Baby Shower Part One: Allentown, PA

So today was the day: my baby shower in Pennsylvania. Anyone who knows my mother-in-law knows how extremely excited she was about throwing this party for us and the massive amount of work she was putting into making this the event of the century. And boy did she deliver. Between the centerpieces and little details, everything was just beautiful.

(Thank you Nicole for the above picture, I would have never even noticed this sweet little message!)

She really knows me well - shower games were at a minimum and were pure competition, just the way I like it. Then, there was the food which was sooooo good followed by the dessert spread of my dreams i.e. a variety of homemade baked goods (Karen's specialties including peanutbutter cup cookie bites, chocolate chip cookies, banana cake, ricotta cookies...) followed by ice cream sundaes atop a chocolate brownie. The painfully full feeling I had after eating two full desserts was totally and completely worth it.

And it was so so so nice to hang out with my NJ family, who I miss all the time now that we aren't so close by anymore + have my mom there too.

As you can tell from these pictures, Karen, my mother-in-law, is the best. Here she is on the right looking baby-shower-perfect:

Karen had been planning this shower for months and months and really, I think the only hiccup in all of it (besides our request that no one actually bring gifts for us TO the shower) was our (or rather, MY) delay in registering. Much of it had to do with not having a free weekend to get to the stores when we were finally ready to go for it, but the majority of the delay was due to my complete inability to face the daunting task of figuring out what we might need for a baby.

This entire pregnancy has been a real process for me, which I really did not expect. The first hurdle came when it was time to tell others that we had a baby on the way. When I had imagined this pre-pregnancy, I thought, "keep the news to ourselves for a whole 3 months? Impossible!" But reality was much different. I found myself paralyzed whenever it came time to reveal the news. It was the craziest thing and the the first time (of what would be many) this pregnancy where I felt out of control of my body. My heart would speed up, I'd find it suddenly hard to breath, get dizzy...it was crazy. When I told Sam, I literally had to brace myself on the counter to hold myself up.

By week 13, Sean was surfing pintrest, talking nursery themes, and throwing out possible names while I pretty much did the equivalent of putting my fingers in my ears and shaking my head so as not to hear any of it. He finally said to me, "Natalie, this is happening, get on board." So that night, I did. I sent an email to a bunch of friends and made some calls and just like that, everyone knew. But it didn't help the feeling to go away. What finally did it was a few days later when I fully felt my entrance into my second trimester. I woke up one morning feeling more like myself than I had in months, with the exhaustion and constant semi-queasy feeling suddenly abated too. And just like that, everything else also became easier. Not just easier, but normal too. I was into thinking about baby names and nursery looks, wondering if it was a boy or girl, and fantasizing about what he or she might be like once she arrived. What a relief.

However, as a mom-to-be my development was still lagging a bit behind. I had JUST gotten comfortable with being pregnant and though it was as if a switch had been turned on in my brain that let me think about things with excitement rather than crazy neuroticism, I was nowhere near prepared to think about things in a realistic manner. Despite this, I did try. I googled things like "Top Baby Registry Items" or "Essential Baby Supplies" and then quickly closed the screens. Have you ever googled anything similar? It is nothing short of terrifying. And I truly believe that that is not an understatement.

Eventually time ran out. We realized my poor, patient mother-in-law needed to get her invites out in order to get a final count to the baby shower venue and the deadline was fast approaching. And so, while bedridden with the stomach flu for the second time in a six week span, I finally faced the beast (it actually might have been helpful that I was so nauseous (holy moly 'nauseous' is seriously the hardest word ever to spell), nothing seemed to distract me from feeling so terrible like researching registry items did, the weirdest stomach flu medicine ever). Since we had been to Babies-R-Us earlier that day I was armed with their list of needed items as well as several suggestions for key items from our friend Kerrene, an expert in my books given that she was about to have her second baby any minute. It was slow going and still terrifying, but less and less so the more I stuck with it. Though, in retrospect, starting with breastfeeding supplies was probably the most terrible idea. Despite throwing the necessary items up on the registry, I still can't even really think about what breastfeeding will entail...

Anyway, it definitely, definitely helped that Sean was with me on this 100% of the way. If you want to know things about baby merchandise, ask Sean Bailey, the baby merch expert. He now takes pride in being able to correctly identify the brand of any random baby stroller that walks by us. And follow up emails from Kerrene were lifesavers too (thank you, Kerrene!!!). Then toss in the beautiful items available at Pottery Barn Kids and suddenly (Karen I'm sure you do not think "suddenly" is the appropriate word from your perspective), we had our baby registries up and running.

Once we had completed the task, I felt so bad that I had made Karen wait so long. That is, until the gifts started arriving within days of the invites going out. Its one thing to hypothetically think about what you might need for a baby, its a whole 'nother to actually have these items in your possession. Had they come any earlier, I am certain it would have sent me into a tailspin. I am so grateful that Karen allowed us the extra time, it ultimately resulted in my absolute excitement and glee every time a new box arrived rather than anxiety and fear. I felt like I had reached a new developmental milestone in my process of becoming a mother at just the right moment.

It was a long, unexpected road to get to this point but having traveled it, its only made me all that more grateful and appreciative for the excitement and happiness that I now feel daily. It was a wonderful day today celebrating all of this and getting to thank all of our wonderful (American) family and friends in-person for their generosity. We are so very blessed. I truly love love love each and every gift and can't wait to use it all SO soon (3.5 more months ahhhh!!! SO EXCITING). Thank you Karen for such a great day, you are absolutely amazing and the very best mother-in-law a girl could ask for, xoxo.