Baby Alert

My sister will be going into labor ANY MINUTE NOW and my entire family is on standby. Our phones are nearby, and we run to answer them, hurdling chairs and and pushing people out of the way. Of course, it is mainly us calling each other, "Have you heard anything?" Today I called my mother on her cell while she was at work because, it turns out, I don't have my sister's phone number (I could've sworn I had it around here somewhere; I'm not known for my organizational skills or rather, I am, but I'm not good at organizing my own life). My mother, somewhat annoyed that it was her older daughter calling rather than her younger one demanded, "What do you want?" I told her to call me back later.

This is the first baby in my immediate family. I am beside myself with nervousness and excitement and I can barely get any labwork done, because I am thinking about Meghan and the baby all the time. She has been having contractions 20 minutes apart for days now. She's supposed to see the doctor tomorrow if the baby doesn't come before then.

This is a marked contrast to when Meghan herself was born. It was a Sunday, and I woke up because there was a commotion out in the hall. I went out and asked what was going on and Jason said, "Mom's having the baby!" To which I replied, "I guess we're not going to church then," and went back to sleep. I was 12 at the time and this being my third sibling and possibly another brother (Mom didn't ask what the sex was) I was not so enthusiastic. I made up for it later though, by inviting my friend over and we waited by the phone while baking a cake to welcome my mom and the new baby (don't worry, I cleaned up the kitchen) and when my father called to tell me I had a new sister, there waa much jumping up and down and screaming followed by, "Does this mean I get a new room?"* And then more jumping up and down and screaming.

This is very different. It's getting to the point that when they call me to tell me she's in labor, I might just rent a car right that minute and drive to Iowa (unless it's the middle of the night in which case the car rental place will be closed). For her sake, I hope it's over by the time I get there (it's a 7 hour drive), but I wouldn't mind sitting up with someone waiting. If it happens in the middle of the night I don't know what I'll do becuase I'll want to call someone and it's considered bad form to call your friends in the middle of the night unless you are dying or your heart has been broken. I had been iffy about whether I was going to go see the baby right away or wait until the baptism, but I now realize there is no possible way I can wait.



*My two borthers shared a room, but I had always had my own. However, my room was too tiny to be shared, even with a baby (my bed and dresser fit in there and that was about it) so if the baby was a girl, we were enclosing the back porch and that was going to be my new room and I was going to get to decorate it.