Monday, December 16, 2013

No A

Davis, Cooper, Blaine.  There's no "A" name.   Walking into the "big" ultrasound with our second, we had both a boy (Cooper) and girl (Caroline) name picked out. We joked then that we had created a pattern of going backwards in the alphabet and that our third child should be given a "B" name.  The pattern stuck and with the third we walked in with both boy and girl B names.   Blythe was our girl name and Blaine was our compromise on a boy name. Matthew and Davis wanted a Beauchamp and I wanted a Brady and neither was of us would have ever given in on that one so we compromised.

 A member told me today that she often wondered if  someone would have the strength to try again after losing a child who was born prematurely.  Matthew and I had the strength because we were one of two going into the third. The pregnancy with Davis was perfect. My ankles were swollen just one day, BP was great and no protein at all. He was two days overbaked and we forced him out by induction which turned into a c-section.      Our world was rocked the morning I woke up with blood which led to hospitalization and the discovery of severe Preeclampsia (PE).  the doctors were just as surprised as us because it was/is so extremely odd to have no PE with the first and then such a drastic 180 extreme with the second.   After a rollercoaster of emotions, we found the strength to try for a third. We both agreed that the PE came back in any form  that there would not be a fourth.  Two of three pregnancies impacted by PE were not odds we liked.  Within hours of discovering the PE, Blaine was delivered.  The PE was very mild at that point but because we were so far along we and the on call OB  did not want to take any chances. . At only 4 weeks and a day early, Blaine was a little on the small side and only went to the NICU for a few hours as a precaution.  For almost 8 weeks after, Matthew and I discussed  everyday whether there would be a fourth. We knew the decision had to be made quickly because the longer my body went in between pregnancies the higher the chance of the PE being severe vs mild so we made our decision and made it permanent.   We had always dreamed of having three children in the backseat of our cars but the strength to go through another pregnancy was not there.    We still believe our decision was the right one.  It sucks to know that an disease that took our Cooper and almost took my life has made the decision that there will not be an "A" for us.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Popular name?

Davis, Cooper and Blaine.  When Matthew and I picked our boys names, we were looking for names that we not super popular but not spelled so strangely that their names were consistently misspelled.  We liked the using a traditional last name as first name so thus we came up with our boys names.  I can count on one hand the number of people I have heard of with either Davis or Blaine as a first name.   Cooper, however, is growing in popularity.   Cooper has been the name of four kids Davis' age playing hockey, there are a couple more at his school and there were a few more teams for the Preeclampsia Promise walk because of children named Cooper.   Out of the 3 names, the one that gives me a gut punch everytime I hear it is the one I hear most often.  I don't know what I am really getting at with this post except that life can suck sometimes.  I miss my Cooper.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

A better brother

Even though he is not here on earth, Cooper is responsible for making Davis one incredible big brother.  Davis did not really understand when Cooper passed away.  He was two and half so how could he.  Within the year and half between Cooper dying and Blaine's birth, Davis matured and really started to understand of the magnitude of losing his little brother.   He started having dreams about Cooper and would randomly come to Matt or I crying because "It's unfair that Cooper had to die because I wanted a brother".  So now he has become super protective with Blaine.  The first few times he would need to leave Blaine after he was born, Davis would boo hoo because he was scared Blaine would have to leave and go to heaven. We got through that although Davis does still get upset when Blaine cries on the doctors office. Davis  will get mad at us if we make Blaine cry by telling him no and has even hit us a few times because he was  mad.  School bullies better stay from Blaine in the future!  Davis and Blaine are now sharing a bedroom because Davis was determined to do so.  Of course now the boys have a playroom in Blaine's old room so Davis did get a big prize for making that request so perhaps there was a little selfishness involved.