Sweet Honey Bee

When Sterling and I found out we were pregnant, the much anticipated question of ‘boy or girl’ quickly became a hot topic. Will Eli and Kam add a little brother to their gang or will they need to protect a little sister? While I wanted the baby’s sex to be a surprise, Sterling wanted to find out… and therefore a compromise was made to find out BUT to keep it to ourselves and let everyone else have the surprise!

I thought for sure we would screw this up, let a pronoun slip, but low and behold, we didn’t! For 20 weeks we held this secret and I do not regret how we did things at all. It was fun to hear people’s guesses & it was special to have this information just between the two of us. And when SHE was born, everyone went crazy!

Actually, before Sterling and I even found out the sex, we started referring to baby as sweet honey bee. Bees hold a significant meaning to us, as we met on Bumble and created our love story, so it only made since that the human we created as part of this love story be our bee! With every pregnancy post and update, sweet honey bee made its appearance and people chimed in with anticipation, excitement, and love.

Sweet honey bee was Sweet honey bee literally until we HAD to make a decision on a name. For some reason, we didn’t talk much throughout the pregnancy about names. We both had created a short list leading up to the due date, but we didn’t fully explore those options until the final hour – waiting in triage! Although I can’t lie, her middle name, Snow, was chosen from the very start. *Ahem* another part of our love story – Game of Thrones – enter Jon Snow! An honorable fighter, warrior, and survivor; an all-around good human being. We didn’t know at the time just how fitting this name would be!

But there we were – in triage – waiting to be called back to our room and we each pulled out our lists. All of mine quickly got vetoed, though now I can’t even remember what I had written on there, and truthfully so did most of his… except for three. Izzy, Sunnie, and Memphis. Memphis was eventually decided a no-go, and I actually vetoed Izzy off the list right away, but then it kept coming back to me.

We had arrived at the hospital for my scheduled C-section at 5 am (IN A MONSOON MIGHT I ADD… with a handicap father riding his scooter beside me due to his recent achilles tendon surgery… oh and wearing masks because you know… pandemic… good times, good times…), and then we were called back to our room, I got prepped for the OR, Sterling put on the scrubs & gear, and our baby was born at 7:25!

Baby’s birthday, July 1st, was a Thursday, and due to it being a C-section, we stayed until Sunday. We were getting discharged early afternoon and although the lovely birth certificate people had been in a *few* times already to see what name we were giving our child, we continued to say we needed more time. Until we literally had zero time left to take.

Izzy Snow, Sunnie Snow, back and forth, back and forth. Both cute. Can’t decide. Ironically, one of my best friends worked at the hospital and was coming on shift as we were packing to leave. She stopped by our room to meet baby and asked about the name. We told her we hadn’t chosen. Sterling told me I could have the final say, but I didn’t know what that say was. As the clock ran out, my friend told us to flip for it. It sounds crazy to flip a coin to name your baby, but we HAD to make up our minds. So… a flip it was. Not a coin flip though, because we didn’t have a coin… but a dry erase board eraser flip! One side was Sunnie, the other side Izzy. My friend tossed that eraser in the air and there it landed… Sunnie!

Sunnie Snow.

That lasted about 4.5 seconds when all of the sudden I had the very clear answer that in no way was this baby girl a Sunnie. She was an Izzy.

Izzy Snow.

Perfect.

Fun facts:

1. My friend who was here for Izzy’s departure from the hospital was my same friend who was here for Eli’s arrival. She has been by my side since we were 3 years old and there she stood again, as my nurse, by my side, helping to deliver my first born, and then by my side, helping to name my last. ♥
2. Although Sunnie is a precious name and resembles my name [Summerly or Summy], Izzy is actually a nickname for Isaac, which is Sterling’s middle name! And even though Snow comes from Jon Snow, we can also say she’s named after me with the weather/seasonal-theme 😉. PLUS – I love snow; Sterling calls me his ice queen, to which now I have my very own snow princess ❄

“SHE’s here!!! 💕 Izzy Snow Reid was born on 7/1/21 at 7:25 am measuring 6 pounds 15 ounces and 18.25 inches long! Biased parents here, but she’s completely perfect. Thank you everyone for all the love and kind wishes throughout this entire pregnancy. Now time to meet the best big brothers a girl could ask for. Welcome home, sweet honey bee. 🐝🍯💛”