Wow! What a weekend! Here is the 30-week update: “Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)”
So Kiddo is growing and moving and grooving in my ever-growing belly. He and I decided that we would road-trip to the Cities this weekend in order to celebrate my friend Steph’s bachelorette party. The drive to Minneapolis was LONG and ROUGH on us both. It started out fine, but right at the border of Minnesota, the sky got pretty dark and we were suddenly slammed by rain. Now, I’m no stranger to driving in the rain, but being pregnant and alone in THIS rain was not a great time. I actually turned my flashers on so that other people could see me because it was such an intense storm. I ended up calling Rislow to see if there was something worse that I was driving through and whether or not I should pull over. It turns out, it was just an intense Severe Thunderstorm Warning, but man, Kiddo and I had the stress meter pegged! After the storm blew over, we got caught up in construction traffic, which meant 45 minutes of creeping along at about 2 MPH. We only drove about 10 miles, but it took FOREVER, and of course, people were stupid. There were two trucks that must have been traveling together because they were in the right lane and one kept pulling up beside the other on the shoulder and they’d sit and talk, which pissed off the semi-driver behind them. I also kept creeping past and being passed by a Doritos truck. If we hadn’t picked up speed, I may have rolled down my window to see if I could get some from him for a couple of quarters.
Finally, I arrived at Rizzy’s house. We sat down with her hubs to eat yummy supper (pasta and garlic bread with double fudge brownies…om nom nom!) and then she and I decided to take advantage of our collective energy by popping my IKEA cherry. That place is AWESOME! I loved walking through the showrooms and imagining them being in my house. I wish someone would build one down here in DSM! After we stopped at IKEA, we ran to Babies R Us too! It was SO great to spend time with someone else who is pregnant and just share the prego chatter with one another. None of my other close friends are pregnant, so it’s nice to converse with someone else who is going through it.
I was trying to get it all out of my system so that Saturday onward could be about Steph and her impending nuptials and I seriously thought that would be the end of our “I’m having a baby” conversations, but little did I know that the “Bachelorette Brunch” the next morning was really a “Valerie’s going to shat a kid” food, game, and gift expo! My AMAZING, STUNNING, PHENOMENAL friends threw me a baby shower at Kathryn’s place! At first, when I walked in and they yelled “surprise!” I didn’t get it. I was trying to process what the surprise was because I saw Steph standing there and I was under the impression that she knew we were having a brunch for her. It took me about 90 seconds before it started to dawn on me that I was the one who was being surprised. Kathryn actually came over and said, “It’s a baby shower” before it really clicked! I felt bad because I’m not sure that my level of appreciation registered since I seriously was 145% surprised. I was kind of overwhelmed! Apparently, my husband even knew about it and hadn’t let the cat out of the bag!
Oh man the food was good! Real bacon, two different kinds of quiche (I ate both and YES they contained veggies!), crackers and bread, fruit salad, and Anni made this yummy cake/pie thing with blueberries. Oh, and “frost-your-own-cookie” time with baby buggies, bottles, and onesies! I officially gorged myself and was able to sate my craving for breakfast food (quell really, not sate because you can never have enough breakfast…) Then, we played games. We played a matching game where we had to pair up the celebrity name with the name of their child. There are some MESSED-UP names out there, seriously. Then we played guess what is in the diaper? Rizzy burned herself melting one of the chocolate bars for it too! Leave it to my friends to find a way to make a baby shower dirty also. Our final game was “pin the sperm on the egg,” a game FAR TOO OUT THERE for my family shower, but amazing when played with my girlies. We did gifts next and Kiddo got some amazing goodies! I won’t do it all justice, but here is what I am recalling imperfectly at this time:
· Auntie Kimball got Kiddo his first bathtub, a Puj tub!
· Auntie Steph got Kiddo some cloth diapers, detergent to wash them in, a Dr. Seuss book, and knitted him a little blanket.
· Auntie Rislow made Kiddo a beautiful blue and brown fleece blanket with little taggies on one side to play with during tummy time later. I have some seriously talented friends!
· Auntie Kathryn got Kiddo a cute onesie and MOMMY gets her hair done for Steph’s wedding (woot!)
· Auntie Gab got Kiddo a really cool squishy book that has black and white patterns in it (develop those eyes) but it really meant to hold pictures of the family (I’m already planning which ones to put in and show Kiddo in the hospital) and Bear in Underwear book which is hilarious!
· Auntie Anni got Kiddo/Mommy the Lego Knight Bus we registered for! Awesomeness! I had to refrain from constructing it on-sight.
I got so much I may have missed something! I’ll have to post pictures of all the good times when I get around to it. It was so great to just hang out with everyone! After gifts, we decorated onesies for Kiddo to wear later on. Gab made him an “I’m a Boy” onesie with pink writing. Anni made a “heart breaker” onesie. Steph made him a Halloween onesie. Kathryn made him an “I still live with my parents” onesie and Rislow made him a cute one that has a tree on it after we saw some adorable forest onesies at Babie R U the night before. I made him a “my dad’s a geek” onesie based off the one I liked from Target.com and put Pac-Man on it! I seriously can’t wait to dress my kid, and bathe him and change his poopy pants, and play with him and build Lego forts, and read with him, and, and, and…
Later, after nap time, it was time to party with Stephster! We started by going to this place called Charming Charlie’s. It is essentially “Claire’s on crack!” Everything was organized by color and even though it was Type-A heaven, it was overwhelming. We all found cute to either wear out that night or to wear to Mockster’s wedding. I got a fun bracelet and a headband. Then we went to Barrio and ate AMAZING Mexican food! It was served tapas style too, which made it fun, yet awkward when most of us had eaten and Gab was still waiting. I got a yummy blood orange soda-esc beverage to drink. We went back to the hotel to open gifts with Steph. She got some awesomely funny bachelorette schwag! I loved the hat they made for her to wear: a black top hat with red veil! We started the night at a sportsbar in the Timberwolves’ arena where Kathryn, master that she is, negotiated free drinks for us. Then we tried to get into Sneaky Pete’s but whether it was a line or a random blob, there were too many people outside to deal with, so we headed for Bootleggers. Again, Kathryn negotiated for us and a $5.00 cover became $0! It was so warm inside though. Rislow and I looked at each other and at our prego-bellies and just kind of shook our heads. I wanted so badly to stick it out, but I started sweating the moment I walked into the bar and upstairs seemed even warmer than it did outside. After a lot of debate and downing a glass of water, she and I both decided that we needed to leave before we got too overwhelmed and light-headed. I felt like such a loser, but I know that if I had stayed, I would have been a sweaty Debbie-Downer and I wanted the night to be about Steph, not about the prego-chick who may pass out soon. The maid-of-honor ended up leaving with Rizzy and me, too.
Back at the hotel, Rizzy took off to sleep in her own bed, freeing up a place for someone else to crash in the GIANT bed with me. I helped Patti set up the room as best we could for the other girls for the night and then she took a shower while I started to crash. I debated trying to stay up and wait for them, but I had to get on the road fairly early in the morning, so I thought sleeping a bit would be best. I heard them come back and I think I may have been wickedly disoriented and glared at them (sorry ladies, I was so out of it). I was wide-awake at 5:30AM too (damn insomnia and internal clock/schedule stuff). I tried to make myself go back to sleep until at least 8:30, but it didn’t work. Finally, at 7:30, I couldn’t just hang around anymore and I had to leave at about 8:30 anyway so I could get home and rest before our prenatal class, so I packed as quietly as I could, left a note, and hit the road (after having to wake up Gab so I could actually exit the room; sorry Gab). I didn't even stick around long enough to eat breakfast with Emily, which kinda sucked because there was a plan for some yummy cheesy-hashbrowns, but I figured that 7:30 was probably too early to call her and Eddie. Whoops!
Sometimes, I feel like such a loser. I reacted poorly to the shower, then I crapped out of clubbing, got my glare on when the girls came back, and left before anyone woke up. That’s Loserville right there. Still, I wouldn’t have traded the time I did have with everyone for anything in the world. I love my friends so much. I really wish we lived closer so I could see them more often. I’m coming to the realization that once I have Kiddo, it’s going to be a lot harder (at least at first) to go hang out for a weekend in the Cities with the coolest women I know. Life is about to get a major shove into serious and I worry how it will affect not only Aaron and I, but the friends and relationships I hold so dearly. Hopefully, once Kiddo is a bit older though, I can leave him with Daddy while Mommy goes and gets crazy with her besties! By that time, Rizzy will have had her Kidlet and will likely need to let her hair down too!
It did feel good to come home though. Aaron made us a yummy quiche for dinner and we headed off to class where he first made fun of me for packing too much, then cracked his fingers on my back while he rubbed it and chewed his gum right into the top of my head while we practiced “slow dancing” through contractions. The back rub was worth it though. The instructor gave up another funny one-liner by explaining that the bathtubs in the birthing suites are like “being in Sprite, only warn” because of all the bubbles. We had to try out different positions in which we could labor and practiced breathing like we were having contractions (essentially, just deep breathing but staying focused for the length of time we can envision a contraction lasting). At one point, I was standing up, leaning forward over a birthing ball while Aaron stood beside me, then behind me rubbing my back and all I could think about was how inappropriate it would be to let go of the fart I was holding in. Aaron and I both had the giggles in class last night. It’s funny how there were only about six couples there last night and we all hid in the back, as if moving front and center would cause us to contract a communicable disease or another kid. Next week, we’re going to “see an epidural” and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ve already made up my mind to go for as long as I can without the meds and then get the freaking needle of gargantuan size shoved into my back, but I don’t know. I guess I feel like showing me the needle is one way of trying to convince me not to do it, and I already am wrestling with it enough because I know that it introduces other issues, like requiring me to lay in the bed instead of being able to move around and may cause me to SUCK at pushing. Anywho, week four is when we’re supposed to witness the whole shebang, which again I’m not sure how I feel about. I didn’t take the classes to get the poo scared out of me, but to be informed about what to expect; I don’t know that I need/want to be that informed. We’ll just have to see; maybe it won’t freak me out as much as I anticipate it will.
I’d better go get some work done on Kiddo’s room. I have coins to paint, thank you notes to finish, yoga to do, a walk to go for, and daycare centers to call. Uff-dah! TTFN readers!
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