Halloween 2011

From the minute we found out Ellie was due in October, I started getting excited about having another reason to celebrate Halloween. Grant has traditionally been "bah humbug" about the holiday, but - with the arrival of our little Ellie Bean - he agreed to get in the spirit. The only trouble we ran into is that it is very difficult to plan costumes and events when you have a 3 week old baby! Nonetheless, we powered through and, with the help of friends and family, we've had so much fun.

First, we attended Christine & Pat's Halloween party on October 29. We had a great time participating in the family costume contest, dressed as bakers and a cupcake.


I made Ellie's cupcake costume by using a hot glue gun to paste felt pieces onto one of her long-sleeved onesies. It was a simple costume, but got a lot of smiles -- particularly because Ellie was sporting her matching high top sneakers!


Fortunately, since we were headed up to Berkeley for the Halloween party, we got to stop off at Tia Heather & Tio Jeremias' house to see their adorable costumes too! They chose a Wizard of Oz theme, with Betinho stealing the show in his cowardly lion get-up.



On October 30, we continued our weekend of Halloween festivities by heading over to Chris & Caroline's house for pumpkin carving and candy apple making. We had a blast! Here's the lineup of our carved pumpkins.


Now, time to start planning our family costumes for next year . . .

Ellie's Umbilical Cord Fell Out!

On Wednesday, October 12, Ellie's eighth day of life, her umbilical cord fell out. I felt a mix of emotions. On the one hand, I was relieved to have it gone. We no longer needed to worry about it while changing her diaper, and - let's face it - it is sort of gross. On the other hand, it was the first sign of Ellie's "growing up," so to speak. The cord that had once connected her to me, from which I nourished her for almost a year, was gone. I got a little teary-eyed . . .


I wasn't sure what to do with the cord. I know some people save it in the baby book, but I decided to go with a more symbolic keepsake, by planting it under Ellie's fig tree.

Our First Week Home

On Saturday, October 8, we were discharged from the hospital. We are so glad to have our little girl "home sweet home." Here are some pictures showing what we've been up to in the last few days:

Taking Car Rides:

Taking Naps:


Family Walks:

Bath Time:

Introducing Elizabeth Rose Gaudette

October 4, 2011
7 lbs., 4 oz.
18.9 inches
This has definitely been the most amazing 10 days of our entire lives. Having a child brings new depth to love, new heights to emotion, and new perspective to life. We are truly blessed with our new addition, Elizabeth Rose Gaudette. We are calling her Ellie Rose, or just Ellie.

On the morning of October 4, 2011, Grant and I drove to Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford for my scheduled c-section to deliver Ellie (she was in the frank breech position, so a c-section was necessary). You can see the nerves and excitement on our faces here as we are getting ready for surgery.

Everything went well, and before we new it, we could hear the sweet, lamb-like wails of our little girl.


Life as we knew it changed forever the moment we saw Ellie. It was truly love at first sight.




We spent four nights in the hospital, just mooning over our new creation, and were blessed with so many visitors, including all 3 sets of grandparents (this is going to be one spoiled little girl), and loads of tias and uncles.

Final Preparations

It's the day before the arrival of our little girl, and Grant and my stomachs have been in knots since we woke up this morning. We are full of so much anticipation, excitement, and nerves that it's been hard to concentrate on the final preparations we needed to get done today.

We wanted to start the day with some quality time together, so we decided to go out for brunch at the Mayfield Bakery & Cafe. After that, we went grocery shopping, and came home and prepared some yummy meals that we could freeze for our return from the hospital. Grant did some household organization and paying bills, and - before we knew it - it was already 3:00 in the afternoon, and time for our appointment with the anesthesiologist at Stanford. Checking in at the Admissions department at Stanford, and spending time in the Labor & Delivery wing at the hospital made everything feel very real. We really cannot believe that our little girl will be here just 12 hours from now! After that, we came home to a nice homecooked meal, then - yes, I know this is last minute - packed our bags for the hospital.

Oh, and I almost forgot . . . we placed our finishing touch on the nursery by hanging Baby Gaudette's mobile! Below is a panoramic pic (which I took with the new camera we bought for the baby!) of the completed nursery.


We are now feeling all prepared for Baby Gaudette's arrival!

October 2, 2011: Buying a Family Car

It's T-2 days until Baby Gaudette arrives, and Grant and my last weekend (ever?!?!) as just the two of us. While I originally had visions for this weekend of sleeping in, romantic walks, date nights, and the like, let's face it -- I can hardly sleep, and we are both in MAJOR nesting mode.

Ever since Grant's car climbed past the 200K mile mark several months ago, we've been thinking that it is time to buy a new car. And Baby Gaudette's impending arrival provided us with just the motivation we needed to move forward with the purchase. We spent several hours on Saturday test driving the three SUVs we had narrowed it down to -- the Toyota Highlander, the Acura MDX, and the Ford Explorer -- and then several hours on Sunday finalizing the decision and making the purchase. Which did we choose?

THE TOYOTA HIGHLANDER, Limited Edition!!! It's super fancy and amazing, and we think it will be a perfect family car.


Some of the special features that we love:
-Smart Key: we can start the car with the push of a button, while the key is buried in the diaper bag, and the doors automatically unlock when we walk up to the car with our hands full of groceries and baby gear
-Navigation: to help us find our way on family road trips
-Built-in DVD player in back: Baby Gaudette will certainly love this in a couple of years time
-Leather interior: will be easy to clean up spills
-Bluetooth phone system: so I can actually talk legally while driving
-Heated seats: who doesn't need this?!?!
-And just about everything else you can think of!

32-39 weeks: Pregnancy Pics

I can't believe that we've reached the end of my third trimester, and - in just days - we'll finally be holding our baby girl in our arms. I've kept up the trend of bi-weekly photos over this last trimester, and am posting them below. To see the full spectrum of my growth (from 20 weeks on), click here.

32 weeks:

34 weeks:

37 weeks:

39 weeks: