June 10, 2012 OR what's in a name: Gemma Josephine

Naming a baby is hard for us.  We are indecisive and a name is something that sticks with someone for (potentially) their whole life.

Before I forget, here is how Gemma's name came to be:

(back story)

I came across the name Gemma in the middle of 2008.  It was in the online journal, much like this one, of a friend of a friend of a friend.  Someone I will likely never meet who lives in another state.  I liked the name immediately and when we got pregnant with Amelia, I put it on the table as a possible girl's name.  John didn't love it.  He didn't even like it.  He didn't outright tell me he didn't like it, just changed the subject when the name came up - which I didn't especially notice as I am easily distracted.

During Amelia's pregnancy, I paired Gemma with the middle name Josephine.  My great grandma's middle name was Josephine.  I love the G/J sounds together AND I loved and respected my great grandma very much.  She had so many admirable qualities and had such a strong character, I am proud to name my daughter after her.

As we all know now, Amelia was a girl and we put 3 names into the hat to choose from, including Gemma's.  Out came Amelia from the hat.  There is more to that story, but this one is about Gemma's name.

(Gemma's story)

The first day with our new baby, we introduced her to her Grandpa Kevin, Grandma Kim and her siblings.  We talked on the phone to a number of people and posted on this website and Facebook.  We kept saying "we need to talk about what to name her" and nurses, drs, and family would interrupt us.  John napped and I admired the baby (I was supposed to be napping too, but just wasn't able to).  That first full night (6/9), we started talking about names and confirmed the two candidates were the only names on the table.  John leaned toward one name and I leaned towards the other name (for the record this is so very much typical of us.  We agree on big and important things and rarely agree on the smaller stuff).  As we talked, it became clear that we both needed to sleep in order to have such an important discussion and be coherent.  So, we went to bed.

Grandma helped the kids bake a birthday cake for Gemma's birthday and brought it to the hospital!  They loved it and so did I!

Grandma meets the unnamed baby

Grandpa meets unnamed baby

Or, that should say: John went into a coma like sleep and Kelly fed the baby every 2 hours* for the next nine hours.  John had helpfully set an alarm on his cell phone to go off every three hours and set up a chart in his notebook to track feedings.  John would not. wake. up.  The poor guy had worked all day on Friday (up at 5am) and then was up for close to 24 hours to welcome our baby.  I was not sympathetic.  At one point, the alarm on his cell phone alarm went off for close to 20 minutes (it was set to remind us about when the next feeding time was supposed to be).  Right next to his head.  He did not hear it at all.  I did, as I had just finished feeding a baby and was trying to sleep.  No calling, throwing of objects, turning on lights or other tactics worked to awake my exhausted husband.

I think in total, I got roughly 2 hours of sleep that night in no more than fifteen minute chunks.  In between, I grumbled in my head at my (loudly) snoring husband.

 Because it was John's birthday and I knew how tired he was,  I let him sleep in until 8:30am.  But, I also had a secret agenda: I wanted to go home early.  We were scheduled to go home on Tuesday morning.  I was ready to go home.  It was John's birthday and William had a Tball event that evening.  I wanted to eat at home with my family and have William get to Tball.  Most importantly, I was ready to sleep in my own bed.  We had to get moving to turn in the birth certificate paperwork, have pictures taken, Gemma needed her hearing tested and we both needed to get doctor clearance for us to leave.  To fill out a birth certificate required agreement upon a name. 

As is our tradition, we put both our names into a hat and drew one out.  Gemma Josephine came out**.  Paperwork was filled out, pictures taken, doctors cleared and by early afternoon we were on our way home.

Mama, Daddy and Gemma on our way home from the hospital

At home!  Several items to notice: 1.  I am so SO glad we got rid of the other storm door on Friday night.  This is such a better picture with the newly painted door.    2.  I am wearing John's pajama pants because I neglected to pack any pants for myself.  I had lovely shirts to choose from, but not ONE pair of pants.  I totally rocked the pajama pants.

*Somehow, the way newborn feedings are tracked, they count the START time of a feeding, not the ending.  So, I fed her every two hours from the BEGINNING of one feed to the BEGINNING of the next feed.  Newborn babies are not good at feeding yet, so feedings can take 30-60 minutes.  Even though it may appear there was some time for sleep between feedings, there was not.  In between feedings, I was changing poopy diapers and talking to nurses who came to check on us.

** For the record, this is the name John preferred***.  He went from disliking it three years ago to preferring it to our other name choice.  I find this hilarious.

***So far, John is three for three****.  He has gotten his name preference from the supposedly neutral hat three times.  I have always agreed upon the final name candidates, but never gotten my preference.  I strongly doubt we will test this a fourth time.

****Do I love that he always gets his way?  No.  I do not.  Do I dislike any of the names? No.  I love them.