It's a Girl!

So where was I?  Oh right.  We just found out that we had a little girl on the way.  And we were so excited.  Gary's brother and his wife had just added a girl to their brood in November and if our little one was to arrive on time, they would be exactly 6 months apart.   My brother and his wife were due 3 weeks before us.  Could this be really happening?  Would there really be kids of the same age that could grow up together?  How lucky were we?

The Fall of 2010 went by fast and Gary and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and then our first holiday season as newlyweds.  We went to New Orleans for New Year's to surprise my "baby" brother for his 30th birthday.  And everywhere we went, our little lady went with us.  As my belly started to grow, so did our hearts.  We started talking about names and colors for her nursery and dreamed of all the places we would go once she was here and all the adventures we were going to have.

2011 came and with it came the joy that is the Baby Registry.  Now one might not think there would be a lot of joy with diaper genie's and car seats, but I bought so many dozens of baby gifts in my life that it was so exciting to finally be able to pick out gifts for my baby.  Gary and I asked an expert to come with us (thanks, Karen!) and a moral support person (thanks, Beth!) and we walked into that store on a cold winter day and took over!  We clicked this and clicked that and before I knew it, we had close to 100 items.  I knew how to use about 4 of them, but knew I had all the time in the world to learn!  And so many moms to help me.  We had a blast and that was such a fun day!

Once home, I stalked that registry like it was part of my job.  Turns out that all the people that I had bought things for over the last decade or two were so happy to be able to now buy for us.  I watched the pink blankets get bought up, the leopard print swaddlers disappear from the list, the swing, the stroller...you name it, it vanished off the list.  I heard my mom and my dearest friends planning my shower and I was so happy.   The baby kicked more and more in my growing belly and as Spring came, happiness was all around us.  We visited daycare centers and chose the one we thought would be the best and we settled on a name, although we kept it a secret till the very end.  We were so excited to meet Allison Paige.  Allie was named after my paternal grandfather, Allen, and Gary's maternal grandfather, Paul.  We covered all the bases with this perfect name!  We nicknamed her Allie cat to go with our Zoe cat who is the other resident in our house and she pretty much rules the roost.  We were covered from A-Z...

We toured the Labor and Delivery Room at the hospital and took all our classes.  We learned about the beauty of an epidural and saw one too many videos on natural childbirth.  We mapped the quickest way to the hospital and had our "go bags" packed for when it was time to go to the hospital. The last week, I even started training a temp at work for when I was out.

And then, our world fell apart.  Shattered like the glass that Gary stomped on at our wedding.  And that, my friends, is where I will pick up tomorrow.  Sweet dreams.