After all the angsting I did over a baby shower, it went off really well.

Dave and I worked all day yesterday on getting the upstairs ready, which involved lots of dusting and sorting and laundry and furniture moving, but by the time Amy showed up, the sewing room turned storage of babystuff and extraneous crafty material was looking like an actual NURSERY. Like, with a crib made up, and books on shelves and changing station set up. WEIRD.  Amy was a little surprised or whatever at seeing me, you know, PREGNANT. I last saw her when I was maybe 8w, not hardly pregnant at all, and now here I am with a big belly that’s MOVING and shit. It was cool. It was cool to just hang out with Amy as well, even if I was bone tired and had aching feet when she got here.

This morning, we finished clearing out the hall, I straightened up our bedroom, Amy worked on putting together the games and other stuff… my mom got here about 9, dropped off a boatload of food and stuff, and headed back out to the grocery store, and Amy and I went to HoJo’s for a quick breakfast. Dave worked on the lawn, and while we were gone, my mom came back with a glider for the nursery, that Dave assembled.  Yay! I’d registered for one, but figured we’d pull up the old LaZBoy that Dave has in the basement if we didn’t get one. 

Amy and my Mom went nuts on making everything look good, and our guests started arriving right at 1. The upstairs  was literally, model-home looking (SO RARE HERE) so I was able to show our house to people that hadn’t seen it before, or hadn’t seen all the changes we’ve done. Even my MIL went upstairs to see what Dave had done, she really likes the blog I keep for family, and said she’d read the entry on the hallway 3 times, and was so impressed that DAVE had done all of that.  While I was upstairs, almost everyone arrived, and I went up and down a few times to show the house and the nursery, etc. 

Amy did great with the games — even working in a "gretchen isn’t a total freak with the cloth diapers, yo" element by having a game where people were timed on how fast they could (cloth) diaper a doll, socks, mittens, hat, and swaddled, all while tucking the phone against your shoulder…. and the ILs were certainly taken by the Kissaluv, and sort of maybe had a better understanding that I’M NOT CRAZY by the end of it.  The other games were less intense — frozen baby ice cubes "because we know dave and gretchen are a little odd, so frozen babies fit right in" that when your baby was freed, you got a prize, a drawing to match whatever was on the bottom of your plate, you got a prize, and baby washcloths, folded up CD style, and whoever had the peanut butter inside, got a prize. BAsically, if you came to my house, you got a prize. And favors — amy and theboys made alll kinds of yummy glycerin soaps for people, my mom had bags of candy and little bulbs to plant as favors.

We got TONS of stuff — a few important things from the registry, tons of clothes, and none of them offensive, some yummy bath stuff… mainegirl hooked us up with so much Burt’s Bees Baby Bees stuff, that when I was putting it away, I realized I didn’t even OPEN one of the packages (so, thanks again!) — and my sister sent California Baby stuff, and Amy brought JASON organics stuff. the one thing I will see if I can return, actually, is a bath set from my SIL & niece, and even then, they really tried to consider me, i think, but the J&J lavender stuff bath set is probably a little too-too for my skin. (As far as all this stuff goes, the baby might be fine, but my eczema is worst in the crooks of my elbows, where I imagine I’ll be holding the baby on occasion, what with summer coming and all, so it’s really ALL ABOUT ME.)  But that was certainly considered, in that they didn’t even get the ‘normal’ J&J stuff, but they probably didn’t even think as far as more hypoallergenic than that, you know? Still, I might not take it back (hey, it’s the perfect gift for a baby shower! All wrapped and everything! Heh) but to have just one thing be ‘off’ is pretty good. My MIL got the monitor, one SIL got the bouncer (and made a white set of blanket, hat and booties) and the other got the mobile (in additon to the lavender stuff). My friend Jenne got me the Avent ISIS breast pump, with the explanation of "Well, I figured for Gretchen that the thing that was all black and looked like a torture device was the best choice." Heh. My friend Jess got us a diaper bag from LLBean; not the official diaper bag, but a travel bag that would work as a diaper bag, in a really nice cranberry red color, and then made 2 blanket and hat sets. My mom, in addition to the glider, picked up some other things, like washcloths and Aveeno stuff (see, I have this eczema? hahah) and some books, etc. Deb showed up with a cool wire and canvas hamper filled to the BRIM with clothes, some stuff (bottle brush, bowls, big ceramic piggy bank) and a dozen bleached prefolds.  Amy, in addition to all the help with the shower, and the house and all of that, has lent us her bassinet, then bought some sheets for it, and some clothes, and some organic baby bath stuff and had a book signed by the author.  She also had everyone write down advice for us as parents, which was really sweet — it was really nice to see what people had to offer.

Amy also played ambassador to the ILs, apparently telling them that while I seem a little ‘crusty?’ (was that the word, Aim?) I’m actually a biiiiiig softie when it comes to babies and kids, since I’d been there when she’d had hers… so that was an added gift as well. Oh, and the book was inscribed to "Widget Mylast," and so reading it out loud sort of sets the stage with "remember? baby gets Mylast?"  I’ll be posting a recap on the family blog, where I’ll probably throw in a "baby Mylast is so blessed to have so many people just waiting to meet it and love it…." Nice and subtle, and just STEEEEEEPED in "we’re all family no matter what the name(but the widg gets my name, no discussion.)"

The thing that was weird, was just — I’ve never HAD a shower, you know? Or big birthday parties, or other events wherein I am the center of attention. It was so odd to have so many people I KNOW in the same room, and yet, not be part of the conversation as I was opening presents. I’ve been a guest at showers many times, and always enjoy chatting to the people next to me, where this time I was the one opening while people chatted.  Normally I hang out with people one-on-one, so to have just a brief conversation with Jenne or Jess or whoever, despite them being in my HOUSE for 2 hours, and givingme GREAT PRESENTS, just felt — odd. I wasn’t NOT talking to people, i was just in the middle of things, and yet, distanced from everything at the same time.

I think the guests had a good time, though, we didn’t make them eat baby food from a diaper (AND YOU THINK I’M MAKING THAT UP, don’t you?) and the favors were things *I* would’ve liked (so my ILs were probably like, "where’s my stork themed ballpoint pen, anyway?") and the food was a good blend, and hey! there was cake!

My mom swooped out of here after the guests left, having to drive 2 hours back home and having spent the day working all day, and Amy stayed a bit later to de-tag all the clothes and sort all the bath stuff and take stuff upstairs, etc. Dave was still out at Matt’s, and didn’t get home til 7, so there was this weird few hours where I was all alone after a weekend of craziness. Dave gothome and was excited to see all the neat stuff, and he sat in the glider, with the boppy, and one of the Avent bottles from the pump set and a doll Amy’d left and was like "oh, I see how it all works now." And it was soooo cute. I’m a sucker for a cute husband practicing baby-holding.

I have a ton of laundry to do, to get the baby clothes ready, and we still have to fill in some blanks, but we’ve gotten some gift cards and giftmoney that will help with that. I’m going to go down to Portland for one last hurrah next weekend, to hang out with Amy without crazy-get-ready-for-baby-shower-ness going on, and to see the boys, and to have some motherly advice to take to BRU to finish out what we need to be Totally Ready.

Like you can ever be totally ready, right? Anyway, wow, we’re going to have a baby.