Sunday, August 3, 2008

Introducing He Who Is Un-named - Still. Sort of.

As predicted, Baby Boy #3 joined our family in July instead of August, although even earlier than expected. He was 2 weeks, 1 day early, born on July 24 at 11:36 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. The weight thing made me glad that he hadn't hung out for another week or two - I would've been giving birth to a baby the size of a first grader.

The baby's name was (and continues to be) a small source of contention. As this was our third boy, we were running a bit dry on ideas for boy names. Despite the fact that we had 9 months to come up with one, we entered the delivery room with our options narrowed down to 3 or 4 combinations, none of which we were both crazy about.

So we didn't name him. He continued to be Baby Boy Fox for the first two days of his life while we tried to see if he "looked" like any of the names would suit him. Nothing really stuck. By the end of day two, my mom and I were calling him Squeaky No Name, which seemed appropriate enough for the hospital setting but not formal enough for a birth certificate.

All the while, Aaron and I continued to discuss names. We turned off our cell phones to avoid the countless calls from well-meaning friends and relatives wanting to know if he had a name yet. Knowing that we HAD to name him before we left the hospital, the pressure was really mounting and the naming discussions got tense. It turns out that only one of us had actually been considering name options for the past 9 months. My husband informed me that he really hadn't given it much thought until the past day or two and he felt it was a decision that couldn't be "rushed".

We finally came to pseudo-consensus on Joshua Quinn. Sort of. We both liked both of the names, but couldn't decide if we wanted to call him Josh (Aaron's unstated top choice, despite the fact that I asked him 100 times to display a preference) or Quinn (my clearly stated top choice). So we agreed to call him Quinn. We called the grandparents and a few friends to begin spreading the word for us. And the matter was settled. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to the next morning. When I hear Aaron whispering, "Hello, Baby JOSH" to the baby. Clearly the matter was NOT settled. So we delayed making a decision and sent out his email birth announcement under the name Joshua Quinn (no nicknames mentioned). We marched through the next few days calling him everything from Josh to Quinn to Josh Quinn (Cade's choice). Finally, when he was 5 days old, I found myself telling my mother in law a story about him where I repeatedly called him "The Baby" because I didn't know what his name was. And I decided enough was enough. Aaron clearly preferred Josh and I was getting to the point where I really didn't care. And besides, Josh was growing on me.

We're still spreading the word to a few key friends from the early days that his name has changed, so if you're reading this, help us out.

Welcome to the Fox family, Baby Josh. And get ready, because yes - we are always this insane.

3 comments:

Linda said...

Welcome Baby Josh. We can't wait to meet you!!

Alecia said...

Congrats on Baby Josh! I just discovered your blog and love reading about all your adventures. They seem eerily similar to mine in some aspects (except with girls). ;)

I can't wait to read your book when it's completed and published.

Kim Moldofsky said...

Congratson the baby. And more cograts because (I know this took forver) you also won my "pay-it-forward" book, Raising Your Spirited Child.
Stop by my blog and drop me an email with your address.