A Day Full of Surprises

Today Paxton's nurse was supposed to arrive around 8:30am to watch him all day. Susanne had a surprise baby shower to be at across town by noon. Luckily, Scott was able to help a little bit with Paxton's care so that Susanne could still try to be on time.

Susanne called a couple of times with no response. She finally reached the nurse at 9:30am to learn that he was out of town. He had thought that Susanne had mentioned at the last visit that she didn't need him on this day so he made other plans. Susanne was confused about where the miscommunication had occurred, but there was no reason to dwell on what she couldn't change.

She tried calling Moppy to see if she could watch the little guy, but she couldn't be reached. Susanne knew she was probably in church and would be hard pressed to make it over to the house in time anyway. She had thought about asking Scott to hang around before heading back to NC, but she knew that she would be out for hours and that wasn't really fair. He had a six hour drive ahead of him and he worked the next day.

She finally came to the conclusion that she needed to take Paxton with her. She hoped that he would crash the party. Her gut was telling her that all of her friends would actually be delighted that he was there. The majority of them required a Paxton fill regularly and this would cure them all.

Susanne had her work cut out for her. She had to take time to prepare and pack two feedings, medications, enteral pump, enteral bag, charger, fully loaded diaper bag, cooler with ice packs, toys, blanket, change of clothes, carseat, stroller, and the kitchen sink. She was hoping in the midst of packing up all of his stuff that she didn't forget the baby gift or camera.

Luckily, she made it out of the house alive. She wasn't sure she would make it on time though. She hated the thought of being the person to ruin a surprise. She kept in close contact with the hostess of the party to prevent this from happening. Even with getting lost and turned around a couple of times, she made it before the woman of the hour. She was thankful that Julie was running behind as well because they all got to walk in together.

The baby shower went well. Everyone got there on time and Cory was surprised. There was lots of good food, fun games, great gifts, and fabulous company. The one thing that occurred as a result of the party was that there was major baby fever spreading throughout the room by the end of it. Crazy as it sounds, every single woman that had previously had a child, wished that they could be pregnant all over again. They hadn't really thought it through very much, they were just running on straight nostalgia.

One weird occurrence that happened at the shower was that one of Susanne's friends got almost the same identical gift that she had purchased for Cory. Originally, Susanne thought that it was just a mere coincidence that she saw the exact same gift bag in the pile of presents when she arrived. When Cory started opening that gift and pulling out the exact same receiving blankets, cute outfits, etc., Susanne surely thought she was being punked. This was just too strange for words. Thank God for gift receipts.

Susanne and Paxton got on the road at a decent hour. She thought for sure things would be smooth sailing from here. She definitely spoke too soon because she ended up getting lost on the way home as well. She vowed never to take 495 again. They just weren't destined to get along.

Paxton had done extremely well all afternoon, but things changed quickly once they got home. Just as Susanne was trying to get Paxton out of his car seat, he spit up all over himself and managed to get her in the process as well. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if it hadn't also showered the entire car seat lining, car seat straps, and buckle. It was always such a big production to disassemble that monster. Susanne was nervous when she used the last bit of laundry detergent to wash all of the dirtied items. It was asking a lot of Paxton not to make a mess before getting to Gigi and Poppy's house tomorrow night. She would just have to keep her fingers crossed.

Paxton needed a bath pronto! It would not only make him smell better, but hopefully help him to get settled for the night. Aunt Leenie came over for a visit and was thrilled that this wasn't the case. Paxton was trying hard not to close his eyes. He was restless and talkative. This was the perfect scenario for Aunt Leenie to be able to spend some time with the monkey. She got to hold him for a while and play with him a little bit. Once he finally fell asleep, they spent the rest of the night having a heart to heart. They got so carried away in conversation that they didn't even eat dinner until 10:00pm.