What's in a name?

We finally have a complete name for baby boy! When Caleb and I started dating, it didn't take but a couple of dates for us to start talking about children. Not OUR future children, but HIS future children and MY future children. We both agreed that several children were in our future whether it was together or not. We also agreed that we would want to have children while we were still relatively young if that was possible. As conversations about this continued, we further learned we were in agreement that 3 children was the perfect number and we would like 2 boys and a girl in that order. We were both open to adoption. Keep in mind these were individual wants that just happened to be very similar. This was a huge "selling point" to me as I decided whether I wanted the relationship to continue or not. I remember once during our first few dates, Caleb said, "If a girl doesn't want children, then our relationship is over". He even had names picked out for his future children, which I was also impressed by. It was several months into our relationship before he shared those names with me. I was not sold on all of the names, so I just said, keep in mind your wife will carry and birth that baby, so she is probably going to have strong opinions about his/her name. He agreed! So that brings me to Our baby boy! We eventually began talking about HIS children and MY children as OUR children. I began to voice my opinion about names he had picked and he about names I picked. Over time we agreed on Brady as a first boys name. Brady is Caleb's middle name and was his Grandmothers maiden name. I loved the name and also liked that it came from somewhere. However, we never decided on a middle name. When we found out we were having a baby we started putting every name we could think of with Brady. We just couldn't get it right. There was one name that we kept coming back to...James! James was my dad's name. We had some hesitations about using it, but eventually couldn't come up with anything more perfect. So baby boy barrett will be named Brady James Barrett. We will call him Brady! We are both extremely happy with the name choice and can't wait to meet him!

Getting Ready for Baby

I am really excited about baby Brady joining our family in the next few months. So excited that I have been searching, picking, and buying the perfect outfit, bedding set, paint color, little bitty shoes, stroller, and even light fixture since before I knew I was pregnant. Some things are easy like clothes and shoes. I look at sales only and usually manage to walk away with a few goodies. However, some things are a little more complicated or at least they have been for us. It all started when I found the PERFECT bedding set for my baby boy. It passed the dad-man not gay test and was even on sale. I showed it to my mom and she immediately ordered it for us. Unfortunately a few days later she got a devastating e-mail saying the item was discontinued and no longer available. I was crushed, but managed to control myself. I looked everywhere, the designers sight, overstock, e-baby, craigslist, and several other sights. I decided I needed to find something else, while looking I discovered the "perfect bedding" at the same sight we had attempted to order from before. It said it was available, so I thought I will just try to order it again. Guess what! It came this week!!! I was so excited! You have no idea how excited. So, then there is this light fixture that I love. It is an airplane! It is kind of modern looking, not little kid looking. Anyway, I picked it out about a year ago while buying another light fixture for our house. So Caleb and I head to the store to buy it. And it also was discontinued. I held up well for this too. We came home and found one online that we are going to purchase, so we should have that soon. Then this week! Caleb was off early, so he was going to put together the baby bed(that someone had generously given us for free). The bed is cute and in good shape and white, which is what I would have bought! So I get home and the baby bed is still not put together. Caleb tells me that we are missing some hardware and the bed can't be put up without it. Now, normally I am calm and reasonable, but will blame pregnancy. I lost it! I kept saying where is the baby going to sleep, why can't something just work out, where is the baby going to sleep, I don't even like this bed. My wonderful husband just smiled and told me we would get/fix this bed before the baby gets here. He said if you want another bed we will go find one this weekend, but for now the baby is sleeping in your tummy and it will all work out. I do like the bed and we are going to figure it all out this weekend, but I was just really looking forward to seeing the bed in the nursery with the bedding all together. I will be sure to put up pictures when we do. I love getting ready for Brady, but the emotions and pregnancy have started to get the best of me. I am so ready for the nursery to begin looking like a nursery. There is also a lot of waiting. I want to go out and buy everything at once, but you just can't do that. And our first shower isn't until November, so I am trying to hold off on purchases until then.

Joining In

I have decided to start a blog! I love reading other peoples blogs and have thought about starting one in the past, but have chickened out. I have since been encouraged by a few friends to do so. One being a very good friend of mine who is currently traveling in central America for a while. She has started a blog detailing her travels, so it seems like the thing to do. Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!! The biggest news in our lives currently is that Caleb and I are having our first baby boy. I am 22 weeks along, making him due January 3rd. Everything is going smoothly so far. We are going to name him Brady. We can't seem to agree on a middle name yet, maybe soon. He is very active and kicks me all the time, especially once I lay down for bed! The kicking is my favorite part of pregnancy so far. I love the reassurance of life inside me. We are both so very excited about this wonderful blessing and addition to our family.