Baby Showers are always special times, aren’t they? Each one of the baby showers in our family are special and unique.
I’d love to tell you about what we did when Rashida was expecting her first baby, and then for Meadow.
The first shower was not just for ladies, but for couples. Although Meadow is Pearl’s daughter, Evangeline and her team did the preparation. For three days she prepared and set up everything in our big celebration room for a sit-down meal for over 80 people. It looked like a wedding celebration.
It was also a time for people to speak into the lives of Kendall and Meadow to give wisdom and inspiration as they begin their new adventure of parenting. We counted the parenting years of those present (0 – 18 years parenting) and found we collectively had nearly 1,000 years of parenting experience to share with them. Grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, and friends all poured into their lives. What an amazing initiation into parenting.
But that wasn’t the end. Not long before her birth, a few of us ladies gathered at Pearl’s home for a different kind of shower--a birth encouragement gathering. We enjoyed quiche and THM muffins for morning tea and then sat around together to give positive insights and understanding to prepare Meadow for her birth. No one was invited who didn’t have positive things to say! No negative stories! Only knowledgeable and positive words. It was such a blessing and preparation for her, although she had already been conscientiously preparing and reading herself. I could say that she did a college course on preparing herself for birth.
I think that every first-time mother should have the privilege of receiving this kind of blessing. A lot more powerful than a few silly games! In fact, I think we should start new kinds of baby showers. I know we will continue doing this for the first-time mothers coming up in our family.
And now Meadow has given birth. After 27 hours of intensive labor, she gave birth to their darling baby boy, Warren Charles, at 8.30 am on Sunday morning 4th February. Many first-time mothers would have caved in, but Meadow was so prepared spiritually and mentally, and continued with great endurance as she labored forward to the ultimate joy of her baby appearing. She reaped the reward of the glorious, oxytocin high of a natural birth. She was on such a high that she was ready to do it all over again!
Don’t you think it’s a good idea to make baby showers more meaningful?
Love from Nancy Campbell