She's OFFICIAL!!

Only 6 weeks later is Maelyn finally officially named. When Maelyn was born, Nate and I left for the hospital with no names discussed. I had a few I liked, including Maelyn, but Nate never wanted to play the name game with me. This wasn't a big shocker for me because it was the same story with the boys too. With the boys it still took us a couple days but we never left the hospital without naming them. Maelyn on the other hand was a different story. Once she was born I instantly wanted to name her Maelyn. I have always loved this name. I had an advisor at Weber State name her little girl that and loved it and it had stuck with me all these years later especially because I hadn't heard it since. Nate on the other hand had a list of a couple names (Kendyl and Taylor) he liked because he felt like our little girl didn't look like a Maelyn. After taking every last minute of our hospital time we could and after talking with the medical records specialist, we left the hospital without naming our baby because we were told we had 10 days before we had to go through the state vital records to name her. For all ten days at home Maelyn was called baby girl or sister! Nate and I just couldn't agree. I REALLY wanted to name her Maelyn and he didn't. We both were being stubborn and staying strong to our names. It took me begging for it on day ten that Nate finally gave in and let me have the name I wanted. Originally I had wanted to spell it Maelynne after my sister, but Nate didn't like the spelling because it made people pronounce it different than what we wanted. So we agreed on the name if Nate could change the spelling. I quickly agreed to that deal and even offered to let him pick the middle name. I waited all day to get her middle name and spelling which ended up being Maelyn Grace. At first I wasn't too excited about this middle name. I like middle names to have some family meaning, but Nate did some searching and liked Grace because of how it sounded with Maelyn and the meaning of it "Simple elegance". Once I had the final name I called the hospital to pass it along for our paperwork. Sure enough, she had mailed it out a day earlier than expected and we were out of luck! Now I had to work with vital records...ugh! Now Maelyn is 3 weeks old and I have to make my trip downtown to Vital Records to request her birth certificate. Little did I know I needed Nate there too. I started the paperwork and had to bring it home to have Nate sign it with a notary. Next step was mailing it back to them.  Surprisingly a week later her corrected birth certificate came in the mail. With having a birth certificate that said her name rather than "baby girl rothe" I could go to the Social Security office for her SSN. On Halloween, before going to Nate's work trick or treat, I figured I would stop and the Social Security office thinking it wouldn't be very busy because of the holiday. Good call on my part! I walked right in and they immediately helped me. I was in and out with her SSN request within just 20 minutes or less. Now it was the waiting game. On Maelyn's 6 week birthday I got her SSN and she was official! Even though all this work and run around was worth it because I got to name my baby girl the name I really wanted, I don't think I would ever suggest leaving the hospital without naming your baby first! After all this work, lets just hope our baby girl likes her name when she is older!