1.) [name_m]How[/name_m] did you pick your child(ren)’s names?
We both had names we originally loved. [name_f]Alice[/name_f] was my favorite and [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] was his. He had bad associations with [name_f]Alice[/name_f] and so it was vetoed, I just wasn’t feeling [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] for this baby (but may do for future babies!). He found [name_f]Harriet[/name_f] on my long list and said he liked it, I obviously liked it too (alongside all the consequent nicknames) and it just felt right and so [name_f]Hattie[/name_f] got her name, I couldn’t imagine her as anything else now.
Her middle was originally just going to be [name_f]Rose[/name_f] because I enjoyed the flow but someone mentioned that it sounded double barreled and I didn’t want any confusion so we added [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] in - this was a name we both adored but couldn’t use as a first name because there’d be bad associations along with our last name (due to an infamous [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f]) and we disliked nickname options. Both Elizabeth and Rose also had family connections.
2.) Did you have a baby shower? What was it like?
No baby shower for me, I hate being centre of attention and so avoided it. I had multiple people asking for one though and did have a little work thing in the end.
3.) Did you wait till birth to learn the gender or learn before?
Before! I was still struggling to believe that a baby was in there so learning the gender was really important for me to begin creating that bond. We had a really lovely moment in a private scan where the sonographer handed us example photos and got us to guess ourselves so I’m glad we decided to find out during pregnancy.
4.) If you have more than one child, did/do they share a room?
We only have one (for now!) and she has her own room. We’re planning to move to a bigger house before we have any more children so they can each have their own rooms.
5.) What are a few uncompromisable rules that you have for your child(ren)?
No hard and fast rules. She’s only one but we are trying to teach her to be gentle with the cat, not throw food (that’s not going too successfully) and to not touch anything she’s not supposed to!
6.) What is one thing that your child(ren) do that never fails to piss you off?
She never “pisses me off” per se but when she wakes up at 4am I do get a shiver up my spine on the thought of dragging myself out of bed to sit with her for potentially an hour or two. I guess when she’s being really fussy when getting changed can also be quite frustrating, or when she’s refusing to eat but we’re working out ways to make it less of a chore for her.
7.) What color(s) was/is the nursery?
White with woodland animal stickers. I’ve been telling everyone that she’s going to have so many colourful things in her nursery that the walls don’t need to exacerbate that any further!
8.) What is one thing that people tell you about your parenting/lifestyle with children that greatly annoys you?
I’ve been quite lucky that I’ve not experienced much of this. I think the closest thing would be my family wanting to feed her unhealthy food (cake, chocolate etc.) despite me asking them not to. I just think she needs to at least start life with a healthy lifestyle but they’re just so keen to see her reactions to different foods.