Under Pressure …

I’ve been through this three times in my life already, but it is ultimately one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do? What is it? Picking a name for our baby on the way. Why is this so difficult?

First, I think it is so stressful because we do not know the gender of the baby yet. We will be going to find out in about 2 weeks. We did this with Ella, and it is even more important to do this with the baby on the way. Sam is a planner. If the baby is a girl, we are pretty much set. We have all of Ella’s clothes (despite the fact that “seasonally” they will be a bit different), and that is a good start. If it is a boy, however, we will probably have to go and buy a lot of new clothes. We have some “gender neutral” clothes, but “Daddy’s Little Princess” outfits are more for little girls.

Like every other set of expecting parents, before Ella was born (and before we knew she was a girl) we made lists. We had a list of possible girl names and a list of possible boy names. The list of boy names was shorter than the list of girl names. Whether it was just easier to come up with girls names, I don’t remember.

I think it also helped that both Sam and I thought we were having a girl, even before we had the ultrasound. We had plenty of girls names that we liked. Boy’s names, however, they were more difficult to come up with.

Sam is always tossing names my way. I will be sitting at work and she will text. I can be sitting on the couch and she say, “What about ___?” My issue has always been that I connect other people to names. “No. I knew a _____ and he annoyed me.” “No. That was the name of the mean doctor on (name a TV show).” “No. I don’t think that flows with our last name.” “Absolutely not! The boys had a friend with that name and he/she was a little brat!”

Am I the only who does this?

We went through a Baby Name book before Ella was born. We highlighted names we liked. It’s weird how you can go back through the book and see those names and go, “Eh…..I’m not sure I like that one anymore.” How do you do that? It happens! Let me tell you, we had two or three names that we were dead set on for a boy….now, Sam isn’t sold on them. Back to the drawing board. Back to Square #1.

Then factor in that Sam likes to be able to have a nickname, and that ads a bit more to the formula (Ella’s name is Pamela, but we call her Ella). It is a process that will hopefully become a bit easier when we find out the gender in a couple weeks. Do we have any gut feelings on what the baby is? Kinda. Sam is leaning blue and I am leaning pink. Reactions from family and friends is very mixed. I feel like most were thinking we were having a girl last time, but this time it is a pretty divided.

We’ll know soon…. in the meantime, I’m feeling the pressure to narrow down some names that we both can agree on!