Madeleine or Madelyn????

Everyone was certain that we were having a boy.  We picked out the name Jake for him. During a trip to Utah and Montana in July of 2008 we had the opportunity to find out if it was a boy or a girl.  Normally, you find out around 20 weeks.  A place called Fetal Fotos in Salt Lake City offered a chance to find out as early as 15 weeks along!  I didn't know of a place like this back home in Washington and I jumped at the opportunity to find out almost a month early!  This also gave my sisters a chance to be there with me when I found out.  So at 16 weeks we went in to find out.  It was our last day in Utah and the appointment was so last minute that we didn't even have time to pick up Jason and Savannah! It was just me, Katie and Morgan.  They played cute lullabies in the background and recorded the whole thing on DVD, plus they printout lots of ultra sound pictures.  Everything looked good!  Saw the head, and the face, and little arms and legs.... One problem, legs were closed so tightly together that we couldn't see if it was a boy or a girl!! (the same thing actually happened with Savannah, but after a few minutes she changed her position and we were able to see).  Here I paid $115 to find out and they couldn't tell!! We tried a few things, drank a bunch of water, went potty, rolled on my side then finally.... 

IT'S A GIRL!!! 

We were so sure it was going to be a boy, we didn't really have a girl name picked out.  We decided on Madeleine, pronounced (ma-duh-lin).  This spelling was the traditional french spelling and means "petite french cakes" not sure if if the meaning fit, but we loved the name.  Then I got to thinking, if we spell it Madeleine, she is going to spend her entire life correcting people that spell it wrong and those even worse, those who say it wrong.  Traditional or not, Madeleine looks like you'd say it mad-del-LANE or mad-a-LINE.  So I got to talking to my good friend Stephanie who has a similar situation.  She has a cute baby boy named Mathew. Yes Mathew with one "T" my computer is underlining my spelling of it as I type because this isn't the traditional spelling of the name.  Mathew is not even a year old yet and Stephanie constantly has to correct people.  His birth certificate even had to be corrected when they put Matthew instead of Mathew! If anyone knew how I felt, Stephanie would for sure! At least people would still say Mathew correctly, I was risking having a daughter that people may call a different name completely!  

So it was on, I began to write it out every way possible. Madeleine, Madalyn, Madelyn, Maddylin, Madilyn, Maddilyn, Madelynn, even maduhlin! AH! what to do?!? I knew I wanted a spelling that was easy to pronounce and easy to say. So now she's going to be here in less than a week and I have narrowed it down to Madilyn or Madelyn, I probably won't have my final decision until I see her... Oh well... Now for short will she be Maddy? or Maddie?, or Madie? or  HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!!