Family Baby Shower

What an exhausting yet fun day! Who knew socializing and opening presents could be such hard work?

The Guests:

Since this was our "family" shower I had left the invites up to my step-mother and aunt. I had NO idea who was going to be there. It ended up being a pretty good turn out. There were some family friends that I've known since I was a kid, family I didn't recognize, my grandmothers neighbor (that was weird) and oddly enough, my second grade teacher! My mother's younger sister was also there with 2 of her 3 daughters (more on that later) as were all of my aunts and cousins from my dad's side. Only a couple of people couldn't make it due to illness.

The Cake:

The cake ended up being one of the highlights of my day. I don't think I've ever said anything to my stepmother about Cake Wrecks but I get a good kick out of that blog. So much so that I want to recreate one of their cakes for our "friend" shower. No, I did not get a creepy fondant baby cake like my cousin, what I got was the following:

My step-mother's inspiration would have been the following picture. You may recognize the uncensored version from on here however when I posted on Facebook I blocked out Sadie's name since we are not telling friends. One of my least creative moments captured as a memory forever!

The Presents:

The present opening took up most of the afternoon because I was very slow. I prefer to be the gift giver than the receiver. The spot light was on and I felt the pressure!

As you know I had been stalking my registry. I was surprised to find out that the first three items were purchased all by my Aunt (mom's sister). Her present was insane and over the top and included 32 pieces of clothing (undershirts, onesies, pants and night gowns). I feel prepared now!

We didn't get a lot of big ticket items although we did receive our stroller! I went back to my list of essentials and I'm far from worried. We've already purchased most of what we need and the only expensive item left is the car seat. We're likely going to go with Plan B and buy the convertible version rather than an infant carrier. We'll also see what happens after our friend's shower! Regardless, we were spoiled:

The Missing Guest:

As I had mentioned above, my Aunt came with 2 of her 3 daughters and that is because my cousin had her baby the day before on November 7th (EDD November 21st). She had a boy! I had originally told my entire family our name because I was worried that she was due first and didn't know what she was having. Needless to say we would have had no worries because we would never have come up with the name they chose!! His middle name, however, brought me to tears. My cousin gave him our maternal grandfathers name the same as we are doing for Sadie by using our grandmothers. That means that the first 2 great grandchildren, a boy and a girl, will honor our grandparents. The fact that we have both done this is a testament to how important they were in all of our lives. I miss them both so much!!!!!!

Rant.

First, we had our baby shower this weekend and it was wonderful. I’m going to write up a post about that (with pictures) tomorrow.
Today, I’ve decided to write a brief rant about my MIL and how she almost ruined it.
In summary, without getting too wound up, my MIL prioritized a televised football game ahead of our baby shower.
Apparently she had “promised” our 4 year old nephew she’d watch the football game with him and “forgot” about our baby shower being at the same time. Her plan was to stop by and leave before the game started which is exactly what she did. She stayed for 45 minutes and then called a cab. She didn’t eat or even see us open presents and as she left she apologised to me by saying “you know how it is when you promise someone something”. Hmmm… Like when you RSVP to your daughter’s baby shower when you receive an invitation 3 weeks in advance?
When we got home we had a sarcastic FACEBOOK message from her mom waiting for us. Something about it being ironic that we’re naming our child after a woman (D’s grandmother) who put her grandchildren above everyone else and yet we’re begrudging her for doing exactly the same.
Clearly she has very poor judgement. D was left without any family at the shower. We expect this kind of shit from my mother, not hers.
How disappointing.

TGIF

I called in sick today and I worked from home yesterday. Guilt. I'm just so tired and my stomach has not been my friend, I napped all day today. I'll need ALL of the energy I can get because we have 2 big tasks to accomplish this weekend. We have our first prenatal meeting with our Doula and we have our family baby shower. That means I'll be very busy since I'm normally very lazy!

As far a the shower goes....I've continued to stalk our registry. Not much has happened over the last 2 weeks. In fact it has only been the last two days that new items have been purchased. Ironically one of the two new items purchased was the garish pink bouncer chair that hadn't existed until I added it based on everyones feedback on this post. I know now that we should have stayed a bit more "gender neutral" for use in the future however it's only a small garishly pink purchase that can be sold on Craigslist if #2 is a boy. Go PINK!!!

Have a good weekend!!

And Congrats goes out to S. & R. at An Offering of Love who welcomed their baby girl yesterday!!!

8 months!!

I can't believe we're 8 months! We've come a long way... Here is my 8 month Belly shot - I'm getting BIG:

I still haven't grown my pregnancy boobies. When is that going to happen? I thought that was one of the "perks"! Also, no face shot this time because I'm a bit of a train wreck. They say that a girl "steals your beauty" and if that's true Sadie will be GORGEOUS.

In other news, D and I worked on a little project this weekend. We were lucky to find receiving blankets in the same pattern as our Changing Pad and decided to use one to upholster the top of Sadie's toy box.

Here is a before shot of the box. We used to have this in our closet as storage. It was in pretty rough shape with scratches and also had sharp corners.
Here is what it looks like now:

We bought a staple gun for the job and I am now in love with it. There's nothing like a pregnant woman armed with a staple gun. It's a good stress reliever.

Sadie's room continues to slowly come together. We STILL haven't picked up the crib. Our plan is to have my father drive in with his truck to get it so we can save the $100 shipping fee. We've also ordered our Glider and he'll pick that up as well. We have our shelves and need to put them up. Maybe I can get my dad to do that too! I am hoping that by the first weekend in December we'll be done and completely ready. We'll have had both of our baby showers (the first is this weekend) and everything should be here by then based on our plan. I hope I'm not leaving things too late!!

Biophysical Profile

Our BPP went well. It turned out to be a very simple scan that lasted about 20 minutes. The Sonographer said that Sadie performed well and made her job very easy.

Our little girl, who we very clearly saw is still ALL girl, was measuring 33 weeks 2 days and weighed 4lbs 13 oz. Holy cow, 3oz away from 5lbs at 32 weeks? I certainly felt good about that since there was some concern with my weight gain (lack of) plus the added risk of my high blood pressure that can cause poor growth. Apparently that's not the case! We also saw her LONG leg bones. Looks like she's going to be taking after her 6'1 donor and not her 5'2 Momma.

The most surprising thing? She has HAIR. Yes, we saw HAIR!! I had imagined she'd have very little to no hair at all considering that's how I was born. I'm so fair. It took a REALLY long time to grow anything significant on my head!

My following OB appointment was quick yet still over 45 minutes delayed. I've gained .5 kg since my last appointment 2 weeks ago and my BP is excellent. I was able to get my H1N1 vaccine from them and it took all of 3 minutes. I was also given a prescription for Tamiflu "just in case". I'm so happy to have it done but at the same time I'm nervous too. I wasn't able to get the adjuvant-free version of the vaccine however pregnant women are now being told that both versions are equally safe. This was one of those times when I've had to let go and trust others. Along with the paperwork for my shot I agreed to be enrolled in a study of the effects on pregnancy. That's a bit nerve wracking in itself but if it helps someone else in the future make the same decision we've been faced with now, it's worth it.

After our appointment we stopped by the mall so we could be conned by Baby Gap. I say this because D wanted to go for the new Stella McCartney line but when we got there it was not out yet, they indicated it started on the 3rd. According to their website it was to launch on the 2nd. Instead we ended up spending $50 on clothing from their sale rack and D will go back today ALONE and will likely spend much more because I will not be there!

Anyway, I LOVE their current Himalaya collection and we found a lot of it on sale. We found things that we bought last week, that we have already removed the tags and washed, that were on sale for 30% less this week. So annoying!!! Stella McCartney or not, I still would have spent that $50. Gotta love rainbow elephants!

Our last stop of the day was to get D her H1N1 vaccine. She has asthma so she is in the "high risk" category as well. We were able to book appointments with our family doctor in the morning. I had booked one too but cancelled it when I found out I could have mine at my OB appointment. Everything worked out perfectly. Our plan was always to get the vaccine today but we thought that D would have to be held up in a line and miss our ultrasound. That wasn't the case!!

It is now 3:45 am. I guess I should be going back to bed!! YAWN.

Random Thoughts

H1N1:

The shit has really hit the fan in Toronto and I doubt I'll be getting my vaccine any time soon. I found this comment on The Star's website and it sums up what has happened PERFECTLY:

How to organize disaster: Step 1 - create a panic and convince people to get vaccinated, Step 2 - open 2 clinics for 4 million people, step 3 - make sure clinics are only open when people are working and kids are at school, step 4 - organize lineups outside in the rain, ensure there are no seats for pregnant women, step 5 - refuse to indulge in even the most rudimentary event planning techniques (e.g. handing out numbers) and step 6 - make sure you don't have enough vaccine to inoculate all the people you guilted into coming. Public sector bureaucratic incompetence at its absolute finest.

Essentials List:

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback! Extra Thank-you to Stacey who provided A LOT of valuable info. We have a lot to consider.

Baby Shampoo:

Stacey pointed out that Johnson & Johnson may not be the best products (although I love them for myself). This reminded me of my CRAZIER than I am co-worker who tested which tear free shampoo hurt your eyes the least. I'm not joking. She bought all of the different brands she could find and washed her face with them and PURPOSELY got some in her eyes. The result? AVEENO was the winner.

Gender Stereotyping:

During our prenatal class D and I discovered that we may actually be bad lesbians for liking PINK. Everyone there seemed to be dressing their kids in black onesies and were trying to avoid gender stereotyping. Um... I think D and I may be promoting it. Check out the cool bouncer I added to the registry!

Guilty as charged. I love garishly pink things!!


Stroller:
My step-mom called last night and they bought us our stroller! YAY! She said she'd wanted it to be a surprise but they only had 2 colours left (green or silver/grey). We opted for the silver/grey colour becuase the green would more accurately be described as "nuclear waste yellow". Our classmates would be proud. There isn't a hint of pink



Weekend:
TGIF!!! I'm off on Monday for my Biophysical Profile and OB appointment....!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Please forgive my purplish/pink skin tone!!!

$2791.43!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the grand total of items on our registry and that does not include our stroller, glider or taxes. We seriously need to take a look at what we’ve put on there since we will be VERY LUCKY to get 1/4 of it. What do we actually NEED? How many of those items are WANTS?

Forgive me, but this is going to be LONG. Here is a list of Baby Essentials (link is HERE ), it’s from Playtex. Items in PURPLE, we’ve purchased or plan on purchasing on our own. Items in GREEN are on our registry. Items in RED are up in the air – do we NEED these? Items in ORANGE we do not yet have. For the registry items I’ve put the COST associated to determine just how much we’ll need to spend to cover the essentials.

Nursery:
Crib – GOT IT
Crib Mattress & Liner – GOT IT (both Mattress but only the Liner for the Mini crib)
Bassinet – GOT IT Stokke Mini Crib
Bedding/Blankets – GOT IT 2 fitted sheets (1 blue, 1 pink).
Changing Table/Pad – GOT IT
Hamper – NEED IT
Glider – NEED IT (Step-Mom is currently striking a deal for one at cost, FX) $299.00
Mobile – Not sure if this is a WANT or a NEED? $69.99

Feeding:
Small Bottles – GOT IT
Large Bottles – GOT IT
Nipples – GOT IT
Pacifiers – GOT IT
Bottle Brush – GOT IT
Breast Pump – NEED IT $64.99 (Manual - Medela Harmony)
Nursing Pillow – GOT IT/WANT IT (we have our Boppy pillow but I want THIS one as well)
Nursing Pads – NEED IT
Nipple Relief – NEED IT

Diapering:
Diapers – NEED IT $21.99 x 2
Baby Wipes – NEED IT $14.99
Baby Powder – I thought you shouldn’t use this anymore?
Diaper Rash Ointment/Cream – NEED IT
Diaper Disposal System – GOT IT

Safety:
Nursery Monitory – NEED IT $149.99 (Angelcare Movement and Sound Monitor)

Bathing:
Plastic Infant Tub – NEED IT $39.99 (could go cheaper if not purchased for us)
Towels & Wash Clothes – GOT IT
Hooded Towel – GOT IT
Brush and Comb – NEED IT $19.99 (Safety 1st 12 Piece all in one kit)
Baby Wash and Lotion – NEED IT $20.99 (J&J Bathtime Essentials)

Health
Medicine Dispenser – NEED IT $0 (Safety 1st 12 Piece all in one kit)
Thermometer – NEED IT $0 (Safety 1st 12 Piece all in one kit)
Nasal Aspirator – GOT IT
Nail Clippers – NEED IT $0 (Safety 1st 12 Piece all in one kit)
Humidifier – GOT IT

Travel:
Newborn Baby Carrier (Infant Car seat?) – WANT IT $299 (Peg Perego Primo Viaggio - Black Tie)
Car Seat – NEED IT $369.99 (Britax Boulevard)
Stroller – NEED IT $499 (Peg Perego Pliko Switch)
Diaper Bag – GOT IT
Hand & Face Wipes – Aren’t these the same as baby wipes?

Toys and Activities:
Bouncer Seat – Wasn’t planning on buying one. Is this necessary?
Stroller, Crib, Car seat toys – NEED IT $214.90 (Clearly this is an area where we can cut back!!!)
Swing – GOT IT (Plan on exchanging THIS for THIS since we’ve changed our minds since we bought it)
Gym or Playmat – WANT IT $74.97
Jumper or Stationary Entertainment – Wasn’t planning on buying one. Is this necessary?

Total left to purchase: $1797.49 (Includes the Stroller and Glider that were not on our Registry approx. value of $700)
In summary: I have $1693.94 more on my registry than we apparently NEED. I can't figure this out!!! WTH have we asked for that is so unnecessary??? This stuff really adds up but at least we'll now have a better idea of what we need to return/purchase or exchange to make up the essentials list.

NOTE to D: Stella McCartney for Baby Gap is not on the Essentials list. (;