Becoming a Father Part IX: Sex and Naming Rights
In my wife's family, all of the intentional pregnancies are girls. One boy was born out of wedlock (they married when he was 1). One boy was unintentional but they were going to try at some point. One boy was part of a pair of fraternal twins. My wife and I were pretty sure since this was the most intentional pregnancy of the bunch that we would have a girl as well.
We didn't know what sex he would turn out to be ahead of time. After all of the struggles that we had with infertility it seemed like a good idea to inject some mystery back into the process. So we never peeked. Every ultrasound we told the technician not to tell us. Everyone asked "Aren't you curious?" Yes, but we could wait.
I don't get why people peek. It just seems like cheating. And despite all of the coaching that people give themselves "I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. " Honestly, I think everyone has a preferred sex for their baby. Sure people will say otherwise. They're lying. I would be less than truthful if I said that I didn't want a boy. Finding out ahead of time just gives you a feeling of disappointment if the baby's gender is not what you hoped for. And then you go to showers where you are overwhelmed with blue trucks or pink flowers. Not that babies are gendered too early or anything. I just don't get it.
So three hours after the main event starts, my wife and I have our baby. Up to that point we hadn't absolutely nailed down a name. To start with my wife eliminated the Top 100 baby names. She didn't want to have Mike D or Jenny D. Then we hit the baby name books. I came up with a list and she shredded it. Honestly, I think Lord would be a great name for something, but maybe not for a baby. She came up with a list and I shredded it. Oscar would have been more often associated with a trash-dwelling curmudgeon. Back and forth before we finally found a name we could agree on.
His middle name requires some history.My wife's sister and her husband called their first Jochen (pronounced Yoken) after a Blues hockey player at the time. She still responds to Jochen. I liked the idea. When I was in college, I thought that I would have a dozen children that I would name by stacking the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Bible on top of one another open and point. I realized that that was unlikely to ever work no matter how unlikely Jehosophat was to be popular. But I figured that it could work for an Inside-The-Womb name. And that was what we called our baby for nine months. Eventually the name just grew on us.
Oliver Agamemnon. Probably not the people's choice, but it was ours.
We didn't know what sex he would turn out to be ahead of time. After all of the struggles that we had with infertility it seemed like a good idea to inject some mystery back into the process. So we never peeked. Every ultrasound we told the technician not to tell us. Everyone asked "Aren't you curious?" Yes, but we could wait.
I don't get why people peek. It just seems like cheating. And despite all of the coaching that people give themselves "I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. I just want a healthy baby and a healthy mom. " Honestly, I think everyone has a preferred sex for their baby. Sure people will say otherwise. They're lying. I would be less than truthful if I said that I didn't want a boy. Finding out ahead of time just gives you a feeling of disappointment if the baby's gender is not what you hoped for. And then you go to showers where you are overwhelmed with blue trucks or pink flowers. Not that babies are gendered too early or anything. I just don't get it.
So three hours after the main event starts, my wife and I have our baby. Up to that point we hadn't absolutely nailed down a name. To start with my wife eliminated the Top 100 baby names. She didn't want to have Mike D or Jenny D. Then we hit the baby name books. I came up with a list and she shredded it. Honestly, I think Lord would be a great name for something, but maybe not for a baby. She came up with a list and I shredded it. Oscar would have been more often associated with a trash-dwelling curmudgeon. Back and forth before we finally found a name we could agree on.
His middle name requires some history.My wife's sister and her husband called their first Jochen (pronounced Yoken) after a Blues hockey player at the time. She still responds to Jochen. I liked the idea. When I was in college, I thought that I would have a dozen children that I would name by stacking the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Bible on top of one another open and point. I realized that that was unlikely to ever work no matter how unlikely Jehosophat was to be popular. But I figured that it could work for an Inside-The-Womb name. And that was what we called our baby for nine months. Eventually the name just grew on us.
Oliver Agamemnon. Probably not the people's choice, but it was ours.
Labels: Baby, Fatherhood
posted by mypetrock at 12:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home