Week 34: Officially popped

Nothing exciting happened between week 32 and 34 but my belly really started to pop! I guess it was good I finally told the rest of the people I work with because I'm sure they were starting to get suspicious. A few of the ladies who work on my floor wanted to throw me a baby shower but I told them I would rather just go to lunch to celebrate the pending arrival of my little one. So we went to Nada for lunch. I was surprised with a card that was signed by the entire floor and a gift card to buy buy baby which was very nice! 

We had our prenatal appointment with the doulas we chose to hire for the birth. We chose to work with Doulas of Cincinnati and with the Katie and JoEllen team where they share call and alternate every other week so we wouldn't know who would be coming to our birth until I go into labor. It was great to meet JoEllen as she had just joined the Doulas of Cincinnati team. We chatted about the birth wishes /plan we had in mind and how we wanted a doula to assist in the birth. 

Week 32: The Baby Shower

This weeks big event was my baby shower. I honestly debated over and over whether a baby shower was something I wanted or not. I was scared to have a day to celebrate my little bundle of joy as I was worried about the terrible what ifs of the future. (Remember I've had several friends who have lost their children - and my history didn't help either) But I knew if I didn't I would always regret it. (FOMO started to kick in) So in order to make having a shower easy to invite all friends and family I requested my mother and sister to host. This way I was having only one shower vs three I had for bridal showers which was exhausting. 

The shower was great. About 35-40 women came to shower the little one to be with love. My mom, sister, and a few of my aunts helped to pull together a great afternoon. My favorite go to meal was served, homemade chipotle/taco bar along with snacks and my favorite special treat gluten free cupcakes. The shower didn't really have a theme as no one knew the gender and I'm not a theme person since the nursery didn't have a theme instead more of a color scheme and an underlying tone regarding Disney quotes. 

I made my husband come to the shower to help open gifts. I told him this child was half his and he was going to want to know what we got anyhow he might as well be there to know right away. With that many people at the shower the gift opening felt like an eternity but I know we had to have been pretty fast since the shower didn't last too long. It started at noon, we ate food, played one game after introducing ourselves, and then we were well on our way to openings gifts. Most people were gone by 3pm. We were very thankful to have so many friends and family who were just as excited as we were to be welcoming a baby into the world.