Katherine Grace

A year ago today, Joshua and I were getting ready for the arrival of our first child.  We were overdue and scheduled for some testing on Monday that we knew may lead to an induced labor (or so said our OB).  We spent the weekend cleaning the house, packing our hospital bags, decorating for Christmas and still debating the merits of different names for "SweatPea" as Joshua often typed our baby's pet name ("Sweet is spelled with two E's, Dear"). 

Looking back, we were surprisingly casual about the arrival of the baby.  I loved being pregnant and was feeling sad that I would have to transition to the next stage of motherhood.  However, ever the curious one, I was excited to experience childbirth.  Joshua and I had taken a great birthing class (thanks, Vickie!) and I had been listening to Dottie's hypnobirthing CDs during all of my naps -- honestly, I couldn't tell you what happened in the hypnobirthing CDs beyond the introduction, but I had great naps with them! -- and felt as prepared as I could be for the process.

However, our ease with every other element of preparation was clouded by my fear of naming the baby.  I was so tired of thinking of it.  I've been thinking about what to name my future children since kindergarten. Honest.  I remember talking about names with my best friend Linh.  Here I was just days away from having my first child and I couldn't land on a solid name for the life of me. 

To get my mind off of things and to take me away from the list of names I kept pouring over, we went with our neighbors Randy and Erin to get Christmas trees for our respective houses.  As we were driving in the car, we chatted about how our preparation was going.  Eventually, among all my cheery feelings about having a baby, I admitted that I was beyond frustrated with figuring out an appropriate baby girl name.  I vented something like, "I just wanted to name her Katherine Grace and be done with it.  That's a good solid name, right?  Who could argue with that?"  Everyone agreed that Katherine Grace would be a great name.  But I sighed, "That name just doesn't feel like the name of my child."  The conversation moved on to other topics and we all went home to set up our trees.

The following night my water broke and I spent the next day giving birth to a baby girl.  As Joshua and I sat together marveling at her in the delivery room, I said, "She looks like an Alma Kateri to me."  He agreed but we decided to sleep on it before we made the name official.  My parents eventually joined us in the birthing suite and also cooed over our darling, with Joshua and I being absolutely private about the possible name of Alma Kateri. 

After meeting their granddaughter on her birthday, they went back to our house to watch after our pets and ready things for our arrival home with our new bundle.  That night, my father ran into our neighbors and told them the good news of the day: "They had a girl!"  To which, Erin replied, "Oh, Katherine Grace!"  My father, confused, said something like, "sure" and went back into the house.  As he tells the story, his mind started racing.  He knew the name of the baby!  Should he tell my mother and ruin the surprise?  What should he do?  So, like the loyal and trustworthy man that we know him to be, he kept it quiet and marveled all night that he had a new granddaughter, whom he thought was named Katherine Grace. 

The next morning, as Joshua and I snuggled in with our daughter and my parents entered the room, we excitedly declared, "We would like to introduce you to Alma Kateri!"  My father, now even more confused, smiled brightly and joined with my mother in loving both the baby and the name. 

My father waited until Alma was nearly six months old before he told us this story.