Day 2: Tell us about your child. As much or as little as you like. Names, birthdays, stats.

I have three children

Elianna Faith was born in Newcastle, NSW (Australia) at 5:08 pm on the 12th of February 2009.
she was 9lbs and 59(! yes thats not a typo)cm long. 12 days "overdue", she arrived quickly with just a 2 hour labour from when my waters broke (and I realised I was in labour) until I was holding her in my arms. Her arrival made me feel like the luckiest person in the world. She is now 4 years 7 months old... she is funny, insightful, sensitive and intelligent. Being a stay at home mum and spending this time with her has been an absolute gift and she still makes me feel like the luckiest person alive.
Elianna's name means "God has answered" we selected it to reflect both of our mother's names (Dianne and Anne) and the name of a dear friend of mine who passed away when I was in my early twenties, Elizabeth. when we read the name's meaning and given the battle we had to fall pregnant and keep her, it seemed to be the perfect fit. God has answered Faith.... and he always does.

Jonathon Fulton was born sleeping on the 28th of May 2011 at sunshine Hospital in Melbourne, VIC. I was 17 weeks and 6 days pregnant. We discovered at our Morphology scan that he was no longer with us.  I was worried while I was in labour with him that his appearance may have been alarming given that his heart had stopped beating a number of days previous. I didnt want my memories of him to be tarnished by fear but i also wanted to be sure I wouldn't have cause to regret not seeing him. Because you only get one chance. but I needn't have worried. He weighed no more than an apple and would fit into my hand, and he was the most handsome little boy i had ever seen. His legs and the curve of his bottom was like a miniature copy of Elianna. His fingers long and delicate and his eyes big and blue. He was a stunner, my boy. My favourite photo we have of him shows him "looking" over the head of the little blue teddy he was given and he almost looks as cheeky as i imagine he would have been if he had been allowed to stay here on earth.
Jonathon was named for Steve's Uncle John and given the family middle name of Fulton, traditionally gifted to the first born son. Initially he was to be named Samuel John but when he was born we knew he was Jonathon. Jonathon means "gift of God" and indeed he was that. A tiny gift from heaven.

Melinda Grace was born into heaven on at Werribee Mercy hospital, in Melbourne VIC, on the 17th of July 2013 I had awoken to the sense that something was wrong at 3am that morning and when we were unable to find her heartbeat at home we went straight to the hospital where it was confirmed that our daring girl had died. Induced with the first lot of gels just after 9am and waters broken shortly before 6pm, after a relatively short but intense labour, Melinda entered this world silently at 8:47pm. Melinda weighed 3.57kg (7lbs 15oz) and was 54cm long. Words cannot describe the beauty of our littlest angel. Nor the devastation we felt and feel that she is no longer with us.
we struggled a lot to find a name for our princess. I was determined to pick a name early on, once we found out we were having another girl. i thought it would help me bond, but Steve and I couldn't decide upon a name that we both loved. We had a shortlist of 57 names that we "liked" but none were perfect although i was fairly set on the middle name Hope. I started to work from the meaning I wanted to convey in her name. Sentiments such as:
beautiful music
precious little gift
healing and peace
rainbows
Melinda was decided upon as an amalgamation of the names Melody (beautiful music) and Linda (soft, beautiful and tender). Grace emerged as a middle name subsequent to Hope, as we felt Hope was something anyone could feel and would not necessarily result in happiness but Grace was a wonderful gift from God which cannot be earned but if full of promise and love. I was a little concerned because i didn't want her to have the nickname Mel, but we agreed on promoting the nickname "Mindy". I miss her.