Happy Birthday Milly

My little Milly turned the big 3 years old today! In honor of my beautiful baby girl's birthday, I wanted to write her birth story.


We knew Milly would be born on April 3rd very early in my pregnancy. I had to be scheduled for a c-section at 38 weeks, because of issues that I had during the end of my first pregnancy. Even though the actual day of her birth was not going to be a surprise, the fact that she was going to be a girl was a surprise. Since we did not know, we searched for boy and girl names. It didn't take long to settle on the name Amelia for a girl. It had a beautiful ring to me, and I really liked the nickname, Milly. A name for a boy was more difficult for us. One name that we both liked was Beret. (Or Barrett, or Berhet...) It's actually my middle name, so it had meaning to us. I really liked it, and my husband decided he loved it for a boy's name.


Less than a month before I was going to give birth, I decided that I just didn't like our chosen boy name. I wasn't all that wild about it as my middle name while I was growing up. In fact, after I was married, I made my maiden name my middle name when I changed my last name. At first, I really liked the idea of using the name for my son. Then, I was having trouble deciding on how to spell it, and eventually just decided that I didn't want to use it. To say that my husband was not happy that I'd changed my mind, is an understatement. It's quite possibly the biggest argument we've ever had. He was already attached to that name, and he had no interest in searching for a new one. On top of it, he did not want to go to the hospital without having chosen a name for a boy, so now he felt like the "deadline" to find a new name was looming.


Slow forward (because that's what the next few weeks was like...) to the day before I was scheduled to go into the hospital for the big day. It was a gorgeous day. Everywhere I looked, spring was blossoming. My sister came over for dinner with her twins. We took fun pictures of my big belly on that last day that baby#2 would inhabit it. I loved being pregnant - both times - and I knew I was going to miss the feeling of having a baby inside of me. It was kind of surreal knowing that I was going to be giving birth to my baby the very next day.



The next morning, I was excited, but nervous. I was nervous about the obvious - what would it be like to go straight into a c-section, would everything go alright, would be baby be ok. I was also nervous about the fact that we still had not settled on a name for a boy. I take that back. My husband had settled on a name. The original name choice. I had settled on a name too. A new one. We had not come to an agreement about which one we would use.


The nurse who was assigned to me for my check-in and preparation for the birth was new, and still learning. She was so sweet and patiently guided me through the process. At one point, I glanced at her name badge. Her name was Amelia. It was at that point, the moment that I saw her name, I knew that everything was going to be ok. I still was unsure about whether I was having a boy or a girl. I didn't really see it as a sign that I was having a girl, but a peacefulness came over me that told me that whatever happens, it's going to be alright.


Fast forward to the moment when my baby was born (because that's how the next few hours went - like mere minutes). My doctor pulled her out, and announced "it's a girl"! I was truly amazed, and so very happy. I couldn't wait to tell my sister, who was in the room with us when she arrived, my new baby girl's full name. Milly's middle name is my sister's first name.



She was just beautiful.


She's even more beautiful every day.