Avery Jane

(Thanks aunt Lorin for my pretty blanket!)

Today sweet baby girl you are five days old, and today we gave you a name, Avery Jane Wilson. I thought you might want to know how and why we chose the name we did. To say that today is the day we decided on your name is not entirely true. Dad and I had talked about names for you quite a bit before you born and we felt like we wanted to meet you first before we could tackle the job of giving you the name you would have for your whole life. And so when you were born and the doctor handed you to me and you looked up at me so quiet and calm with your bright little eyes, a little whisper in my heart said, “Avery” and I knew that was your name, but I kept it to myself. Later when dad was holding you he said, “She is Avery, I think that’s her name.” But I didn’t tell him that I thought it was your name too. I said I wasn’t sure yet, that I needed more time to decide because it was after all, a very important decision--which was partly true.

But the real truth is that after having you be a piece of me, and with me these 39 weeks while you were growing in my belly, I wasn’t ready for you to be your own little person with your own little name yet. Because up until now, you have just been our baby girl, and I wasn’t ready to share you with the world. And so I stole these five days to get to know you better, and to get used to not having you there with me all of the time safe in my tummy, and to keep you just our baby girl a little while longer.

When everyone else met you they anxiously asked what your name was. You are surrounded by so much love. All of your Grandma’s and Grandpa’s and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends were looking to get to know another little piece about you—they were so excited for you to finally be here. But they were patient while we didn’t tell them, happy just to have you here and safe.

A few weeks before you were born, dad and I went out to eat. It was noisy and crowded and my feet were so swollen, but we thought we would go out on the town, because we knew it might be a little while till we had a chance to do that again. As we sat and ate our food, we chatted about names we liked for you. Up until this night I don’t think we agreed on a single one. I would say, “How about Margaret? And Dad would say, “Hmm.” And he would say, “I like Camille”, and I would say, “Yeah, that’s a cute name”. And then Dad said, “What about Avery?” and I stopped and thought, “Avery…that is so pretty”, and was surprised because it was the first time we had really agreed on a name we liked, and the odd thing was that it wasn’t a name I’d ever really heard much or considered. But that night, and for the next few weeks, I couldn’t stop thinking about that name.

So after you were born and we brought you home, we got out the baby name book and poured over its pages looking at names and their meanings. The problem was, you were this perfect little soul, and no name could capture that. None were good enough. We needed a name that meant “Beautiful, light, magical, joyful, brilliant, gentle, peaceful, musical, lovely, content, perfect, gift”, but there was none. And so our sweet Avery, we decided that to us your name would mean all these things. And last night it was settled. And I told dad, who had never wavered in knowing your name, that he was right, and that I’d known it all along. And I spent one more night just cuddling you as our baby girl only, and crying a little bit knowing that today we would share you with the world. And I felt peaceful.

We picked your middle name, Jane, because it is strong and pretty and feminine, and throughout history there have been many talented and wonderful women, including your aunt, who bear that name, and we think that it suits you beautifully.

So Avery Jane, we give you this name and hope you like it as much as we do. And although we know you are your own little person with your own little name, you will always, always be our sweet baby girl.

We love you so much,
Mama and Dad