Well, today was our “Mommy Preparedness Party”! For those of you currently wearing a puzzled expression and trying to figure out what the hell a “Mommy Preparedness Party” is, it was our attempt to do something baby-shower like without calling it a baby shower. In the Jewish tradition, there are many superstitions around babies (and celebrating babies and birth prior to the actual event), so most people still do not have baby showers. They wait for the bris or the baby naming after the baby is born. However, in recent years, baby showers are growing more common among Jewish circles. We debated for a long time about whether we should do anything. Elliot was very disinclined to have a shower, and I was on the fence. After I ended up in the hospital at 28 weeks, I panicked about not having anything for the baby. So, we decided that if we didn’t call it a shower, and if we didn’t bring any of the gifts into our home until after the baby was born, we thought we were okay with the whole idea.
Elliot, however, strongly objected to calling it a shower. So, my mom and Heather put on the “not-a-shower” today (and my friend Niki made party favors for everyone) and it was wonderful! We only invited a small group of our closest friends/family because we did not want to make anyone uncomfortable. It was great to see everyone, and I had a lot of fun. It was so exciting to actually be looking at and touching baby stuff, and we got a lot of wonderful gifts to start us out. They also requested that everyone bring their favorite baby book as part of the gift, so we now have a wonderful collection of books, too! I’m so excited to actually have things for the baby now! My mom made a gorgeous afghan and a sweater and 2 hats for him. We won’t bring anything in the house yet, but it is nice to know that we have access to the things we might need at my parents’ house.
In other news, we also got a call yesterday that our baby furniture is in! I’m shocked – I really didn’t think we’d be getting it before the baby arrived (since we ordered it so late), so it is a relief that we can have it at any time. The only thing that isn’t in yet is our glider, and the store will give us a loaner until it comes in, if we want it. Elliot isn’t sure if he wants to get any of the furniture delivered before the baby arrives, so we’ll see what we decide to do. At least now we know my Dad could arrange for delivery while I’m in the hospital if that is what we decide to do.