My baby shower – July 26, 2009

| July 28, 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009 was my baby shower.  It was so much fun!  I cannot believe how lucky we are to have such wonderful family and friends. We got so many gifts!   Sam is going to be the best dressed girl ever : )  Thank you so much to everyone for being so kind, so thoughtful, and so incredibly generous.  Mark and I were overwhelmed by everyone’s good wishes.  It was truly unexpected how generous everyone was to us and baby Sam.  And a big thank you to our family for putting on such a beautiful day for our benefit.  We knew that we were anxiously awaiting our little girl, but it seems everyone else is too!

My shower had a rubber ducky theme (I have a million of them in my bathroom and think they are too cute).  My Aunt Barbara and cousin Terry from Texas flew in to join us, which was really special. 

A few of my gifts that you won’t see in these photos are definitely worth mentioning.  Grandmom and Grandpop Myers bought our little girl her crib and Grandmom and Grandpop Ricciotti bought us our glider so that we can spend many, many hours rocking Sam while feeding her and then trying desperately to get her to fall asleep!  Thank you so much for being so wonderful to Mark and I every single day, not just while we are expecting our little one.  We couldn’t do it without you.

Here are some photos of my day, with some commentary.

Obviously, here is my cake.  It was made by (it my opinion, master cake baker) Judy Maloney who at work we affectionately call, “The Cake Lady” . Our office administrator found her and we are all addicted to her cake. It was so delicious, half chocolate and half vanilla.  If you are interested, please visit her website at http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4mhtm/judymaloney/id4.html as her cakes are so yummy!

My ducky cake

My billions of presents!  I seriously cannot believe how many we got. It took me over 2 hours to open them all, I was told.

Our billions of presents!

Just starting to open them all….

Me opening some of my gifts

These are some wooden puzzles that were handmade by Mark’s dad, Rich.  He is quite the woodworker, and a few years ago when he started making puzzles for his other grandchildren, Analiece and Joseph, we told him he had to make some cat puzzles for us when we had a child.  They are so adorable, and so well made. I know Sam will enjoy playing with them (Mark and I will too!)

Me and the cat puzzles

These are some custom made onesies that Mark’s mom, Sandi, had made for Sam.  Every year in November the whole family gets together to carry on a tradition of Mark’s grandmom, Mary — making hundreds of homemade raviolis for Christmas dinner.  It is so much work, but we all have such a blast making them every year.  It takes us all day, and we are covered in flour and exhausted, but it is so worth it.  We spend as much time talking and laughing as we do cooking.  I can’t wait until this year when Sam and her new cousin Maddox can be there too.  The other onesie, about Ella Fitzgerald, means the world to me and Mark too, since she is our favorite singer of standards.  I know she will be Sam’s. We plan on playing a lot of Ella for her (and we’ve already started!)

Me and the custom onesies

Me and a bunch of my guests.  My dear friend, Debbi, who was maid of honor at our wedding, is right next to me, keeping track of my gifts.

A few of my guests watching me open gifts

Aunt Barbara’s husband, Richard, picked out this outfit for Sam.  He is a native Texan, not a transplant like the rest of my family, so he wanted to make sure she was dressed appropriately!  Don’t mess with Texas, and no one better mess with our Sammy!

Me and Sam's cowgirl onesie

In keeping with the ducky theme, I received a lot of ducky clothes. This robe is one of my faves, and it is from my mom. I just love baby robes!

Me and the ducky robe

Me, my mom, and my Aunt Barbara enjoying the fresh air and sunshine before the shower.  It was so nice that she was able to come and share the day with me.

Me, Mom and Aunt Barbara

Me, Mark and Grandmom Sandi

Me, Mark, and Sandi

Me and the proud Grandmas.  From this picture, does anyone think I am going to be able to wrestle my little girl away from them?  Yeah, me neither.

Me, Mom and Sandi

Me and my cousin Terry who also was sweet enough to fly in just for my shower.

Me and my cousin Terry

Me and some of my work friends, Nerine (who is holding honorary Anapolette, Sekai) and Amber.

Me, Nerine, Sekai and Amber

Me and my friend, Debbi with the outfit her kitties, Elaine and Jerry, picked out for Sam!  It’s a doggie coat, not a kitty coat, but they couldn’t find a kitty.  Regardless, they are so thoughtful!

Me and Debbi

Thank you, thank you, thank you again to everyone!

Oh, boy…what have we gotten into?

| July 25, 2009

Well, we attended our childbirth class today.  It went surprisingly well considering we had no idea what to expect.  There were probably about 10 couples there besides us, and for a while it looked like a baby girl convention!  We were asked to introduce ourselves, and to state, among other things, whether we were having a boy or a girl, if we knew. I think the first 5 couples were having girls!  But then it evened out and a bunch of boys were announced.  I think only one couple didn’t know what they were having.  A few couples were due the day after Sam, but no one shared her due date.

For such a marathon day at the hospital, we DID learn a lot.  So…what did we learn?  Well, I learned about the many stages of labor and h0w long they generally last, and how much they generally hurt, for one thing.  But then the next section was about all of the pain relief options available to me : )  I still think I am going to see how it goes as far as au naturel, but the epidural is definitely an option! I am not crazy!  We also learned the relaxation techniques that are supposed to help you focus and get through your contractions…hmmm….we’ll see.

We watched the childbirth video, which they kindly played immediately before lunch, which Mark and I thought was pretty funny.  It wasn’t that bad (I think I’ve seen worse on TLC).  I have to admit I did start to tear up when the baby was actually delivered.  There is something so amazing about a baby being born no matter whose baby it is.

The last and probably the most important thing we learned is that if your birth coach (i.e. Mark) faints at any time and hits the floor from seeing anything, hospital policy is that he MUST be taken to the ER for a concussion workup.  So….our instructor kindly let us know that, please, guys, if you are going to keel over, please sit in a chair, or your wife may be very angry that you are being carted off when she is in labor!

Sam’s first bed

| July 22, 2009

A while ago I promised pictures of the bassinet that Sam will be sleeping in for a little while.  As you may recall from my earlier post, Mark’s maternal grandfather, Flavion, built a bassinet for Mark to sleep in when he was born.  Flavion built a lot of beautiful things, and we have a few of those pieces in our home (including the record cabinet that houses all of the records in Sam’s Soundtrack), but we think this is one of the most special.  Not only did Mark sleep there, but so did Maria and Krista.  Now a whole new generation of Myers munchkin will get to sleep there too : ) 

I was never able to meet Flavion, as he passed away quite a long time ago, but Mark talks about him frequently so sometimes I feel like I know him.  And now Sam will, in this way, know her great-grandpop too.  All of the music that Mark plays for Sam is in large part due to his grandfather as well, as he shared Mark’s love of music and I think helped to foster this appreciation in Mark.

Here are some photos of the bassinet. Mark and I can’t believe how great it looks after over 35 years.

bassinet1

bassinet2

And here are some photos of Mark in the bassinet.  Wasn’t he a little cutie?

mark-in-bassinet1

mark-in-bassinet2

More tunes for Sam

| July 22, 2009

We’ve been pretty busy lately getting ready for the shower but have found time to play some new music for Sam. I finally got around to playing an album for her from my favorite band Morphine,  “Cure for Pain.” Recently I have been playing David Gilmour “On an Island” a lot. We both like the Smithereens so we played “11” and “Green Thoughts” a few times.

Like I guess most Americans, the passing of Michael Jackson reminded me just how good some of his records are; we listened to a new copy of the Thriller album which sounded just fantastic.  Last night we played Led Zepplin records which Muffin really enjoyed. A lot of nights when I get home before Pam I will slip on some Stevie Ray Vaughan records while I am getting dinner ready, namely “Texas Flood”, “Couldn’t Stand the Wether” and “In Step”.  For some reason which I cannot fathom, Pam doesn’t like SRV but that won’t stop me from playing him for Sam! There was one SRV song she recently admitted liking (Riviera Paradise) so maybe he is growing on her 🙂

She finally cooperated!

| July 16, 2009

Amber has been bugging me for so long now that Sam will not cooperate and kick for her.  Well, today Sam is very squirmy and Amber finally felt a good hard kick!  Yay!  We think Sam was just tired of everyone saying she was being stubborn, and said, “Ok, here, are you happy now?”  It was very cute.  I wasn’t expecting it and neither was Amber.  The surprised look on her face was priceless.