Baby Shower!

Today was the baby shower that almost wasn’t (does anyone but my mom and me remember the old TV special, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t? I loved that movie…). Holding the shower today was not an easy decision to make, but now that it is all over I am glad we went through with it. We had such a nice morning!

About 50 of our friends and family gathered at a local restaurant for brunch. Baby balloons floated around the room and the tables were decorated with boxes of pink and blue M&Ms with Charlie and Lily’s name and birthdate on them. In lieu of favors, cards at each place announced that a donation had been made to the St. Peter’s NICU in Annaleigh’s memory. An enormous (and delicious) cake sat in the front of the room proclaiming “Celebrating Charlie and Lily.” And the presents – oh, the presents! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many gifts in one place. It was overwhelming!

The shower began with the food – heaping plates of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pastries, French toast and pancakes were delivered to the tables and everyone dug in. After we ate, my sister ran a few fun games where guests had to unscramble the baby word, finish the nursery rhyme and guess the number of candies in the baby bottle. After the games, it was time for presents! Gift after gift was passed my way and everyone oohed and aahed over each adorable item. Aside from the wonderful practical gifts we received (pack n’ plays, diaper champs, monitors, high chairs, etc.) we also received a ton of cute clothes, baby toys, books, and even some Halloween outfits. My favorite gift of the day though was not even a shower gift – it was a belated birthday present from my friend Lauren. She gave me a silver key chain with the word “Mommy” and the babies’ names, “Charlie, Annaleigh, Lily,” engraved on it. So sweet!

So the shower was a great success. Thank you Mom, Jill and Anne for all your hard work in making the day so special. And thank you to everyone who came and spoiled me, Joe, Charlie and Lily so much – we are so grateful for your support and love. And thank you for all the loot – it took four SUVs to bring everything back to our house, and our office is now crammed with goodies. I need to get organizing!

But our day didn’t end with the shower! After we finished dropping our gifts off at home Joe and I headed up to the NICU to see Charlie and Lily. Miss Lily was our first stop and she was one sleepy bug. The doctors thought that Lily was worn out from all her recent bottle feedings, so they decided to give her the day off from the bottle so she could rest, with the exception of one feeding done by Joe and I. So for our late afternoon visit the Bug snoozed, but when we came back after dinner she was wide awake and ready for her bath, which was extra luxurious for our princess thanks to the Burt’s Bees shampoo given to her and Charlie by nurse Alicia. I bathed Lily, and then she hit the scale (up 45 grams to 4 lbs 11 oz) and got dressed in a clean outfit. The whole time we were dressing her Lily was smacking her lips and sticking out her tongue, clearly looking for her bottle. We fed her at 9:00 and she drank the whole thing down happily – then went back to sleep, of course!

Charlie wasn’t too tired for his food! He chowed his 6:00 bottle for me, and then did the same thing with his 9:00. In fact, right now Charlie doesn’t even have a feeding tube in! He’s been taking the bottle exclusively for all his feedings since yesterday! We’re hoping he can keep this up and the feeding tube will be a thing of the past. Once he’s entirely on bottle feeds he can come out of the isolette and into a big boy crib - another step on the road home.

Tomorrow Charlie and Lily will have another follow up eye exam, and on Tuesday they will get their first round of vaccines. We’re hoping for a busy week full of progress for Charlie and Lily (and lots of smiles and snuggles for Mommy and Daddy!).

The cake - gigantically delicious!

Just look at all those presents!

Everyone enjoying their breakfast.

Opening up presents with my "helper," Joe.

Some cute outfits for Miss Lily.

Anyone want to come help me organize?! Oh, and Uncle John -get ready to assemble, assemble, assemble!

Charlie, free of tubes!

Lily waiting to be pampered.