Baby Shower!: 34 weeks 4 days in utero

Today my mother and sister threw Pui and I a great baby shower. We invited only our closest friends and family, but things were still pretty crowded. We had a great time, and people were incredibly generous. I didn't get the time to talk to anyone as long as they deserved - there were so any people there we know and like. There was a number of small (and not so small) children there. Once they discovered the "Monkey Room" (The playroom) we didn't see too much of them - but what we did see was very cute. Such well-behaved kids! I fully intend to spoil our boy rotten, so I should soak up the presence of well-behaved kids while I can.

Pui and I did almost no work at all setting everything up: it was all my mother and Sister, and all the credit for the success of the party goes to them. Well, them and the high quality of the people attending. ;-)

Before the shower, Pui and I went to the local Pancake House, where after a 25-minute wait (with pretty good people-watching) we sat down to a late breakfast ... more of a lunch, really. It was quite a feed. I ordered a half order of Blueberry Pancakes and got more than I thought I could finish. Pui ordered a full breakfast and got a lot of food. A lot of food. In the end we did a pretty good job of demolishing the food - we even came fairly close to finishing everything. We waddled out very full indeed.

Yesterday we went to Children's Hospital Fetal Echo Center again. We had another round of Ultrasounds (no more 3D renderings, alas!) and learned that the baby is doing very well in every way but that pesky Hypoplastic Left Heart thingy. The doctors said that it's a good thing that we have no other apparent problems, and that our baby has a "standard" case of HLHS. She was actually very encouraging. Everyone there was just as friendly as last time - a group of very nice people.

After the appointment, the nurse - an extremely nice and very knowledgeable woman named Lonnie (I'm guessing at the spelling) - gave us a guided tour through Children's Hospital. She showed us where the Operating Theater was, showed us the recovery areas (Neonatal ICU, Cardiac ICU, and regular ICU) the parent support facilities, and the cafeteria. The place is gorgeous. It has lots of fun and kid-friendly art throughout the hospital (Like the painting in the picture) and has an amazing ICU. There are tons of people everywhere, everything is spotlessly clean, and there are monitors everywhere. It all looks very modern, data-intense, and competent.

Still, it was hard to see a tiny newborn in the NICU plugged into six or seven IVs, with several monitors and cables. All sorts of lines, tubes, and cables radiating from a single tiny baby. Knowing that in just over a month that will be what our baby will look like is ... wrenching. However, we know what it will look like and what to expect. We'll be ready.