Baby Showers

I was going to post about this last week, but then Blogger went down and ate my posts...and today I see they are back.  Anyway, I was hesitant to type another one with much substance.  But things seem to be back to normal now, so I think I am safe enough.

A couple of weeks ago, I packed up and headed to Georgia for a couple of baby showers.  This was my first time back in Georgia since we moved to Michigan in January and the first time I saw my family since the move as well.  Combine all of that with the fact that I was finally attending my OWN baby showers.  Needless to say, it was an emotional weekend.

Let's start off with the travel - I had a direct flight booked to head from Grand Rapids to Atlanta at 6:30 in the morning on Thursday April 28th.  Since it takes 2 1/2 hours to get to the airport from my house, I stayed at my in-laws the night before.  When I got up at 3 am to get ready for my trip, I found out that my direct flight had been cancelled and I had been booked on a later flight that had a layover in Detroit.  When I realized that the cancellation was due to terrible tornadoes in the area, I worried about my family and friends.  And I also worried that I would be stranded in Detroit.  After several hours spent in the airport, I finally made it to Georgia with very swollen calves, ankles, and feet.  Luckily, the trip home was uneventful.  It did take me several days to recover from the travels, both physically and emotionally.  Being back with my family and friends made me miss them so much more.  It was really a tough couple of days when I returned.

A few thoughts on having a baby shower - it was almost surreal to be the pregnant woman opening up gifts and being showered with love.  I had waited so long for it to be my turn and it was marvelous to have finally reached that point.  For the most part, I am extremely happy with how the showers went.  Even though I had fretted over it for the weeks prior to the showers, most people paid attention to the request to only bring items I could fit in my suitcase to the shower.  Gift cards, small books and baby clothes were the most popular gifts we received.

My first shower was on Saturday and was for friends from work and from the area I lived in.  I am sad to admit that I was late for my own shower - but we had almost a 2 hour drive to get there and I thought the shower started at 10:30 - it really started at 10.  Anyway...The turnout wasn't as good as it could have been due to a few conflicting events, but I was still super happy to see the people who were there.  My friend (and fellow pregnant IFer and blogger) Melissa drove up from Florida to see me and to come to my shower - and wrote the most touching sentiments in a copy of "I Love You Forever".  Thanks Melissa!!!

My second shower was on Sunday and was for friends from my hometown and family.  This one was organized by my Mom and she really outdid herself.  The turnout for this shower was even better than I had expected.  Since the previous weekend was Easter, I thought that most of my family who had come up for Easter wouldn't return the next weekend for the shower.  But, surprisingly, a lot of them did.  My best friend came to that shower and my college roommate as well.

Overall, we got a lot of great gifts and a good amount of money towards all of the things you need when you have a baby.

Since the showers, I have been working on writing all of my thank you notes and getting those in the mail.  I still have quite a few to go and I have to make some more thank you notes before I can make much more progress.  (Yes, I made my own thank you cards)

Right after returning home from the showers, I began feeling very stressed about the fact that there were 10 weeks left until my due date and we hadn't really started preparing for Carder's arrival.  There has been quite a bit of shopping and quite a bit of progress in that area, but it deserves it's own post.

I have several pictures from the shower I wanted to share, but I haven't downloaded them to the computer yet and waiting for that to happen would delay this post even further...


And finally, because this is my blog - my place to speak what is on my mind and heart:

Having a baby shower after suffering through infertility and distancing yourself from your friends tells you who your true friends really are.  I am 150% thankful for the friends that stuck by me throughout the process or who were there to step back in when I opened myself back up.
At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful biatch, I am going to say what I think didn't turn out so great about the showers.  I spent 6 years suffering through other people's baby showers.  Not only did I spend a good chunk of money, I suffered through hours and hours of heartache and I cried countless tears as I shopped for a gift for their baby at Babies-R-Us.  And in some cases, I was even the person that hosted the baby showers that I had to suffer through.  6 years.  6 long heartbreaking years. 

AND I have always been open about our struggles to conceive, so these friends that were invited to my showers KNEW that this was an absolutely joyous occasion for us.  And they KNEW how long and hard this journey has been for us.  And I know that some of these people had a good reason to miss my shower.  But others didn't have a good reason not to be there.  And the fact that these people didn't show up or at least send a gift really hurt my feelings.  And here are the ones that hurt the most:

I have a "friend" who has 2 children that I showered with love and affection, I gave her baby gifts.  I bought birthday and Christmas presents.  She didn't show up to the shower because she had to "take the kids to ballgames" even though her mother in law lives next door and could have helped her out.  Granted, I did distance myself those last few years - she didn't know how to talk to me anymore and always told me we must be doing something wrong in the TTC arena because she got pregnant when her husband just looked at her.  She didn't come to my shower and she didn't even send a gift.

I have someone who worked for me who lapped me TWICE while we were trying to have a baby.  You may remember when I posted about how she broke the news of her second pregnancy to me by saying the "Turkey Baster Worked" when she and her husband NEVER pursued infertility treatments.  Regardless, I threw her a baby shower for her first baby.  I spent $75.00 on a gift for her.  And even though I did all of that, she didn't even have the decency to send a card to my shower with a gift card for $10.00.  There is a part of me who wants to send her a letter to tell her just what I think of her.

There are several more that stung - but these are probably the two that hurt or have pissed me off the worst.  I am just trying to focus on the fact that this journey has shown me who my true friends really are.