The baby showers: Pregnancy - 29 weeks and 32 weeks

Towards the beginning of my third trimester, I had my first baby shower. Yes, you read that right. My first. There was more than one. Technically, I guess there were 3 – one for my VA friends. One for my NJ friends and family. And one at work. Or, well three for me, but hosted as noted.

My husband’s sister put this one together and did a beautiful job as she always does. As always things were far more planned and formal than I think (and than anything I do. If I ever offer to host a party for you, you may want to wait to see if you get other … better!... offers first.) She rented an old schoolhouse which is now part of the parks authority and had Balducci’s do most of the catering. Everything was so nice (I know – I’m pregnant. I’m easily impressed by an abundance of little cakes. But still – it was all very nice.) and well put together. And we got so many wonderful and adorable things! I’ve never been a huge fan of bridal or baby showers. (I actually didn’t have a bridal shower myself, but instead a wedding shower – no games, dinner/drinks/dj and no gift opening – so basically just a party. Again this was one that I pictured could just be a simple backyard bbq and wound up being a somewhat formal catered affair with a cocktail hour, an extensive buffet, etc. Back to my point on why you should let my Mom host your next party rather than me. If I offer, really, feel free to ask if she or my sister in law is available instead.) Anyway, as I said, I’ve never been a huge fan of them, but I did enjoy this one – OK, yes, that could be because I got a lot of presents… But I think it’s also, possibly more importantly, because there were no games! No games and lots of little cakes…

The second baby shower was also again just far more than I was thinking (yet another person who you should take up on the hosting offer over me). My cousin had it at her house, but she had it catered and had wait staff! I arrived and was offered a choice of drinks – all sorts of juices available to accommodate me and wine and champagne to accommodate others (I want to go to one of these NOT pregnant!). The food was great – but there could have been nothing beyond the chocolate covered strawberries and I would have enjoyed it thoroughly. She also ordered custom pink M&M’s with “ladybug” (our in utero nickname for the baby) and “girl pearl” (my parents name for me as a baby) on them. It was all so nice! And everyone was SO GENEROUS again! We won’t have to buy clothes for this child for years! But we also got tons of other registry items (even the less “fun” ones to buy) so we’re starting to feel CLOSER to ready. Not ready. But closer.

A friend emailed me a week or two ago telling me how this was her favorite part of pregnancy – when everything was done and the room was ready and you could just good sit in the quiet of the nursery, waiting. Is she kidding? We still need to turn the office into the nursery! And then find a place to put all this awesome loot we’ve acquired!