Hangin' with Chica

We are bound for the ranch again this weekend, and because of a series of doctor’s appointments I had to bring a separate car to Ginormousville. I decided to head out a day early so I could hang out with Chica.

She is taking most of this ‘I am getting a brand new baby in six weeks’ stuff in stride, but for whatever reason, baby bedding is the hill she has chosen to die on. Chica has a very specific (fabulous!) design aesthetic and is finding it difficult to find bedding that doesn’t make her gag. She is not a fan of pink and the word “cutesy” is not in her vocabulary. She wants primary colored (red, specifically) girl bedding – which may as well be the Rings of the Nibelungen (hey! A non-pop-culture cultural reference!).

She found a boldly colored country-French floral, but everyone keeps telling her that it is too grown up and to just buy the pink already! This, understandably, frustrates her. She found several other fabrics that she likes, but couldn’t visualize how they would look as a finished product.

Rae Ann to the rescue! She sent me links to all of the swatches she was considering and I made her what amounts to paper dolls for home décor. I created a template of the nursery that included curtains, crib bumper, bumper ties and the bed skirt. I filled each template with one of the swatches Chica had sent me. Then I created a nursery to put them in with paint in colors that coordinated with the floral. Finally, I cut out all of the little pieces and you could dress the nursery and see how all of the parts looked together. Pretty slick, if I do say so myself.

I took the whole kit and caboodle over to her house and we got the whole thing sorted out over some lovely Scottish tea that tasted of apricots.

Coincidentally, her birth mother lives near our ranch in the middle of Nowhere. I am currently planning to camp out there around the due date so I can see the new baby right away (that’s not stalker-like at all, huh?). Chica is so cute! When she found out that I wanted to come out for the birth, she offered to buy me a pair of the matching PJ’s that she is getting for her mother and herself (a men’s style pajama in a fun leopard print. Whee! I love me some leopard print.)

She asked for some input on what would have made my birth experience more pleasant so she could provide that for the birth mother. I completely drew a blank. All I could come up with was some music to labor by. I had music with me for Z’s birth, but in all the excitement forgot about it. Q came earlier than expected, so I hadn’t even downloaded his music yet – and there wouldn’t have been time for it anyway. He was born literally one minute after we dashed into the hospital, but that’s a story for another day. What would you have liked to have at your birth to make the whole experience better/easier?

What kind of gift could you give to the birth mother to say thank you? What gift shows a birth mother how much you appreciate her sacrifice without becoming something that reminds her of a difficult time in her life every time she looks at it? Somehow, a thank-you-for-giving-us-this-baby-you-grew-inside-of-you-for-nine-months-cupcake doesn’t seem quite right, but the agency says that many of the birth mothers like to have some sort of memento. Any ideas?

I am just so excited for Chica I can hardly stand it. I can’t wait to hold that sweet Chicklette!