A Baby Sister for Bella?
by Melanie Bettinelli on June 18, 2010
When we told Bella that we were expecting a new baby, she was incredulous. “You’re just pretending, right?” she giggled.
But we insisted that we weren’t pretending. “There really is a new baby in Mama’s belly,” Dom told her. She giggled some more.
Then she wanted to know what the baby’s name is. We told her we didn’t know yet. Obviously that was not satisfactory. She declared that the baby’s name was Rose.
“But what if the baby is a little boy? Maybe you’ll have a little brother.”
“It’s not. It’s a little girl and her name is Rose.”
This is the first time we’ve had a child old enough to be interested in the naming of our baby. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
By the way, I’m not necessarily opposed to Rose—as a middle name, at least. St Rose of Lima was my confirmation saint. It’s not the name we were thinking of; but if Bella does feel strongly and doesn’t waver and we do have a girl…. Well, why not let her have some say in the matter?
Comments
When my daughter’s kindergarten teacher became pregnant I bought a pair of booties as a little gift for Em to give her. The teacher thanked me in the afternoon and told me that Em wanted her to swallow the booties so that the baby could put them on!
Rose has always been one of my favourite names.
Posted by Sharon on 06/19/10 at 02:13 AM
Naomi’s middle name is Rose
. The older girls were terribly frustrated that we wouldn’t tell them her name before she was born, but we did take their ideas into account. They came up with a shortlist of three - Jessica, Madeleine and Naomi - and we were already thinking of Naomi, so that settled it. Poor Cherub ... she would so love a baby :(. But somebody has to be the youngest!
Posted by Kathryn on 06/19/10 at 02:47 AM
My middle name is Rose.
Congratulations! (I tried to post that yesterday but every time I tried it wouldn’t let me. :( )
Posted by Katherine on 06/19/10 at 07:02 AM
Congratulations! I also couldn’t post yesterday…
A funny naming story: when my older daughter was six and we were expecting the baby who turned out to be my younger daughter, the older had a baby doll (the only one she ever liked). She asked me what she should name the doll, and I, for once thinking the situation through, told her the name I wanted to give the new baby if a girl. Later, my daughter began lobbying for that name if the baby were a sister. When the baby was born, a girl, we named her that name. To this day I think my older daughter believes that she chose her sister’s name (the doll has slipped out of memory).
Posted by scotch meg on 06/19/10 at 08:31 AM
Sharon,
Adorable!
Kathryn,
How sweet. I do like the name Naomi, too. It’s on my list of possibilities.
Katherine and Scotch Meg,
What was the error message you got? It seems that quite a few people couldn’t post comments yesterday.
Oh and I love the baby doll story. I’m surprised Bella hasn’t advanced the name Gina, as that is her favorite doll. But perhaps she is too invested in the storyline of Gina as her little girl.
Posted by Melanie Bettinelli on 06/19/10 at 07:04 PM
It simply said my post could not be posted at this time. I have no idea why.
Posted by Katherine on 06/19/10 at 08:21 PM
Congratualations! (I too could not post that day.) and Rose is a lovely name…
Posted by Cathy on 06/21/10 at 10:36 AM
Congratulations Melanie!!! Another blessing for your wonderful family
And four is so much fun!! Hope you feel better. And my daughter was supposed to be named Margaret Rose, but when I delivered her, I got a slight panic attack at the thought that she might be my only girl, and felt I must include the name Mary somehow. So she became Margaret Rosemary, and it suits her just right 
Posted by Colleen on 06/21/10 at 01:24 PM
Congratulations! And Rose is a wonderful name— all the Roses I know are sweet! (My 4 year old’s middle name is Rose…)
My youngest, Maximilian, was named by his older siblings (6,4,2). They all got together one afternoon and decided the new baby was a boy named Max. I caved quickly, because Maximilian Kolbe is AWESOME. My husband took a bit longer, but the kids prevailed.
Max definitely fits his name, so I’m chalking the whole thing up to the wisdom of siblings…
Posted by Deirdre Mundy on 06/22/10 at 02:24 PM