The Name Game

It's been a pretty slow week . . . as far as the baby news is concerned. So I'm hoping that I can keep this week's posting nice and concise.

The week began with Emily receiving her results back from her blood work last week. To recap, the lab took two vials of blood to test for low blood sugar, gestational diabetes, and other blood-related disorders. Unfortunately, the tests did come back positive. This is pretty common in pregnancy and means that they wanted to bring her back in for more blood work in order to verify their initial results. So, Emily had to go back to the lab for three hours on Tuesday. They drew a vial every hour. Fortunately, we received the results back on Thursday and indicated that her bloodwork was normal and everything was fine. Whew! This entire pregnancy thing feels like you're dodging one bullet after the other. Especially with twins, there are so many risks, worries, and complications that can affect your pregnancy. I can only hope that everything from here on out goes as smoothly as it has thus far.

Our third "baby class" was pretty non-eventful as well. There was a reappearance of Paula, as we watched some more video footage, but it was brief and more tasteful (similar to this week's posting). We took a tour of the pediatric unit, nursery, and delivery rooms. The class paid for itself this week because they showed us where to go when we're ready to come to the hospital for delivery. Had they not shared that small bit of information, I fear that I could've driven around Community North with my laboring wife for an hour before finding out that I simply needed to go to the fourth floor for registration and the big event. I now feel a little more reassured in case we're in a hurry when that time comes.

That brings us to names. Naming these little ones has been an arduous chore. It's a decision that Emily and I have pondered over for several months now. Afterall, this single decision will give a name and identity to two human beings for the rest of their lives. That's a major decision! You can't rush to a name and end up giving your kids a name that will torment them when they're in elementary school and playing the banana-nana-fo-fana game. You'll put your kids through hell if you give them names like Mitch or Buck. Luckily, we have two girls on the way, so that wasn't much of a concern. However, with girls, you can't really tempt fate by giving them names like Chasity, Charity, Justice, or Purity. You know they'll grow up and become rebellious teens that do the exact opposite of what their name implies. Of course, you also have to stay away from names that infer certain professions. For example, Candy, Trixie, Barbie, and Bambi are names just setting your kids up for a profession in "pole aerobics". Then you have to think about those who are around you. I can't name either of my kids Jade because my sister's dog is named Jade and that would be . . . unusual. I know several Jennifer's, Kates, Beth's, and so adding another one to the mix is a bit too much. We wanted to be unique, yet not abnormal. We wanted cool, but feminine; hip, but respected; concise, yet formal; traditional, yet original. We wanted all of these things and had hundreds of thousands of choices. We have books that boast 100,001 BEST baby names. One hundred thousand best names. These are the cream of the crop. That doesn't even count the crappy ones! That's a lot to wrap your mind around. And on top of it all, we had to consider the fact that we're having twin babies of the same sex. You want their names to flow, yet you want them to have their own identity. Sure Sara and Kara sound like great twin names, but will they resent us in the future? Will they feel unique and able to find their own identities? These are the questions and concerns that we had when choosing names. So when you (yes, you) asked us if we had names picked out in the eighth week of pregnancy, and we looked at you like you were crazy . . . this is why. And when I refused to leak out the names we were considering over the past 28 weeks . . . . this is why. For us, there was a lot to think about, consider, ponder, and toss around. We understood your curiosity, but wanted to do this on our own. And we did! Afterall, this was our name game and we had enough players already.

So the names of the newest additions to the Lewis's will be:

First born (presumably Baby A) - Taylor Ann Lewis

Second born (presumably Baby B) - Madison Michael (maybe Elizabeth) Lewis

We liked Taylor and Madison for all of the above mentioned reasons. Ann is the middle name of both my mother and Emily's mother. Michael is just an awesome name so we had to stick it in there somewhere.

Hopefully this explains our thought process and satisfies your "need to know". Stay tuned next week for updates on our final baby class, a doctors appointment on Monday, and NEW ultrasound pics!

"Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of. . . The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."

-Socrates