Sip & See Pictures

One (of many) rules I made up during my second pregnancy was No Baby Showers.  First of all, I didn't need anything since I'd had two showers for Eliza before she died and gotten almost everything on my Amazon registry.  Secondly, we didn't know if the Deuce was a boy or a girl, and there just aren't a lot of gender neutral clothes out there.  Thirdly, I think I was doing the "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" thing.  I was not going to be fooled into thinking I was bringing home a baby until the moment that I walked in the door carrying my baby.  All preparation was kept to a minimum.

For example:  The week before her due date, I started crying because we didn't have any diapers fer the baby.  David suggested we run to Target after dinner and get some diapers.  But NO!  I didn't WANT to go buy diapers!  I was just sad that I didn't feel like I COULD go buy diapers.  Irrational, but that's what I was dealing with.

Since Caroline has been born, I've been pleasantly surprised by the fact that I'm not nearly as neurotic and paranoid as I thought I would be.  Our pediatrician talked to me a lot about this baby not living in a bubble, and it turns out that I'm happy to take her out and about, and more than happy to share her with the friends and family who were so supportive of us during this pregnancy.

As one person said as she held Caroline over the weekend, "This baby has been prayed into the world."

so many people love this girl!

I struggled with that for a while--I had prayed for Eliza, too!  But I don't think prayer works like that anymore--I don't get a healthy baby just because I ask for one.  The way I see it, God answers prayers from the inside out, by helping us handle the bad and the good.  And one way this happens is through the people who are part of our lives, the people who think about us and encourage us and ask on a regular basis how we are doing.  We got a healthy baby, yes, and we couldn't be happier about that.  But our prayers were answered when we found ourselves connected to people who care about us and both of our girls.  And we are SO grateful for all of those people (including you peeps reading this).

But geography limits the kind of party we can throw, so we decided to have a post-baby-shower in my hometown, otherwise known as a "Sip & See."  Because you sip champagne and see the baby, obviously!

and who wouldn't want to see this baby?

(Or, as one of my parents' friends suggested, a "Guzzle & Gawk," where you chug booze and stare at the baby.  That sounds fun, too.)

My mom hosted it on Saturday, and we invited our friends and family to come and go for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  We asked people not to bring gifts, though many of them completely ignored us.  (People just love to buy baby things, and who am I to stop them?  Caroline was delighted to get so many lovely presents.)  There was champagne and finger foods (the table decorations were so cute and wouldn't you know I didn't get a picture of it).  It was informal and really, really nice.  My mom's house is not especially well-designed for this kind of party because it doesn't have an open floor plan, but it turned out that we were all just really cozy, which was perfect for passing around the baby and pouring the champagne.

It had been really hard for me to go back home after Eliza died, because for so long I had envisioned taking her there with us and introducing her to everyone.  My visits home in the past year and a half were few and far between.  So in many ways, this felt like a true homecoming.  It was so great to see so many familiar faces, and it was even better to know that they were all there to celebrate the kind of joy that comes after such great sorrow.

We didn't make any big speeches, we didn't have any expectations.  We just hugged people and chatted with them and let our sweet baby girl be the center of attention.

not quite so sure about cousin Paige's intense love

Papa makes it all better, Nana observes closely

 And we had a few laughs.

This is totally normal for us.

Caroline is still not interested in boys yet

I'd been a little worried about how Caroline would handle all the attention, but, she loved it.

I didn't hear Caro squawk or fuss once!  She loves to be held, and she didn't care who it was as long as they were swaying or bouncing and talking sweet to her.  So I don't know about anyone else, but the guest of honor had a great time.  And by the end of the afternoon, she was completely worn out.

 So she took a nice long nap.

And she wasn't the only one!

It was the best way possible to spend the holiday weekend.  And since we've been home and back in our regular routine, I've been thinking a lot about how our two girls are a reminder of how fragile life is and how lucky we are to find ourselves surrounded by people we love.

I'll raise a glass of champagne to that anytime.

special thanks to Blair for this kick-ass hair bow