Surprise Baby Shower

Today was the BEST day! 

I wasn't going to go to the gym this morning because I was really discouraged earlier this week with how difficult it is becoming to keep up with my friends at our gym. I asked Mitch what we were going to do today (since he is the coach now and he gets to decide), but he wouldn't tell me specifics. He just said "we're doing all your favorite moves!" And I was like yeah right.... but I decided to go anyway and just give it a try. 

We pulled up and I saw that the pavilion by our gym was being set up with a "baby shower" sign, but I didn't think anything of it.... at all. Talk about baby brain. 

So we get inside and I saw that Mitch had already written the workout on the board the night before. It was "The Nat" which is a workout that I programmed back in April when we were all taking turns making up our own workout. So I was pleased just because they chose to do my workout again. It's all things that I like to do. Although, I wasn't pregnant at the time, so we had to modify some things. 

THEN....Mitch pulled Saran Wrap out of his bag.... I was like "no way! we're going to do that?!?!" I had seen a video a while back where a gym had the non-pregnant people wrap medicine balls to their tummies to simulate being pregnant in solidarity with the ladies in the group who were pregnant. I thought that was really cute and would be a fun thing to do sometime, so I had mentioned it but decided to just let it go because I figured that would be kinda mean to make them all do it. But that's exactly what they all did. My whole gym strapped 8lb to 25lb medicine balls to their tummies and we did "The Nat" together. I was cracking up the whole time. Couldn't stop smiling. Couldn't believe they were actually doing this for me.  

And there was MORE! After they completed a grueling 2000m row and a 30 minute workout, we went out to the pavilion and it turned out that the baby shower that was being set up earlier was for ME! I still can't believe they did all this. So they put pink tablecloths on the 4 tables out there, hung streamers and a sign with hand-made flowers. They brought a watermelon cut like a baby carriage, pink popcorn that had little tags with poems written for baby, bundt cakes with little hand-made tutus, bottled water with custom labels, and of course chocolate milk - the ultimate recovery drink. They also brought gifts! Some warm clothes, socks, headbands, books, blankets, and a bottle of wine for later. :) 

I'm so grateful for this supportive group of friends. They've been so encouraging the whole time. Now I feel like I have the motivation I needed to keep working out the next 3 weeks - or however long - until she comes. I love you, OSFX! 

35-36 Weeks

Time it takes to walk up 4 flights of stairs at work: Mostly using the elevator now, but I can do it in 52 seconds (5 seconds slower than baseline)
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Loved that extra hour we got this weekend!
Best moments this week: 

• Unexpected baby gifts from family 
• Helped Mitch with his bio for the coach page on our gym's website
• Dinner/pedis with bestie while Mitch had his "man shower" 
• 8th Annual Halloween at the Rosson's!

Movement: She moves a lot! 
Labor Signs: Nothing
Symptoms: Just the heartburn. And now my knees are telling me that I'm too heavy. 
Looking forward to: Showering this baby girl with love. This is a great blog post from one of our local radio personalities who had a daughter a few years ago now. I've always loved this post and it captures the type of mom I hope to be, too.

Waking up her sleepy head before dawn, filling a thermos with hot coffee and heading on a beautiful morning hike together, talking or just hiking in silence. Splurging for a massive bouquet of flowers after her dance recital, singling her out from the other kids and celebrating when she accomplished something amazing at school, listening to a song we both know by heart in the car and singing at the top of our lungs, asking her what she thinks about politics and allowing her to have her own opinion, creating an environment with no inhibitions to keep her from dancing wildly to her favorite music, chic flicks with popcorn together on a rainy afternoon, talks till 3 a.m. about why he broke up with her (loser), stopping for lunch together after shopping for a prom dress, and girl trips here and there to visit places and people we love.

These are the things I daydream about with her. I don't want to miss a moment. And I want her to know how celebrated she truly is.

God, give me everything I need to be the mom she needs and deserves.

Worst that happened this week: I'm a project manager for International Space Station, and some of the hardware that I built was on the Orbital rocket that exploded on Tuesday. I'm very sad that happened because a lot of time and hard work went into those projects, but NASA is in the process of determining what to rebuild. It looks like both of my items will be rebuilt in the near future. Also sad for the people who work at Orbital - this is a very tough thing to happen but I know they will find the cause, fix it, and learn from it. 

This week's accomplishments: 

Week 35: Hanging the shelves and pictures in the nursery. It's pretty much done now! Just needs a nightstand or little bookshelf near the gliding chair.

Week 36: Mitch's first Tough Mudder!

Next on the to do list: Pack the hospital bag and pray she comes early rather than late!