First Shower + Humidity = Puffy Prego Lady

I attended my first baby shower last weekend and had a wonderful time despite the heat! The guests were mainly Tom's family members along with my mom and sister. I was especially excited to find out that Tom's grandma Sylvia and her sisters, Monica and Marie, would be there. They are the sweetest ladies and they have such a good time together. For lack of a better description, it is just a special experience to be with all of them.

Tom stopped by at the end of the shower to say hello to all of his family and catch up with his grandma.


I digress...back to the beginning of the shower. I have to put in a disclaimer for myself. I didn't start the shower looking really puffy but after sitting outside for a few hours with 85 degree, humid weather, I started to swell. I definitely felt sweaty while opening gifts (even while seated, leaning over to pick up gifts with a baby in the stomach is a lot more taxing then you would think) but it wasn't until I started looking through my photos that I realized how much I had swelled!! Non-pregnant Jess would have really loved the nice weather and probably tried to find a non-shady spot. I realize this happens to many pregnant women, so no need to offer any condolences on my puffy face. I was finally able to get my wedding band off on sunday night and now I'm nervous to put it back on...maybe when the weather cools off a bit.

Highlights and Lowlights

There aren't really any low-lights except for the realization that baby food is gross! I have never played the baby food guessing game and it was very enlightening. The color palette of the food doesn't vary that much even though the foods themselves are quite different. My 15 year old sister-in-law Lani put it best when she asked, why does the Gerber baby always look so happy if this is what he's eating?? I will admit that I liked the sweet potato...on to the highlights!



Parker received a gift. Tom's 2nd cousin, Jan, had the courtesy to remember and acknowledge our "first" baby. There was a note to Parker asking him to love the baby and to not be jealous. Parker will do anything we say once he sees the size of this bone!

Weird shot of me but I wanted to show the bone, it's larger than P's head!


We received a lot of cute baby outfits, books, blankets, and bibs!




Did I mention that laughing seems to also induce swelling? The next two gifts made me really laugh. Tom's mom, Sue, and her husband, Jerry, picked out two hilarious gifts. Tom's entire family is a little Packer football crazy (wisconsin's NFL team) so many of them will be pleased/relieved/enthused to know that baby girl thompson will be ready to represent while 0-3 months old.

Tom and I are most enthusiastic about the MN Twins. So a Packers dress here, a Vikings onesie there, it doesn't matter that much to me. However, we're not ready to accept any donkey or elephant themed outfits :)


The gift from Jerry that he specifically picked out had me dying with laughter. It is basically a mini-Jerry outfit. A camouflage shirt and coordinating camo-green pants.

As Sue pointed out, if the ultrasound did turn out to be wrong, we would have at least one non-girl outfit ready to go. Truthfully, I can't wait to put this on the baby, but maybe I'll add a pink bow around her head.

I did not get a photo of the cake before it was cut but it was AMAZING. Some type of chocolate with some other type of chocolate (my favorite) from Wuollete's Bakery. It was also quite adorable with white frosting and colored polka-dots. My sister-in-law Jess has a photo that I will get at some point.

All in all it was a great event and awesome to receive gifts for the baby! Tom's oldest sister Jessica (another Jess Thompson which can be extremely confusing for family members) hosted the shower and put it all together really well. Both families are really excited for us and we are so appreciative of that.

Normally I would go home, look through everything and ooh and aah, but with moving this week we just transferred it all to Tom's car so as not to have to pack it up. Oh well, it will be fun to revisit it next weekend when I unpack the baby stuff! Another plus, I think Tom is really getting the hang of the baby gear too.


The rest of this week involves finishing packing (about 96% there!), 34 week doctor's appt, closing on our new house on thursday, moving on friday, all-day hospital baby class on saturday, and continuing to unpack and get settled on sunday. Plus many, many other little things to do along the way. I'm tempted to post my entire to-do list because it would make me feel better but I will hold back (I am my mother's daughter in that regard). At some point I will figure out which website I will put photos on and link that to the blog. I have many more shower photos but too many to put in a post!

Jess