Thumper's (Real) Name

S and I decided that we weren't going to reveal the name we chose for baby girl until after the baby shower. It was really the last piece of the pregnancy that belonged to just the two of us that we were able to celebrate. It also gave us some time to get used to it and make sure that it was definitely what we wanted. So at the shower we did prediction cards (where a cousin actually did guess the name!) and then he and I shared our name with everyone who was there. We also had her whole name written on what we used as our guestbook. I blocked out our last name so the picture may look like it is a little uncentered, but I promise, I'm too much of a perfectionist for that! I posted the picture on Facebook but realized that plenty of people may have missed it so I thought that I would post here too, along with the explanation of why we chose the name we did. 

S's grandmother's name was Eleanor and she was a very special woman to his family so we knew that if we could find something we liked, we wanted to honor her. Sorry, and no offense, but Eleanor just sounded too antiquated for us -- even as a middle name. So we started to play around with different "versions" of Eleanor like Nora. However, nothing was really jumping at us that we loved. At the time, we were going through a name book to help with first names, even though my heart was set on Riley. It has been my favorite girl name as far back as I can remember. Then we came across the name Madelyn and we instantly fell in love with it. I am going to be one of those moms who will correct people if they pronounce it Madeline, but I figured that would come with no matter what her name was. We also both loved the nickname Maddie...it's different, but not Apple or some other strange name. And the middle name? Well, I was thinking about one of my favorite shows where the main female's name is Elena and I realized how similar that was to the name Eleanor and how beautiful a tribute it would be to S's grandmother. When I said how about Madelyn Elena, we sort of just stopped and knew that it was going to be Thumper's name! 

On a side note, I absolutely LOVE our "guestbook" from the shower. My MIL found one like this online and then my FIL recreated it and it's just beautiful! Basically, we had everyone who attended put their fingerprints as balloons to create the bundle. If we wanted, we could even add to it later for those who couldn't attend the shower. We plan on framing it and hanging it in baby girl's room, but I just can't help but smile every single time I look at it!