Emily's Baby Shower

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I know that the majority of my posts throughout the course of this pregnancy have been, well, rather biting. Therefore, it should be no surprise to most of you that being pregnant has not been my favorite stage of life. The backaches, leg cramps, closet meltdowns and sleepless nights have all been less than ideal. However, in the grand scheme of life and pregnancy, I know that I have been extremely lucky. I haven’t had any major complications (knock on wood), I have an extremely supportive husband, and my friends and family have been absolutely incredible.

For every horrible pregnancy moment, there has been an equally amazing moment that reminds me what a gift it is.

There are the moments before bed, where my husband has his hand on my belly, and our little man has decided to give him a good kick. We’ve laughed and wondered – what exactly has gotten him so fired up? There are the moments when I’ve gotten loving smiles from complete strangers, and the moments when extremely hurried looking people have gone out of their way to hold doors for me. There was the moment when the woman working the check out line at Whole Foods stopped what she was doing to find me the coupon “she knew was out there” for my pre-natal vitamins — and the moment when the doorman in my office building brightly exclaimed, “There’s nothing better in the world than being a parent!” He had never said a word to me before then, but somehow, this bump of mine moved him to speak. There are the moments when my mom has told me how excited she is to finally be a Grandma – as if I’ve been holding out on her all these years, and the moments when people have told me what a wonderful mother I’ll be. All of these moments, these beautiful, kind, and precious moments, well…  they make all the painful and uncomfortable moments seem so small.

I’ve been thinking… that pregnancy really is the perfect preparation for motherhood, in way more than just the physical sense. There are times when it is trying and times when you want to pull your hair out, but in the end, there’s nothing more rewarding. As you can tell, this post is going to be full of mushy loving feelings. There are a lot of those during pregnancy… even though I haven’t written about them. The reason being – this past weekend, as you can tell from the photos above, was my Baby Shower.

The women I love most in this life came from near and far to be there, and that alone was enough to make me cry. My mother-in-law flew in from Omaha, my sister came in from Phoenix, and my aunts, cousin, and girlfriend Chelsea made the trip all the way from LA. My college girlfriends, Rachel and Mary, drove up from San Francisco to stay the weekend, and all of my wonderful friends from in-town trekked out to our house – we live kind of far away from everyone. My girlfriend Jill even made it despite the fact that her bachelorette party was that night – I mean – are you kidding me?!?!? I couldn’t believe it when I saw her walk through our front door – she’s got that bridal glow going on for sure! And everyone who couldn’t be there sent the warmest messages via texts and voice mails.

My mom was the hostess with the mostess, and the whole day was beyond anything I could have imagined. There were mimosas, for everyone who could enjoy them, and Dough Catering prepared the most perfect menu of all of my “pregnancy cravings”, ie: lobster rolls, mini sliders and truffled french fries to start. We set up a onesie decorating station and everyone ironed on whimsical appliques and left a sweet note for our little guy. There were desserts — bring on the gestational diabetes — and then we opened gifts… so many gifts. Let me just say, our family and friends are endlessly thoughtful, incredibly kind. and beyond generous.

But more than the food, the activities, and the gifts — the day way so special because of the love. There’s something about getting all of the most important women in your life together and celebrating the gift of a child, it was certainly beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. I’ve said it so many times, but this little man is so loved and so lucky to have such an incredible village around him. He has more “aunts” than he will ever need, and for that, I am endlessly grateful.

Lastly, thanks to this blog and social media, the outpouring of love that we felt this weekend extended far beyond the friends that could fit in our home. I can’t even begin to say how blessed we felt to have had the support of our blog family behind us, and thank you for showering our little guy with your love and kind words via instagram, facebook, and email. It meant the world to us.

So here we are, almost 33 weeks in, and there is still so much more to cover. I’ll be sharing many more outfits over the next seven weeks, as well as covering my final adventures (mostly of the culinary variety) pre-William. Still to come: my favorite pregnancy products, our nursery journey, and what we’re bringing to the hospital << something we’ve been working on a lot this past week.

As always, thank you for reading along, and if you have any mothering or late pregnancy words of wisdom to bestow, we would love to hear them!