Surprise!

I had the shock of my life at work today when my co-workers threw me a SURPRISE baby shower! Apparently it’s been in the works for a while, and I was completely clueless. Really, I can’t remember the last time I was as surprised and speechless as I was today. On Tuesday a meeting request went out to staff from client services for a training thing. It was scheduled for lunchtime on Thursday. I usually order lunch for that sort of stuff, but when I mentioned it to Jen over gchat, she was like, oh Rodica said she would take care of it. Hmm. Yesterday I IM’d Rodica asking if she needed my help, and she was like, oh no, already taken care of. I thought it was weird but didn’t really think anything else about it. So today at 11:59 I realized I was going to be late if I didn’t get downstairs, went to the kitchen to grab some water, and thought I should bring a notebook and pen with me in case I needed to write anything down at the meeting. I waddle down the stairs and down the hall to the big conference room. The first thing I notice is that the tables are arranged weird, no one is sitting, and no one is lined up getting food. Strange. Then I get closer and notice that some people are holding noisemakers with…puppy faces on them? Huh? THEN I notice….everyone is looking at ME. And then “SURPRISE!!!” Huh? What? I seriously couldn’t comprehend what was going on. I looked around…streamers. Balloons. CUPCAKES. And presents!

What is going on? I am pretty sure I just kept saying something like “No. You guys did not do this,” and just stood there like an idiot, holding my notebook and water. Even after I had sat down with some cupcakes and pizza, I STILL thought we were having a training meeting. Then Christi passes out shower games! We played shower games! I did really well at filling in the blank nursery rhymes and not so well at matching baby animals to mommy animals. Then Jen handed me my present. It was an oddly shaped, flat thing, wrapped up in cute wrapping paper. I opened it…and it was a piece of wood? With…a manual for a CRIB? Again, it didn’t really compute. It took me a second. A crib???? I HAVE A CRIB! Then a crib mattress appeared…

I was so shocked.

This is me after I realize I have a crib.

It’s the crib I have been dreaming about for months now…it’s beautiful.

 
I can’t wait to put it together with my pretty baby bedding and put a pretty baby inside. The whole experience was really surreal…I felt like I was in a daze for quite a while after, because it was so much to take in. I am continuously astounded at how generous people have been towards me during my pregnancy. We are still two months away from Holland’s arrival and I have pretty much every single thing that I need. And I didn’t buy any of it, besides some clothing. I really don’t have to worry about anything. It’s amazing, and overwhelming. After my last (non-surprise) shower a couple weeks ago, later that night, I was going over all the cards people had given me and just started crying, completely overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and love. It’s funny that something that started as a scary, unplanned “mistake” back in December has turned into something that has so many people SO excited. It’s days like today that remind me that I made the right decision, and that despite our circumstances, despite how tough/frustrating/scary this pregnancy has been, Holland and I are going to do great. And now I am done being sentimental. It won’t happen again, I promise.

She is funny, folks…

imagine what is going through her little mind? she wants more pancakes? she likes the new Death Cab CD? why is it so boring in here after 8PM?

–email from my mom

There is a really stupid episode of SVU on right now and I should be in bed.

I was sitting on the couch tonight going through pictures that I want to scan this week and working on thank you cards when I remembered it has been three weeks since my last pregnancy photo shoot. [pointless story start] When I stood up to go get my camera, one of the photo albums fell off the couch. I was standing near the cat dishes, where Basil was eating. The noise scared him, and he jumped onto my feet and scratched up my toes. I screamed (bad idea) which scared him MORE and he knocked over both his food dish and his water dish and ran across the room, leaping over the coffee table onto the couch, unplugging my computer and almost knocking it off the table. He ended up on top of the couch, where he stayed for a good ten minutes, eyeing me suspiciously as I cleaned up his mess and tried not to get my bleeding toes on the carpet. This is the second time I have needed a band-aid this weekend (surprise! I don’t have any!). Yesterday I cut myself shaving and it was still bleeding a half hour later, alarming Alana: ”OMG, Alexia, why are you bleeding so much? Is it because of the baby? [pointless story end]

Anyway, here it is, 32 weeks, in all its glory. I look significantly bigger than three weeks ago and I have gained about five pounds.

 Somebody really needs to clean that mirror.

Neat

My grandma sent this to me:

We have the same nose! I can’t wait to give her a complex about her forehead like my mom did for me.

Pictures, cheesecake and c-sections

Lest anyone see this picture on my flickr sidebar and think I had a baby yesterday:

 This is a picture of me when I was nine days old. I wanted to compare the pictures of me with Holland’s 3D ultrasound pictures to see how similar we look. I learned how to use the scanner at work yesterday, so this will not be the last old picture you see. Other news:

Last night I bought a tub of cheesecake filling at safeway and am eating it with graham crackers.

Holland is breech! I am having another ultrasound in two weeks (yay!) at my doctor’s office for them to check the position and if she is still breech, they said they can try to turn her. I may not actually do that, because I hear it hurts and she might go right back to her old position anyway. It actually involves checking into the hospital for a good part of the day, and if they accidently separate the baby from the placenta while they are doing it, they have to do an emergency c-section. Eeek! If she doesn’t flip around in the next few weeks I will most likely be scheduling a c-section for the beginning of August. The plus side to this is not having to wait as long for Holland to arrive, which would be nice (this is because they schedule c-sections for 38/39 weeks, as opposed to the actual due date). Also..8/8/08 for a birthday? Anyone else think that is cool?

Eternal Pregnancy

So Jamie Lynn Spears had her baby…I am sooo jealous. Why does everyone else get to have their babies and yet, I CONTINUE TO BE PREGNANT? I feel like I am enduring the longest pregnancy ever. Ugh. Jen and I have g-chat discussed in length today Jamie Lynn’s choice of name for her daughter: Maddie Briann. Hmm. It has a nice ring to it if you say it with a mock southern accent…I probably would have extended Maddie into Madeline and stuck an “e” at the end of Briann, but whatevs. I like it more than Honor Marie, that’s for sure. That’s what Jessica Alba named her daughter, for those of you who aren’t in The Know. Yours truly, Judgy McJudgement Pants. Anyway. Tonight for dinner I had mini-pancakes and velveeta shells and cheese. I feel like velveeta cheese should be spelled Cheez. Delish. I am going to microwave some more pancakes (they are so mini! Just like me!) and then probably head to bed like a big, pregnant loser, on this, a beautiful, warm, thursday night in June (I should be at a bar, drinking margaritas). I have my 31 week pre-natal appointment tomorrow. I don’t know what that means. I never know what my doctor appointments will entail until I am actually there. Last time I walked in and saw this long, toothbrush looking contraption sitting on the counter next to the thing my doctor uses to listen to Holland’s heartbeat. I must have look frightened because the nurse said “oh, don’t worry, that’s not for you. We don’t start checking your cervix for a few more weeks.” GREAT! So that means I have something to look forward to. Anyway, pancakes call. Ta.

I want

Verdict

I had a Frosty Shake from Wendy’s yesterday. Strawberry. I am a big fan of strawberry milkshakes. They are my favorite of all the milkshakes. The Frosty Shake didn’t taste like it was made from strawberry ice cream. It tasted like…the strawberry sauce that comes on the cheesecake I always buy from the Safeway next to my house. Like, it was more concentrated strawberry-ness than ice creamy-ness. I think they actually just mix strawberry sauce with the vanilla frosty to make the strawberry frosty shake (ps: Vanilla Frosty? WTF? Where have I been?) So I wasn’t sure what to think. It was good, but not AMAZING. Amazing still equals Dairy Queen strawberry milkshakes. All the way.

Because it made me laugh

The Alexia Baby Trivia questions and answers from my shower. My mom thought these up. They are great. I can’t wait to see how Holland compares.

Q. At what age did Alexia start walking?

A: 13 months

Q: When was Alexia successfully potty-trained?

A: 3 years

Q: Which character did Alexia like to imitate when she was little?

A: Rainbow Brite

Q: What did Alexia take to bed with her as a toddler?

A: Her favorite books.

Q: Did Alexia suck her thumb or a pacifier?

A: Pacifier

Q: What was Alexia’s first word?

A: Me

Q: When did Alexia start talking?

A: 10 months

Q: What magazine was Alexia’s mom surprised to find under her bed when she was nine years old?

A: Cosmopolitan

Q: What was Alexia’s favorite treat as a toddler?

A: Milkshakes

Q: How long did Alexia drink out of a bottle?

A: Alexia never drank out of a bottle.

Showered

I had such a great time today and received an obscene amount of gifts. It was so fun to see so many people in one place and we had strawberry ice cream cake and yummy cheese and fruit and the best strawberry lemonade punch and champagne. I hope everyone else had as good a time as I did. It is strange to have reached such a major milestone in my pregnancy. Less than ten weeks until Holland the Star of the World makes her arrival!