It's (Semi) Official

Hailey Kay

The decision.  After months and months of debate, we have finally settled on a name!  We made the decision on September 6, 2010, on our way to the dog park!  Ha.  Sounds like a trivial decision, but believe me, it wasn't.  I was tired of calling the baby "Baby" or Hannah-slash-Hailey, and when my mom said, "We'll just call her Slash," that was the end of that!  I needed a name.  Even though it took nearly 7 months to decide, and it was always between Hailey and Hannah, it came down to Hailey! 

Robby really preferred Hailey over Hannah, and to get me to finalize my vote, he kept mentioning Hannah Montana, the teen pop star. I guess that finally got to me when I was talking to a few people and said something about I want to paint the baby's room blue, not pink, but I didn't really think that went well with "Hannah" and someone said, "Hannah Montana loves blue!" For Robby to make the connection is one thing, but for someone else to...well, that was enough for me!  I don't want that attachment to her name for her whole life...or even the childhood/teenage years.

Her middle name is a family name - my mom's middle name in fact. Once again, I preferred another, but Robby picked this one, and I just couldn't argue, could I? Ha. I told him he was just trying to get a good Christmas present! (Joking, of course!)

The meaning.  One of the reasons it took me so long to decide on what to call her is the meaning of the names.  We have been prety sure since about July that her initials would be HKR, no matter what we decided, but we didn't know which way we'd go.  Hannah = gracious/from the grace of God, has Hebrew etymology (like Abigail) and is Biblical (also like Abigail);  Hailey = from the hay meadow and is of English origin.  It wasn't until Robby found an alternative meaning "Natural" that I could accept it as an option.  I just put too much emphasis on words!  When I think of "natural" and all that could imply, I like it.  I'll just pray that she has a generous and loving soul, and that should take care of that!  Kate = Pure;  Kay = joyous, both of which I like. 

In the end, her name, Hailey Kay means Natural & Joyous!  I think she'll be a beautiful person, inside and out!

I am so happy to be able to call her by her name now, and we can get Abigail used to hearing it as well.  I know I'm now in the home stretch (yaaaay!), and it's finally getting real.  Just about 10 weeks until Hailey gets here!

Here's Hailey's "house" at 28 weeks 5 days!