Inside Jill (Duggar) Dillard's Baby Shower – Plus an Exclusive Sneak Peek of Tonight's Show (VIDEO)

The 19 Kids and Counting star shares details of her party as tonight's episode shows her cooking an exotic meal for her husband Derick

Photo: Courtesy of Jill and Derick Dillard

The countdown to Jill and Derick Dillard’s baby’s birth has officially begun.

On Feb. 28, the 19 Kids and Counting stars, whose TLC show airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m., were feted at a baby shower hosted by Jill’s friend and midwifery teacher Venessa Giron at the A Mommy’s Butterfly Midwifery in Tontitown, Arkansas.

Despite an ice storm that hit the area, Jill, 23, and Derick, 25, were joined by 50 guests to celebrate the upcoming birth of their baby boy due in weeks.

“It was an amazing turnout even though the weather was bad,” Jill tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The party featured sandwiches, cake and of course pickles (a Duggar family favorite).

“Venessa knows how to throw a party,” Jill says. “There were lots of baby decorations around and it was really special.”

Guests wrote words of encouragement on notes they stuck to diapers – “So if we are up at two in the morning, we will have words that will inspire us from all these moms,” says Jill – as well as adding words of support on a labor board that can be read when Jill goes into labor.

“Many of the women there were ones I helped through labor as a midwife,” Jill says. “The board says labor of love, and Derick or one of my midwives can read those to me when I’m in labor.”

Since the Dillards are planning a home birth, guests donated toward a birthing pool, liner and all the other supplies they needed as well as giving the couple gift cards.

“We have everything we need now,” says Jill. “We are ready to go.”

Since Derick had never been to a baby shower, he attended with his wife along with other men in the family, including Derick’s brother, Daniel, and Jill’s brother-in-law Ben Seewald, 19, who attended with his wife (and Jill’s sister) Jessa, 22. The newlyweds recently shared a tour of their home in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.

“Sometimes guys aren’t at the baby shower, but Derick wanted to be there,” Jill says. “He wanted to experience everything and he hadn’t been to a baby shower at all. It was a fun time.”

The couple attended a smaller shower with family and friends on Sunday, and say they’re ready to meet their new son.

Tonight’s episode (see a sneak peek below) of 19 Kids and Counting features Jill trying to make a Nepali-themed dinner for Derick, whom she met for the first time when he was doing missionary work in Nepal.

“I couldn’t cook at all during my first trimester,” she says in the clip. “The smells were too much.”

But now, as Jill gets prepared for birth, she says she’s feeling well.

“I have been having a few Braxton Hicks contracts here and there and the little guy is moving around a lot,” she says.

And Derick is doing his part by running downstairs in the middle of the night to get his wife snacks when she needs them.

“I woke up completely hungry the other night and figured I needed protein,” says Jill. “Derick ran downstairs and got me a glass of milk. He is the sweetest guy. We are so excited and very happy.”

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