STOP CALLING IT, "IT"

And if any topic is appropriate for a blog, the topic of babies it is. As many of you know, I’m 4.5 months pregnant with my last child. I mean…my fourth child. I can’t help but focus on the fact that we are shutting the reproduction factory for good after this go ‘round. It’s bittersweet, really.

Nevertheless, in as little as a week, we’ll be able to stop calling it, “it.”

Everyone is more excited about that than me. I suppose it’s because this time, I truly don’t have a gender preference. I see pros having either or. Or perhaps it’s because I cannot settle on a name.

Baby naming is not as easy as family tradition, religion, ethnicity, and fad following. No…names matter. They make that first impression before we ever appear in person. However challenging, it’s also fun. It’s a way of imagining him or her in the future, having their name called out, coloring it across a school folder.

I suppose, in a way, it’s the last indulgence; one more chance to pretend that we control who they ultimately become.

If it’s a boy:         If it’s a girl:

Tripp                      Rivers

Jett                        Winter

Lake                       Piper

Rory                       Lorelei

I'm so curious: Which baby names are your favorites these days? Do you care if a name is popular? How do you brainstorm names? Have you known your names forever, or did it take you ages to pick? Do you secretly more pets – just to get an opportunity to name the unnamed?