Sheldon glanced at his phone to see who was calling him before he had finished breakfast. "Hello, Leonard. Oh, okay. Sure, I'll let her know. Let us know if you need anything," he ended the call and picked up his spoon to continue eating his oatmeal.
"What's going on?" Amy queried, curious about her husband's end of the conversation.
"Penny had the baby this morning. They went to the hospital last night and he was born just after four," he replied, continuing to eat his breakfast.
Amy set down her coffee cup and stared at him. "What!? She had the baby and they didn't call us when they were going to the hospital? You can guarantee I'll be calling everyone when we go to the hospital."
"He said they didn't call anyone. We have Max and Howard and Bernadette have their kids. It didn't make sense for us to sit at the hospital all night like we did when Halley was born. We can call everyone when we go to the hospital, but I think we should ask Raj if he's willing to stay with Max when it's time. Or we can ask your parents. Do you think your parents would understand if we don't ask them to take care of Max while we're at the hospital? It makes the most sense to ask Raj since he's the only one who doesn't have kids in case it happens in the middle of the night and your parents don't like driving after dark anymore. My mom mentioned she wants to be here when the baby is born," shared the physicist. "I told her it's a better idea for her to wait until the baby is here, just so she's not here for a long time, waiting for something to happen."
"Did he say what they named the baby? Penny said they've had a name picked for a few months, but has been refusing to say what it is," Sheldon shook his head in response to her question. "I'll try calling Penny later today. Give her some time to sleep this morning. I'm sure she didn't get much overnight." Amy took notice of the time on the microwave and yelled up the stairs, "Max, hurry up. We need to leave in five minutes."
Amy and Sheldon picked Max up from the day camp program at the university at the end of the day and he was very excited to see them and ask what they were doing that evening. "Can we see the baby? You said you'd ask if we could go to the hospital after work. Did you find out what the baby's name is?"
"I talked to Penny a little while ago and she asked when we would be getting there. She's refusing to tell me his name until we get there," she shared as they walked to the car.
Sheldon drove the family to the hospital. When they arrived, Amy double-checked Penny's room number and they made their way to the sixth floor. They navigated the halls until they arrived at the room. Despite the door being open, Amy knocked, "Hey, can we come in?"
Penny looked up from her phone. "Hi, guys. Sorry for not calling you last night, but there wasn't much for you to do, so we decided to wait until he was here. Leonard, let Amy hold him."
"This is Rory James Hofstadter," he said while standing to pass the newborn to his wife's best friend.
Peering over his wife's shoulder, Sheldon repeated the name. "Rory. Like Amy Pond's husband on Dr. Who. I like it."
"And Rory from Gilmore Girls and the son on a John Ritter show that I liked in high school," explained Penny while watching their friends meet her son for the first time. "It was the only name we agreed on right away."
"Can I hold him now?" Max asked as he bounced from foot to foot in front of his mother.
Leonard nodded at Amy. "You have to sit down first." Once the boy was settled, Amy shifted the infant to her son's arms, giving him directions to support his head.
The group spent some time talking about Rory's arrival before Amy noticed Penny was struggling to keep her eyes open. "We'll let you get some sleep. Call us if you need anything, even if it's to sneak in a milkshake."
"Thanks, Ames," Penny replied, smiling slightly as her son was placed back in her arms.
The Fowler-Cooper family picked up takeout on their way home from the hospital and were enjoying a quiet dinner. "What are you naming the baby?" Max asked, breaking the silence.
Sheldon and Amy exchanged a look before Sheldon replied, "We haven't talked about it. We were waiting until after we moved, then we decided to wait until Penny had her baby. Even though they were having a boy and we're having a girl, we didn't want to pick the same name. I guess it's good we waited because they did pick a name that could be for boys or girls."
"Oh, okay. Can I play video games tonight?" the boy asked, changing the subject. "Noah wants to play."
"Sure, just not too late," Amy agreed, excusing him from the table. She waited until Max was upstairs before turning the conversation to Sheldon. "I guess we don't have an excuse to not discuss baby names now that Rory is here. I know you've been thinking about names and I have to admit I have, too."
Standing, Sheldon cleared the dishes from the table and prepared two cups of tea before answering. "Alright. The name I kept coming back to on all the name lists I looked at was Elizabeth. It gives us lots of options for what to call her. We could call her Lizzie or Beth or Eliza. If we decide to shorten her name, that is. Do you have any that you really like?"
"I've always wanted to name a little girl Catherine. Again, lots of options for nicknames, but still a classic name that will always be popular."
Sheldon's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "How would you spell Catherine?" Reaching for a pen and a scrap of paper, Amy wrote the name quickly and slid it across the table to her husband. Sheldon looked at it for a moment, then picked up the pen and spoke as he wrote. "What if we spell it K-A-T-H-R-Y-N?"
Looking at the paper that had been passed back to her, Amy slowly smiled. "I like it. Why do you want it spelled that way?"
"I know you said nothing from Star Wars or Star Trek and no comic book names, but when you said Catherine, I thought you might be okay with it," Sheldon rambled. "Kathryn Janeway was the captain of the USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager."
"Okay. I'll give you the spelling since the name was my suggestion," continuing, she decided to include the name he mentioned, "How do you feel about naming our daughter Kathryn Elizabeth Cooper?"
A smile spread across Sheldon's face as he reached over and set his hand on Amy's stomach, "I can't wait to meet you, Kathryn Elizabeth Cooper."
