We got to know Amy Troelstra Meijer in a My Glens Falls story last month, and this month, we’re thrilled to share her family’s newest addition - Elselina! Hear about the significance behind her beautiful name, the way Amy shared the news with her husband Lodewiek, and more below…
Photo: Nicole Starr Photography
Tell us about your family!
In our family we have my husband Lodewiek Meijer, myself Amy Meijer, our almost four year old WIllem and then Elselina who just turned three months. Of course our doggies are a part of the family too - Aubree, our 10 year old rescue, and our five year old miniature schnauzer, Nova. My husband is an engineer working at a Dutch based company with Global Foundries and I’m currently a stay at home mom trying to adjust to the mom of two life while getting back into a new normal routine. As a family we enjoy doing anything and everything outdoors. With Lodewiek and myself having a Dutch background, we LOVE to bike the bike trail or just around town during the nicer months. Willem really loves to go to Crandall Pond and feed the ducks. We also love to go hiking, whether it be in the Adirondacks or just local trails. During the winter months, having Crandall Pond as a skating rink really made our winter more enjoyable!
On Sharing the News
Having this baby as an IVF journey was so much different than my pregnancy with Willem in every way, even with the pregnancy announcement to everyone. Our family and friends all knew that we were going through IVF and knew how timed it was, so people were waiting in anticipation for the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" each round.
I told Lodewiek by dressing Willem up in a "big brother" shirt and giving Willem the pregnancy test to bring up to Lodewiek while he was working from home. I filmed the whole thing. Lodewiek looked at Willem and had no idea what Willem was handing him at first, but then he realized what was going on. I think I caught him off guard since he was in the middle of his work day. Lodewiek looked at me and nodded "yes?" and I just started crying and kept nodding "yes!" and he gave me a huge hug!
As for my parents, his parents, and our siblings, since they knew around the time we should be finding out we just called and told them. Same went for our friends. The IVF process really isn't romantic!
My best friend from college happened to be in the area a couple weeks after we got the good news and I shared it with her and her family when they came over to our house to visit (she screamed with joy)! We of course did a Facebook announcement after the 12 week mark (it was a black onesie with a black tutu which said "My little black dress" and the onesie was surrounded by the hundreds of needles I used throughout my IVF journey).
We did a blood test at the 10 week appointment at our IVF office to test for genetic abnormalities and in that was also a gender test. We found out the gender when I was pregnant with our son, and we did want to know the gender of this baby as well (we are the planning type). We were going to be over the moon no matter the gender, but were even more excited to see the word "GIRL" in the email from our favorite nurse at our doctor’s office.
As for a gender reveal, since we knew so early on what we were having, when we told our families we told them we were expecting and what the gender was all-in-one. When my two best girlfriends here in town and I celebrated my birthday (COVID style), I wanted to tell them what we were expecting. Earlier that week we had found out the gender, so at my celebration I brought over confetti cannons filled with pink confetti in them and had them shoot them off to reveal what we were having - a moment I will never forget. They both have girls and I was so excited to be raising my little girl with theirs!
Photo: Nicole Starr Photography
On Finding the Perfect Name
As soon as we found out it was a girl, the hunt for names started! We knew we wanted to stick with a Dutch name, but also honor both of my grandmothers. My paternal grandmother's name is Elske (she goes by Ellen here in the United States), and my maternal grandmother's name was Elizabeth, so something that started with "El" was what we were looking for.
Of course, when you're pregnant, the first questions people always ask are "do you know what you're having?" followed by "have you picked out a name?". So when I was pregnant with our son, my husband and I came up with a "code name" we would call the baby by, because we wanted to keep something special and secret between just the two of us. So we did the same this time too. Her codename was "Elsa." In the beginning it was because we had no idea what we were going to name her, but then we just kept calling her by it. Yes, Elsa as in the movie Frozen (our son's favorite movie at the time). We also thought it was cute because, after all, she used to be frozen (IVF - yes, we are those people; jokesters! With something as serious as IVF, you have to laugh and live a little too)! Any time we would tell someone her code name and our little joke, we would follow it by "but don't worry, that's not really going to be her name." Everyone would sound a little disappointed and say "oh, but we really like that name." So we got to thinking, we wanted to keep that as a nickname for her, but what Dutch name would fit that nickname? Many nights, and I mean many nights, we stayed up going back and forth between Dutch names that would fit all of our stipulations and we stumbled upon Elselina (only 20 women with this name). At first it was between this spelling and Elseline, but ultimately Elselina is what won. Elselina translates to Elizabeth in English. As for the middle name Alice, it was my maternal grandmother's middle name and the middle name of my paternal grandmother's first born (who unfortunately only survived 10 days - Elselina was actually born on that little girls birthday as well). It all seemed to fit into place.
All About Elselina
Elselina Alice Meijer was born three weeks early on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at 1:18pm. She weighed 8 pounds, 13.1 ounces and measured 19 inches.
So far we love everything about Elsa! She is just a dream baby! She smiles all day long, sleeps through the night and is an excellent eater! We are cherishing this time because having a "threenager", we know what comes next!
Our favorite thing to do together is just be together. With life starting to get back to normal, things are opening up, and activities happening more, we have become busy. So being able to just be together as a family of four is great. We also love bringing her to see family and friends, she is a favorite of my grandmother. I just love when we visit my grandmother and she says, "Now, bring me my baby," - it makes me tear up a little!
She looks like me when I was a baby with her strawberry blonde hair and big blue eyes. She gets her curly hair from my husband and her easy going demeanor from him as well. The extreme happiness and smiles all the time, I say she gets that from my dad!
Photo: Nicole Starr Photography
On Parenthood
My favorite part of parenthood so far with both kids is the way our son is with his little sister. The love those two already have for each other is so pure and genuine. Any time she hears his voice, her whole face lights up in a huge smile and he is always wanting to help when it comes to "baby sissy."
The biggest challenge so far is having to deal with all the toddler tantrums of our son while trying to care for a newborn at the same time. Also, going shopping with two is so much harder than going with just one!
What I'm looking forward to doing most with Elsa is going on family vacations and experiencing the world together like we have done with her big brother. Most of all, I look forward to having her meet her relatives (mostly Lodewiek's immediate family) in Holland.
Being a parent has taught us a whole new level of being patient that's for sure. They do say you will find a love for your child that you have never known before, and that is extremely true. The love we have for these two kids is so great!
How have we changed since becoming parents? Well, we no longer go out on dates, heck, pre-covid we would go out twice a year; our anniversary and his company Christmas party. We were used to going out every weekend. Our television time went from reality TV to Paw Patrol and Power Rangers. Can we remember the important things we learned in college? No, but we can tell you all the Paw Patrol characters!
Some Good Advice
The best advice that was given to us is to enjoy even the bad times, as nothing lasts forever and before you know it, they are moving out of the house. Cherish each moment.
My advice for new parents is the same, enjoy every minute. It will seem to drag on, but when you look back at photos, you will realize how quickly time really goes and you can never get those precious years back.
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Special thanks to Glens Falls Hospital for making this series possible!
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