Surprise Shower (and aftermath!)

So on Saturday I headed off to what I thought was a dinner for my Dad's birthday at my Grandma's house. I had made a version of a pineapple upside down cake where I put the pineapple in the middle of two layers and frosted the top (it ended up amazing, OMG!). Pineapple Upside Down Cake is my Dad's favorite. :-D

James and I arrived with presents in hand for my Dad for his birthday and my Mom for her birthday which we'd neglected to give her months ago. :-/

My Mom and Grandma said that we should go down to the community room to find my Dad who was apparently down there for some reason, and to see a new painting she had done that was hanging there.

I walked in to a roomful of my nearest and dearest friends and family members shouting "surprise", and was shocked and pretty immediately overwhelmed--see it here--I wasn't even sure where to start and what to do!! But I recovered, hugged everyone, and got down to present opening.

I got SO many amazing and beautiful things! I will right now thank my family for getting me SO much useful stuff off of my registry--I have heard from (online) friends in other regions of the U.S. that no one EVER buys off of the registry where they are from, and they always get just clothes and cute things from their shower but not any of the big useful things. I'm SO glad we don't live in any of those areas!

I still got a TON of adorable clothes, blankets, toys and homemade things that were not on my registry (which I also adore), but it is definitely amazing that I got so many of the practical things (car seats for both our cars, cradle/swing, high chair, boppy, thermometer, moby wrap, activity bouncer, cloth diapers, etc). These things make us so much more prepared to welcome little James into our life!

Now there are relatively few things that James and I need to get to be totally ready for Lil James and it makes it a lot easier. (Especially since we also got some gift cards and coupons!).

People have asked me repeatedly if I was really surprised. Well, I was definitely shocked and surprised. However, of course I had some thought that this could be my shower because I only have 6 weeks left until my due date now--so any situation in which I was asked to be somewhere at some time I would have had the thought that this *could be* it. So of course I sort of thought it could be it, especially when I actually got to Grandma's house--something just seemed funny and being asked to walk down to the community center of course I thought it could be it.

But Mom and my sisters (and James) did a really good job of throwing me off and making me unsure or think that I guess it wasn't going to be the shower--like telling me that Mare wasn't going to be there because she made plans with a friend, or asking me to make a cake, or talking about how Gram M. was really excited to have us over for a vegan dinner, etc.

So while I was suspicious, I think I was the least suspicious I could have been at that point. I was also suspicious at the last 4 family gatherings, so I was definitely still surprised.

It was amazing to see everyone--especially those people who had to come from far away/busy life situations--Heather, Jessie, Yaling, Clare and Beth . . . I LOVE that people were able to meet some of my loved ones that they might not have met before. :-)

Aftermath:

So we brought all the stuff home, luckily Marilyn lives in the same town as us and was able to bring stuff in her car.

When we got home, Mare (and James, since he hadn't seen it all in the first place) insisted on going through everything again--which was good because it gave us a chance to organize a bit.

James set up the cradle/swing right away, and then the high chair. We took the car seats out and played with them, went through all the clothes again, took off tags and labels from toys and some of the things. I put the waterproof cover and slipcover on the boppy pillow . . .

And then we were still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff--some set up and in place and others still piled. James said it looked like our house with baby things superimposed into it.

I think for both of us, things have seemed a lot more "real" since we came home with all these things and started integrating them into our lives. I washed the receiving blankets and put them away, I washed the adorable hooded towels and baby washcloths and put them with our towels, I sorted the larger sized clothes from the smaller sized, and washed the first load of white T shirts, little socks, cloth diapers, bibs, and burp pads . . .

I am still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff but every day I do a little bit and things get a bit more under control . . .

And yet last night was the first night since the shower that I didn't have baby-anxiety insomnia . . . plenty of friends of mine have had this throughout the whole pregnancy, but I am a champion sleeper and have lost little to no sleep throughout the entire pregnancy experience. Until now. It is suddenly real in a whole new way--it's like there is no going back from here (not that that hasn't been true for awhile, but my mind just got it)--I'm not nervous about the birth or having a baby, but I guess our life is about to change drastically--it's a lot to take in.

But the excitement now is also palpable. I can't wait to meet my squishy baby.

Thanks for the amazing shower, everyone! I love you!