Baby shower- 33 wks 3 days

Yesterday was my baby shower and it went great.  I had a bit of a pity party for myself the night before because we were getting a lot of snow in the forecast, so people began cancelling left and right.  None of my up north family made it, Ryan's cousins from the thumb area didn't make it, and even some local people that had a 30-45 minute drive didn't want to risk it.  I totally understood, a baby shower just isn't risking your life or your car to drive a long distance in snow.  But I was bummed.  I had been looking forward to my baby shower for a long time, and I was looking forward to seeing everyone.

So when I woke up yesterday morning it was already coming down pretty hard.  I had a 5 minute drive to get my hair cut, but even that was difficult and the snow was just hammering.  I was gone just over and hour and by the time I got home you couldn't even see my footprints from when I left.  Within 20 minutes you could barely see my footprints from when I got home.

My husband didn't have to go into work until after the shower, and he wanted to drive me because of the snow....it's so cute.  I am really not uncomfortable driving in the snow, espeically since getting my AWD, but I wasn't going to turn him down, I was really glad he came.  So he shoveled while I finished getting ready and then we went.  I was bracing myself for only 5 people showing up, but we actually had a pretty good turn out.  Of the 50 that RSVPd yes, we had about 20 show up, which I thought was really good considering how bad the weather was.

So when we first got there we mingled and said hi to everyone.  Ryan's friend from high school came and also brought her cousin since her mom couldn't make it and she figured a lot of people would cancel.  The cousin went to school wtih all of them too so he had a good time catching up with them.  His friend Phil's wife Vicki came, and she was at a table with Dan's wife Becky and my aunt and two couins.  Vicki is pregnant and due in July, and we found out my cousin (well cousin's wife) that got married back in October is pregnant too, due in September.  My other cousin's son is like 12 and I think they are done having kids, so the look on her face was kinda funny when she realize there were two, not just one preggo at her table.  We all joked that she better not drink the water.

My MIL got beautiful tulip arrangements for each table, so while they were getting the food ready they had everyone fill out their thank you card envelope and then drew names to give away the flowers.  My friend and her daughter came that I haven't seen in like a year.  We used to work together, she was one of my bestest friends at work and she was one of my bridesmaids.  It was so good to see her again.  She kept saying how much she loved the flowers, so I was happy that she won an arrangement.

They also had everyone fill out a card of baby wishes that they wish for Boo.  They were things like, I hope you love....., I hope you become....., I hope you are not afraid of......., and they had to fill in the blanks.  I cried when I was reading them, it's such a beautiful keepsake for Boo.  My brother's was funny, for the I hope you love, he put "your uncle Joe".  :)  I was so glad he came....his fiancee is sick so she couldn't make it, but glad he did.  I feel like I never see him anymore.  Hopefully he'll be around more once Boo arrives, but he just works so darn much.  With only one day off a week, he needs it to get stuff done around the house.

The only thing was none of the grandparents or my best friend filled one out because they were so busy hosting, and I really want one for Boo to read from them, so I'll have to get them to do that.  They also played a game where they had to match up celebrity couple to their babies, so winners from that one a basket that each of my ladies made.  The remaining baskets went to the winners of baby gift bingo.  So I think people had a good time and won some good prizes. 

We had arabic food catered from one of my favorite restaurants.  It was so good, but it hurt my mouth.  My tounge and gums have been so sensitive and sore from hormones and the spices and stuff in the food made it even worse.  Which I knew it would, but I suffered through it anyway.  It was salad, rice, bread, hummous and chicken skewers.  I took it easy on the rice and bread and loaded up on chicken so it was at least a good diabetic meal.  I ended up testing 20 minutes early because they started serving the cake, and my sugar was 125....so I'm going to assume that 20 minutes later it would have been below 120 :)  And even if it wasn't, I think I did pretty good for being my shower. 

After lunch we opened presents, we got a lot of great stuff.  I made Ryan sit with me and help hold stuff up for everyone to see.  He barely knew what any of the things were for and I had to explain each one, so it was really funny when I opened like the 5th swaddle blanket and he announced, it's a swaddle!  Everyone laughed and cheered that he finally figured out what something was.  We really didn't get much that we have to return....maybe a couple outfits because we got a very summery 12 month outfit but it will be like December through March when she fits into that, and my aunt got us a premie sleeper.  I totally get why, because of Kayla.  But I think I'll wait until closer to my due date and as long as things are still going well I'll return that.  It only fits up to 5 pounds so there is no sense keeping something that will never fit her most likely.  I also need to go through all of the clothes and take inventory and see if there are things I need to exchange, like if we got too many newborn things or wrong season clothes, but it looks like everyone did a good job of getting varying sizes.  We got a lot of pink!  I sure hope the ultrasound tech was right, lol.

I didn't notice, but my friend remarked at how we didn't get a single package of diapers.  That's actually fine with me.  She got enough diapers at her shower to last her about 3 months, but of course lots of different brands and some weren't great.  I think it's actually a good thing to not get a bunch....I would have to use any we got because I would hate to waste them, but it would suck using brands that leak.  So now we can just buy and stock up on whatever brand we think we want to try.  We also didn't get any bottles, but again I think a good thing....we can just buy a few and see if she likes them, and if not try another brand.

Not that it's all about gifts, but most of the people that had to cancel already did, or plan to still get us gifts so we've got more coming.  I hope we can find someplace to put the stuff we already have before then.  Our house looks like a tornado went through.  My dad and Brenda didn't get us anything yet, they wanted to wait and see what we got, and then have us tell them what we still really need.  My inlaws got us the convertible carseat, but we need the bucket one she'll be in for the first year or so.  But our travel system was pretty expensive, so my dad said he would pay a certain amount of it and then we used any money we received to pay the rest.  Whew, I feel better that we're getting that soon.  I had a dream the other day they she came early and we didn't have the carseat and had to drive around with her on our laps. 

So we had a great day, great food, the cake was delicious, I had a nice time talking with friends and family and we got a lot of nice stuff to help us get started.  It would have been great if it hadn't snowed, but all in all it was a wonderful celebration for our girl.

This morning my husband came to bed when he got home from work and rubbed my back for me because it was so sore.  As he was doing that, he said, "I can't wait for her to be here".  Awwww.  We're so lucky, and I can't wait for her to be here either.  Here are a few pics of our day.