the name

I'm backing up a bit (it's a little bit crazy how fast 2 weeks can go by, I feel like this news is now ancient, but still want to get the memories recorded).

Boy or Girl...

Dave was convinced we were having a girl.  And I was leaning much more towards feelings of girl too - but still being cautious because I have NEVER been right before - I don't have those feelings that some mom's get I guess. Why did we think girl? 

*Well surely SOMEONE has to have a girl.  After 4 friends having boys in Sept, Oct, and November, we kept thinking that we'd be the ones to have the girl.

*I was quite a bit smaller in the end of my pregnancy than I was with Mason

*I was going for more sweets than salts - which was one of the main things that differed between Taylor and Mason.

So, when Dave caught that first glimpse, and announced we had a boy, I think we were both somewhat surprised.

I laid there thinking - wow, we really just added to this mass of boys being born! 

The name...

Choosing a name for our third child was much harder than ever before.  With Taylor and Mason we found out the sex of the baby at our 18 week sonogram, so picking a name seemed easier I guess.  We always had them picked way in advance and had time to process it, get used to it, hear it being used, etc.  This time we were down to the final days, and even hours, before we would be meeting our little one who was still nameless. 

Our girl name...

We have loved a name for a long time and thought we were set on using it.  Until about a month before.  We were watching TV one night and fell quickly in love with a name that we heard. So we changed our girl name.  And we loved it!  And because we were both convinced we were having a girl - there was a small part of us that wanted to take the chance and just go in with a girl name only - seeing as the boy name was proving to be much harder for us.  But the planner in me just couldn't do that. 

Our boy name...

We had a list with ten or so names on it.  And 3 or 4 that we talked about more consistently.  But none that we were just completely in love with.  Dave kept saying we needed more options and I kept wondering where to get more options from, I thought I had already spent so much time searching around and looking at ideas.  We slowly began to talk about one name over the others and we chose a middle name to go with it. But every time we talked about it more, we both acted like we just still weren't sure.  2 nights before the baby was coming when I asked Dave if we were sure on this name, he responded with "I guess."

I was not completely okay with settling on a name with "I guess". 

One of my posts before the baby, I asked for name suggestions (just for fun, but also wondering if something new would come to us).  Someone left a comment with the suggestion of Gavin.  Gavin was on our list - just not one of the 3 or 4 we mentioned more than the others.  But for some reason when I was reading the comments to Dave and we came across this suggestion - it all of a sudden stuck with both of us more than it ever had before.  2 days before the baby, we changed the name to Gavin. 

But now our middle name needed to be changed too.

My dad's middle name is Russell, and we liked the way it sounded with Gavin.  On Monday before we left for the hospital we settled for sure on the middle name.

Gavin Russell

Whew! Nothing like the last minute.

It took awhile for the name to really sink in (it kind of still is).  We had no time to process it, to get used to it, or anything.  So needless to say, we drew a blank many times when we looked at him. And when the nurses asked how to spell Russell, we weren't even sure (I had to check with my dad on whether it was 2 l's or not). And multiple times we called him by the names of the other babies that had been born to friends lately and had been coming out of our mouths for the last month or two. 

Regardless of how long it took to find name and how last minute we were - we love it! And are so glad we changed it. It fits him, and us, perfectly!

We had fun little cards for some of our family and friends to fill out before Gavin was born.

                                   (Mason's guesses)                                             (Lily's guesses)

                               (Aunt Stef's guesses)                                      (Aunt Rebekah's guesses)

Aunt Stefanie came the closest by being one of the very few to guess a boy, and then also guessed his middle name (which at the point she guessed it, we hadn't even chosen that as the middle name for sure).

Aunt Rebekah was right on for the weight and a 1/2 inch off for the length.

One person guessed our girl name (she may or may not have had an unfair advantage), and another person guessed our girl's middle name.

It was so fun seeing everyone's guesses - especially the kids' :-)

I have some more pictures from the hospital I'm hoping I can get to soon.