I am pregnant. I'm definitely feeling it now. While before I had to remind myself not to overdo it because I'm pregnant, my body now reminds me quite loudly that certain things are too much for me to do. I am tired, short of breath, heavy and my belly is tight as heck! Everything I do causes braxton hicks contractions and the baby's head is smashing my bladder to the point where I actually wish I could have a catheter strapped to my leg because I always think I have to pee.
This morning at my weekly prenatal appointment, the doctor exclaimed happily, "Well, you made it! You're full term!" I am 37 weeks tomorrow, and apparently in the medical world, that is considered full term even though they'd rather you reach 40 weeks. If I went into labor today, they wouldn't stop me, he said. I was still thrilled to hear this news as I am still shocked I'm even pregnant. To think I've actually managed to carry a baby to term already? I can't put it into words. The one thing I can put into words is the amount of stuff we still have left to accomplish before this baby is born! It's all coming to a close now and I can hardly believe how little time is left.
June is the month for everything last minute baby. Finishing the furniture, painting the nursery, turning in our pre-registration paperwork to the hospital, etc. Finally we got our seat belts fixed last month in our Jeep that the dog ate! That is what I call real progress. At one of our childbirth classes we were asked to go around the room and mention something we'd done in preparation for the baby, and that's all we could say. Everyone else was totally finished with their nurseries, etc. We hadn't even started. June 1st was our last class already. We had a mini party with snacks, etc. One of the girls who had attended came in bringing her newborn baby she'd just had and told us all how hard it was. That was great. The class, although a bit rushed, seemed to help us out somewhat in feeling prepared for labor and delivery and postpartum expectations. We got a lot of reading material that we can refer to when we start to forget everything we learned--which I noticed is already happening. Like what is effacement again? I know it happens before dilation of the cervix, but uhhh, that's all I remember about that.
Moving right along. The very next day, June 2nd, was a baby shower that Mike's co-workers threw for the both of us at the Library. It was dubbed a "bring a book for baby" shower in which everyone gave us books, naturally. Cute little kid books, of course, and then a few other random baby items tagged on. They just had snacks and gifts because it only lasted an hour before they had to open the library and get back to work, but it was nice. I didn't know until a couple weeks prior that the library was planning this shower, but thought they would probably at least throw a little something together for Mike anyway. I was surprised when I learned it was a shower for both of us.
For a few weeks, I'd known that someone was throwing me a surprise baby shower because my friend decided to come clean about it to me, knowing I was feeling slightly miffed that nobody I knew wanted to give us one even after all we'd been through to get pregnant in the first place. She admitted only as much as the fact that someone was throwing me a shower, but I wasn't sure about who or the details of it. One random day I came across the invitation at my grandma's house clipped plain as day to her refrigerator. It had a big yellow ducky on it and said something about surprise baby shower. That's when I stopped reading. I knew it had to be for me. I felt too guilty and decided I shouldn't spoil the surprise for myself any further. But after that I started to wonder and got increasingly irritated that pretty much everyone I knew was trying to keep a secret from me and downright lying to me. Then I decided that even though no one had ever tried to throw me any kind of surprise party before, that I didn't like surprises after all. I guess I'm the type of person who likes to be involved in things, planning and contributing. Plus, it's always great to know when events are happening so I can prepare for them accordingly. This time, even though I finally admitted to people that I found out there was a shower, people still wouldn't tell me the details. I thought what in the heck is the point of trying to keep a secret from me when I already know about it? Now I was just getting irritated, then started to wonder if there was more to this shower than I thought. What else were they trying to hide from me?
Well, apparently there was a lot they were still trying to hide. I later discovered that not only was my best friend behind it all, but my mom and even my husband were in on it too! Thinking I was depressed that no one cared about us and didn't want to throw a celebration in honor of our crazy miracle pregnancy, my husband decided to try and get the hint out there in a really direct way that he wanted someone to throw me a baby shower. Of course I had absolutely no idea he was doing this, and had I known, I might have tortured him, because as thoughtful as it is, it seemed a bit like begging for gifts on his part because really, I mean he's the dad!
Anyway, the way it turned out was that my friend Martha drove into my driveway randomly on a Friday afternoon. I was mowing the front lawn and stopped, shocked that it was my friend who had been telling me for weeks now that she couldn't come and was sad she would never be able to see me pregnant, etc, just trying to make me feel it. Which of course I did. After the initial shock of just seeing her show up at my house, she gave me a card that said "of course I'd throw you an f-ing baby shower!" I laughed hysterically as all the pieces of this mystery shower started falling into place.
The shower was on Sunday, June 5th at the same park where my husband & I were married 9 years ago this month. The last surprise was finding out who came. Probably the most shocking was my aunt who'd flown down from Alaska. She brought my grandma from Idaho with her. Not all that many people came, but it was still fun. All the food my friend brought with her for the party from Seattle was vegan, and I loved that fact. Honestly, it was probably the most touching part of the whole party knowing that she had gone out of her way to do that just for me. :) Thanks, Martika! I hope someday I get to do the same for you!
