the piano and the world's longest gestation

first off, i should mention that our beautiful baby girl was born on oct. 15 and we couldn't be happier (and by "we," i mean my husband, me and ... my mom). i will get into all of the stories that have happened since my daughter's birth, but i need to get in some other stories that happened during my pregnancy first.

i was lucky enough to have two baby showers -- one with family and one with friends. my mom, of course, decided to attend both. i was actually fine with it because throughout my pregnancy i was having all sorts of sentimental feelings about her, some of which i'll chalk up to insane hormones.

anyway, the family one was fine and she was mostly well behaved. the friend shower is another story.

first off, my mom had been bugging me about her piano in the weeks leading up to the shower. she had the piano from my childhood in her mother-in-law's house in canada. it had been there for years. suddenly, for reasons i still don't get, the piano had to be moved. my mom decided it should be moved to my apartment.

something of note: my husband and i live in a quaint two-bedroom apartment that fits us. at the time, we had a baby on the way and the baby stuff was piling up. the last thing i wanted to do was squeeze in a piano.

of course, i would love to have the piano -- if  i had the space. unfortunately, i didn't. i explained this to her, but she was unrelenting, leaving me voicemails, sending me emails and generally harassing me about it. i was so annoyed that i just stopped taking her calls or calling her back. and since we usually talk many times a week, she freaked out, thought i was dead, called my husband and called my sister to call my husband. one would think she would take the hint, but she was never one to understand or utilize subtly.

anyway, at the shower while i'm picking my mother-in-law up at the airport, my mom corners a friend of mine and says, "don't you think she should take my piano and put it here?" (pointing to a spot that is right next to my front door.) my friend, having no idea what my mom is talking about or why, said something like, "that would be nice" and tried to leave the conversation. but she didn't get far before my mom told her about the longest gestation in the history of the world: mine.

according to my mom, i was born "literally 30 days late."

once i got back from the airport, my friend pulled me aside to discuss the matters of the piano and gestation. i told her the piano was ridiculous but that the gestation thing was something my mom had created in her mind.

see, it turns out that when i got married, my mom gave me my baby book. and when i got pregnant, i actually read it.

there, in her own handwriting, it says that i was induced because i was two weeks late -- not 30 days. my mom also said that i was in the womb so long because they didn't have drugs to induce then. um, they did. and she writes about it in the baby book.

i mentioned this story to my brother (because he was also involved in stories at this shower -- more on that in the next post) who clearly remembered getting shipped to my aunt and uncle's house so that my mom could go to hospital, as *scheduled.*

anyway, i told my friend not to mention that i knew exactly how late i was born as i haven't actually told my mom that she wrote down a totally different story. i mean, she just loves telling it so much that i didn't have the heart to break hers in telling her the truth. it seems she thinks there was some sort of extra bond between us because i was with her 30 extra days. who am i to tell her our bonding time was only half of what she thinks?

i'll just let her go on believing her story. and holding onto the piano, which is now being shipped to her condo in fla.