As Alexis had already booked the next day off of work from the clinic as a personal baby-related day, she made sure she was up before her husband. It wasn't a hard task; he'd been out until nearly one the night before and given that he'd texted her he was full of good advice from his bros. It had been on her mind until she'd shut her eyes for sleep and woken up to her snoring Israeli-Dutch baby-daddy.

Siging, pressing a hand to her back, she waited until she was in the kitchen before letting herself gas since the last time she didn't wake and woke Shane up after a double shift. 'Doesn't that smell lovely baby,' she murmured, rubbing her belly in circles as she looked in the fridge. She'd started putting more things on the top shelf since bending over was becoming more and mo re cumbersome.

'Bacon, lettuce, onions, peppers, tomatoes,' she murmured and turned on the skillet to make BLT stir-fry. She wondered if she had any of Meredeth's whole wheat pancake mix as she made Shane coffee and poured herself calcium-rich orange juice when she heard Shane stir and wander out. 'Morning Shane. You got in late last night.'

'I was having so much fun, wasn't I baby,' he murmured, giving Alexis a juicy kiss while he rubbed her belly. 'Yeah, I was. When you gonna start letting Papa feel you moving?'

'Soon, big guy. I hope,' she added on a laugh. 'Coffee's almost ready.'

'You sound like you've got something on your mind,' Shane told her.

'I'm tired of feeling scared. This is supposed to be fun so we need to get over ourselves and our hangups and let it be fun.'

'I agree.' Shane was ready to do a victory end dance of epic proportions to hear his sweet strawberry talk like this. More he was ecstatic to hear her mean it - they were both so nervous they were going to be awful first-time parents in a family of great mothers and fathers that they were letting their insecurities get the better of them. 'So how are we going to let ourselves have fun?'

'Well we're going pram shopping today, and then we are baby-sitting Jojo tonight, so we can use the in-between time to play the celebrity name game.'

'Celebrity name game? Where did you see that?'

'Oh, Ellen on Youtube. It looks like so much fun.' Alexis nudged around the bacon in the pan, looked around. 'You want pancakes or toast?'

'I think we should have toast, make some nice BLTs for breakfast and then we can have whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes for lunch after pram shopping. Or we can treat ourselves and go to Body's after baby-shopping.'

'I think in the spirit of fun, we should go to Body's.'

'I agree. Here, sit down, baby, you've done enough already.'

As Alexis still wasn't all the way awake she had no problems letting Shane take over making breakfast. She sat down in her chair, put her feet up. 'Oh, that does feel better.'

'Refresh me again, why are we babysitting only Jojo tonight?' Shane asked as he nudged the bacon and vegetables around in the pan.

'Mom is working late to wrap up paperwork so things will move easier for the Hamptons weekend in two weeks, and Dad and RJ are doing their monthly bros-night together.' Alexis rubbed her belly, felt her stomach gurgle. 'What do you think about the name Melinda?'

'Too English. Jordana?'

'Too much like the actress Brewster. You know what we need?'

'What?'

'A murder board,' she replied so sincerely that when Shane whipped his head around he gave himself a crick in the neck.

'A murder board for the baby?'

'Yeah. When Mom was pregnant with RJ and Dad was on the job shadowing her, they hijacked her murder-board to settle some name debates. Mere said she and Javi used her drafting easel for the same thing for Tessi and Max too.'

'Huh.' Shane patted the bacon and veggies with a paper towel to soak up some of the grease. 'That does make sense. In the mean time, this is ready so you ready to eat?'

Before Alexis could open her mouth, her stomach gave a huge rumble, make her laugh. 'Guess you have your answer.'

'Oh boy. Where do we start?'

Shane nervously held his wife's hand as they looked around Little Speed Monster, the specialty section of Baby-Ware children's furniture emporium. It was like being eight years old all over again, and his father turning him loose in Toys R Us for his birthday with thirty dollars, back when thirty dollars was like a million to a little boy. He saw nothing but row after row of prams, walkers, strollers, buggies and other assorted transportatino devices for the under-five crowd.

'We should do like Mere and Javi did for their wedding,' Alexis decided. Start with what we don't want.'

'Nothing gender specific, then.'

'And no red.'

'No red?'

'Too harsh for a little one.'

'No red, then,' Shane agreed. He took her hand, steered her towards an aisle of the convertible three-in-one strollers. 'These look promising.'

'Oh, they do! I was checking out some like this on-line after I had my girls night with Lanie and Andrea and Sloan.'

Alexis looked around, flagged down a woman who looked liked she knew what she was doing. 'Miss? Can you tell us about these ones?'

The sales associate, whose nameplate read Barbra, gave her a sunny smile. 'I take it this is your first one?'

'Yes, due in September.'

'So you'll be in the market for something sturdy for fall weather. I would recommend these to consider first.'

She led them to a row of what looked like tricycles with popped-up RV tops to Shane's mind. 'These are our Roll-Steppers, they work as a pram, car-carrier- do you drive?'

'Not usually but we travel in cars with friends on a fairly regular basis,' he explained, and Barbra nodded.

'These models come with the detachable carrier that works as a travel bassinet, a car carrier and a baby pram. Then when the baby is big enough it turns into a stroller, and the tri-balance makes it great for running and jogging in the park.'

'I could take the baby over to Chelsea Park with Meredeth and Tortuga,' she smiled sweetly and Shane laughed.

'I think we might have a winner, Barbra.'

'Okay, well we have a variety of styles here, take them to our play-track and give them a go.'

'Play-track?' Shane's brow furrowed in question.

'To the edge of our show floor-' Barbra pointed them in the right direction '-and follow the arrows. We like to give our parents-to-be an idea of how to run or walk or whatever you like with the prams, get a feel for them.'

'The guys weren't kidding when they said pram-shopping is like buying a car these days.' Shane turned to Alexis with a wicked grin. 'You thinking what I'm thinking?'

'Pram race wars?'

'Loser buys the lunch.'