Naming Ezra

So, just like with Peter, we didn't know exactly what we were going to name baby number 2. We had two names we were going between. Either Anders Gleaves Nelson or Henry (?) Nelson. The plan was to wait until he was born and see what name fit him...and we ended up naming him neither of those names. Haha. We've gotten lots of questions on how Ezra came to be, especially as it never seemed to be in the running. So this is how we chose Ezra James.

Ezra wearing a beard hat.

Back in October, Jonathan and I were celebrating our anniversary and I started shooting out baby names to him. I have a hard time finding boy names because some of the names I loved prior to teaching are now connected to some more...difficult children, and thus I have no desire to name my own children those names. We were already thinking about naming him Anders and Henry at this point, but I wanted to make sure we had considered lots of names and not just stuck with the first ones that sounded good. I started going though names of US Presidents, LDS prophets (leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or Mormon church), and any other groups of male names I could think of. When I was going through LDS prophets, I said, "Spencer...no. Harold- no. Joseph...nope. Ezra...hm...Ezra, I kind of like that." Then Jonathan said, "We already like Henry and Anders. I think we should just stick with those two instead of making it harder. They are both great names." I agreed, and stopped coming up with more names, but Ezra kind of stuck with me.

So, fast forward to when baby boy number two was born. I was holding him on my chest right after he was born. I looked down at him, and just like with Peter, I had absolutely no idea what his name should be. At all. No idea.

I looked at Jonathan and said, "What do you think we should name him?" His response was, "William James." Wha??? Jonathan then said, "I don't know if we should name him that, but that was the first name that came into my head when I saw him." Oh no. Game changer. We couldn't name him Anders or Henry if the first name Jonathan thought was William. But, my youngest brother is named William and I hadn't ever even considered that name for my son, so it was not on my mind. But now it was. I looked at the baby again, and neither Henry nor Anders seemed to fit, but neither did William...naming kids isn't easy.

We moved from labor and delivery room to normal recovery room, and asked the nurse for a baby name book. We both took turns looking through the book. Nothing really stood out. When one of the nurses came in, she asked what we named the baby and we told her we didn't have a name yet. She mentioned that the magnet board in the room was also a white board and we were more than welcome to write name choices on it to help us decide. So, Jonathan wrote:

Henry Alexander (?)
Anders Gleaves
William James
Edward Alan/Allen
Ezra

We had our original name options (with a potential middle name for Henry), the name Jonathan thought when he first saw the baby, a name suggestion from Grandpa Jim (Jonathan's Dad), and I threw Ezra in- unsure of a middle name to go with it, because I'd liked it since October. We looked at all the names...and still nothing stuck out. We had people tell us "He looks like a William." "He looks like a Henry." He did not look like a specific name to me (neither did Peter). He was cute and blond...but no name stood out to me and Jonathan.

After a day of no name, I decided to pick a name, call the baby by that name for an hour and see if any of the names seemed to fit. I started with Henry...and it felt good. I went next to Anders- this name has been one of my favorites for years. I called the baby Anders for less than half and hour then switched. Anders did not fit. Moving on to William. He got called William about twice, but I just couldn't call him William. He looks so different from my brother, and that connection was too strong. As we were going through the names, Jonathan and I both decided we didn't love Edward, so he didn't even get called that. Then Ezra was up, and it seemed to fit him the same amount as Henry. So we were down to two. Progress.

Jonathan and I talked about it- was there one that stood out more? one that either of us liked more? one that fit this small human being better? We finally settled on Ezra James. He is named after Ezra Taft Benson and his Grandpa Jim (whose name is James). Ezra Taft Benson was the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when I was a little girl. He stressed the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We had been learning about him in church this past year- maybe that is why I like the name so much- we learned so many things about this great man, and he's a great example to be named after. Then James for Grandpa Jim. Another great man to be named after, and I like to have a name connection to family.

It's a strong name and I like it. There aren't many Ezras, but it's a name many people recognize. Although, we told a friend at church that his name is Ezra James and she said her friend just named her baby the same exact name! Haha, so he's got at least one name twin out there. Peter sometimes calls him Ezzy Wezzy. We love having Ezra in our family. Peter and Ezra- great boys and they make our family.

Becoming a Family of Four

Family of Four- Jonathan, Peter, Robin and Ezra

On December 31st 2015, the Nelson family officially went from 3 people to 4! This is going to be a post on Ezra's birth story. So, if you don't want to read all the details, feel free to just scroll through the pictures.

New baby at the hospital

His official due date was the 28th of December. My midwife was going to be out of town from 22-27th of December. I was really hoping he would come early before my midwife left for Christmas break. I was done being pregnant and would have loved to have a week less of being huge, and I wanted to have my midwife there when he was born instead of someone I didn't know as well. Also, then he would be there for all the extended family to meet and hold and love when they came for Christmas break, which would be nice. 

I had been having contractions everyday starting about 2 weeks before my due date. There were a number of times that I thought, "Today is the day!" I'd have contractions anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 minutes apart, but they would always stop after an hour or two. There was one night that I tracked them and they were consistently 3-5 minutes apart for an hour, then Peter woke up and climbed in bed with us and the contractions stopped. It was super frustrating. Then, the 28th came and went. I had a doctor's appointment that day, and everyone was surprised to see me. "We thought for sure you'd have the baby by now!" my nurse said. My midwife said the same thing, "I checked the charts when I got in this morning. I thought for sure you were going to have the baby when I was gone." You and me both lady. But the little guy decided to not come early. 

Peter, Robin and New Baby

My mom flew in on the 30th (I had 2 different back ups in place in case, fingers crossed, the baby had come by then, but no, I was just fine to drive to the airport that day to get her). I picked her up from the airport and met up with my brother, David, for lunch. Then we picked up Peter, who was playing with the Nelson aunts, uncles , cousins and grandparents at the zoo. We headed home and had a normal day...nothing indicating the baby would be coming soon. We had dinner, chatted, and went to bed. I'd had contractions on and off throughout the day, but nothing consistent and none of them were strong.

I woke up around 2am to a strong-ish contraction. Then, another one just a few minutes later. I stood up next to the bed and leaned my arms on the mattress to get through the contraction and suddenly my water broke. My water never broke with Peter, so already, we were off to a very different start. I went to the bathroom, then woke up Jonathan. He asked, "How far apart are your contractions?" I responded with, "I don't know, but my water broke, and Gretchen (my midwife) said the baby's head was really low and we needed to come in quick if my water broke. So, we need to leave, now." We threw a couple of things (chargers, phones) into the hospital bag, woke my mom, and left. I remember being really shaky as we were getting out the door and driving in the car. My legs kept shaking and I had to focus really hard to keep them still. It's about a 20 minute drive from our house to the hospital. Contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart on the ride in. Jonathan called Gretchen as we were driving, and she headed to the hospital (She lives about 5 minutes away). I was glad that it wasn't snowing on the way to the hospital like it had been with Peter's birth.

Brothers!

We got to the hospital at about 2:40 am, parked the car in the front drive through area, grabbed a wheelchair and headed up to labor and delivery. We went to the front desk and they put us in a room (with a jacuzzi tub!! which I didn't even get a chance to use...sad) and started prepping everything. One nurse started asking us lots of questions- have you had any multiple births? any complications or problems during pregnancy? any domestic violence in your house? Now, I'm sure these are important things to have answered, but I just wanted her to stop talking and go away. Haha. Contractions were much more intense now. I answered some of her questions, but whenever there was a contraction I stopped talking and Jonathan would take over. Meanwhile, another nurse was trying to get an IV in me...little did she know, that would be pointless. She poked me once, but it didn't go. So they wanted to try the other hand. I told her to wait until I wasn't having a contraction and had a couple right in a row. Then, I had to pee really bad. They helped me get up and go to the bathroom. I had 2 strong contractions then, with a death grip on Jonathan's arm. At this point, contractions weren't just a "ok, I'll relax and think about something else as it passes... oh good it's over." it was more a "I think this is what death feels like. Wait, don't tense up. Gah, this is extremely unpleasant....whew, survived...I hope that never happens again...oh wait here comes another one." Anyway, went to the bathroom, then back on the bed.

View from our room of the Capital (after he was born)

Then, things get super crazy super fast. They were working on putting monitors back on me- during contractions...I wanted everyone to go away at this point- and the baby's heart rate was dropping with each contraction (same thing happened with Peter, so I wasn't worried, but the doctors were) They were struggling to get a good read on the baby because he was low down...trying to get out.They had me on oxygen at this point (same with Peter), but they didn't make me strap it on my face, they just let me hold it. I remember feeling really claustrophobic when they made me wear the oxygen mask with Peter...and I kept taking it off, which they didn't like, so this worked much better. 

At this point, I could sense that people were a little nervous because of the baby's heart rate and something else, but I was just trying to block everything out. I remember Jonathan was awesome. He kept telling me that I was doing great and that I could do this. After being back in the bed for about 2-3 contractions, I suddenly told everyone, "I need to push." I vaguely remember Gretchen counting and saying I was a 10, and I could push. Next thing I know, a nurse was holding one leg, someone was counting and so many people seemed to be yelling at me to push. So I did. I could tell everyone was worried by the tone of their voices, but I didn't know why they were worried, and I can't remember much of what was being said. I distinctly remember Gretchen saying, "Robin push, the baby needs to come out. He is not happy in there." I also remember another nurse telling me to not worry about the oxygen mask, but to just push. They didn't let me take a second to pause between pushes either, just push, push push. If I'd had it in my I really wanted to say, "What do you think I'm doing?! I'm pushing the best I can!" Haha, but I just focused. Then I heard Jonathan say, "Robin you are almost done. I can see him a little. Keep pushing, he's almost here." I can't imagine doing this without Jonathan there...I don't know how people did it back in the day when the men were sent away.  

My view (again after baby was born)- look at that hottie. I love him.

It took about 3-5 pushes (?? I think..it wasn't long) and the baby was born! His time of birth- 3:21 am. Remember what time we got to the hospital? Around 2.40 am...yeah, it was a fast whirlwind of a baby being born. They never did get to try the IV again. And we had to finish answering all the questions after he was born...which to be honest was much easier. As soon as he was born, they put him on my chest and rubbed him until he started crying- they were worried about him, but he did awesome. He was a little purple when I first got him, but he pinked up pretty fast. They had a special nurse there to check him out and everything, so I'm pretty sure that's why everyone sounded so worried when I was pushing. But he was great, just like his big brother. I got to hold him for about an hour and let him nurse before they weighed and measured him. He came in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches long. He didn't have a name yet, and that is another story for another day.

And the newest Nelson!