All quiet on the western front.

Well...kind of all quiet on the western front.

It turns out that I am going to have a baby on Monday.

Then...as I was trying to rest today while watching a two year old (yeah...there wasn't much rest going on), it struck me that I AM GOING TO HAVE A BABY ON MONDAY!

First I was excited. She will finally be here. I can kiss her little face and hold her tight and tell her over and over again how much I love and adore her.

Second I was a little bit terrified. This will be my third time having a baby and the last time was a little...well...traumatic. Sophie didn't want to come out, then she wanted to come out with her hand in front of her face, then instruments were used, and finally she was free. There was also that glorious moment when they handed me my child and I looked at her and thought my baby has down syndrome which began a rapid succession of thoughts in my mind about how little I knew about down syndrome and my panic that I wouldn't be able to be the mother she needed. Then there was the very reassuring moment when the doctor looked at me and said "She looks like she has down syndrome, but I don't think she does. I think she has dwarfism." Which started another whirlwind of thoughts in my mind and also my campaign to learn as much about dwarfism in the next two days as humanly possible. I like to be prepared.

Sophia, thankfully, has neither down syndrome or dwarfism. The child is three feet tall for crying out loud.

After processing all of this and a few tears (I am pregnant - the tears are a given), I came back to being excited. Sure labor may be rough, but it is only a moment in time and at the end of the day one way or another we will be blessed with another daughter.

Plus, I have a lot of things going for me this time. Because I like to be prepared to spout these off to myself whenever needed I have made a list.

1. My doctor is here. Last time he was on "emergency family leave" for eight weeks beginning the week before I was supposed to deliver. He just got back from Florida for spring break, so he should be rested and ready to go. This is good because he will not say things like "I think your baby has dwarfism." Instead he'll say things like "Well, she looks a little rough...let's see how things look in the morning before we freak out."
2. I like our family doctor. When Sophia was born we had a pediatrician that I had only seen twice before she came to see us in the hospital. She was dead set on Sophie having dwarfism. It was weird.
3. I have lived in Fort Wayne for nearly three years. This has become our home. Last time we had been here for just under a year and it still felt like we were just visitors. Now we say things like "Ah...you so could have gone through that yellow light!"  and honk our horn a bunch. We're Hoosiers now.

So all and all things are quiet...or at least as quiet as things ever are in my house. We are looking forward to spending the weekend with Connor and Sophia, for having those last couple of nights where there are no nighttime feedings, and to not needing to bring eleven million things along on a half an hour trip. 

We are also looking forward to meeting Elinor. We are looking forward to seeing if she looks like me, or Ben, or some combination of the two. We are looking forward to showing her to Connor and Sophia. We are looking forward to little baby coos and little baby smiles.