Kate Miller 34: Baby Shower

After the shower I was given a little book with cards of people's advice and comments--some serious, many funny. If you want to write in your own, make a comment, and I will add it to the book! 

34. Baby Shower (May 2013)

It wasn’t without cause that Kate had a habit of wondering what she was forgetting. It came from a regrettable habit of forgetting things…a habit that seemed to have worsened with each month of pregnancy. She had been exceedingly proud of herself for remembering Mister’s conference—which would have been difficult to forget in any case, since it was the reason for returning from their vacation when they did. What she was exceedingly chagrined to forget was her baby shower!

They had only just arrived home yesterday, Mister was at the conference registering and hobnobbing with brilliant (and often boring) people. The next day, Kate had to go to the airport to pick up her mother-in-law (which she had also briefly forgotten about.) What was so shameful was that even when Kate remembered that her mother-in-law was coming and that she was coming for her baby shower, it didn’t sink in that her baby shower was actually going to happen in three days. Whoops! Good thing I don’t have to do anything for it, Kate thought, ...except show up. Which might prove difficult enough if I can’t even manage to remember that it’s happening!

But Kate did, in fact, manage to show up. Normally, she was not a baby shower sort of person. The thought of spending an afternoon with twenty other ladies, cooing over pastel blankies and onesies was not exactly her idea of a fun party. And though it was difficult to exclude a group of ladies and cooing from a genuine baby shower, Kate managed to have a good time, thanks to the excellent planning of her friends. The eats were great, the prayer time humbling, and the advice-giving helpful…or at least often humorous!

They played one game, which was very fun, in spite of Kate’s antipathy toward baby shower games. But this was a way of bringing Mister into the party. Her friend, Jill, who had planned the shower sent him an email requesting answers to a list of baby-related questions. Kate’s job? Not to get the answers right, but to guess what Mister’s answers were! She was surprised that she got many of them correct: “How much do you think the baby will weigh?” (8lbs…some oz.) “What food/smell repulsed Kate the most?” (uncooked salmon.) “How did Kate tell you she was pregnant?” (a strange look from the other room while playing a game with a friend.) Other answers were difficult to guess because neither Kate nor Mister knew what they were! “When do you want your baby given the Apgar test and what do you think he will score?” At this, Kate pressed for more information… “What is the Apgar test?” (Can’t tell you that…) “What is the range of scores?” (1-10.) “Did Mister give an answer in that range?” (No.) Kate laughed and picked something random, and then laughed harder after she heard what the Apgar test really is, and that Mister’s answer had been (8wks; average.) It was a truly a fun time, and Kate felt blessed to have so many ladies surrounding her with love and care, and especially to have some family there too.

But it was tiring. She got home and instantly felt ready for a nap. Goodness, what day was it anyway? May 26…that meant she was just now finishing her second trimester and heading into the third! Three months to go! I’m too tired for this, Kate thought unreasonably, how can I possibly even survive another three months? Mom Miller looked at her sympathetically, but said matter-of-factly, “Welcome to the third trimester. You get the energy back in the second just to lose it again in the third.”

“What?!” Kate stared at her in disbelief.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that? That you get tired again in the last trimester?”

“No, no one told me that!” Kate was so outraged she was starting to wake up again. “Of all the nerve,” she complained, “I want my energy back! There’s too much to do to be this tired.” Mister was gone at his conference. There was still unpacking to do. But her panicky feeling was gradually dulled by a great weight in her head that sunk down her forehead and around her eyes. She sighed as she sank into a chair, now only feebly resisting the inevitable. 

“I’m too tired to be tired…”