What's in a Name?

Lucy:

When we first told Stella there was a baby in my belly I don’t remember her initial reaction, and I think it’s because it took weeks and months for her to really start to communicate her understanding of the situation (trust me, I still have a hard time understanding such a miracle myself). Normal conversations would be about baby sister or brother and what would you name it. For a while there Stella wanted to call the baby Pink, I relate this name choice to more of the fact that she wanted a baby sister.

Then one day, she just started calling the baby in my belly, baby Lulu. We don’t know where it came from, but it stuck. So much so the teachers at her daycare would ask about baby Lulu.

In the mean time, Michael and I were still debating names… and one day it hit us, let’s check out the Lu sections of the baby name books, Stella might be on to something. For a girl the cute, classic, and familiar name of Lucy caught our attention. (I’m not one for shortening names, so it’s just Lucy, not Lucille). Plus, we had the opposite problem with the name Lucy that most people do, everyone we knew named Lucy we loved/love! So we didn’t have to turn or noses up at the idea.

The boy name we went back and forth with, remember we didn’t find out the gender with this one.    At first it was Lewis (Lu sound at least). Then Michael came in one day from work and announced “I don’t like Lewis, I just don’t want to do it”. So I asked what he had in mind and he said “Luke”, which still stuck with the Lu theme. I was on board.

Basically Stella named her baby sibling and we were still able to call it baby Lulu the whole time. It was a sweet gesture I felt both of them would really appreciate in later years.

Ramona:

Stella’s middle name is Marie, after Michael’s grandma. A woman who was very dear and near to his heart, not to mention Stella Marie just flows so well. So we went with it.

The idea of a new baby brought on some fun thoughts for names, and I always felt the middle name is a perfect space to pay tribute to a family member or friend.

My grandmother’s name is Ramona. She was a strong, independent woman who also had a lot of baggage and undo rest to her nature. I contemplated naming this one Ramona as a first name. I would get lots of praises from people when I would mention it, however I would get nervous about the self-fulfilling prophecy or expectation that might come with it as a first name namesake, and honestly I couldn’t make myself ever comfortable with it as a first name. So I put it on my middle name list. I hope my grandmother appreciates the decision we made, I can hear her say either way, but in my heart she was a wonderful lady and I can’t think of a better way to show my love for her.

A Birth Story (Baby Sister)

It was a Friday, half day at school, which means we have kids half the day and the other half is spent in professional development meetings. My principle had scheduled my maternity sub to come in and help me out in the morning and for me to meet with her to organize things (my morning was club photos for yearbook so the extra sub help was great).  We had tried to meet up the day before as well, but it was the umpteenth snow day of the semester, so needless to say I was very far behind in my planning for the semester.

I was running around all morning getting group pictures in and making sure my sub had things handled. Finally I had a break and was able to sit down with her and talk to her about the semester. I felt very rushed, almost like I needed to get everything in one day, like I knew something was up…

About 11:30 I noticed a wetness that didn’t seem normal, but it also wasn’t your typical “water breaking gush” you hear about. So in between meeting with my sub and beginning the afternoon meetings I called my doctor to ask about it. They wanted me to come in. Now you see I have a track record of being a little over cautious, so I didn’t want to jump into a hospital bed two weeks early because of a little wetness.

I called my mom to tell her what was up, she said it was good timing to be a Friday and that she would head up either way. She also told me to go to the hospital because at this time, its better safe than sorry, thankfully we now had a plan for Stella at least. During my webinar meeting I tried 20 some odd times to get a hold of Michael and finally got him. He also told me I should go, so we made a plan that I would finish out my day at school, 2:30pm, then we would meet at home.

At 2:30 we met at the house, thankfully my bag was packed, so I grabbed some bathroom essentials, just in case and Michael packed his bag. We showed up to the hospital and they got me checked in. The nurses took my vitals and checked me for amniotic fluid. They didn’t see anything, but the doctor came in and took a sample and explained to me if we see ferning on the screen then this is amniotic fluid, and if they didn’t they would do an ultra sounds to see what was going on.

The doctor walked back in about 10mins later and said “guess what I saw?” Honestly, I thought she was going to say nothing, but she said “ferning!”  I even told her “I didn’t think you were going to say that” she then replied “I didn’t either.” So they got me started on a pit drip because I wasn’t having contractions and having fluid leak for too long can lead to infection.

It was about 9:00pm I started getting regular contractions, my pit was up to about 18 (20 is the highest it goes) I was getting really excited and had to pee about every hour as well. Went to the bathroom and my contractions stopped… nothing. So my nurse upped the pit to 20 and I fell asleep. About 1:00am I woke up with contractions and Michael helped me breath through them for an hour or so when I asked the nurse to check me. I had been a “stretchy two” for the last month and I told her “I hope I’m not still a stretchy two” she checked me and told me what I didn’t want to hear “stretchy two”.

Another good hour of contractions went by and they were getting more and more intense, I asked to be checked again,  this time I was at a 3-4 and she asked me if I wanted an epidural, I asked if it was too early and she told me no, not if I felt like I needed it.

About 3:30am the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. Now I don’t divulge this information to many people because it makes me seem like such a sissy, but I’m a fainter. IV’s make me faint, getting my blood drawn by a tech who doesn’t know how to find a vein makes me faint, and I think it goes without saying a large needle in my spine will make me faint. So I set up on the side of the bed, held the pillow and the nurse while I breathed in between contractions and the needle. I fainted just after he gave it to me and they laid me down on my right side, doing this must have turned the medical tubing because I could still feel everything on my left side and numb on the right side. PAINFUL!

The nurse turned off my pit because I was in a regular pattern now. I was in so much pain, vomiting, the other stuff, trying to breath, I could feel the pit contractions on my left side and it was crazy. About 4:45am the nurse checked me again and I was a 6. Thankfully the doctor came in and tried to adjust the tubing, but it didn’t work. About 45mins more of left-side only contractions and finally I rang the nurse and told her I needed to go. She checked me and I was complete. It was one of those scenes, “get the doctor! She’s complete! Get the doctor!” almost like they weren’t expecting me to go from a 6-10 in an hour or two.

Finally the anesthesiologist came back in and said this is the last thing I can do for you, it will make you feel really heavy. I was prepped and ready to go, feeling loopy, and we were just waiting on the doctor. They asked me to do a couple practice pushes and said I looked great. The doctor showed up a little after 6:00am and we started pushing. I remember the doctor stepped out to check on another patient and returned and put on her gown and mask. I pushed a few more times and on the last push I saw my doctor watching the monitor very closely. She asked the nurse if it was “low” I didn’t know what she meant at the time, but later she told me the baby's heart rate dropped with the last contraction, which meant the cord was around babies neck. There was a quick snip, because baby needed to come out on this push. Once the head was out the doctor clamped the cord and cut it from around baby’s neck… and won’t you believe it, Michael got hit in the face AGAIN with cord blood (exact same thing with Stella). One more push, “it’s a girl!”

She was a little blue at first because of the cord, but nothing to serious and nothing a few good pats on the back couldn’t take care of! Apgar at 1 min was 8! Go baby girl! I remember getting teary eyed calling her my baby girl, thinking I don’t have just a Stella anymore. A lot of my concern was and still is with Stella, however big sister is handling the situation with grace, poise, and the most caring and loving hands; falling in love with both of my babies over and over again.

Welcome to the world Lucy Ramona!