Since we’ve been home from the hospital, I’ve been trying to avoid calling my son by his first name. It’s not that I think [name_m]Colin[/name_m] doesn’t fit him, it’s just that it’s awkward for me to call him anything for some reason. For so long, he was faceless in my mind before birth and I still don’t know his “personality” (or as much of one as a 1 month old can have.) I’ve been trying to call him by his first middle because that’s what I wanted to name him in the first place, but even its not sticking. What’s going on with me?
Sometimes it’s weird to actually put the ‘name to the face’ of a newborn, which is why so many people wind up with cutesy baby nicknames early on. I have plenty of friends who weren’t calling their child by his/her name until a little later on, or unless they had to reinforce it for older sibs to remember.
Your hormones are probably making you feel uptight and nervous about this, but really there’s nothing to be nervous or upset about. [name_m]Colin[/name_m]'s name will grow on you- there are reasons you loved it to begin with, and those most likely haven’t changed.
With my kids, it took a while for me to actually believe that their names ‘belonged’ to them, but once they did they’ve stuck well ever since!
Try to get some rest, take care of yourself, and continue recouping, and enjoy the little guy!
I agree completely! Honestly it probably took me almost a year to get comfortable with calling my son by name… he definitely went by cutesy baby nicknames during that period of time but eventually the nickname faded and we had no trouble transitioning into the use of his first name. It happened slowly and I didnt even really notice the transition… but I do remember feeling extremely awkward calling him by name as a newborn!
Thanks, ladies! 
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has experienced this. I was honestly freaking out a bit, like “what if we picked the wrong name?” I’m guessing this feeling will pass when he gets older?
This just happened to my friend. She had 2 previous children that she named as soon as she found out what they were. [name_u]Baby[/name_u] 3 had no name up to a day after he was born. Then she couldn’t get used to saying it. He is now 2 months old and she adores his name. She was really worried too but it all worked out!
[name_m]Colin[/name_m] is a great name BTW. Congrats!
[name_m]Colin[/name_m] is very handsome! I felt for a few weeks that my daughter didn’t look like her name, but then she did. Now she couldn’t be anything else.
Agree with previous posters – it can take a year. That’s how long it took us to really start calling DD by her name. She was “baby,” “bug” and a host of other pet names until that point. [name_m]Even[/name_m] now (she’s 19 months old) we still mostly use a shortened form of her first name. It’s not that it doesn’t suit her – and it did when she was born, too – it’s just that before they really get their own personalities and start walking and talking it’s weird to call them by their full-on adult names! He will grow into eventually and you won’t even notice it’s happened.