as i sit here this morning, putting off more of the housework i had hoped to catch up on while i was on my break from school, my sister is in a hospital over a thousand miles away hoping to have her baby today.
i shall be an aunt again -- an auntē maybe? i have no clue as to whether she is having a girl or a boy (neither does anyone else in my family, or my sister, or my brother-in-law's family, as far as i know.) but, it is indeed the intention to be delivering this child today, sometime.
i'm happy and excited for her, but in a detached sort of way as being so physically far away seems to make this less immediate in my mind. when my nephew was born in 1996, we were at the hospital shortly after we got the call that my sister was in labor. and we sat and waited and sat and waited and well... i'm sure you get the picture. it was about as exciting as watching grass grow or watching golf on tv.
now, of course, compared to my own experience with childbirth, anything following the natural order of things is generally unexciting. it only took me about an hour and a half to two hours from finding out i needed to have savannah RIGHT NOW, to actually being strapped onto the table and having her pulled from my body. most people don't get that kind of fast-track to giving birth. instead, we get to feel like we're watching golf on tv.
i'm much more interested in how things will be after the baby comes home. this is my sister's second child with her second husband. and he reportedly wants a boatload of kids, being the good Catholic that he is... i'm just dying to know what he thinks about that in about a month or so.
he needs to actually be a parent from the beginning to be able to come to that particular realization. it's far easier to fantasize about wanting children, until you actually have to be a parent. he's been great with my nephew for the most part, but he met him when he was already 4 or 5. not NEARLY the same thing.
i love my child and would not trade her for the world, but i imagine that i would have to have some kind of extraordinary experience for me to want any more. i haven't entirely eliminated the possibility of it happening, but it is not looking like something i think i'd like to do.
regardless, i am looking forward to finding out what new person is coming into our family. i adore my family, and i hope that it isn't a terrible adjustment for my nephew who will be 8(!) years old in july. he also says he wants a brother or sister, but he doesn't yet fully understand what that will mean for him either.
i hope that all goes well, and there aren't any complications. i hope that my sister comes out of everything well, and doesn't have too difficult a time with the delivery itself. and then maybe over the weekend i will go out and look for something to send to the new baby.
the only thing wallace and i bought before savannah was born was books. i have know the baby's name and gender before i feel like i'll be able to find something to send from us. i'm just weird like that, i guess.
here's to hoping for a happy day for my sister and all of our family. now, i suppose i should get up and do something more productive, and wait for the phone to ring.
Posted by lara at May 12, 2004 11:01 AM | TrackBack