I have a confession to make.





After a lot of consideration and thought, Bryan and I have come to the decision that we need to change Lily's name. It just wasn't working for us.




We know that you have all had 9 1/2 months to get used to it, but you'll get used to the new one too.



Confused? Just pulling your leg. Kind of.





We did a really good job of keeping everyone in the dark about the names we selected - only revealing her second middle name and her last name. When Bryan and I got married, I decided that I have been a Carbol far too long to change it to something else, so I hyphenated my last name to Carbol-Ritcey. Fast forward to the pending Lily. Bryan didn't want her to have a hyphenated last name, but I didn't want her to miss out on being a Carbol either. So we named her Lily Ruth Carbol Ritcey.



Or so we thought.



When you have a child, the hospital brings you a stack of forms to fill out. We thought the important one was the one that records feedings and wet & poopy diapers. Wrong. It's the other ones! I dutifully filled out the Alberta Health care form. I filled out other forms that have kept me supplied with junk mail from formula companies. I filled out her Registration of Live Birth form. Lily's Alberta Health Care card came incorrect a few times, but after a phone call and a letter, they stopped calling me Mrs Ritcey (that's my mother in law!) and got the Ritcey vs Carbol-Ritcey thing down pat. Then I got a letter from Alberta Vital statistics that stated Lily's name was altered at Vital Stats as per legislation that states: if parents are married but using different last names, the child's last name will be defaulted to that of the mother. This is only if the father has not signed the Registration of birth acknowledging the correct name on the document.

The document filled out by a sleep deprived, new mom. That I didn't get my husband to sign. The document happily handed over to the lovely nurses at the hospital. They don't check to see that you have filled the forms out correctly. They just give you the baby and ask how breastfeeding is going. But they sure check the chart that shows the number of wet & poopy diapers there have been! Perhaps they could combine the two, so that all the correct information is on one form. Wet diaper - check. Poopy diaper - check. Are you the dad? - check. Signatures? - check. OK you can go home now.



But we didn't have such a thing, and our sweet little peanut has been going by an alias for the past 9 1/2 months.



She is: Lily Ruth Carbol Carbol-Ritcey.



Yup, a double Carbol. Until today. We went to the registry office to swear that it's not her name, and that she is in fact, just Lily Ruth Carbol Ritcey.



It's too bad, because the government was nice enough to send us a lovely certificate for her baby book. Hopefully we'll get a new one.