This past Saturday was my baby shower, a celebration which certainly rivaled my wedding day in terms of the overwhelming outpouring of love I felt. 13 amazing women showed up and showered baby and I with gifts, voicing over and over how excited they are and offering help wherever it was needed.

I brought a few things to the shower with me, the first was a little favor for my guests. Is providing a favor a Texas thing? I had never heard of this, but I welcomed the opportunity to try to get a little bit creative. Yissel, my shower hostess, read about my desire for a mother’s blessing type experience and suggested a lovely way to recreate a bit of that supportive and positive environment for myself. I bought some candles and tucked them inside a little paper bag with a poem attached to the front (I tucked in a few homemade truffles as well!). Yissel collected phone numbers from all of the guests and plans on sending each of them a text message when my labor begins, asking that prayers and well wishes be sent my way.

Now That I Am Forever with Child

How the days went
While you were blooming within me
I remember each upon each —
The swelling changed planes of my body —
And how you first fluttered, then jumped
And I thought it was my heart.

How the days wound down
And the turning of winter
I recall, with you growing heavy
Against the wind. I thought
Now her hands
Are formed, and her hair
Has started to curl
Now her teeth are done
Now she sneezes.
Then the seed opened.
I bore you one morning just before spring —
My head rang like a fiery piston
My legs were towers between which
A new world was passing.

From then
I can only distinguish
One thread within running hours
You. . . flowing through selves
Toward you.

via Blooming Within Doula


I also brought some cake with me, the test run for the birthday cake I hope to bake for That 1 when my labor begins. I chose to make Vegan Chocolate Cake with Avocado, in honor of my beloved Weddingbee moniker. The chocolate cake was moist and amazing, but the frosting needed a few adjustments to be perfect (meaning I’m going to add cream cheese and butter, so bye-bye vegan label!). I’m glad I practiced though because even though I realize almost no one thinks I’ll actually be able to bake this cake, I’m feeling pretty confident that I can get in the oven before contractions become overwhelming.

The gift table was the first thing I saw when I walked in. Look how pretty! And, the yellow package you see front and center was a surprise from my parents. I have no idea how they arranged that!

Mmmmmm, the spread was delicious. See how Yissel went above and beyond?

Most of the guests knew each other in some way so there was a lot of talking and laughing happening, but if they decided they had had enough socializing there were plenty of little activities spread throughout the house. The “guess what Jenna’s baby will look like” game made me laugh. I was not impressed that my friend Jill chose the messy faced baby as her favorite option. :)

A blanket was cute and tied for baby, and we made a poor attempt at playing the “don’t say the word baby” game, but all of us were not that great at remembering to take the necklace of offending ladies away.

I spotted this Iron-On Onesie baby shower project on someone’s blog a few months ago, and guests gave it a good effort, but this project was not successful. I’m going to try to figure out what needs to be done differently so I can make some onesies for baby’s month-by-month photo series.

(almost) All of my lovely guests! Without a doubt my favorite ladies in the entire state of Texas, I’m blessed t have them in my life.

Present time came really quickly as one of the guests was a bit ill and had to leave early. I admit I like getting presents, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find opening gifts with 26 eyes staring me down a bit intimidating. Luckily I didn’t even have to pretend to like anything because the girls did such a fabulous job picking things out!

Baby received a lot of gifts, but technically this one was all for me, and I LOVE it. Love love love. The Skip Hop Studio is already packed full of all sorts of treats and should be plenty big for me to tote all of my baby supplies and a camera around!

I’m guessing I probably made this face a lot.

This was my favorite packaging, a plain brown paper bag that the gifter had painted by hand with a heart. I think I’m going to have to steal this idea for myself!

Robeez! I really loved that my friend bought them from Nordstrom and then assured me she was fine with me going in and exchanging those she gifted for a pair I like best. I think these are my favorite.

I saved the gift from my mom and dad for very last. Inside I found two packages, one labeled for “baby boy” and one for “baby girl”. You may remember that my mom did the same thing for baby’s first Christmas ornament as well. She makes me laugh. The brown John Deere onesies was in the boy’s package but I’d put that on a baby girl as well!

The girl’s accoutrements.

The last activity for the day involved a “gender prediction cake”. Yissel baked two cakes, one pink, one blue, cut the layers in half and stacked them on top of each other, and then frosted the whole thing so I had no idea which side was which.

I gave the cake a few spins and chose the perfect spot to cut in. Rumor has it that the cake color you cut into will predict the gender of your baby. The cake gods say… GIRL!

What a delightful afternoon this was, and I’m so grateful I decided to ignore my earlier reservations and take Yissel up on her offer to host. She did a remarkable job and I’m beyond grateful to count her as one of my closest friends. I walked away from this feeling buoyed up and surrounded with love. Thanks to all who took part!

Oh, and I can’t forget an extra special thank you to my cousin Jamie for taking pictures for me!

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