That is always something that we are asked regarding Doug and I having our three sweeties..."how did you ever come up with six names (firsts and middles)?" Then it is usually followed up with "we struggled to agree on our one child's name". Well, for Doug and I the names actually came pretty easily. We initially found out the genders of baby "A" ~LOGAN~ and baby "C" ~CHASE~ at 16 weeks gestation. Baby "B" ~BROOKE~ on the other hand did not reveal herself until a few visits later. Now, being that I was only 16 weeks, they could not tell with absolute certainty that "A" and "C" were boys but they were "pretty sure" as I recall. Every time I went in and had an ultrasound they reconfirmed that their genders were in fact what they had determined. For quite some time I was convinced that I was going to have three boys as we were thinking that there was a strong chance that baby "A" and "B" were identical due to how and where they were laying...needless to say, NOT THE CASE! I was absolutely pleasantly surprised right around 19 weeks to find out that "B" was in fact a girl! Two boys and a girl...it couldn't have been more perfect if we'd tried!
Due to the extreme high risk for potential complications associated with carrying multiples (ie preterm labor/delivery, preeclampsia), Doug and I were very reserved to assign any names for quite some time. We were simply too afraid but we did spend many nights discussing potential names and we narrowed down our lists over several months. At 24 weeks gestation some of you likely recall that I was admitted to the hospital due to preterm labor after failing to be managed by oral medications at home and that is where I stayed until we delivered at 32 weeks gestation. During the first several weeks of my hospital stay I was not sure they were going to be able to get my contractions under control and I really feared that they were going to have to deliver me. It was a very trying and stressful time but we endured. Each Monday when I would increase in another week of staying pregnant, Doug and I would usually celebrate with dinner and spend some quiet time alone. One of our favorites was Fazoli's pasta and we would always finish it off with a piece of their cherry cheesecake...YUM. Once we hit 28 weeks pregnant, Doug and I got to celebrate in another way...we confidently decided on our babies names. When I was admitted at 24 weeks all I heard was how if we could hold off delivering until 28 weeks or greater the risks of our babies suffering from long term problems such as cerebral palsy, brain damage, brain bleeds, etc. decreases significantly. Being admitted at 24 weeks, making it to 28 weeks seemed nearly impossible but I am soo thankful for having such a gracious God who made great things possible for my family, extremely knowledgeable and caring doctors who took amazing care of us and a very specialized hospital that was able to provided all pertinent medical care for myself and my precious babies!
Growing up I have always loved the name Logan...though I had once entertained the idea of naming my little girl Logan..."Logan Caroline". Doug would not go for that! He loved the name Logan but only for a little boy. So, it was an easy compromise to settle on "Logan Michael". Michael is Doug's father's middle name as well as Doug's middle name so we decided to carry on the tradition with the firstborn having "Michael" as his middle name.
Doug and I had several girl names that we really liked but my heart always guided me back to "Brooke". I just think it is beautifully simple, very delicate and feminine. Quickly we both agreed on "Brooke Caroline". Her middle name had been picked out since I was a young girl...hoping one day I would be blessed with a daughter, I wanted to give her my Dear Granny's middle name. She was someone very special to me and Brooke's middle name is in honor of her. Besides, I've always loved the name "Caroline" but I did not want it as a first name as I did not want people to shorten it and call her "Carol" or anything similar to that.
I have to admit that Doug and I were most challenged when trying to decide on Chase's name. We both had a fairly long list of possibilities Chase being high on both of our list's BUT my mom worked for a bank. The bank was formerly known as Bank One but during our pregnancy they were bought out by......you guessed it "Chase". So we did NOT want people to think that our child was named after a bank because HE IS NOT!!!!!!! So after much deliberation, we did decide that ultimately we LOVED THAT NAME and felt that it fit his VERY ACTIVE in utero personality to a "T" and we could not imagine naming him anything else...thus his name "Chase Douglas". We also struggled to decide on his middle name. We tossed around the possibility of naming him after my father and brother Josh whose middle names are "Dale" but it simply did not work together. And we both agreed we each got to pick a family name to pass down so we wanted to be fair. Also, we wanted Chase to know he is just as important as Logan (whom received a family name~daddy's name!) so he too was named after his daddy.
It really was not an overwhelming or truly difficult task for us. I found as you start to consider names, you secretly fall in love with a particular name and then every other name you think about just simply will not do! I will tell you that Doug and I did have backup contingency names JUST IN CASE "A", "B", and "C" were born and did not look like a Logan, Brooke and Chase to us. Doug's father could not believe that we even considered that...I swear he thought we were crazy but it's true! Just for fun I will tell you what our backup names were. Logan's other possible name was going to be Keagon Michael, Brooke's was Lauren Caroline and Chase's was Logan Douglas. I cannot even picture them as those names now...they just don't fit. I love the names we have chosen my sweet babies LOGAN, BROOKE AND CHASE...
