Yikes! What the...?

March 1 2011

Ok, ok. I know technically how this happened, but even seven-and-a-half months in, I can't believe it. 


Wee Dollie, sweetest Dollie, is not yet walking. She does not have words. She still eats peas. She is still cutting teeth. She is very much still in nappies. 


And yet here [imminently] comes Number Two, "The Little Dude." 


He's a mover, a shaker, and a troublemaker, I can pretty much already tell. Even if I'm wrong and he turns out to be the mellowest squishy lump of a baby in the world, one thing's for sure:  


We need to brace for impact. 


I'm more intimidated -- terrified, really -- about bringing another baby on board. I think it's because last time it was a great mystery, a wonder, an adventure. This time, we know exactly what we're getting into. (And I should note that Baby #1 is an absolute delight. She has her moments, but she has generally slept through the night since she was only months old, which any parent will tell you is the ultimate golden gift from the universe.) 


Between FT work and a one-year old, I haven't had much time to focus on being pregnant. But at this stage, it's hard to ignore: contractions, heartburn, bloating, creaking, peeing, tossing and turning, trying not to dwell on the fact that I have a small-but-growing human churning about in my abdomen...


Spending these final weeks attempting to organize the house, get things tied up at work, file the paperwork I've ignored for the last year, finish tiling a bathroom (somehow, I always end up tiling a bathroom in the last weeks of pregnancy?). But I'm being a little more realistic than last time about what I can accomplish -- at least I let go of finishing my dissertation, learning French and mastering the guitar before the baby arrives. I figure all that can wait until retirement.