A shower for baby

I’m not sure how to articulate my feelings about this wonderful afternoon but will give it a go…

I was a dingbat and stressed out for most of the week before the shower for so many reasons, some reasonable and others not so much. What can I say, pregnancy hormones really do mess with your emotions. Anyway, the afternoon arrived, I finally relaxed and actually had the loveliest time. Cake, chatter and the women I adore most in my life, how could it be anything other than the best.

A dear friend organised a few cute activities for us to do. We had to guess the size of my bump by cutting a piece of string to size. Alex and I took some silly head shots and we cut the photos up into facial features, mixed them up on the table and then people put them together to see what our baby might look like. It was highly entertaining and good for a laugh. We’ll have to put them away and bring them out to show baby in years to come. Mum bought along three notebooks to collect messages from those present for things to do on a bad day, parenting advice and notes for mum and baby. I haven’t got to reading them yet, I think we may have to stock up on tissues first!

The food

I designed the menu around my pregnancy cravings, ease of preparation and limited baking ability of my oven. There has been a flow of disappointing baked goods from the oven and I did not want to serve food like that at my shower. We enjoyed:

• Stephanie Alexander’s flourless chocolate cake. My favourite cake of all time and something I have been craving for quite some time. Served with thick cream and raspberry sauce. Little slices of heaven I’m telling you.
• Lemon shortbread with lemon icing – lucky I made a big batch, they were quite the hit
• Orange cacao date balls – thrown together in the Thermomix. Recipe loosely based on this one and Emma and Tom’s bars (I’ve eaten a lot of those this pregnancy)
• A grazing board filled with pregnancy friendly cheeses, including a baked brie (swoon!), caramelised onions, quince paste, hoummous, veggies, dried fruit and an assortment of crackers and bread
• Fruit, another pregnancy craving
• Strawberry, mint and hibiscus iced tea. I saw the recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked beautiful. Plus a friend gifted me some hibiscus tea earlier in my pregnancy, it’s a Brazilian tradition to give an expectant mother this type of tea, so it seemed rather appropriate.
• Friends and family bought along other cakes and biscuits and we had the loveliest feast together.

Some friends slept over afterwards so we made this delicious soup for dinner and watched What to Expect When You’re Expecting whilst eating Malteasers and more shortbread.

So many family and friends travelled from afar to celebrate this sweet babe of ours so we hosted everyone for breakfast the next morning too. In most un-Sian style (I usually insist on making everything from scratch and making these sorts of events far more work than they need to be) I bought a selection of muesli from the supermarket to serve with pears that Alex’s mum poached, along with yoghurt and milk. It made for such a simple yet delicious breakfast, and most importantly meant I relaxed and enjoyed time with our visitors. We drank copious amounts of tea and chatted all morning. My heart felt full and so very blessed.

So here I am, a few days later, enjoying the decorations still hanging around the house, feeling so very loved and blessed and spoilt! Realising how far we are from our family and friends now but also realising that I do indeed have a village, it’s just rather spread out. And if I use my phone more, I wont feel quite so isolated.