Travel with the Sniffles

32 weeks 6 days

This past weekend was my second baby shower in my hometown.  I ended up driving by myself as the shower was on Saturday morning and hubby had to work Friday night.  Although it was a good weekend, I'm glad we made a point to not plan anymore big trips for the rest of the pregnancy.

The luxury of driving by myself is I could stop when and where I wanted to.  I stopped about every hour to relieve my over-squished bladder, and I was able to stop by a fast food place they only have on the east side of the state that I love.  Plus I gave myself plenty of time to get there so I could run an errand with my bank, enough time to hang out with a friend and her family until my own family claimed me for the rest of the evening.

The baby denied me my plans of sleeping in, so my mother and I got an early start.  We decided to surprise my husband by getting his car detailed, and we killed some time before the shower.  I had a minor case of the sniffles the day before, but just before the shower I started feeling borderline feverish.  I got some air and was able to compose myself just in time for the shower.

I'm truly floored by the turnout!  There must have been 15-20 ladies at this shower.  I admit half of them I didn't even know except by name.  But these women remembered me because I grew up in the church we were holding the shower at.  We ate and played a party game before I began going through the massive pile of presents.  It literally took me 2 hours to get through all the presents (I had to call a bathroom break midway), and they were good quality presents.  About a third included hand knitted blankets, shoes, hats, or jackets that I knew these women had probably made themselves.  They reminded me of my Granny who had often knitted me clothes for my baby dolls when I was little, and it made me smile to think that even though my baby won't get to meet Granny that he'll still get to enjoy hand knitted items made just for him.

I put on a brave face at the shower, but by the end of it I was really drained.  Unfortunately, we still needed to make a stop at a maternity store to stock up on nursing bras.  I rested at home for a few hours after getting the bras before we had to go right back to the church for the Christmas cantata.  Then some friends kidnapped me for the evening.  I didn't actually take my temperature, but I was worried I was going to end up with a fever.  I took it easy for the rest of the night and went to bed early.

Luckily, if I did have a fever, it must have broken in the night.  I had a sinus headache and the sniffles, but otherwise I was functional.  After spending time with a few other friends, I managed to drive myself home.  However, driving in the dark with congestion and a sinus headache with a 4 lb kicking baby dancing on my bladder isn't an experience I want to repeat anytime soon.  Although I half considered travelling to hubby's father's house for Christmas, I think I'll stick to our original plan of letting people choose to come to us this year.