Showers

Our baby showers are starting this week! I'm so excited.

I had been worried about what to wear to the showers and my mom was great about coming shopping with me the other day to help me pick out a couple new shirts. The best part is that they're not even maternity shirts, so I can still wear them when I'm not sporting a bump. I now feel much prettier :)

Louis' real estate boss/broker is throwing him a "Daddy Shower" on Thursday. It will be a wine and cocktails kind of event at the real estate office, which is something totally new to me. The daddy shower part was actually my idea, since I don't know more than half the guest list and I didn't want to be the center of attention. I really want the fuss to be on Louis. There were about 100 people on the original guest list, but we got RSVPs for about half of them, phew. There will be real estate people, political people (it is a campaign year) and friends of ours from Fremont. We offered to put together the favors and this past weekend, we scored a great deal on chocolate squares from the Ghirardelli outlet. All I have to do is create a little tag for each bundle and wrap them up. The daddy shower makes me a little nervous, just because I don't know what to expect. I'm really looking forward to the other showers, because I know I'll be more relaxed and able to have fun.

One of the most exciting parts of the whole baby shower experience is watching items from our Amazon registry disappear. It's funny how very few of the items are actually for me (or Louis), but it's so thrilling to receive baby gifts. It reminds me of all those home videos of Christmas morning when we were kids and my parents used to look so happy when we'd open our gifts. I used to wonder how they could even enjoy the holiday when they didn't get gifts themselves. I'm kind of starting to get it now. I love all the itty-bitty outfits with the gender-neutral froggies and duckies. I'm so happy that baby's room is starting to feel really cozy now. Will he/she love it as much as I do?

More importantly than the gifts, though, is the amount of love our baby is receiving from so many people in our lives. I am totally not a card saver myself, but I'm now saving every little note and card and handmade anything that the baby gets. Louis has started to let all of the boards and organizations that he belongs to know that he may be taking some time off to be with the baby over the next couple months. He has gotten such wonderful responses from people who have been wishing him the best, telling him he'll be a great dad, and that they are available to help. Our neighbors have stopped me on the street to congratulate me and tell me they're available to help anytime.

I feel so grateful that Louis and I have such a wonderful village around us. Literally, our support stretches from one end of the county to the other. I definitely know we're not alone. I do feel a bit of pressure (from myself) to be really good at this whole mothering thing, so I can fit in among all the other awesome moms I'm surrounded by.

I'm convinced that every bit of this entire process has been helpful to me as a midwife. I thought it was deep work before, but I now see a whole new level. I'm relishing every moment.