The letter naming thing grew on me. I refused to do it at first, since my mother-in-law did it with the "S". My husband is Scott. he is the youngest of 4. First was Sandra, then Susan, followed by Sallyann and eventually, Scott. He was born on Father's day, the only son. His family were practicing Jehovah's Witnesses and did not celebrate this holiday, yet I still find it comical. He’s the youngest of 4, the only boy, born on Father's Day. of all days? Our son, Avery, was born very close to Father's day. Our letter naming situation came about unintentionally. Amber was the name we'd decided on for our first. With our second, I was 32 weeks along when my sister in law, Susan, passed. She was Susan Elizabeth. I wanted to name our baby (then gender unknown) after her if it was a girl, but I did not like the name Susan or Elizabeth, so we had decided on Victoria Elizabeth. I found out Alex's gender when I was already 6 days overdue. I only knew for 5 days, but it made all the difference in the world to me. We'd then decided on Alexander Scott (for his father.) Amber has my middle name as her middle name. Alex has his father's first name as his middle name.
When I became pregnant with our 3rd, I figured, "Eh, what the heck, let's do another 'A' name." I just didn't like any at the time and couldn't pick a winning first-middle combination. Then one day, it just hit me.... Ashton Thomas! So there he was, our third child, second son. We were sure we were done having children and I settled for longer term birth control that lasted 5 years. When it was time for replacement, we'd talked long and hard about it and we agreed that removal was preferable over replacement. Then came Autumn! It took more than 1 year of "trying" for our sweet little princess, but the effort paid off, big time. Autumn was born the day after her big sister, Amber. Our girls are 13 years and 1 day apart. Their due dates were just 1 day apart. (I carry babies for 42 weeks!) We knew for sure we wanted another and it didn't happen right away, but once we started trying, we got bored and frustrated because it wasn't happening. We gave up. Then, I became pregnant in December 2009, just before Christmas, but did not know until January 4th (just 3 days after my father in law passed). The pregnancy ended on 2/1/10 after two weeks of bleeding.
Just the day before our 15th wedding anniversary, on May 19th, 2010, I got another positive pregnancy test. I thought this was it, we were going to have our 5th baby, but alas, the pregnancy ended on 6/1/10. Skip forward another few months and on 9/11/10, 9 years after the terrorist attacks, I get yet another positive test. I don't think it will work out, but I do remain pregnant and get past 10/1/10. (around the same gestation yet another 4 months later.) I have an early ultrasound on 10/21/10 that shows us a strong heartbeat at just 9 weeks gestation. Success! A viable pregnancy. Somehow, that did not make me feel better. I was very cautious and we had a lot of family stress with our 2 oldest children while I was pregnant with Avery. This stress included, but is/was not limited to both of my older children being held at the local mental health facility under Baker Act.
Sorry for the book. It’s just that we've been through so much, yet here we are, still kicking. You can't keep us down! We're strong, we will survive.
I miss that boy more than I have ever missed anyone or anything in my life. Avery Jackson Friend, you are one loved boy.
