Baby Showers are the best!

From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew that a baby shower would be inevitable.  I kind of assumed that I would I just throw my own.  Not necessarily because I wanted to, but no one has ever really thrown me a party before.  I didn't want to just assume that someone was going to throw one for me. 

My sister in laws quickly offered to throw me a shower, but I immediately felt an immense amount of guilt at the thought of someone else doing such a nice gesture for me.  I didn't want to burden them so I said that they could throw a small family-only shower and I would focus on planning a separate shower for me and Michael's friends.  Oh, if only I knew then what I had to look forward to.

As you might remember from previous entries, my first two trimesters were not that kind to me.  With the stresses of my pregnancy ailments, work, and grad school, I soon gave up the quest to throw my own baby shower.  It was becoming too overwhelming and I had no desire to stress myself out (more than I already was) during my pregnancy.  I figured between the both of our families, Michael and I would receive plenty that the baby would need. 

Luckily, my sister in laws (as well as my mother in law) are all rock stars and offered for me to invite some of my friends to the shower.  I had a bit of anxiety over the thought of inviting my friends for so many reasons.  I thought many of them wouldn't be able to come because of their lack of transportation.  I thought some of them might not even be interested because most of them do not have children and maybe baby showers weren't "their thing."  I came up with about a million excuses of why no one would show up just so that if no one actually did show up, I wouldn't be disappointed.

Then there was my family, all of who live in Virginia.  I knew one of my aunts was coming come hell or high water.  She often visits NYC anyway, so I knew I could count on her.  My other aunt I already knew was busy, so I came to terms that her visit to the big apple would just have to wait.  Then there were my parents...who live in the middle of a mountain, with 5 big great danes, and both of whom work full time jobs.  I felt without a doubt that they would not be able to come and my mother reassured my fears when she said that they were facing some financial challenges and wouldn't be able to make it up for the big day.  I was incredibly devastated and felt like my parents were going to miss so much of my pregnancy, which may be my only one.

I was obviously investing way too much emotion into this baby shower.  But for me, it wasn't even about the presents.  I really couldn't have cared less if we received absolutely nothing at the shower.  For me, it was about getting together with the people I love most in the world to celebrate this amazing gift that part of me thought I might never receive.  My sister in laws would often ask me what kind of theme, decorations, games, cake, etc I wanted at the party and each time I usually responded with "I don't care."  It probably didn't make their jobs any easier, but I wanted no expectations placed upon the baby shower except for the fact that I wanted my loved ones their...that is the only thing I expected. 

I didn't know the date of the shower in advance, but I did buy an outfit to wear to be prepared for the day when someone came in and said "SURPRISE! Today is your baby shower. GET READY!"  My day happened on February 18th around 4 pm.  Michael drove me to a nice little restaurant right outside of our town.  I immediately spotted my aunt smoking out front...I knew she would be there!  When Michael and I approached her she handed me her cell phone, it was my mom on the other end.  Michael and I were already late so I was a bit confused why my mother wanted to talk to me now.  As I was walking into the restaurant, I was trying to explain to my mother that I was about to make my grand entrance into the baby shower and that I needed to let her go.  As I was climbing up the stairs, trying to politely hang up the phone with her, I look up and there she is.  And standing right next to her was my dad with the biggest smile on his face.  Before I could even say anything I began to cry.  I hugged them for about 30 seconds then rushed off to the bathroom before I became a blithering mess in front of all my guests.  I mean, come on, I was wearing make up for the first time in 6 months.  I needed to keep my composure!

The baby shower truly could have ended there and it would have been perfect.  After I came out of the bathroom, I noticed a table full of all my wonderfully diverse, crazy, beautifully eclectic friends.  The table next to that had all of my just as wonderful, gorgeous, incredibly supportive family.  I couldn't believe it.  Almost everyone who meant the most to me all in one room.  It was the best gift of all. 

My sisters and mother in law had truly outdone themselves with a Hello Kitty cake, a smorgasbord of my favorite candies, and fun little trivia games for all of us to play.  The restaurant served amazing Italian food, which between the excitement and a little human being crushing my stomach, I didn't get to enjoy much of.  We received many items on our registry and then some!  I could definitely see people knew my taste.  Between the blue and hot pink leopard printed vans shoes and the children's books supporting my pro-feminist views, everyone truly outdid themselves in the gifts they picked out for my daughter.  Not to mention the AMAAAAAZING baby blanket that my mother made...pictures soon to come.

Overall, it was the best baby shower to ever happen in the history of all baby showers.  Don't try to argue with me...you will lose.  I just hope for all the other expecting mothers out there that you remember that while it is always great to get gifts for the baby (it does ease the nesting habits a bit), this is a time when people want to show their love and support to you and your growing family.  Don't fight it.  EMBRACE IT!  It's an amazing feeling.

   

Daddy's Corner

I think in most pregnancies, a lot of the attention is spent on the women.  Which is mostly understandable.  She's taking the brunt of the physical burdens as far as carrying the child, labor, breastfeeding (if she chooses to do so), so on and so forth.  But I think the dad gets lost in the mix a lot.  I mean, the baby wouldn't be there without him.  He is expected to wait on the mommy to be 24/7.  Expecting fathers I feel are kind of unsung heroes.  It takes a lot to deal with 9 months of having to pick up the slack around the house, go out on craving runs, calm down emotional outbreaks, reassure your partner that she is in fact a beautiful queen and not a big fat cow, and so much more.  So in honor of the dads, I thought it might be nice to interview my baby's daddy to get some insight on what its like for him in dealing with the pregnancy.  Check out the videos below!  (look forward to interviews from other members of the family. coming soon!)

I bow down to this woman!

I have always felt a certain way about natural births.  They literally scare the crap out of me, but deep down I would do it.  If I had the cohones to go through with it, I probably would.  As it is right now, I am REALLY going to try to go as long as physically possible without an epidural.  I just didn't want to put it in my head that I was DEFINITELY going to do a natural birth, NO-MATTER-WHAT.  I have heard too many stories about women who create a very specific birth plan and then when it comes down to push and shove, they feel like they need drugs and sometimes make themselves feel like crap or like failures for not sticking to their plan.  So I am in a very "go with the flow" type mindset when it comes to giving birth.  I know what my options are, I know what I defitniely DO NOT want, and am just going to see what happens.  Even though I would prefer to have natural birth, I don't want to feel bad should I choose to get drugs instead.  I don't think going with the drug option makes anyone less of a person. 

WITH. THAT. SAID.  I read this article:
Woman gives birth to 14 lb baby...naturally!

I am completely blown away by this woman.  She not only gave birth naturally once, she did it twice.  Each time she had ginormous babies.  The first one was twelve pounds, and her most recent one was fourteen flippin pounds.  Now let's make this a little bit more clear.  The average text book (if you can remember that far back) weighs about two pounds.  So imagine carrying around SEVEN textbooks on your back, not to mention the few extra writing utensils, notebooks, calculators, etc (i.e. all that weight you gained from getting knocked up!).  Imagine how sore your back would be!  Now imagine how bad your vajayjay would feel trying to shove those textbooks out!  And this chick did it in 6 minutes.  She's not dead.  She didn't rip in half.  Her vag isn't officially connected to her butt hole.  She's totally fine.  Now if that doesn't wanna make you change your mind about natural birth, I don't know what will!