The Ellie Belly

Here are a few recent pictures of what Patrick and I call the Ellie Belly. We are 30 weeks pregnant this week...only 10 more weeks to go!!!! I can't believe how quickly this whole thing has flown by! Actually, Ellie and I have a talk every night that she needs to come about 2 weeks early in order to give her mommy an extra two weeks to get ready for Savannah's wedding on September 18th. We do have a few stipulations though...1) She should be fully developed and healthy 2) She needs to give me plenty of time to get to the hospital in order to get GOOD drugs and 3) She needs to cooperate and come out relatively easy so that I can recover quickly. Now I know the odds of that happening are slim to none, but Patrick and I would appreciate some thoughts and prayers to kind of push her along. haha!

Catching Up

I realize that I haven't posted in quite a while. Patrick and I have been super busy with vacation, work, and lots of things going on around the house. Let me see if I can recap... After we got back from the beach we had scheduled hardwoods to be put down in our master and on the upstairs landing as well as new carpet in the nursery. Patrick's dad was so generous to come over and help us move all of our bedroom furniture...what a freaking disaster. We had furniture in our closet, bathroom, dining room, living room and basement. So for two weeks we slept in the upstairs guest room - WOW, I now realize how comfortable our bed really is. Sorry to all of you in advance who will sleep or have had to sleep in that bed. We finally moved all of the furniture back last Friday night. Ahhhh...peace and normalcy!

Oh and while all of the hardwoods were being installed we had to prime and paint the nursery. We got the primer on and the first coat of paint, but waited until the night before the new carpet was installed to finish painting. And did I mention that my sister was graduating that night? So we went to graduation, celebrated at the after party and then got home about 11 to finish painting. It was definitely a late night, but I am so happy we are done now. And to tell you the truth, Patrick did most of the painting and I went to bed. What a good hubby, huh?!?!

So for Memorial Day weekend we spent most of our time getting things done around the house. Patrick took the time to work in the yard while I cleaned the house. Note to everyone - don't ever get three black animals who shed. It is IMPOSSIBLE to clean. I did my best though. Patrick put the crib together and I LOVE it! Now we just have to get the bathroom ready and start figuring out furniture placement. I am sooo excited to finally see the nursery start coming together. Pictures to follow soon...

Babymoon

Patrick and I packed up last week and went to the beach with a big group of our friends. There were 6 couples who shared one enormous house. When I say enormous I mean insanely huge!!! We had 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, an elevator, a wine cooler (too bad I couldn't indulge), 2 ice machines, a pool and hot tub, and on and on and on. It was an absolutely gorgeous house about a block from the beach. It was so nice to get away for the week and forget about reality. We spent most of our days just lying around on the beach or at the pool and then our nights were full of fun and laughter. My favorite night by far was the night we had our shrimp boil...yummy!!! I have to say that Patrick and I have some of the most awesome friends ever! Here are a few of the pictures from our so called Babymoon...


Beautiful Sunset


Ellie got a new tutu!


Our Group


24 weeks!


At Bud and Alley's in Seaside

Registering for Baby

Last Friday night I was able to convince Mom and Patrick to come along with me to go register for baby stuff. I was trying so hard to be prepared...I mean to the extent of buying books, researching safety features on Consumer Reports, getting advice and opinions from all of my friends with little ones and so on. Patrick and I even put together a "preliminary" list of what we were going to register for based on our research (yes, I realize I am a tad bit obsessive compulsive). As I walk into BabiesRUs I can already feel myself beginning to become overwhelmed at the volume of baby stuff. The registry lady didn't make it much easier for us either...by that I mean there was very little guidance.

So we start on our merry way and I get stuck on the very first aisle...breast pumps. Are you kidding me??? What the heck is the difference in all of this??? Double pumps verses single pumps, bags verses bottles, glass verses plastic - blah blah blah. How was I supposed to know I would need cream because I could bleed and crack (thank goodness for my mother!).

Then it was on to bottles, baby gates and pacifiers. I did ok through those (I think), but when we got to the carseat and stroller section I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed. We're talking about the safety of my child...I wanted to make sure I was getting the best that I could. If you could have seen Patrick and I trying to figure out how to take a carseat out of a travel system and collapse the travel system you would have died laughing. I bet we spent a good hour trying to "test drive" and figure out all of the gadgets. I'm still not comfortable with what we decided on, so if any of you out there have suggestions...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send them my way.

We managed to get through the rest of the store after a total of three hours. THEN...I changed my mind on the crib the following day and decided I wanted the cherry color instead of oak. If I can suggest anything to anyone - never change your mind once you have made a purchase at BabiesRUs - it's a pain in the butt! So, back we go to the store to change out the colors. Once all of that was settled we decided to take Lap 2 around the store. Ummm...another 2 hours wasted in BabiesRUs. I think it will be a LONG time before I head back over to that side of town (well at least until Elizabeth gets here).

And her name is....

Well, after much debate (and lots of back and forth and digging through family trees), we have decided on a name for our little girl. I have always wanted to use my grandmothers name as my daughters middle name, so Fay was a must. We were going back and forth between having a first name that is a little different or sticking with something a little more classic. After talking it through we decided that we wanted to use Patrick's grandmothers middle name Elizabeth. So the little angels name will be Elizabeth Fay Browne after both grandmothers. It's really special to us to have our little girl named after two people that we love and who have been inspirations to us throughout our lives.

It's A Girl!!!

Ok, I'm new to this blogging thing so bare with me while I figure it out.

Back in December, Patrick and I found out we were pregnant with our first baby. For the first 19 weeks we thought it was a boy and were calling him Parker. Hahaha...jokes on us. IT'S A GIRL!!! We were soooo not prepared for a girl. We were dead set on a name for a boy, but had no clue what we were going to do for a girl name. So for the past couple of weeks we have been struggling trying to find the perfect name for our little girl. The struggle continues...so I guess that might be my next post.

Below is a picture of our second ultrasound we had at 19 weeks. Check out the lips on this little girl...