What's in a name?

People have been asking us for nine months....do you know what you're having? (no...a baby!)

And followed by...what names do you have picked out?

We still had our boy's name from the first pregnancy - Luke Douglas, but for nine months we made lists, consulted books, and had our own favorite names from time to time, but nothing really stuck with us for a girl. I took the lists along with us to the hospital, fully expecting to not need them. This was such a different pregnancy, I thought for sure we had a boy in there.

When Rick stood up in the operating room to announce the gender he said, "We have....to think of a name!" We were thrilled at the idea of another girl- a sister for Caroline! And the Ward's definitely know how to do girls, so we couldn't be happier. There was just one problem...the name.

We took our time- much to the chagrin of the entire world, but we knew that name had to be just right. Some of the names we tossed around for four days were: Cate, Catelynn, Eileen, Paige, Evelyn, Ellyn, Camille (Cami), Carlie, Audrey, Annie, Lucy, Charlotte (Charley), Bridgette, Jayne, and the list goes on and on. When we arrived Friday our current favorite name was Audrey Jayne or Audrey Lynn. We also liked Lucy Eileen and Cate.

Now you may not realize this, but if your baby doesn't have a name, this automatically entitles every stranger, friend and relative in the world the opportunity to share with you which name they prefer and also which of your choices they approve and do not approve. They filled my text message inbox with countless (around 200 or so) pleas of "does that baby have a name yet?", to the other "I like Audrey/Lucy/Jayne/insert your own favorite here", to the "Have you thought of _____?" Even more fun was if I happened to reply with my current favorite name, I received several opinions in return on how "she'll hate to spell it that way her whole life," or "that's cute, but how about this one?" It became so crazy I stopped picking up my phone.

I did appreciate friend Mary Lynn who would instead text me with a look into the future by texting "Homecoming queen, Miss Lucy Smith", or "Paging Dr. Cate Smith to the lobby", or "Valedictorian, Audrey Smith". Who knew there was so much to consider when naming your child? Caroline Rose was something we loved from the get go, and we were just plain stumped on this one.

When my night nurse and PCA arrived Saturday for the night shift I immediately took this picture and told Rick I had found the perfect name for our daughter....

Hey, why not? I'm just certain there aren't too many Dehong Tsehay's in this world!

Anyway, I just kept coming back to Lucy. It just seemed that this little girl had some spunk, and she needed a name to fit her. I convinced Rick that Lucy should be her name and he liked Ellyn best with Lucy, so thus...We were thrilled to finally have named our sweet little girl. So glad in fact...I cried once we had it decided. Yes, it's true.

I was also convinced that we had chosen a rather unique sweet name. But, apparently the writer's of All My Children were on to me...I guess there's a baby girl on there as of late last week...and her name is: Lucy Ellen. (sigh) What can I say? When you've got it right, the whole world pays attention!