End of the first week

No blog entry yesterday. We were just too tired.

Today, I drove down to the Office of Vital Records in San Jose to hand in a completed form, containing Eloïse’s full name and birth details. In a couple of days, we should get a call to go back with Rosanna, our midwife, and officially register the birth. At that point, we’ll be able to obtain birth certificates.

As usual, there’s a fly in the ointment. Since this is America, the one and only country in the world and it’s a given that every person on Earth has American English has his/her mother tongue, it’s impossible to get a letter with a diaeresis into the computer system. Never mind that it’s a part of her name.

“What about the hispanics? They use accents and other diacritical symbols.”

“Oh yes”, came the reply. “They have something funny with their Ns. We can’t do those either.”

Sheesh! Something fuññy with their Ñs?

Of course, this wouldn’t be American bureaucracy if there weren’t more than a single fly in the ointment. In the land of the free where individuality is championed and diversity is celebrated, something as fundamentally individual as naming one’s child is expected to conform to the rigours of a staid and unimaginative template: first, middle and last name.

Even the mere mention of the term middle name implicitly suggests the notion that a person has exactly three, one on either side of the middle. How ridiculous. Why not just have the concept of forenames and a surname? Doesn’t that allow the individual a little more creative freedom?

To cut a long story short, we have the option of placing two of Eloïse’s names in the box for first name, plus another two in the box for middle name. Of course, then she’s legally got two names for her first name, which is liable to matter if she ever chooses to spend time in the US when she’s older. She’ll end up an accidental redneck, with a name reminiscent of Mary Beth, Jim Bob or some other Waltons-like sobriquet.

The only other alternative is to file an application to amend the middle name field on the birth certificate to include her second, third and fourth names. She would then have a two page birth certificate, the second page being an affidavit with the amendment.

The absurdity of this beggars belief. The middle name field can only accommodate 18 characters, so we can’t just put her middle three names in there, but we can file an amendment to do so, even though the birth certificate has not yet been typed up. So, her names are too long for the field, but a note can be added to the certificate to say what it should have said all along.

Nice: a two page birth certificate. Whoever heard of such bollocks? One can only hope this won’t come back to haunt her later.

Once we have birth certificates, we can begin the next round of hassles of getting her a social security number and passports, both American and Dutch.

Sarah’s folks arrived in town this evening and seem very taken with their new granddaughter. And who wouldn’t be? She is a great looking baby, after all. It’ll be good having them around, as they’ll be able to take some of the strain off Sarah and me, particularly off Sarah.

Another lactation consultant will be coming in the morning. One of Sarah’s mammaries is still giving her gip.

It’s all go around here. I can’t imagine how anyone with a baby manages to fit in working as well. I’m very glad that I’ve been absolved of this responsibility for the next few weeks.

Our final batch of photos from Eloïse’s first week is available.