Time’s up

I have finally been told after being driven crazy by my doctor that I have a birth date for the new baby. Last week I mentioned how they (the doctor’s office and hospital) were going to let me know. I got a phone call and a date given to me. Then two days later the hospital calls and gives me a date that is one day closer. Excited and relieved to know when I am expecting to meet the new addition to our family I started to let my immediate family know. Of course I had already told them the first date I was given and now was basically re-informing them that it was a day sooner than what I had previously been told and passed on. I went to the hospital to register last week and had a nurse give me the run down of what to expect the day of delivery.

The week began and I was preparing for and happy to have a date. I started the countdown. However, it only lasted until I went for my last doctor’s visit yesterday. I was told that the hospital and nurse wrote down the wrong date, so it is back to a day later (the original) and not sooner. Now I had to retell all my family not to show up the day sooner but a day later! That is what I meant by being driven crazy. Good thing my father didn’t ask for the wrong day off, or he’d be free on the wrong day and have to be at work on the right one.

Baby T is just wound up with anticipation. He always hugs the baby (my belly) before he’ll hug me. When I lay with him at bedtime he falls asleep rubbing the baby. If I seem tired Baby T is right there asking if the baby is all right. But the sweetest thing is how much he loves the new baby already and he hasn’t even seen him yet. He tells me how he’s going to teach the baby to walk, talk and play cars. That his dad has to break his legs (apparently an accident is on Baby T’s wish list) so that only Baby T can push the stroller not his dad. Baby T is convinced if his dad can walk he won’t let him drive the baby around. Baby T has helped me wash and fold baby blankets for the new baby. All of which used to be Baby T’s except the new receiving blankets and quilt my grandmother made. She always makes me receiving blankets, towels and quilts. I’m sure she is glad that I had them all safely put away for when the new baby came.

After Baby T was born I knew I wanted more children. But as time passed I began to think that Baby T was it for me. I even accepted that he would be an only child and I would just have to always borrow cousins and friends so he would have playmates. The new baby was a total surprise but couldn’t be coming at a more perfect time. Baby T started big kid school; he runs onto his bus without looking back and cleans up after himself. He is careful and aware not to jump on me and that I cannot pick him up. He talks to my belly and tells the baby things like how much love he has and that he will protect him. I get a little emotional when I see how well Baby T has been about it. I mean sure he is a little whiny at times with what I suspect is worry about not being the only child and baby anymore. Even though, he argues that he is a big boy, he has been the only baby for a while. I mean I even worried when I found out I was pregnant how it would affect Baby T. About the time that those worries came to my mind he started the big kid school and I knew that it was the best time. He was going to be gone during the day when the baby was a newborn. He would be old enough to know what careful and gentle is. And best of all we could still make him feel special by letting him be in charge of baby gear purchases like clothes and after being the one who could go with daddy or mommy out to the store because the new baby can’t.

Baby T had been asking for a baby for about a year before we knew we were having this one. We’d come home from a visit and he’d ask me with a very sad face, “Why come I don’t have sisters or brothers?” I’d have to say that we just didn’t get one yet. And then he’d say “well everyone else has one or two babies at their house” It was one of those things I couldn’t really explain to him, I am glad that now he isn’t making me feel guilty anymore. This morning when Baby T was getting ready for school we talked about how the baby is coming in two days and he corrected me by saying, “No two more sleeps!” That’s the way he judges time like days and weeks so how dare I try to mess him up by saying days not sleeps. It wasn’t long ago I had to tell him when he’d ask, “oh about fifty sleeps before the baby is here.” It’s hard to believe that in two more sleeps time’s up!