Our Fifth Daughter....

will be named....

Anna Katherine

This time around we haven't fought over our daughter's name at all, with the exception of a few little things. This is how we came to naming our fifth and last daughter,

 Anna Katherine.

I wanted something with an A.

We loved Anna, Annie, Abby, Anabelle, Amelia and Abigail.

I still loved Leah and Caroline. But we have a daughter with a "C" initial and for some reason I stopped thinking of Leah. Oh, probably because when I said, "what about Anabelle", Tim said "that's it, that is our daughter's name!!!" And I was like, wait a minute there! I wasn't totally sold on Anabelle.

So we compromised. I said I really like just Anna. And Tim said OKAY!

Katherine is my Grandma's sister's name. I have very fond memories of going to her house when my grandma would babysit my sister and I and she made little puppet dolls and we would play with them each time we went to her house. I can remember it like it was yesterday. She was a really sweet lady and a great cook. She was ten years older then my grandma and so when they were young she took care of my grandma a lot.

I still really like Abigail and I loved Amelia, but Tim says he isn't budging on Anna, so Anna it is. Amelia sounded too much like Emily people said. I don't know, I don't hear the similarities, but whatever.

And so just like that our daughter's name was born.

Anna Katherine Gaydos

-- AKG --

We plan on calling her Anna-Kate and of course just Anna. We will see. I didn't want her middle name to only be Kate, even though I love the name Kate, because I felt it wasn't enough, so Katherine is perfect!

I love how Anna Katherine is still an old-fashioned name but still pretty modern. That was my goal with all of our girls names. 

Madelynn Christine

Claire Elizabeth

Natalee Lynn

Emily June

Anna Katherine

Simple, beautiful, unique names for our precious five daughters. And all middle names are after women on both sides of our family. It's just perfect. I hope all our girls realize how much time and effort and thought we put into naming them each as individuals. 

I couldn't have imagined God had such a perfect family in my future. I am so blessed.

Our daughter. Anna-Kate. She completes our family.

We can't wait to meet you little one!

Blog Question Answered!

The other day a question was left on my blog and I thought I would go ahead and answer it!

livelaughlovelots7 asked "Just out of curiosity, why do you sometimes refer to Claire as Lola? Was that suppose to be her name? Also while I'm asking, how did you choose the girls names? Can you do a post about that and also what were your other choices for all the girls? "

Great questions! I am sure you aren't the only one who wondered!

So first, why we call Claire, Lola...well, I have no idea really why we just started calling her Lola. One day she started saying "lola lola lola lola" over and over again and so I just started saying it back to her and it became her little nick-name. Now we call her Lola Claire, or Lola Mae (I saw an Etsy sop named Lola Mae and I thought it was such a cute name!) or sometimes just Lola. She actually will turn her head and respond to Lola just as much as Claire. It was never suppose to be her name or anything, I would have never named her Lola actually, I never even considered it. I just seem to like it now.

And how we chose the girls names was pretty simple. Nothing like the trouble we went through while trying to pick Little Miss E's name. When I was young I thought about names a million times and what I would name my children one day and none of them made it on any of my children's birth certificates. Not until I was pregnant did I really think I wanted to use some names in our families. And then when I found out we were being blessed with triplets, I never expected them to all be the same sex so we didn't bother coming up with three girl names and three boy names, but it was still fun to think about. I wrote this post on the names we had chosen in August of 2010. And then we found out we were having two girls and a boy and so we named them in this post. Little did we know, that wasn't the truth and instead we were having three little girls who would be named in this post.

I knew I didn't want something like Madison, Madelynn and Morgan or Jessica, Jenna and Jamie...NO WAY!

I always loved the name Madelynn. And I told Tim that it was my number one choice for a daughter. Of course I went over and over in my head about the spelling though. I liked the two n's at the end but I almost put an e at the end to make Madelynne, but I thought the name was too long then. Christine is my sister's name and I thought it sounded beautiful with Madelynn. I liked how Madelynn is so popular now and yet it's still very old.

With Claire, it's kinds a funny story. Tim and I love the movie Wedding Crashers (we could literally watch it over and over!) and Rachel McAdams is my favorite actress who plays one of the main characters. Her name was Claire in the movie and it started there. We then watched another movie she was in and her name was Claire also, so then I thought it was a sign. And we love the TV show, Modern Family and the mom's name is Claire. I really loved the old nature of Claire, it's becoming more modern and yet it's still old. So, I was set on Claire and Tim said he wasn't a fan of it. I won't say what he really said, but it wasn't nice. After a few weeks, he said he loved it and wanted a little Claire-bear! So, I though Elizabeth sound great with Claire, and it's my MIL and my SIL's middle name too.

Then with Natalee, I always loved the name Natalee and Tim loved it too. I just said it one day and boom, he said that's it. We never looked back. He hated that I wanted to put two ee's on the end, but in the end I got what I wanted...partially because I filled out all the hospital paper work. Oh well. I like the uniqueness of it and Natalee is also an older name. 

So I thought all the names really sounded good together and yet weren't all matchy. I don't think we ever thought of any other names for the triplets. IF they had been boys, I am pretty sure they would have been Jackson Timothy, Nathan Samuel and Benjamin Robert. Tim doesn't like Ben, but I really do. I love Jackson Timothy, we would have called him JT. Ya never know, it may get used one day...shhh, don't tell Tim I said that.  It would be our number one choice for a boy at anytime.  Nathan was after Tim's best friend, the girl's god-father and Samuel would have been after Tim's step-grandfather that died in a motorcycle accident the year before we were married. Robert is after my dad and Tim's grandfather, and Benjamin just came out of no where. I like more solid/earthy/manly names for boys. Nothing made up or different. I have other issues with boy names but I won't go into it. Everyone has their things.

With Emily, I really thought she would be named Emily, Leah or Caroline. Savannah was close too. I still love Leah and Caroline. I went with Emily because my mom's grandmother was an Emily, she was a well-known nurse in Paris and my mom and I always loved the name Emily. And June is after my mom, which she absolutely loves that someone used her name because she doesn't like her name all that much. She cried when we told her Emily's full name. 

Names are so fun! Makes me happy that all 4 girls have middles names of women in our family.

If anyone else has questions, feel free to ask! I love answering them and I am sure people have questions when it comes to multiples!!

Update on Little Miss' Name!

Thank you so much to everyone for so many comments to help us pick a name for Little Miss.

Some comments and names were so nice, other's a little strange. Someone suggested we name her Holly..interesting, but I think I'll be the only Holly in this family! :) There were many names we had not considered and it was nice to hear so many other names we hadn't even thought of! I really do apprecaite it and I LOVE reading comments! Please keep it up!

Throughout the weeks, we kept saying "that's the one!" and then the next day saying, "hmm, I don't know!"

So many people suggested Hannah...we like Hannah, but for some reason we just don't see it in our family. Same things with Abigail and Allison, they just don't seem fit to us anymore, after lots of thought.

Since all of our girls have middle names that are after important women in our family (Madelynn Christine (my sister's name), Claire Elizabeth (my SIL/MIL's middle name) and Natalee Lynn (my middle name)), we wanted to have something for Little Miss that was just as important and, once again, fit our family.

So, we FINALLY found the perfect name to us, and it's one that I wanted all along, and then I came up with the perfect, family-fitting middle name to go along with it. I am really happy and feel it was meant to be from the beginning....(it was just convincing Tim, but secretly I knew he would come around).

We will be sharing the name once Little Miss makes her arrival in late Janurary or early February! I'm so excited and I HOPE

24-26 Weeks

Goodness gosh, I'm over six months already?!? Phew! I'm loving being pregnant this time around and feel that I can go around and be that "cute little pregnant lady" that I couldn't be when I was pregnant with the girls because I was on bed rest and feeling like a whale, not too mention I didn't want to risk going into labor even earlier than I did!

How Far Along: 24-26 Weeks/6 Months! Here's my post of 6 Months with the girls!
How Big is Little Miss: Still around the size of a papaya! She is settling into sleep cycles, baby snoozes 12 to 14 hours a day. Skin is becoming more opaque and it's taking on a pink glow!

Weight Gain: Maybe +3-5, or as much as 7...not too much! But I have definitely started eating waaaay more and drinking my whole milk with chocolate at least once a day! I was weighed at the OB on Wednesday and weighed 140 lbs...not too bad!
Symptoms: Some back pain, tiredness, easily weak and tired after not doing much, some minor contractions (around 3-5 a day) but I can tell they are getting stronger.

Emotions: Fine! Every time I see a newborn, I squirm with happiness!

Best Moment of the Week: Just feeling Little Miss all of the time. I love every moment of it and cherish it so much! She moves sooo much, just like the girls did! And of course seeing her cute little self on the sonogram!

Looking at us!

Movement: All day, everyday, but most active in the evening and at night! I thought the girls moved a lot, but really, I don't remember them moving as much as Little Miss is!

Maternity Clothes: Oh yes!

Sleep: Going great when I do sleep! Of course loving naps! And the dreams...oh the dreams!

Food Cravings: Hmm...everything! Chocolate, but it gives me the worst heartburn! Apples!
Aversions: Nothing I can think of!

Gender: A Little Miss! And who FINALLY has a name! Well, it's what I have been calling her since day 1, but it was convincing Tim, but finally he said, "we can name her whatever you want!" Duh! So happy though, it's the most perfect name to me!

What I Miss: Wine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am Looking Forward to: Hmm...the snow that is falling outside right now! Planning the girl's first birthday party! and of course growing bigger and bigger with Little Miss!

Side Notes: One person on the last weekly update commented that I was measuring (or looking like) almost full-term and just as big as I was when I was pregnant with the girls! I couldn't believe it...seriously, LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS! Haha, I am so not as big right now as I was with the girls! At 24 weeks pregnant with the girls, I was measuring FULL-TERM! This pregnancy with Little Miss is completely measuring normal and right on track. She is growing great and I am forever thankful. I may look bigger than I am, but let me ASSURE everyone, that I no way am as big as I was with the girls. Sometimes I look at my belly and really, I could just look a little fat in my belly, and not even pregnant! My belly is no way as heavy or full-feeling like I was with the girls, nor am I having near as many contractions and pain as I did with the girls. With the girls pregnancy I went downhill from Week 24 on, this pregnancy I hope and pray that will not be the case!

Anyway, here are my bump photos for the past few weeks:

Week 25 pregnancy photos with the girls, click on the link above!

Please excuse all my stretch marks...I don't know if I can post the straight on photo of my belly ever again. I mean I know I had triplets, but ugh, I just don't like the way it looks now, and really I guess it's not too bad, but I don't know!

What's in a Name...Again!

We cannot, yes, CANNOT decide on a name for Little Miss! I say cannot, I mean it! Oh my goodness, it's driving me crrrraaazzzyyyy!!!!!
When I was pregnant with the triplets, Tim and I had no problem coming up with three girl names and three boy names and the moment we found out it was three girls (for sure) they each had the most perfect names for our family, even before the sonogram was over. After the girls were born, I thought I knew exactly what I would name another girl, if we were so blessed to have one, but now I have no idea and everything I come up with, sounds good for a day and then it just doesn't seem fit for her or our family.

Here our my issues:

1. I want something traditional but not too uncommon. I'm not a fan of super modern names. I picture this little girl as a little girl, a 16 year old, a CEO of a company, a grandmother...all with a name and what it would be like for her at every age and stage of life.
2. We might change our last name. Long story, but since we don't have any contact, nor want any contact with Tim's biological father, Tim came up with the idea to use his mother's maiden name, since it will not go on to another generation, since his PopPop had all daughters too (five daughters....girls run in his family...shocker, right?!?!). It's something we have been thinking a lot about and praying over to see if it's the right thing for us. So the name has to sound ok with Gaydos, if we keep it, or Steinert, if we choose to change it before the girls go to Kindergarten. I won't change it once the girls learn their "full name" because I don't want to confuse them. (Personally, I would love to change it because my initials would be the same as I have always had, H.S....but I am leaving the decision up to Tim and I support him either way.)

3. Tim hates everything I come up with but hasn't come up with the perfect name to offer to the table! He likes names with nicknames and we already agreed awhile ago not to do that. He currently like Allison, and call her Allie, or Abigail and call her Abbey.

4. Since we have a "Natalee", I don't really want to name any future daughters with the ending of "lee/leigh". Silly, maybe but oh well. For example, I love Emily, but I don't like the "lee" ending, but I hate Emma (the number one name in 2011 so far). I keep coming up with "lee" ending names that I like, but if I go with anything "lee" ending, I might as well go with Emily!

5. Since we are very firm about Madelynn being a Madelynn, and NEVER a Maddy (Tim thinks Maddy is a dogs name, and we have a few friends with dogs named Maddy), we don't want to name another baby with anything that has a nickname. For example, we love Abigail, but I know I would call her Abbey and I don't want Madelynn wondering why she can't be called Maddy when she a teenager, if Abigail can be an Abbey. Maybe silly again, but I don't care! Tim loves Abbey and Allie for Allison. We always say and still continue to think that if Madelynn ever has a nickaname, it will be Lynn, since Tim loves that name and it's my middle name.

6. I love the name Caroline and was almost positive that would be the name of Little Miss but I don't want two children with the same first letter initial. I silly too, right!

7. It has to "fit" our family. I don't want Madelynn, Claire, Natalee and some super modern name that doesn't "fit". It needs to be something a little older and more mature and not something "made-up", like so many horrible names are these days!

8. And just like I said when we were coming up with names for the girls, I want something that sounds nice when I'm yelling for them across a crowded swimming pool or gym when they are playing basketball! I always cringe when I'm somewhere and I hear some horrible name of a child, and I just think about the poor kid growing up with such a terrible name and what those crazy parent's were thinking!

9. I want our children to always know that each of them are a special gift from God and we took time and effort to put a lot of thought into the perfect name for them. If God chose them specifically for our family, we want a name that is specifically for them and what God sees fit for them.

So.....names I like and are still considering (no real order):
1. Emily ("lee" issues...but still my number one)
2. Abigail (nickname issue, but still my number two)
3. Avery (a little more modern than I would like, but for soem reason it draws to me)
4. Caroline (same first initial issue, still close to number three at this time)
5. Leah (loved at first, but not anymore)
6. Savannah (Tim hates and says it's too southern, but I still love it)
7. Ava
8. Samantha (if we change our last name to Steinert, than two of the same initials..a no no)
9. Anna (Tim likes this)
10. Sydney
11. Allison (this is Tim's current favorite)
12. Lindsey
13. Sofie/Sofia
14. Makayla (first initial issue)
15. Julia
16. Julianne

Middle name that I want, pretty sure of at this time: Kate or Katherine. I think Kate is super cute, but may be a little more modern with some names than I would like. Katherine goes well with most of my names I like too though. I love Emily Kate, but I like Abigail Katherine too! But I would not like Makayla Kate or Allison Kate..for obvious reasons...it sounds horrible.

I also love Grace for a middle name, but I wouldn't want to use it if we keep our "G" last name, because I don't want two of the same initials, like Ava Grace Gaydos - AGG or Makayla Grace Gaydos - MGG. No way, even though I think both sound really nice!

So, can anyone help me out here.... What do you like? Little Miss needs a name!!!!

The Girl's Nursery - Part Three

I know...this should have been finished like, umm...before they were born, but ya know, with bed rest, extreme swelling and oh yeah, pre-term labor, the nursery never got finished until about two weeks ago. I am so excited to say that it is about 99% complete. We still do need to buy the last crib, but have decided that the extra space in the room is better than buying the last crib at this point. Also, the curtains I wanted were on back order and so I waited for them for close to four months.

So really the only thing I needed to do was hang the girl's names above their cribs. This was totally not easy! I bought the white letters at Michael's during a sale and with a coupon, since I needed so many of them! Also, I bought about ten rolls of light purple ribbon. Figuring out how to get each name centered above the crib, all the same height and then have the correct amount of ribbon to make it letter perfectly next to the other was quite challenging. Each letter will hang differently, so finding the correct measurement of ribbon needed was different for each letter. After two months of starring at the ribbon and letters every time I walked into the nursery, I finally decided to figure out how to make it all work.

I decided that each letter would have the same amount of ribbon, no matter what letter it was, so the letters would be level at the bottom but the ribbon bows at the top would not. I liked this look and it seemed somewhat easier. So, just if you're wondering, I used 17 inches of ribbon for each letter, hot glued the ribbon on the back and then hung on the wall. I had to tape the letters to the wall because...well have you ever tried to hang the letter "D" or "R"? It doesn't work, plus I wanted all the letters to be perfectly spaced and level. For someone with the perfectionism that I have, this was a challenge.

I then had to tie a bow for each top, to hide the nail. I glued the ribbon bow to the end of the nail because it couldn't be done any other way and look good. If I glued the ribbon bow to the ribbon hanging, it didn't look good at all. So, each nail has a ribbon bow at the end and it looks just fine. No one would even be able to tell...unless you've read this!

The ribbon looks shinny, but it's not. I don't know why it shows up that way.

I am so happy to have their names done! It turned out perfectly and I even like the imperfections in the letters hanging. It makes it unique and sometimes, just sometimes, perfection isn't always the best.

 There is the rocking chair my parents bought me for my birthday. I love rocking the girls at night peering out the window. It's such a special time, however I'm so sleep deprived that it's hard to stay positive sometimes. I live in that chair all night it seems. The cross on the wall was in my room as a child, and so was that white shelving unit on the wall. I love that I used things that I grew up with, I want my girls to know how special these things are to me and that I wanted to share them,

These were the name tags I made the girls for their incubators in the NICU. Now on the front door of their room!

These ADORABLE little outfits were one of my VERY FAVORITE gifts that I received after the girls were born. LOVE them and I cannot wait to have them wear these on their 1st Birthday!

This beautiful statue my mom bought for me when I was born. It's Rapunzel and I have had it in my room ever since and now in my girl's room.

I LOVE Winnie the Pooh so when I received this book as a gift for the girls from a friend, I was so excited. The Pooh is from Niko and Michael who gave it to me when I was recovering from my appendectomy in 2006 and the little bear my daddy bought me the day I came home from the hospital when I was born.

So, there ya have it! I am so happy at how it turned out. I imagine walking in and seeing them peering up over the top of the cribs and saying "momma, momma"! Oh God is good!

Our Girls!

Awhile back when we thought we were having two boys and a girl, I officially put their names out there. But now that we had our complete confirmation that Baby C is totally and 100% a girl, along with her twin sisters, we wanted to officially put her name out there too!! We are just in love with these names and couldn't have asked for anything better. They will suit out family perfectly.

So the names of our sweet triplet girls will be:

Madelynn Christine

Claire Elizabeth

Natalee Lynn 

Baby A, B and C - Names!!!!

A while back I gave the names we had been thinking about, in this post, but honestly we hadn't put a whole lot of thought into it since we didn't know the sexes yet, and struggling over finding the prefect names, didn't seem like a reasonable way to spend our time. No arguing over names when we didn't even know what was in my belly! However, we did love all those names, but when from the moments after we found out that we were having, TWO PRINCESSES and A PRINCE...they had names immediately and are no longer Baby A, B and C to us!

 

So their names are as followed:

 

Madelynn Christine (Baby A)

Claire Elizabeth (Baby B)

Jackson Timothy (Baby C)

What's In A Name??

As far back as I can remember I have had my children's names picked out. But they have changed a lot over the past years. My baby dolls all had names and none of them I would consider naming my children now, but at the time, they were the coolest named dolls around.

Now, well for awhile Tim and I have favorite names. We want something cute but mature. I think of my child growing up to be the president of a company, and I don't want them to have a bad sounding name. I listen to the women at the pool yelling for their kids, in my mind saying, that's a horrible name, I don't want to sound like her, screaming for a kid named that.

A name is important. I want my kids to like their names and know that we worked hard on picking them out. I like names that sound good and flow nicely. Names that are modern but traditional.

Some of the names these days are horrible. I won't mention many because I would hate to offend anyone, but I wonder what people think when they are naming their children anymore. Why Apple or Sunday or Rumor? I just don't get that.

We have our names picked out so far. I never thought I would have three picked out at one time, but I do. I might change my mind on some, but others are set in stone.

So here goes....just in case you are wondering...

2 GIRLS AND 1 BOY:

Madelynn Christine

Claire Madison
Jackson Timothy

2 BOYS AND 1 GIRL:

Jackson Timothy

Nathan Samuel

Claire Madison

3 GIRLS:

Madelynn Christine

Claire Madison

Natalee Lynn (still not super sure on Lynn)

3 BOYS:

Jackson Timothy

Nathan Samuel

Benjamin (this might change) Robert

Timothy is after Tim, Christine after my sister, Nathan is Tim's best friend since they were little, Samuel is Tim's grandfather who was killed in a head-on motorcycle accident two years ago on Memorial Day at the age of 56, and Robert after my dad and grandpa (it was my grandpa's bday the day the babies went into my belly) and Lynn is my middle name.

Who knows how many more times I will change this or Tim will change his mind either. We used to be so set on Madelynn, but now Tim is super stuck on Claire and Natalee. So we will see when we know the sexes in just a few more weeks, and that will help us narrow it all down!!!!