the big name change

Well its been over two years since my last blog post. I guess having kids makes you really busy?!?! Haha.

So we had another baby! JJ finally doesn't have to be the third wheel anymore to the girls. YAY! I will write my birth story soon, but first I wanted to write about changing his name. Its a little awkward and embarrassing having to tell people that you changed your baby's name, but I finally admitted to myself that my feelings weren't going to change and it needed to be done now rather than when he was older. Here is the really long explanation if you want to read it :)

Throughout my entire pregnancy we couldn't decide on a name for him. I just didn't really love any boy names. I honestly never imagined I would have another boy besides Joel Jr! A few days before he was born, we had it narrowed down to two names we really liked: Benjamin and Coleman. Joel had always wanted Benjamin and he said he liked it better, but I was leaning towards Coleman because I love unique family names. After the craziness of his birth, we finally chose Coleman. It was Joel's grandma's maiden name and we both loved how unique it was for a first name. Coleman was in the NICU for 8 days and we got a few questions about his name but I really didn't think anything of it yet. Even his discharge papers said "Brandon needs to be seen again..." and "Brandon was examined..." I was just so tired and ready to get home so I ignored the mistake.

A few days after we got home from the hospital, I started really feeling like maybe we chose the wrong name. I tried to ignore it. Let me tell you that it is really awful to feel regret over something so huge like naming your baby. With our other kids, I have always loved their names and known what their names were going to be even before they were born. This time around was so much different! I kept having these thoughts in my head that we should have named him Benjamin. Obviously I just chalked it up to being tired and indecisive, but weeks went by and I still thought about it every day. Saying his name out loud just felt wrong to me and I found myself always saying "the baby" instead of Coleman.

My feelings only got worse as the weeks passed because of the crazy amount of people who thought his name was Brandon Coleman instead of the other way around. I guess thats what happens when you have a last name for your first name and a first name for your last name. It seriously happened almost every day that I had to tell someone his name or they saw it in writing. The pharmacy lost all of his prescriptions because his last name was written as Coleman, and I had doctors, nurses, and even complete strangers tell me that his name was "too confusing" because they assumed his first name was Brandon. I guess Coleman is a really popular last name around here (or anywhere?) so most people just saw Coleman Brandon and assumed that I had written his last name first. No matter how many times I told people his first name, they still thought it was Brandon. I knew if I was this annoyed with explaining it to people after only a month, he would most likely be super annoyed with explaining it to people his entire life. And of course I want my kids to love their names!

So after all that, we officially changed Coleman's name on his birth certificate and he is now and forever our sweet baby Benjamin. It is surprisingly easy to change a name as long as you have $20, a notary, and your baby is under 1 year old. I guess this happens more often than I thought. We started calling him Benjamin a few weeks ago just around the house to see if it was the right name for him, and it really felt perfect. Even the kids have changed his name easily and are super good about remembering his "new" name. Although Summer and Emsley still want me to change it again because they like the boy names Jackson and Peter. Haha! Sorry girlies, once is enough for us :) I will always love the name Coleman but it just wasn't meant to be with our last name. We love our Benjamin so much.
JJ loves to say "he is my best friend!" 💙

Here are a few pictures to reward you for getting through all of that reading :)

This picture shows his personality aka: the most unhappy and fussy baby in the history of time! We are hoping that he grows out of this colicky/gassy/miserable screaming phase ASAP. Benjamin has been our hardest baby so far!

These boys look a lot alike!

JJ

Benjamin

Benjamin

And the proud big sisters