I did this post with Barrett and because I always get asked the question of how we came up with the names of our kids, I thought I would repeat. I'm always interested in hearing how others decide on names too.
I'll start with a few years back after B was born, I started a name list on my phone. Anytime I would hear something I liked, I would add it in. I would reference it occasionally and deleted many along the way as well. I knew I wanted to stick with the surname "theme" with any potential siblings and was always attracted to those types of names. The girl name list was small, maybe only a handful, while my boy list was like 20 names long. I also had a few gender neutral names that could go either way.
I only had one real criteria and it was the same as when naming Barrett. It couldn't start with a J, T or B. I wanted to be sure that all of us in the family had different initials. Why? I don't know. It's just something I wanted to stick with. That left plenty of letters to choose from though.
Also, her name could not be the same as someone I knew in person. Ideally, it was a name that I had never heard used before at all like was the case with Barrett. There are obviously other Barrett's in the world (it's ranked 500s or something on social security name list) but we have never met anyone else with that name. That was the goal with Baby #2.
Finally, I wanted a name that was uncommon but still obviously a real name. Nothing youneek so to speak and it was important to me that it was easily spelled. Tissiere is not an easy last name to have so we need to be kinder to our kids in the first name category, in my opinion.
Holland: I originally added this to my list pretty early on the pregnancy. One night I was googling and found a website with a list of last names used as first names. It took me a few days to go through it but I did each letter individually and added any to my phone list that I liked. Holland was one of them and it pretty quickly became a four runner in my mind. I mentioned it to Joe as one of my winners but he said something along the lines of the baby for sure being a boy so it was moot. When we found out she was a girl, I was pretty strongly pushing for it. We didn't have any set discussion to talk about our name options but I would bring it up occasionally as how in my eyes she was a Holland. Joe couldn't come up with any names that could beat it. It took maybe 3 more months for us to officially decide on hers as a winner.
Jo: I got dibs on the middle name for Barrett (which I chose as Robert after my Dad). This was big for Joe because he is the 4th generation Joseph and was potentially our only son to continue on that tradition. It was pretty set that Joe would have the choice of middle names this time around. If it was a boy, it would have been Joseph. When we found out she was a girl, Joe was pretty much set on Josephine because he didn't think there was any other options that honored the name Joseph. I was not a super fan of Josephine. It's a fine name but just not my pick. I very quickly started to pull for Jo especially since it is really what he goes by rather than Joseph. Heck, I think his drivers license even says Joe. In the end, he would have gotten final pick and luckily, he saw the light and decided to go with Jo.
That's how Holland Jo came to be. :)
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Holland is 2 months old!
I'm only almost 3 weeks late. :)
This past month has been a really great one! Not a whole lot has changed and she seems to be a really awesome baby.
We had another wellness check up with Dr Murray and Sis weighed 10 pounds, 7 ounces. She got the first of her vaccinations and took it pretty well. A huge pout and then major screams but bounced back quickly after some cuddles. There was almost no other things from the appointment to note as it was very routine. I may have been in the office for 20 minutes total. She was happy as can be and we had not a single concern. She is now completely done with newborn clothes and fits really great in all the 3 month stuff. Size 1 diapers as well.
Sleep is pretty much the same from last month, with some longer stretches between sleeps. She is "up" for the day around 7 or 8am but goes back down for a morning nap really quickly. I try to only keep her up about 20 minutes before going back down. Then she usually gives us an hour morning nap. Two, sometimes three, hour nap during the middle of the day (Noonish) and then an another shorter nap in the evening around 4pm. The evenings are the hardest time with her when she usually becomes restless. Mostly just wants to rock and go in and out of sleep in our arms. 7-9pm can certainly be classified as her cranky time but it's nothing bad. She is just a little particular about things. I call her a diva sometimes. She goes to bed anywhere from 8-9:30 (depending on how cooperative she is that night) and usually makes it till 1 or 2am before needing to eat again. She sticks pretty closely to the every 3 hours otherwise. The EASY method has been wonderful with getting her on a routine.
Eating is going wonderfully. Four, occasionally five, hours is the length of her first stretch in the middle of the night after bedtime and then she sticks pretty close to the three hour mark. Like last month though, she doesn't mess around at night and eats and goes back to bed. I'm up for maybe 15 minutes each time. It's totally manageable! Barrett would eat for like an hour! I can't believe that we have bypassed another cluster feed stage. She just doesn't care to linger. She also doesn't nurse to sleep which is about the only way I could get her brother to even sleep. It's strictly to fill her belly. I have started to make her take both sides at once because it makes things easier on me. 1. it made sure she was getting a good balance of hindmilk vs foremilk but I also wanted to make sure that my body stayed regulated. I was afraid that with her eating from the same side once every 6 hours would start to hurt my production. She will take a bottle just fine but it seems to bother her tummy a bit so we do it sparingly still. At least once a week, occasionally twice.
Her personality is still pretty laid-back. She just wants to get the occasional attention and I try to give her that between her naps and feeds. Not too hard since she is only awake for about an hour at a time. Holland has a favorite position she likes to be held and that is sitting up with her back against my chest/stomach facing out. She likes to lay on the floor and kick her legs for smaller amounts of time and is starting to tolerate her swing well. She takes at least 1 nap a day in it. She is starting to get lazy with tummy time but has wonderful neck control when you hold her up. She likes her paci but still doesn't love it just yet. It helps her fall asleep but once she's out, it's gone.
She has just a few nicknames that have developed at this point. "Baby Sister" is what we refer to her as when we are talking about her. We've tried to incorporate "Baby Holland" more to help Barrett go by her name. Baby Sister just stuck when she was still in utero so it has been hard to stop. "Sis" or "Sister" is probably by far the name we use when we are talking to her. "Hi Sis" or "Come here, Sis" or what not. I also call her "Miss" or "Missy Miss" or "Chick" when are playing. When we talk about her in conversation is when we use her actual name the most. Holly or Holly Jo and other abbreviations will not be happening. I thought "Holls" might happen but it hasn't yet.
I left her for our longest stretch so far this month. The day before Mother's Day, Grandma and Grandpa watched her for 6 hours while Dad and I played in a golf tournament. I can add pumping while driving a golf cart down number 6 to my resume now. :) Otherwise, she stays pretty close to me. I leave for a few hours here or there. She is a mama's girl but is quite content with Dad too. He has the touch with rocking her to sleep pretty well. Sis has really started to smile and coo more this month and showing us more of her personality.
As Barrett says "I just love her."
This past month has been a really great one! Not a whole lot has changed and she seems to be a really awesome baby.
We had another wellness check up with Dr Murray and Sis weighed 10 pounds, 7 ounces. She got the first of her vaccinations and took it pretty well. A huge pout and then major screams but bounced back quickly after some cuddles. There was almost no other things from the appointment to note as it was very routine. I may have been in the office for 20 minutes total. She was happy as can be and we had not a single concern. She is now completely done with newborn clothes and fits really great in all the 3 month stuff. Size 1 diapers as well.
Sleep is pretty much the same from last month, with some longer stretches between sleeps. She is "up" for the day around 7 or 8am but goes back down for a morning nap really quickly. I try to only keep her up about 20 minutes before going back down. Then she usually gives us an hour morning nap. Two, sometimes three, hour nap during the middle of the day (Noonish) and then an another shorter nap in the evening around 4pm. The evenings are the hardest time with her when she usually becomes restless. Mostly just wants to rock and go in and out of sleep in our arms. 7-9pm can certainly be classified as her cranky time but it's nothing bad. She is just a little particular about things. I call her a diva sometimes. She goes to bed anywhere from 8-9:30 (depending on how cooperative she is that night) and usually makes it till 1 or 2am before needing to eat again. She sticks pretty closely to the every 3 hours otherwise. The EASY method has been wonderful with getting her on a routine.
Eating is going wonderfully. Four, occasionally five, hours is the length of her first stretch in the middle of the night after bedtime and then she sticks pretty close to the three hour mark. Like last month though, she doesn't mess around at night and eats and goes back to bed. I'm up for maybe 15 minutes each time. It's totally manageable! Barrett would eat for like an hour! I can't believe that we have bypassed another cluster feed stage. She just doesn't care to linger. She also doesn't nurse to sleep which is about the only way I could get her brother to even sleep. It's strictly to fill her belly. I have started to make her take both sides at once because it makes things easier on me. 1. it made sure she was getting a good balance of hindmilk vs foremilk but I also wanted to make sure that my body stayed regulated. I was afraid that with her eating from the same side once every 6 hours would start to hurt my production. She will take a bottle just fine but it seems to bother her tummy a bit so we do it sparingly still. At least once a week, occasionally twice.
Her personality is still pretty laid-back. She just wants to get the occasional attention and I try to give her that between her naps and feeds. Not too hard since she is only awake for about an hour at a time. Holland has a favorite position she likes to be held and that is sitting up with her back against my chest/stomach facing out. She likes to lay on the floor and kick her legs for smaller amounts of time and is starting to tolerate her swing well. She takes at least 1 nap a day in it. She is starting to get lazy with tummy time but has wonderful neck control when you hold her up. She likes her paci but still doesn't love it just yet. It helps her fall asleep but once she's out, it's gone.
She has just a few nicknames that have developed at this point. "Baby Sister" is what we refer to her as when we are talking about her. We've tried to incorporate "Baby Holland" more to help Barrett go by her name. Baby Sister just stuck when she was still in utero so it has been hard to stop. "Sis" or "Sister" is probably by far the name we use when we are talking to her. "Hi Sis" or "Come here, Sis" or what not. I also call her "Miss" or "Missy Miss" or "Chick" when are playing. When we talk about her in conversation is when we use her actual name the most. Holly or Holly Jo and other abbreviations will not be happening. I thought "Holls" might happen but it hasn't yet.
I left her for our longest stretch so far this month. The day before Mother's Day, Grandma and Grandpa watched her for 6 hours while Dad and I played in a golf tournament. I can add pumping while driving a golf cart down number 6 to my resume now. :) Otherwise, she stays pretty close to me. I leave for a few hours here or there. She is a mama's girl but is quite content with Dad too. He has the touch with rocking her to sleep pretty well. Sis has really started to smile and coo more this month and showing us more of her personality.
As Barrett says "I just love her."
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