He's Miles Samuel Butler

with noah, we kept his name a secret until he was born when we made the 'big reveal' and introduction. for one, it was kind of fun to have a special secret that only john and i knew. for two, it was exciting to be able to actually introduce him with his name for the first time. and for three, we had the option of changing our mind, at any time before he was born. (and actually we had another name picked out that wasn't noah, but then changed it at the last minute. we are so thankful we did.)

anyway.

i sort of assumed that's how we'd do it for each of our children - wait to share the name until he or she was born. but we've approached our pregnancy with miles quite differently.

from the beginning, and even before, we wanted to connect with this new life as soon as possible and we felt strongly that giving him a name, and announcing it, would allow us, and others, to bond with him in a special way even before he was born. mostly we didn't want to waste a single second.

at around 14 weeks we got to see our baby for the first time. well, that's a lie. we actually saw him at like 8 weeks and although he was a brilliant, beautiful, tiny life, to our naked eye he was only a marshmallow-man dot. however, at the ultrasound we got at 14 weeks we saw him move. kick. wave. we saw his personality. i know that sounds kind of silly, but it's true. we felt like we were getting the sneakiest peek of who this life was, what kind of boy he was growing to be.

curious. active. life-lover. joy-spreader.

and within a couple weeks, inspired by our glimpse of his budding life, we gave him a name. miles samuel.

the name miles just seems to sum up those four words, and i don't really know how. it just does.

also we found two meanings of miles that we absolutely love and really resonated with. soldier and peace. initially it seems those two words are complete opposites. but to us they don't clash at all. we know all too well - sometimes peace must be fought for.

and samuel means 'God has heard.' enough said there.

introducing our son to the world by name was very intentional.

i can't tell you how wonderful it's been to hear people say "miles" instead of "the baby."

i can't tell you how remarkable it's been to feel the love and support so many people already have for this child who is yet to even be born.

i can't tell you how often miles reminds me, with his 50 summersaults a day and intense flutters of activity, that he's unique and mighty. and getting ready to take this world by storm. spreading love wherever he goes.

he's real. he's miraculous. he's miles samuel butler.