When I first became pregnant, I did something almost unheard of, I did not find out what I was having. I wanted it to be a surprise! You see in a family heavy with boys I would have made the front page of our family newspaper.

When I was pregnant, I would dream it would be a little girl. Everyone predicted I would break the cycle and have the first girl. Not only was he a boy but he weighed in at 9 1/2 lbs and looked like a linebacker. An adorable baby boy that was all boy. Born 6-14.

Then three years later, I became pregnant again, repeated the trick of not finding out what I was having, and again another boy. This time the loudest one in the nursery, a skinny version of #1. This is fine, we know the drill, I was a boy mom and knew exactly what to expect! Born 7-15.

You see, I research stuff, surely there is a way to do this. I found books and a Chinese chart. There are certain times of the month when you conceive you have a better chance to have a girl. I was determined this time to have that girl.

Round three, another boy. Born 11-11. By this time the count for boys in the whole family was up to twelve! The likelihood was looking bleak. However I wasn’t giving up, I was determined to crack the code. If you know me well enough, I persevere!

At this point I needed to make sure I could actually handle the likelihood of it being another boy. I had three of the cutest blonde baby boys that loved their mom and was quickly getting outnumbered in my house. We had lots of firetrucks, cars, GI Joes, footballs, so many boy toys, I desperately wanted a splash of pink, baby dolls, hair bows, dresses and classic girly stuff!

Round 4, the moons aligned according to the Chinese chart I was on a strong patch of possible pink. I was pregnant again!

Knowing my past, the strong blue gene on the Bunch side, I figured this would still not work. I had my mind set up and decided it would be okay either way.

At age 34 they arrange for you to do an amniocentesis. I had no idea what this was other than checking for abnormalities but I soon learned they can also send the fluid off to confirm the sex of the baby. When they saw the ultrasound they said it is more than likely a girl but I needed complete certainty.

Right before Christmas I got the confirmation phone call that we were having a girl. I couldn’t believe it! I tried real hard not to get too excited but now I was over the moon! I could finally shop in the pink aisle, I could finally decorate a room for a girl, it was the best feeling ever.

I struggled with a name since I already had three chances before to come up with the possible girl name. I had my grandmother’s name Evelyn and my sisters name Leslie and wanted to honor them both. However nothing really rolled off the tongue putting those names together.

I had some more things to consider, as I finalized her name. I had to be able to yell her name out loud and with four kids I needed it to be different, first letter and last letter different from her brothers. They all had two syllables, but I wanted them to have different beginnings and ends. In my family we had Carrie, Leslie and my mom as Jerrie. No one was ever called the right thing, ever. We had Carrie and Bobby so I wanted to avoid the “ie” for this one.

We have super close family friends and their daughter’s name was Emma and I always loved her and her name. I decided that would be her first name. I was super excited and at peace. Then her middle name, it just didn’t sound great using either Evelyn or Leslie. Using my formal name for the middle name just brought it all together: Emma Caroline.

I actually wrote this down and analyzed it:

Michael – 7 letters

Hunter – 6 letters

Bevan – 5 letters

Emma – 4 letters

Totally different letters in the front, and back and nothing similar! This totally confirmed I was on the right path as a numbers person this made my heart smile.

One final tweak for her name. I had called all the boys by their middle name and allowed the rule to be changed for Emma! She will go by her first name because, she’s a girl, “I said so” and it will be much easier when she’s married to just use her maiden as her middle same.

Finally a beautiful name for our baby girl:

Emma Caroline Bunch.

Then we had our final appointment and the doctor wanted to pick a date to induce her, of all the possibilities, one of them was May 5th and I thought, wow that’s going to be super easy to remember with the double digits and on top of that Cinco De Mayo, a fun festive Mexican holiday. PERFECT!

Not only that but the birthdays would be easy to remember.

6-14 boy 1

7-15 boy 2 (add 1 to each part)

11-11 boy 3 (double digits)

5-5- girl 4 (+6 mos and double digits)

The bonus was this was the first time that the labor and delivery was pain free. My doctor and I finally realized that my legs were super long in proportion to my body so the dosage measurement of epidural wasn’t enough and it always stopped just before it reached the “critical area” it needed to cover.

Mission accomplished:

On May 5th, 2000 Emma Caroline Bunch arrived being the first and the last granddaughter on both sides of the family. Hogan’s with 5 and Bunch’s with 14 boys. A true miracle beautiful baby girl!