Baby Showers!!!!

Patrick and I are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family members! We had our first baby shower on July 11th at my friend Lora’s house. She was so generous to open her house up to all of us “crazies”. Patrick and I were so excited about all of the goodies everyone brought for Ellie! Mom has all of the pictures on her camera, so as soon as I get my hands on them I will post for everyone to see.



Our second shower was geared more towards family. We had a great turn out and Ellie got even more goodies. Our hostesses surprised us by asking everyone who came to bring a book so that we could jump start Ellie’s library – what a GREAT idea. Here are a few pictures from our family shower…






All of the grands...

We also had a great shower from my coworkers at Vulcan. Debbie did such a great job on the elephant cake! I sure hope Ellie loves elephants when she grows up! We played a game of who can change a diaper the fastest. I was able to choose two people at a time to compete against each other. They each had a baby doll and raced to change a diaper. Brent inspected to make sure the diaper was properly placed on the doll. After three rounds we had the winners compete against each other and of course Rusty was the winner. It was hysterical. We are so thankful to have so many people who care about us! Thanks to everyone!!!

A 4th of July to Remember

Our 4th of July weekend started off super slow on Saturday. Patrick and I slept in and then did about as much as a sloth all day long. It was so nice to not have any plans and just be able to chill on the couch all day. We finally got out for a few minutes that night once I decided I wanted some Oreo’s and milk. So we all piled in the car for our trip to Publix. Yes…I said we…the dogs had to ride with us.

On Sunday Patrick and I got up and went to church then headed over to my grandmothers house for BBQ and lots of laughter. Apparently we wore ourselves out laughing so much that we had to take an hour and a half nap while everyone else carried on with the festivities. The nap actually paid off given the all nighter we ended up pulling.

Sunday night we had reservations at The Club for dinner and fireworks atop Vulcan. Perfect view, right?!?! Well it would have been had we gotten to see the fireworks. Instead we were eating dessert and guess what…a NUT was in my dessert (even though they said there were no nuts in it). Now for those of you that don’t know, I am extremely allergic to nuts. I mean “Fat Albert” allergic – tongues swells, throat closes, hives, etc. I look a little bit like Kevin James in Hitch if that gives you any idea. So off we go running to the car to try to get to St. Vincent’s. It’s about 8:30 so we thought we could make it. WRONG! We got stuck in all of the spectator traffic on Valley Ave. By this point I am totally freaking out because it’s getting difficult to breathe, so I sucked it up and called 911 to come find us. We ended up pulling over on the road that goes up to Vulcan – right underneath the fireworks. I was so hysterical that I didn’t even get to enjoy them – boo! The paramedics took me to the hospital and Patrick had to follow, but didn’t get there for a good 45 minutes because of all of the traffic. I got lots of good meds and they eventually found Ellie’s heartbeat (scariest moments of my life!). I was even able to experience my first round of contractions. Can I just say that if that wasn’t strong, then I am going to need an epidural at a ½ centimeter. Ouch! We finally got home around 2:00am and went to bed.

Monday morning I woke up pretty early and left Patrick in bed. I started getting a little worried because I hadn’t felt Ellie kick since they gave me some medicine around midnight. So I drank a little caffeine and ate some sugar….still nothing. So off we go to see my OB. Luckily he was able to find her heartbeat and get her to start moving around a little (which put my mind at ease). My blood pressure was back to normal, so hopefully all is well at this point. Say some prayers that this little girl does not get this awful allergy!

Here are a couple of pictures we took before all of the chaos...

Ellie in 4-D

Ellie wouldn't exactly cooperate to let us get a great picture of her, but below are some of the pics that we were able to get. I guess she is making us wait so that there is an element of surprise when she makes her entrance into the world (totally my child!). It was so funny watching her...she LOVES her fingers! I don't think that they came out of her mouth the entire time she was on video. We saw her playing with her toes, yawning, opening and closing her eyes, and she even put both hands on her face at one point and did the "chubby" face by pushing her cheeks together. So cute! Being able to see what she looks like and what all she is doing in there was probably the best anniversary gift Patrick and I could have received. I am so thankful that she is healthy and am so anxious to get to meet her. Only a few more weeks!!!

A Sneak Peek

Here are a couple of pictures that we have of Ellie's bedding...

Crazy Dreams

I thought that I would take a second to document all of the crazy dreams I have been having recently. I would hate to forget these, so this post is more for me...but I hope you all get as good of a laugh out of it as I have.

1. So I am hosting a bridal tea for my sister in Atlanta in late July. My dream was that I was over there for the tea and Ellie decided to come early while we were in Atlanta. So I delivered her at Northside Hospital, but my insurance wouldn't cover any of the charges. But the kicker was that we had not installed the carseat in the car yet and I had to leave her in Atlanta. Note to self...install the carseat as soon as we get it!

2. I haven't watched baseball in YEARS! I mean like 10 years...but apparently I had the Braves on my mind this night. I dreamed that John Smoltz kept coming back from retirement (kind of like good ole Brett Favre). Each time he came back he had to wear "the scarlett letter" around his neck. So for the first time he had an "A", the second time he had a "B" and so on and so forth. What the???? I don't know where these dreams come from.

3. Very early in the pregnancy I had a dream that Ellie decided to make an appearance on August 27th. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me this one will come true!

4. I had two diet drinks one night and dreamed that she came out with only her left arm and leg. Why do I dream these things??? I know everything is ok after seeing the ultrasound. The mind can definitely be an evil thing.

I'll add more as I think of them...

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.