Meet Scarlett!

On August 2nd, our lives changed forever. We welcomed a beautiful, bright-eyed (and sassy) baby girl. I’d like to introduce you to Miss Scarlett Magnolia Bardot Kirchner.

Scarlett was born on August 2nd, 2020 at 2:46 in the morning. We were not expecting her so early (my due date was August 9th), in fact, all the signs pointed to the fact that she would actually be born late! But due to some complications, she was born a week early! But that story is for another day…and another blog post 😉

Our little girl was very little indeed! Weighing in at 5 pounds 14 ounces, we were shocked that she was such a tiny thing! Especially for only being delivered a week early! I just remember the moment I saw her that she looked like a baby doll! So petite and perfect! Although she didn’t weigh much, she measured 20 1/2 inches long.

She was born with a full head of BLACK hair (sorry for all of you rooting for red! haha) and I could not be happier! I am absolutely obsessed with her hair and I pray that it stays dark! (I low-key was hoping for black hair all along!) She definitely got Daddy’s dark hair and dark skin, but it looks like she may have gotten Mommy’s brown eyes! But only time will tell! All I know is that she is absolutely perfect in every way! ❤

We look at her everyday trying to figure out who she looks like, and I just have no idea! Along with her hair and skin, I think she also got Ian’s nose! And everyone says that she has my lips and chin. There are times where I see my sister or Ian’s brother in her, but for the most part, I think she just looks like herself! I know her looks will change throughout the years, but I cannot wait to see what she ends up looking like!

Scarlett Magnolia Bardot

I love hearing about the origins of people’s names, so I thought I would explain the meaning behind her name and why it is so special to us.

Ian and I have had the name Scarlett picked out for our “future daughter” since high school. I really don’t remember how we stumbled upon it and both decided “yep, that’s the one” but we did, and obviously never went back! haha It made it so easy, because once we found out the gender, we knew her name was going to be Scarlett, and have called her by her name ever since! I absolutely LOVED being able to use her name when talking to her in utero! I feel like it really helped us bond with her early on!

There were SO MANY middle names that we liked, but we really wanted one (or in our case two) name that meant something to us. Both of Scarlett’s middle names are namesakes for her grandmas- Ian’s mom and my mom. Wanting to raise a strong, brave, independent, powerful little girl, we thought it would be special to give her names inspired by two of the most important women in our lives. Though neither of her middle names are directly related to our mother’s names, they are inspired by them.

Magnolia is a namesake for Ian’s mom, Guadalupe. Guadalupe is from a small island named Rota right outside of Guam in the Mariana Islands. Traditionally, on their island, rather than receiving an individual middle name, girls are given their moms maiden name as their middle name. So the names are passed down through each generation. Guadalupe’s middle name is Magloña. Instead of using her exact middle name we decided to change it to Magnolia because 1.) it would be easier for people to pronounce and 2.) we thought Magnolia was a beautiful name in general! The crazy thing is when we were discussing middle names, the word “magnolia” kept popping up EVERYWHERE in random places! (like street names, in magazines and even the new Gerber baby of the year’s name!) I know there is that phenomenon where if you are focused on something, you start to notice it more, but to me it just seemed like it was the universe telling us that it was meant to be her name!

Bardot is the namesake for my mom, Bridget. Her namesake is a bit more complicated, and kind of abstract, so I need to explain the story of how she got her name first for you to understand! lol My mom’s name is Bridget, but she goes by the name Missy. I know, that probably doesn’t make too much sense… but I will explain:
When my mother was born, my grandma could not decide on a name for her, so she picked up a baby name book and started skimming through it. She worked her way through the beginning of the book, and when she stumbled upon the name Bridget, she liked it and decided to name my mother that. At the time, Brigette Bardot was a huge sex symbol. When my mom’s uncle heard that my grandma named her Bridget, he said “You can’t name a baby after a sex symbol! She looks more like a Missy to me!” and the nickname stuck! So rather than going by Bridget, her entire childhood she went by Missy!
I always loved hearing my mom and grandma tell that story any time someone asked why she goes by Missy when her name is actually Bridget, and I thought it would be special to include it in the story of my daughters name. That’s why we decided to use Bardot as a middle name. I loved that Bardot was not an “on the nose” namesake for my mother, but rather a personal family story namesake. Technically my mother wasn’t really named after Brigitte Bardot, but the story of who she is was influenced by Brigitte Bardot, so I thought it would be special to use!

I absolutely loved that we were able to incorporate such personal stories and family namesakes into our daughters name, in a nontraditional way. I look forward to hearing her explain the story about how she got her middle names to people that ask her in the future. ❤

From time to time I just stare at her sweet face and cry. I still cannot believe she is mine. Absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I cannot wait to watch her grow each and every day and see what kind of person she is destined to be. ❤

Welcome to the world my sweet, sweet girl.