Somewhere on this list is Baby Girl’s name. I hope.

As mentioned here and here, we thought we wanted to name the baby Clare. But then I had second thoughts. And third and fourth thoughts. And pregnant hormones mixed in with those thoughts which has resulted in a lot of crying and worrying and statements like “Fine, let’s just let Poppy decide. What do you want to call you baby sister? Booby Bah? Ok. Done.”

Naming a child – a person – is hard work. I love playing around with all the beautiful possibilities and combinations, but then sometimes I get overwhelmed at choosing just one. The right one. The one that I love, that Jacob loves, that this precious baby girl will love. And as my loving friends and family say, it’ll come to us. And it will be the perfect name for her when it does. In the meanwhile, I have to keep a stiff upper lip. Let the “Oh my God, you can’t name her that!” comments roll off my back. Stay focused on our task at hand. Have fun. Let go. Wait for lightening to strike the crumpled piece of paper on the sidewalk that reads “Hello Mama and Daddy, my name is ______ Wadenpfuhl and I can’t wait to meet you in October!”

Has anyone else’s cat totally turned against them during pregnancy? Penny hates me lately. Loathes me. Won’t come near me except to chase me on my way up the stairs, grab my ankle with both her paws, and chomp down on my calf muscle with all her might. She won’t come to me for snuggles, she won’t sit on my lap. She hides under the bed every night, waits for me to stick my feet over the edge, and then bites my toes, one by one. What happened to my squishy-wishy-pumpkin-face-baby-catty-watty-pie? What gives?

So, we are playing the name game again with Baby Girl. She has been Clare for the last month, but we are going back to the drawing board on this one.

It’s got me stressed. Not because we don’t have time to find the perfect name. But because we thought we had the perfect name, then we didn’t. Yikes! Or maybe we did and Clare is who she is. Yikes again! Or maybe she will remain Baby Girl No 2 forever and ever. Yikes! And Poppy is really no help at all in trying to figure this out. Her one and only suggest remains ELMO.

I know we’ll find just the right name. Just like we did with Poppy. She is so a Poppy. And Baby Girl will so be whoever she is supposed to be, too. Just hopefully not a super-cute-red-and-furry Muppet.