Jax?

Did you know what you were going to name your child before he/she was born?

Me too!

Daniel. My son's name was going to be Daniel.

How did we come up with Daniel? Well..

When I first learned that we were having a baby, I poured and poured over boy names--I've had a girl's name picked out forever (which I will share if/when we have a girl!) but couldn't decide on a boys name that I really liked.. and then one day, it came to me.

Owen.

Yes, that is the name we would use if we had a little boy. Well, it turned out that Brandon wasn't too keen on the name Owen and thought he had some say in the matter (psh, men..)--Baby Owen was no more. So a few short months later when we found out that we were indeed having a boy, it was time to start pouring over boy names again.

Should I name him after one of my favorite musicians?

Layne? No.. (didn't he die of a heroin overdose? BIG no-go)

Kurt? Nah.. (Didn't he commit suicide? Another big no-go.. plus, I'd already had a betta named Cobain so that was tribute enough)

Steve Miller? Maybe..

Ugh, what were we going to name our son?!

It finally came to me one day in late August: Daniel Lee (Lee was always a given for the middle name--its both Brandon's and his dad's middle name). I ran Daniel past Brandon to see what he thought and, sure enough, he liked it! I was so happy that it was finally settled and that we had our son's name; I couldn't wait to start buying little personalized outfits and decorations with "Daniel" on them! But my husband quickly put a stop to that.. he was dead set on waiting until we'd met the little fellow to officially name him.

That. Drove. Me. Crazy.

His name was Daniel! I thought that had been established--why couldn't we just make it official already? Anyway, we decided to come up with a few backup names just in case he wasn't a "Daniel" (whatever that meant) which included Peyton (for the millionth time, not for Peyton Manning; I just really liked the name!), Ethan, and Jacob. One night, Brandon came upstairs after finishing an episode of "Sons of Anarchy" and joked about naming him Jax (Jackson) after the shows main character.

Yeah.. like I was going to name our son after the character on a TV show that I couldn't stand.

Fast forward to December 22nd..

Our son was born--I couldn't believe it! He was so sweet, tiny, and perfect and he was finally here! It was time to call our family and friends and tell them the exciting news of little Daniel's arrival.. but something just wasn't right. I couldn't put my finger on it, but Daniel just wasn't a Daniel.. I knew it, Brandon knew it, and "not Daniel" knew it.

Okay, okay, we'd name him Peyton--he seemed like he could be a Peyton.

Our Kansas City Chiefs loving nurse made a face and threw a fit as soon as she heard me say "Peyton." I explained that we weren't naming him after Peyton Manning (although I am a Broncos fan) and quickly realized that I would have to explain that to everyone for the rest of my life ("Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Annie and this is my son, Peyton.. not after Peyton Manning though!"). Peyton was out.

"What were those others names you'd mentioned?" I asked Brandon.

He went through the list again and once more mentioned Jackson.

Jackson, huh?

I looked at my little sweet and alert boy and thought about the name.. the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Jax is a really cute nickname for a little boy and he could go by Jack (or Jackson!) later on in life.. Little Jax Sandmeier.. Dr. Jack Sandmeier.. President Jackson L. Sandmeier.. yep, it had a good ring to it.

His name was Jackson.

My sweet boy.

We have gotten so many compliments on Jax's name--a friend of the family even made a comment about how Jackson Lee sounds like the name of a Southern gentleman :) As much as I hate to admit it, Brandon was right about waiting to make his name official; the name Jackson just suits him so well!! 

And that, my friends, is the story of how Jackson Lee came to be (and how his mamma is a poet and didn't even know it).