Teressa and I had spent hours reading through name books, writing down the names we liked, and vetoing the ones we didn’t. This task was at least twice as hard because we didn’t know the baby’s gender. Finally we had a short list of names that we could pair with family names in some way.
Sullivan Marsh Gardiner had been our favourite boy’s name, but we wanted to sleep on it to make sure it fit. How do you name a person–it seemed so arbitrary but at the same time such a huge responsibility. What made him a Sullivan? His black eyes?
Even though we had decided, it wasn’t his name until we told it to everyone else. On Sunday morning the phone began to ring, and his name became official. Sheri and Keith brought 7 month old Noah to visit, and Shane and Meg (who is 8 months pregnant) came in to see us. Rob and Anne came by for another glimpse and more photos.
Sullivan also had his first bath that evening. His new mom and dad tried to learn as much as they could from the amazing nurses at Mercy Hospital. With help at the call of a button (please teach me how to better change his diaper, etc) it felt a bit like practicing a trapeze act knowing that there would be no net in another day.