Last night, we had our last class until the baby is born. So we’ve made it to totally prepared, just as I predicted over the weekend. So lets see here:
- Get pregnant. check
- Make announcements. check
- Take pics. check
- Prettify nursery. check
- Fill it with furniture, clothes, toys, and products. check & check
- Take all the recommended classes. check
Yep, we’re all set now. Just need to have the baby, and then start living the easy life. Right? Just going to be that simple. Baby will arrive, perfectly clean and easy, on exactly the due date. C will be ready to run her marathon a few hours later. We’ll go home and everything will be great. Baby will sleep at night, and require minimal maintenance during the day. By one month, the baby will be feeding and changing him/herself, and talking by 2 months (hacking by 3 months?).
And then he/she will become a wonder-child, worshiped by a large country out west. We will be showered with gifts and money, and be forced into retirement simply because that country wishes us to focus on our wonder-child. We will live happily ever after, filthy rich, loved by the world and allowed to live privately.
Of course, I could be exaggerating a little bit. This could be ignorance of what is truly coming down the road at us1.
But I ask you: what’s healthier? Worrying about what may or may not happen? Or believing we’re ready, while still understanding that we don’t know it all.
Are we ready to be parents? In a word, No. But that’s not a negative thing. If everyone said they were ready, I wouldn’t believe them. Nothing against them. Just how I feel. We can’t know all there is to know;2 no matter how many classes we take, books we read, and people we talk to. That’s part of becoming a new parent: you get to learn stuff, by talking or reading or trial and error.
When we were born, we weren’t ready to be babies. When we grew up, we weren’t ready to be adults. When we get married, we weren’t ready to be spouses. When we have children, we’re not ready to be parents.
Our parents figured it out, just as theirs did before them. And I think they have all done great jobs (puts a feather in my parents cap for me, and of course one in Oz’s cap for C). So with that in mind, I am certain that we will do a great job too!
And I couldn’t have a better mommy in mind for my child, period.
p.s. – This afternoon is the last ultrasound. Tomorrow is another doc visit. Baby shower is Saturday (Target and Babies r Us). Guess I got a bit off topic there. 
You never stop learning as a parent. You had a diaper rash all the time as a baby. When Ryan was born I was told to always take him to the sink and wash him off by hand (no washclothe) he never had a diaper rash. But I did use a lot of cloth diapers with a lot of fabric softener. Old fashioned but it worked.
Each child has it’s own personality.
Your stomach does sommer salts when they are learning to walk and when they are in grade school and you get called into the principles office becase they said, “That really pissed me off”
You worry about them all through highshool and hope you are guiding them in the right direction.
Then one day they are grown and married and you have a new batch to worry about. Your grandchildren. And you thank God that you always have some individual to keep your thoughts on.
Woudn’t life be boring without children.
Love
Mom