And we learned this not a moment too soon. We have 24 hours to name him. Which I am kind of freaking out about because I am a little superstitious about names and I would have preferred waiting until he was born. But we do not have that luxury.
See, last night we called the airline to purchase our flights there and back. Two adults on the way out, two adults and an infant on the way back. And in a Post 9/11 World, babies must be ticketed and their names must exactly match the name on the passport.
Right now our flights are on a 24-hour hold while we come up with a name. We have to let them know by 11:00 pm (Swiss Time) tonight. Or we lose the current price on our tickets, which is higher than it was a month ago, or the month before that. With the way the price of airline tickets have been steadily climbing, we don't want to wait any longer to purchase them. (I wonder how much longer before the airlines start offering financing options and monthly payment plans?)
Thank God we know the sex. Otherwise we would have to go with a name like Chris or Pat...
And no, we won't be posting his name here, even once we decide what it will be. That's a little too much private information to post on a public blog.
But I have decided the baby's blog name will be Global Baby (GB for short). Because this child will have traveled more by the time he is 6 months old than the majority of people in the world ever travel in their lifetime. And because we fully intend to continue to travel, even with a baby, so seeing the world will be part of his education.
11 comments:
Naming a child is never easy. However, we picked the names of our kids within hours once we decided to do it at around four or five months of my being pregnant.
I found out the sex of all of my children beforehand so that I could start refering to them by name instead of baby. Funny that even after they were born I called each of them baby as if it were their name until they were around six months old.
Good luck with naming! It is fun trying to find a name that both parents like. I learned alot about my husband during our name searches!
That's crazy! Did you ask about how much it would cost to change the name on the baby ticket? Or wait, aren't baby tickets free? Could you just book the baby ticket after he is born and you named him?
Ooooh stressful - but, then, how exciting! Just one more person very happy for you, your husband and the Maybe Global Baby.
-ann
Yes, it is very stressful. But we think we may have agreed on a name.
Lap-held babies are free on most US domestic flights. If using a car seat, you must pay for the seat or keep your fingers crossed that the flight will not be full.
However, on an international flight the baby must be ticketed. A lap-held baby is 10% of the cost of an adult ticket, plus any applicable fees and extras. If you want to bring the car seat, and have a guaranteed seat for it instead of gate-checking it and holding the baby anyway, you must purchase the seat at close to a full adult fare.
It is further complicated by the fact that lap-held infants and infants in a car seat are only able to sit in some of the seats (oddly enough, it is a different set of seats for lap-held and car seats). Indeed, we are flying back on our 3rd choice of date simply because other people had already claimed the seats we are allowed to have with a baby. (Note: much harder to arrange international flights with an infant if trying to fly on a Friday - Sunday. Monday & Thursday are iffy. Tuesday and Wednesday are the least busy days and therefore easiest.)
And we could wait until after the baby is born and get the ticket then, but closer to the flight the prices just go up higher. The cost of the ticket is based on the posted fare on the day you arrange the infant's ticket, regardless of what you may have paid for the previously arranged tickets.
You cannot just "change the name" on the baby ticket later any more than you can change the name on an adult ticket. Wouldn't want to take the circumstances into consideration, now would you? You would have to cancel the non-refundable ticket and then pay for a whole new ticket. Thereby costing twice as much or more, depending upon how much more the seats cost at that stage.
There is a way out. We could name the baby "Baby Lastname" and get the birth certificate and passport in that same name. When we return to the US to finalize the adoption in 6 months we would have the opportunity to officially change the name to anything we want.
But then it would make the Swiss paperwork substantially harder to deal with, not to mention having to change the passport as well. Plus, we would then have to get 2 one-way tickets for the baby in order to the US with one name and return with another. Any guess on how much money a one-way international ticket costs? Trust me, it's a lot!
Not to mention the red flags that go off at the security check point because obviously a baby is likely to be a harden criminal and/or suspected terrorist.
Much easier to just decide on the name now and avoid the further complications which we would have to deal with while also dealing with the effects of sleep deprivation.
By the way, if you ever hear someone say that adoption is the "easy way" to have a child, please slap them for me. This is just one small aspect of the adoption process, which has not been easy at any stage. Thank you!
I still say you have a duty to pick "Abigail."
We ran into a similar thing when we went to China to get The Shmunkin. She had to have a name to get a ticket, and the airline wanted to use the name we had picked. Unfortunately, that name would not become official until we got her back to the US and created a birth certificate, so we had no documentation to prove she is who she is. Plus, they had a problem with us using the name given to her by the Chinese government, since that would not be what we called her.
You'd think, after thousands of foreign adoptions a year, someone would have figured this out. Or, if they did, at least told their employees what the solution is.
My husband and I both changed our surnames to a new shared surname when we got married (ie. not the pre-marriage surname of either of us), which we achieved by me officially changing my name before our wedding and him adopting my new surname when we got married. Since we got married in Aus and we flew back to Switz a few weeks after the wedding, and all the flights had been booked heaps in advance (ie. before the idea of changing our surnames ever occurred to us) the whole plan was nearly thwarted by all the airlines involved refusing to let me change the name on my return flight (which would have then meant that I wouldn't have been able to get a new passport with my new name on it, which meant I wouldn't have been able to prove to Switzerland that my new surname was my new surname, which meant that Reto wouldn't have been able to take my new surname, which would have meant that our dream of being Mr & Mrs NewSurname would have been crushed).
Fortunately, after millions of emails and phonecalls, someone finally said "yep, of course we can change that for you. No problem". Which was nice.
Yay!!! FYI - Boys are weird and now you are outnumbered.
Wow, and we thought we had it tough because the Swiss were so adamant about having the name chosen before the birth--I'm glad we didn't have to decide months in advance! (The midwife cringed when we got to the hospital and told her we had a name picked out but wanted to see her first to be 100% sure...then she asked us again for the name within 10 minutes of the birth so the paperwork could be in proper order.)
Oh, and you probably already know this, but if you're able to get a bulkhead seat most airlines have portable bassinets that they can attach to the wall in front of you. We never needed it because our daughter's first intercontinental flight wasn't until she was nine months old and too big for a bassinet, but friends with infants said it was a BIG help.
We are all over the bulkhead seat idea. In fact, those are the only seats where an infant is allowed in the business class cabin. It also lets us be a few steps away from the restroom with the changing table in it. Did realize we forgot to double check that one of the bassinets would be reserved for us, though.
We have, however, confirmed that we will be able to use the baby wrap at take off and landing. Which means the baby will be securely attached to us with his head, neck and shoulders well supported.
And it's not "months in advance." Try weeks. As in a bit more than six weeks until the expected birth.
Wow! That went fast... well, from what I know from your blog, at least. I'm sure you'll choose the right name for GB and again, congratulations!
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