued to call her Anna, and without another name possibility, we just decided to "go with it". The days passed and I tried to figure out what her middle name should be. My midwife was getting impatient for us to fill out all the legal forms.

Then I started to think that maybe Anna wasn't her first name after all. It just wasn't working. Maybe it could be her middle name? So we thought of numerous possibilities and name combos. But nothing seemed quite right.

One Saturday evening as I was dressing her for bed and thinking how she didn't really look like an "Anna" to me, the thought came to my mind: She looks like a R__________(I'll tell you the name at the end). She sure did, but it wasn't one of my favorite names, so I didn't think too much about it, until the next day...

That Sunday at church my friend Kim asked me if we had decided on her name. (Hmmm...I didn't realize that anyone knew we were undecided at this point). I answered that the kids called her Anna, but that I wasn't sold on it. That's when Kim told me that she thought my baby looked like a R_____________. (The exact name that I had thought of the night before).

That night I told David about both experiences and he responded with, "That's what I said the day she was born!" Ooops, I guessed I missed that comment. So, we tried pairing this new name with Anna, either as first or middle name, but they didn't fit well together. David said she needed an "E" name to go with her other name.

A couple of week ago David woke up in the middle of night with the thought: Her name is R_____ E___. He woke me up to tell me. We decided that we would take the hint, so we've officially changed this sweet baby's name to...

Rachel Eve

 David and I haven't had too much trouble switching to calling her Rachel. Joseph has it down too. Sarah and Kathryn are working on it. But baby David is adamantly against it. He calls her Anna still and gets mad when we correct him. He says "NO, NOT!"

On a side note: we noticed a few weeks ago that miss Rachel was born on the same date that her great Grandma Wiseman passed away, one year later. (See this post).

A (Not So) Brief Update

I've been meaning to post some pictures from Christmas but our other laptop (where I had the pictures stored) crashed two weeks ago and the hard drive was completely fried. Don't worry, I still have the pictures on my cell phone, so you'll see them eventually.

The kids have been back in school for two weeks but David has still been home because the college doesn't start classes until next Tuesday. He's been so helpful and it's been nice to be able to rest when I need it. David spent several days finishing up one of our big house projects. With the help of a good friend and his fancy power tools, David has successfully installed all the baseboards and door/window trims in our house. He also put up beadboard around Sarah's room (at 3 feet high) and the baby room (at 5 1/2 feet high). I love the way it looks! It's so nice to feel like everything is put back together again--our baseboards were pulled off over a year ago when we had the new carpet installed and we decided to upgrade from the plain, flat 1" stuff to something more modern and 4" tall. The next project will be painting all of that trim...but not for a few months.

I'm am growing larger everyday and recently hit an all-time high weight, even though I haven't gained as much as last time, I started out 15 pounds heavier. So, I feel huge and am ready for this baby to come...except that we're not totally prepared with the right car seats (to fit 5 seats in the van) or other things like that yet. My mom is coming out here next Thursday and will stay for a week. She will actually leave before my due date, but I'm really hoping (feeling pretty confident) that she won't miss the baby. Either way, having some help will be great, whether she's helping us prepare (making freezer dinners, etc.) or taking care of the other 4 kids while I take care of a newborn, I'm grateful for any aid I can get. I'm 37 weeks along now and I'll hit 38 weeks on Sunday-ish. We're planning another home birth as long as everything is going smoothly---and I hope and pray it does because the hospital here just seems so yucky to me.

I hope you are all having a wonderful 2012. Maybe my next post will be about our new baby. =)

P.S. Do you have any name suggestions for us? The kids have a name that they call her, but I am still undecided and don't have any middle names on a list either.
For first names, I prefer...
1. Very traditional names, or
2. Names that are part of our family history, or
3. Names of people we admire, and
4. Names with 2 syllables, (three syllable names are too long and always get shortened to nicknames, one syllable names often get lengthened when they are made into nicknames).

I don't want...
1. Ultra popular names (check out the top 10 names of 2011 for a list of names we won't use--at least not for a first name), or
2. Names that are too similar to Kathryn (Katie, Katelyn, Kaylynn, etc.), or
3. Names that don't translate well into Spanish (a kid whose parents both teach Spanish has a good chance of traveling abroad or living in a Spanish-speaking country during childhood, so having a compatible name is useful....my name is completely un-pronounceable in Spanish).

Okay, I think that's most of our my criteria. Middle names don't have to follow all the rules. So....any ideas?