Lorenzo Elden

The mystery of a gender unknown wasn't as frustrating as I thought it would be....at first. 

The closer to the due date the more I wanted to know! 

All we could do though was take the extra precautions of making sure we took both boy and girl things with us to the hospital, including outfits, name tags and names. 

We had both a boy outfit and a girl outfit. 

I should have taken a picture of the outfits right next to each other. 

If I had, that picture would go...

[here]

I made these name tags: 

We had narrowed the girl's name down to one. 

I'm sure you're wondering what the name was....

we have no idea if we're done having babies...so, maybe we'll be telling you later.

The boys name was much harder. 

We started by discussing names we liked and soon found they were quickly vetoed for really good reasons. Mostly the reasons came down to the fact that the name was already in our family somewhere and in the same generation. Examples: Lucas, Lincoln, Simon, Mckay, etc. 

Those are all names of children of our cousins. 

Nathan's ancestry is from Portugal so we decided to look up a list of Portuguese boy names. 

We found a few we liked and wrote them down. 

Then lost that list. 

We would randomly throw out names, here and there. 

Marley was always willing to help. 

Her suggestions were always too ridiculous to consider and often had to do with the last thing she was looking at, like "How about Moose Dude!" after she was just looking at a moose magnet. 

Or "How about wipey box!"

Or "How about Diced Tomatoes!"

Other times it was names of boys in her class. 

Nope.

Finally, just last week we decided to seriously think and write down boy names. 

We figured we wouldn't have ONE chosen but we had better have some viable options. 

We made a list that had 14 names on it. 

Took that to the hospital with us.

Didn't use any of them. 

Picking a name for a child is hard...seems like a major responsibility until it is actually done and the birth certificate has been ordered. 

A few hours after birth, Nathan sat at the bottom of my hospital bed and we decided we better get deciding. 

We said a prayer. 

We both didn't even mention the list. 

We started suggestions again. 

Lorenzo came up. 

We both liked it. 

Laurence was on the list...

We kept discussing. 

Decided to look at our family lines for distant relatives that might have appealing names. 

I thought I had seen Lorenzo in Nathan's family line. 

I had...but, we found it was spelled funky....ok, not funky, Portuguese.

Lourenco

Was the middle name of Nathan's great grandfather on this Dad's side. 

Frank Lourenco Freitas 

Born in Flores, Azores, Portugal and died in California. 

He was the link from Portugal to the US!

We thought that was cool.

Then we were looking at my ancestry and my mother's great grandfather on her mother's side had a 

Lorenzo

Another middle name too. 

Walter Lorenzo Holbrook

So, we decided on Lorenzo and then we had a lengthy discussion on what spelling to use. 

Lorenco - Nathan liked this spelling, but I didn't feel like anyone would know how to pronounce it. Nor did I feel that we are ethnic enough to pull off an ethnic spelling/pronunciation.

Laurenzo - I wanted this one because I wanted to be able to nickname him Lars or Larz. 

For reals! Isn't that a cute nickname!?!

Lorenzo - we both liked this spelling. Simple. Straight forward. And Nathan gave me permission to still nickname him Larz, from this spelling. 

Middle names:

There is an unspoken tradition in my family of giving the first son his middle name from his mother's maiden name or his great grandfather's name. 

Elden is Lorenzo's great grandfather's name. 

My grandfather, 

Elden R. Alger

So, here are the pictures of our little

Lorenzo Elden Freitas

Born Saturday, May 10, 2014
11:20am
7lbs. 15oz.
20 1/4 inches long

  

I thought I should practice writing his name before I wrote it on the name card I had made. 

Good thing I did because the first time, I spelled his name wrong! 

He looks so tiny with the card on top of him.

This is nurse Deb. 

She was a our second shift delivery nurse. 

When she came in our room, she introduced herself and gave us a little shpeal and said, that I had to have the baby by 7pm...since that was 12 hours away, I laughed and said, "Well, I'm planning on it!" 

Then she said, "You guys look familiar! Have you delivered here before?"

Yes! Almost exactly 2 years ago! 

Then she looked/seemed familiar to me too. 

She said, "Yeah! I helped deliver a daughter with fuzzy strawberry blond hair!"

When Deb asked what we were having, we told her we didn't know but that we felt like it was a girl. 

She said that judging by the heart rate she was sure it was a girl too. 

We were ALL SO surprised. 

Deb was Shocked!

This is Deb apologizing to Lorenzo for thinking he was a girl based on his heart rate. 

When we were close to being discharged, Sunday night, Nathan went and got the girls. 

They had stayed with our close friends, Eric, Robin, Miriam, and Lillian Clark. Lillian is Marley's age and we have known the whole family since we moved here, because Robin used to work with Nathan. 

The girls had a great time with the Clarks and made memories with them they will always cherish. 

They went hunting and digging for leeks!  

How fun is that?!?!

But, Nathan had gotten them and they had missed us and were anxious to meet their new little brother.

Isi, right away was tender and loving. 

So far she always uses her most gentle hands.

Going home outfit.

Home.

His cute little head and beautiful hair.

Biggest sister and littlest brother bonding.

We love you all!