The Name...

Oh man... we had a rough time picking a name with this baby. I had picked a name right from the get go that I liked. Brigg. Cory hated it. Well... then I explained to him how much a actually loved this name. I decided that I just wouldn't push it much throughout the pregnancy and eventually he'd come around (0; One day around the half way point, Cory called me at work and told me that he would be okay if we named the baby Brigham and called him Brigg. I almost cried I was SO excited. And that's the way it was for a few months. Then one day Cory said, "Hey, we should probably start thinking of names for the baby".

WHAT????? I was devastated that my plan of just laying low didn't work. When I asked him about our earlier conversation, he said that even though Brigham was on the list... that didn't mean he was 100% okay with that name. WHAT???? When I asked him what names he was thinking of he told me Tucker. WHAT????

We visited this topic of conversation multiple times during my pregnancy, and then retreated quickly. Neither one of us were on the same page... I mean, no where near the same page.

When we went to the hospital I was still certain that the name should be Brigham (well, Brigg actually), but again I was laying low to not overwhelm Cory and to slowly convince him. Plus, everyone said "Just wait until you see him, maybe you'll know then". I thought I could use that to my advantage...  ha ha ha.

Then I had the baby. And guess what? I knew! I knew that my baby's name WASN'T Brigham. And that's all I knew. Which was irritating. I am not your average mother on so many levels and this was one of them. I've heard of so many people who look at their baby for the first time and just KNOW their name. Not me, all I know is what their name is not. Hmmm....

Well Cory still wanted Tucker. Like really wanted it. All I have to say is any name that you cant sing the following song too
"Rachel Rachel bo bachel banana nana fo fachel me my mo machel Rachel"
you should do your kid the favor and not name them that. I realize that every kid will probably get made fun of a time or two for their name, but I wanted to help them out as much as possible.

After two days in the hospital, many many questions from hospital staff, family and friends and lots of names being tossed around, Cory and I were back where we started. I HATED all of his names, and he REALLY HATED all of my names. We decided that the only fair way of choosing a name was for each of us to put 3 names in a hat and then we would pull the name and whatever name was pulled we both HAD to be okay with it. This was serious.

My names:
Brigham
Grayson
Mason

Cory's names:
Tucker
Lane
Garrett

We put them in the hat and both of us were super nervous. Cory let me pick the name from the hat. I did so and opened it and started crying, because this is what I saw:

Tucker.

I couldn't back out of it. But lucky for me Cory took pity on me, probably because I had just pushed his 7 lb. 4 oz. child out of me and now I was crying. So he said, "Let's pick another one". I jumped at the offer and even said he could pull the name. He did so and opened it and threw the paper on the bed. When I opened it, this is what I saw:

Brigham.

HA HA HA!!! Well now I couldn't get what I wanted after he gave up what he wanted, that and the fact that I already had my revelation that wasn't his name. We were both so frustrated it was ridiculous and the name out of a hat was not working. So... I suggested that we throw out all of the names that we had and start 100% over. Cory agreed and we agreed to call it a night. We had a lot to do before we left the hospital the next day. As we were getting ready for bed Cory said, "What about the name Parker?" This was super weird because I had briefly thought of the name earlier but tossed it aside knowing that Cory hated every name that I said. I told him that. We agreed to sleep on the idea of that name and discuss it in the morning. The next morning as soon as we woke up Cory said, "Yup, I'm feeling REALLY good about the name Parker" lucky for him as soon as he said it the night before I felt the same way.

WHAT A RELIEF!!!

Fast forward three weeks to yesterday at church. Cory and I teach the 7-8 year old's in Primary. One of the girls came up to me and asked to look at the baby. She asked what his name was. When I told her she said "I knew it! I'm so smart." Thinking she was like most 7-8 year old know it all's I didn't think much of it. Then a few minutes later she said to me, "didn't you say that whoever guessed the name would get a treat? Because both Samantha and I guessed the name Parker." That's when I remembered that the Sunday before I had the baby we had a baby naming contest with the kids and each of them got to guess what we would name the baby. I didn't believe that the girls had actually picked the name Parker and I went rummaging through my lesson manual to find that paper and guess what I came across??? Both of the girls really had picked the name Parker!!! That is 2 of the 6 kids we had there that day. That is 1/3 of the class basically told us what to name him! The funny thing is, both Cory and I remember thinking that we would never use any of the names that they guessed. If we would have thrown our list away earlier and actually listened to these kids, we could have saved ourselves a lot of STRESS and GRIEF!

Two lessons learned:

1) When you are stressed with a decision, there comes a point when you just need to take a step back, maybe start all over, and perhaps sleep on it.

2) Listen to the little people in your life.

Life with a toddler and a newborn in the first week

Well... it has been fun! Newborns are so fun. And Parker is such a doll. He is so content with sleeping and eating. He is up every three hours to eat and be changed and we were told that he would sleep a lot in the beginning because he was early. So I will do the Baby Wise again with Parker, and we'll see if it's really all its cracked up to be, or if Tate is just an amazing sleeper. Poor little Parker baby... poops after every single feeding. I don't remember that with Tate. The problem is his little bum is rubbed raw! We cant even use wet wipes on it because of the alcohol. We've been using a wet wash cloth, but it still isn't all the way healed up yet. One thing I've learned with Tate is that the best thing for diaper rash is to let it air out... but how do you do that with a newborn? I've been trying to give it at least 10 minutes a day with some open air. Hopefully we get control of that soon, because diaper changing is quite the process right now. We have to wash him down with the wet wash cloth, apply to heavy duty cream to the rash, apply the Vaseline to the circumcised pee pee and then diaper him up. Poor little man. Even with all of that drama, he's still such a good baby.

Tate has been quite a challenge. Not really. Just every now and then. But when he is... he's out of control. I know that he's got a little cold and that is making him runny and coughy, but on top of that, I'm pretty sure that he's got some serious teeth coming in. He only had two nights where he had a hard time with his regular routine, and he's back to sleeping all the way through the night. Having Tate in the next room has made getting up with the baby easier this go around because I jump right out of bed so that the baby doesn't wake up my toddler. I wish I could say the same for Cory. He still is mean and ornery in the night... but he's still gotten up for his turns, so I cant complain...well I can, but I shouldn't. Tate was turning in to a little bit of a mommy's boy before the babe came around, but now more than ever. He's never had a hard time visiting the ladies I work with, but now as soon as we step foot in to the office he is clinging to me for dear life. Which isn't a bad thing. Its just different. As a mom I feel guilty all the time about them being so close and Tate not being an only child anymore, but the thing is... Tate LOVES his baby brother "Carper". He wants to kiss him all the time and gets very emotional if Parker is crying. He doesn't quite understand that he's not hurt. But he's such a concerned and protective brother. I really hope that they will be best buddies forever.

 Tate loves to peek at his baby

This is our first family prayer together. Tate was so excited to have the baby laying next to him.

 

Saturday marked our year mark of being in our house. Its so exciting! We absolutely love it here and love our ward. I have made some incredible friends that I don't know what I would do without. I cannot even explain the level of support, service and love that I have felt from our ward. We have had someone stop by or call every single day since we had the babe. We have had meals and offers to take Tate for walks. We've had gifts and phone calls. I am so very grateful for this ward and for the examples that have been shown to me. I will forever want to try my hardest to treat others the way that we have been treated. I never knew that a ward/community could be this amazing!

 



Cory got to take off a few days so that he could help me out, so I decided to have mom come down and help me when he had to go back to work. My mom came down the Friday after he was born and those 3 days went by so fast. She worked her butt off to clean my nasty house, and I was so grateful. I was so embarrassed to have all of our visitors coming over and seeing my house turned upside down. Bless her! Tate loved having his "grandpa" here. For some reason we cannot get him to hear the difference between grandpa and grandma, but it is so cute. He has been so cute with her and she has just taken care of us all. The morning after she left Tate woke up and went right downstairs to the room she was staying in and was saying "grandpa... where are you? grandpa...." it was so cute, but so sad at the same time.

I really had a hard time with mom leaving. Of course it didn't help that she left about a week after the baby was born, which is right when the baby blues set in. I've been really scared to have my first day alone. Today was that day. Cory didn't work until 2, so we had him all morning, but once he had to start getting ready for work I had to change the baby. He had so much poop that I decided to put him in the bath and let his rash air out. Well, he was not happy about that and screamed and screamed, which woke up Tate from his nap and terrified him. Cory was trying to run out the door and then I realized I had just put the towel's in the wash and needed one from the closet, but couldn't leave the babe in the tub to do so, all the while both boys are hysterical and Cory is running out the door. YUP, pretty much exactly how I pictured the start of me being home alone with the boys. It took me about an hour to get both boys taken care of calmed down. Then things were good until about 5 (which is of course when the baby woke up and needed to be fed and changed) Tate's mouth started to drool and he got so grumpy that he flipped out over something small and then wouldn't stop. So both boys were screaming again. And right then Cory called asking how I was doing!!! Holy HECK! At least I didn't cry at all today. I did say many many prayers!!! I decided to pack both the boys up and take them for a car ride, which was the ticket!!! Parker fell asleep and Tate calmed down. Cory met us and had a Pina Colada Boba drink for me. He was only able to spend literally 5 minutes with us, but it was 5 minutes that I needed of reassurance. When we came home everything fell in to place perfectly! I know that this is a new routine, and I have to have patience with the boys and more importantly with myself, but two things that I have been EXTREMELY thankful for during this time is the help from others and PRAYER. I know Heavenly Father has put a lot of trust in me and Cory to send us these two amazing boys, and I know that he is going to help me as long as I ask Him. I am so grateful for a knowledge and testimony of prayer. And I am so grateful for my family! Although it is tough, and scary, I am loving every minute of it.

 

But honestly... how did my mom have 6 kids? Honestly???