What's in a name?

I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I have a baby.  Hell!  Just the fact that I have two kids tends to blow my mind some days.

 

What I'm also trying to get used to is the baby's name.

 

I call the baby the Chipmunk here, but his real name is James...it isn't, but let's just say that's what it is.  It would have been extremely cruel for us to name him that with the last name it would be paired with. 

 

Anyway, when I was still pregnant with him we were absolutely, positively sure it was a girl.  So sure, in fact, we hadn't come up with any boy's names until two weeks before I was due.  We had a girl's name that we absolutely loved, but knew we should come up with a boy's name just in case we were wrong.

We decided on James since we liked the possible nicknames and it seemed to go with the Monkey's name.  We thought we would call him Jimmy most of the time, but it turns out we use Jim or James most often.  I don't think we've referred to him as Jimmy unless it was a joke.

 

The day the Chipmunk was born was one of the scariest days of my life.  Things were not going as planned at all and I ended up needing an emergency C-section after 24 hours of unmedicated labor (unmedicated for pain, about 14 hours of pitocin).  The doctor's were so concerned with saving him, and making sure nothing happened to me, that they forgot to check the gender when he was taken out.

 

Since I was so numb (as well as petrified) I had no idea that he had been taken out already until one of the doctor's said that the baby looked ok and they were getting ready to stitch me up.  All day the doctor had been referring to the baby as he and him.  She wasn't my regular doctor so she had no idea what the gender was, I just think it was her way of not confusing the baby with the mother (who is most definitely a she/her).  So, after she had said she was going to stitch me up, she followed that with "he's just going to get looked over and then brought to the nursery". 

 

This is what went through my head - Wait, did she just say he?  Was that because it's a he?  Or, is it because she's been referring to it as a he since I was admitted last night?

 

So, we did the logical thing and asked her to clarify.

 

Turns out she didn't look.  Thankfully, the anesthesiologist ( I sooo had to look that up) offered to go check for us.  When he returned he confirmed that the Chipmunk was indeed a boy.

 

After that, everything just moved so fast.  The Chipmunk was taken down to the NICU for additional monitoring since he wasn't breathing right.  I ordered Hubby to go with him.  After I was stitched up I was taken to a room for observation as well.  By the time I was out of Recovery, Hubby had told everyone in our families - as well as the hospital staff taking care of him - that his name was James.

 

Unfortunately, I don't feel like he is a James or a Jim.  And he's definitely not a Jimmy.

 

What makes it worse is that his middle name is my maiden name.  Given the crap that went on with my parents a few weeks after he was born, I'm sure you can see why that pains me.

 

To sum up, I'm not sure about his first name and I hate his middle name.  I know I could have the names changed, it just seems wrong now.  I just wish Hubby had waited to confirm with me that that's what I was sure I wanted his name to be. 

I should have given naming responsibilities to Clink.  She has already suggested a new nickname for my mother-in-law - BMIL (British Mother in Law).  I think this is genius!  She likely would have done much better than we did with the baby's name - dontcha think?