Originally published on Oct 22, 2017.
1. Baby’s name is ‘Mikaella Marilyn Trinidad Patino’
She was born on October 21, 2017 at 11:04pm weighing 2.906kg, (6.3932 lbs)
Her nickname is Mika.
2. She is named after Mae’s mom, Marilyn.
We initially thought when Mae was undergoing pre-term labor, that Mika was going to have the same birthday as Mae’s mom, September 27, which would have been a welcome coincidence.
A few days ago though, October 17, was my father’s birthday. His name is Ceferino. We hoped that Mae wouldn’t go in labor that day, because otherwise she would have to be named Ceferina1.
3. When Mika gets bigger, she will wear a Pokemon costume for Halloween. She will be Mika-chu2.
4. After almost 6 years of being boyfriend-girlfriend and 2 years married, Mae and I never had pet names for each other. But ever since we decided on the name, I have started to call Mae, Mamika.
In turn, Mae calls me Paprika.
5. How would I want Mika to call me?
Not ‘Pop’ because that’s what I call my father. Not ‘Daddy’ because that’s Mae’s father. Not ‘Papi’ because that’s my brother-in-law. Not ‘Dad’ because that’s what Mom calls Lolo.
‘Father’ sounds too formal. ‘Papa’ feels too clingy.
So I’m left with the following viable options: Tatay. Itay. Ama. Amang Hari. Kamahalan3.
6. Choosing a name is hard because of all past and present associations since childhood.
Chances are, if you had a classmate or acquaintance who was kind of weird, you definitely won’t name your kid with a similar name.
So to all my acquaintances and friends named Mika, Mikaella and Marilyn, thank you for keeping those names, good names.
But to all my acquaintances and friends who maybe wish to name their children J3, Juan, or Bernardo, I apologize in advance.
To God, thank you for letting Mika reach 38 weeks even if she wanted to come out at 29 weeks.
To family and friends, thank you for the prayers, moral support & visits, confinement meals & laundry service, shopping for baby errands. In a way we are grateful that these series of unplanned events happened in the Philippines where there’s overwhelming support!
To our doctors and nurses at Asian, thank you for taking care of us throughout our stay at the hospital.
And last but definitely not the least, to Mae for willingly enduring everything. I still can’t believe you created a person, and I’m excited for our new journey together now as a family!
Read the rest of the series here:
Part 1: The Staycation
Part 2: Cake, Rules and Boxers
Part 3: TMI Edition
Part 4: Bamboozled
Part 5: Mika
Footnotes:
1 Ceferino and Ceferina – similar to spanish language, words also have genders. Words that end with ‘o’ are for boys and words that end with ‘a’ are usually for girls.
2 Mika chu – in reference to the Pokemon Pikachu.
3 Tatay. Itay. Ama. – are all tagalog words for father. Amang Hari and Kamahalan though are for kings and royalty.