Last Saturday, we celebrated our upcoming arrival with our family and friends. When we started thinking about this party, we knew that we wanted essentially a party where we can invite all of our family and friends. It didn’t necessary have to be baby themed but the baby was a good excuse to throw a party!
Enter my good friend, Melinda who knew exactly how we felt and really knew what we wanted better than we knew what we wanted. She helped us plan and coordinate the best and most memorable baby shower we could ask for. To us, it was special and exactly what we wanted and more.
—We invited all of our closest family and friends – male or female. Kids and significant others were all invited. We did not put a cap on the number of people. We’re fortunate in that we were able to rent the residence club room in our apartment building that could easily hold over 300 people, so the number of people was not an issue. This party was about me as much as it was about Josh and our families.
—We wanted our family and friends to eat, drink and be merry! Our shower was catered by David’s Soundview Catering (who did an amazing job) and was a full lunch with kid’s menu and an open bar of wine and beer. Just because I can’t drink doesn’t mean everyone else can’t!
—We did not open presents. Don’t get me wrong, we appreciate all the presents (and they were not necessary), but we really did not want to take away time from the party for everyone to watch me open presents. We are very grateful for everything we received and are thanking everyone individually.
—We did not play baby shower games. I have played my fair share of baby shower games and but they are not for me. We didn’t want our guests to be put in any awkward situations or felt obligated to take part. This is not to say we don’t like showers where games are a part of it, it’s just a personal choice to not have them at ours.
—Despite all of this, the party was still baby themed. Melinda carried my love for elephants (from the baby registry process) throughout the entire event. She ordered a custom cake, custom sugar cookies, coordinated a wishing well of books, baby shower greeting board, onesies and bib decorating, and coordinated with our parents to have baby pictures of Josh and I all around the room.
We loved every minute of our baby shower and would not change any aspect of it. Melinda did an amazing job making it very personal and special for us and we are incredibly grateful. We appreciate everyone traveling the distance to CT to celebrate with us and fortunate for all the wonderful memories and well wishes from everyone.
Deciding to have a baby shower or not, is a very personal choice and so are all the details that come along with it. Everyone has different opinions in what they would like to have in a shower and by no means, does it mean that what we did is right or wrong, these are just options we decided to go with. I truly respect all opinions and options on this topic and wanted to just share what we did as food for thought for others who are going through a similar process.
We came back last night from a quick less than 24 hour trip to Providence, Rhode Island and it was a blast! Josh and I went on a road trip with running friends, Julio, Tania, and their baby to see Coach Brian run his 
Afterwards we checked into our hotel at the 
The next morning, Josh and I grabbed an early breakfast at 6:30AM before the 5K start. I had an english muffin with berries which was perfect and Josh ate waffles, eggs, and berries. We got back to the hotel room, finished getting ready and walked over to the start. The weather was breezy and overcast, but perfect running weather. The start area was easy, casual, and there were a ton of porta potties which are extremely important to me at 7 months pregnant! By 8:25AM, we were off. Though I’m convinced Josh could have run the race faster than me, we ended up running it together. My bladder was not enjoying the baby and the movement so we made a pit stop around 1.25 miles in (I have a feeling this is the beginning of my running bladder challenges for the next couple of months). The course was scenic, relatively flat, but quite confusing about turnaround points since the full, half, and 5K all shared the same first and last 1.5 miles. I was really hoping that we would finish last but didn’t look like I was able to achieve my goal. Our finish time was a little over 42 minutes.
We grabbed water and went back to the hotel to put on some dry and warmer clothes before heading back out to meet Tania and see Julio finish the half. There’s something to be said about small town races — we were able to cheer about 150 meters from the finish and could have run part of the race and even the finish with the runners if we wanted to. When Julio finished, we met back up to prepare for Brian’s big appearance. The race tracking is not as robust as some of the larger city races but we were able to estimate using the Find My Friends app that he was running faster than anticipated and knew when he was approaching. He looked very strong and on pace for a 
After Brian passed, we immediately walked over to the finish area and caught up with him and his friends celebrating. Brian completed his 
