You Again? 12-22-11

For the past week, every time I walk through the door at work, I am greeted by, “You’re here?!?! How are you feeling?” They are surprised to see me. Most folks expect me to go into labor at any moment. I feel a bit like the hot potato. Most folks seem a bit panicked by the prospect of being the one here when my water breaks. There are a disproportionate number of single women where I work, and they seem as baffled as I do at the prospect of giving birth. Of course, there are also a crop of recent moms, too, and they are trying to give me encouragement, telling me things I need to hear like, ‘You’ll be a great mom!’ and ‘You look great!’ Maybe they are trying to make me feel better by saying, ‘You won’t make it until January!’ before delivering, but I kind of believe them. It’s hard to replicate that look of surprise that greets me these days as I walk through the doors, again with the eyebrows raised.

Shower at Work

And so I had a nice shower at work, and before the event, they kept saying, ‘Do you think you’ll make it until Tuesday <the day of my shower>?’ I could only say that I hoped so—because who really knows? At the start of the shower, my friend, G, announced, “We appreciate you all coming on such short notice. We had thought about having the shower when we returned in January, but we don’t think they baby is going to wait that long!” They did such a nice job on decorating and pulling things together so quickly. Many of the students got presents for baby. One of them found little frames for the hand and footprint of little Boop that I can put on the wall. And I got some bottles, binkies, and things for safety. I need to sit down and write my thank you notes. Everyone was so generous and in good spirits, making it a very special day J They played the clothes pin game, where folks would get your clothes pin(s) if you said the word ‘baby.’ To be a group of mostly women, folks got pretty aggressive over those clothes pins! It’s good to see folks having fun and enjoying the prospect of Boop’s arrival.