Sunday, November 20, 2011

The one where I get cold feet

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose- by any other name would smell as sweet."
On the other hand, a name is a big deal.  A name is a lifetime commitment that we don't even get to choose for ourselves.  A name doesn't determine a personality, no, but it still sets some sort of tone for the person's image.
We will name this baby and it's not going to change who he is, I understand that. However, when we settled on the name Bryce, I thought it was the right choice because it was Mike's favorite. It wasn't my top name, but of course I did like it.  Mike and I often make decisions based on a point system.  He rates it on a scale of 1-10 based on how much he likes it or how important it is to him and I do the same.  Whoever out scores the other wins.  It's not a competition and we both play fair so that the system continues to work.  When deciding between two names we add our scores together and the top scoring name wins.  Mike's top choice out-scored mine and I wanted a name that we both liked.  
I also felt a very strong need to chose a name once they were sure it was a boy.  I had so many emotions tied up in the baby being a girl and it was hard for me to accept and connect.  I felt that if we named him and I could start calling him by it then he would become real and I could let go of the little baby girl in my head.  So maybe I was rushed into the name.  Maybe I should have given it more time.
Maybe I'm just having good old fashion cold feet about the whole thing because we are now two months out from the birth of this baby.  I have been perfectly fine calling him Bryce for almost three months now, so why the sudden doubt?  I know I only want two children, so maybe it's because this is the last name I will ever choose for a child, so I'm putting too much weight on it. 
Every time I tell myself that the name has been chosen and I should just stop thinking about it- I get a panicky feeling in my gut that shouts "NO!"  After a few days I realized I couldn't ignore it.
I felt terrible bringing it up to Mike. It felt so unfair to go back on my decision.  I'm not the only one naming this baby, of course, and he's grown very connected to the name.  Now I'm asking him to open his mind to more options again?  Unlikely story. 
What I know is that it suddenly felt wrong to call him Bryce. I imagined him running around the house, playing with Reed, laughing- and it wasn't Bryce.  One of my main issues is that I found a few people I know have named their daughters Bryce.  My boys need manly names. I don't want any hint of feminine quality to it.
But at one point I was completely fine committing to the name, so that's why I don't get why I'm having the cold feet.  This never happened with Reed.  I was one hundred percent committed to his name from minute we made the decision, which was about two weeks after we saw the positive on the stick.  The name felt right all the way to my bones.  Maybe it's unrealistic to think I could have that again, I know a lot of people struggle with names.  Many of my friends couldn't even name their baby until after birth because they needed to look into their baby's face.  I had never understood that, but now I'm beginning to see how names aren't so cut and dry all the time.  How they aren't so easily predetermined. 



I'm open to advice or comments if anyone wants to help me get through this!

2 comments:

  1. sweet girl i had no idea you were struggling with this! i will tell you we couldn't name sophie till we saw her. we had three names and we just had to see who she was when she came out. i always envied people who could decide ahead...i couldn't even name my pets until i saw them! you'll have to keep me posted!

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  2. Aw thanks Kelly! Haha, I agree with the pets! I've always had to name them based on looks/personality, too!

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