Baby Season!

What were you doing between Memorial Day and the 4th of July?

I ask because I have 6 friends in real life that are pregnant and due between March 10th and April 3rd. And a bunch more on Facebook.

Is there something about those last days of Spring and first days of Summer that are an aphrodisiac? (My birthday is March 20, so maybe I don't really want to know...)

I think it's a very strange phenomenon. It kind of reminds me of when I was pregnant, it seemed like the rest of the world was pregnant, too, because I was just more aware. But this time, it's all on them...no babies coming around here.

Now, the really strange part to me is that of these six friends in-real-life, five are expecting girls, and only one is expecting a boy. Wow.

And now, they're all starting the countdown. The waiting game. Some are even contracting as you read this.

My friend C on Facebook is due today with a boy. Her family is there with her, waiting, and as far as I know (through stalking her status updates...and her brother and sister-in-law's, whom I'm also friends with) there's no baby yet.

I remember those days well. When I was pregnant with Larry Potter, I stopped working about 3 weeks before he was born. I was an assistant property manager at an apartment complex. Without an elevator. And three buildings, all with three stories and a basement. The day of my shower in the community room, my boss took one look at me and said I had "the look." I didn't know what she meant then, but I know it now. And anyone that's ever had a baby knows "the look" I speak of.

You're going to need a few bribes if you want me to come on YOUR schedule.

He didn't come for three weeks after that, which was right on time, but that didn't stop me from doing all the old wives tales to induce labor. There was fresh pineapple. Red Raspberry Leaf tea. Good, old-fashioned, ahem, biological ways of starting labor, which didn't work and was more of a comedy of errors. Castor Oil, which left me cleaned out and afraid to eat anything for a day, but still pregnant. (I borrowed it from my downstairs neighbor Jill who had a baby 3 months earlier. Didn't work for her either.) There were long walks and bumpy car rides (which we brought Mozart along for, which is when we discovered that our cat gets carsick). And about 4 days before my due date, I stopped trying because I was convinced the baby was never going to come out.

And the night before my due date, my water broke. I guess I should have trusted the medical profession all along. (Except when my doctor estimated LP's birth weight at "Eight pounds...maybe," when he was over ten. Yes, I still have a grudge. And a limp.)

I didn't have a chance to try any old wives tales for the other two, as we were trying to stop labor with both before they came. Hoover was a month early, and honestly, my first thought was "Yes! I don't have to be pregnant any more!" and then "This baby is just going to slide right out!"

So my gestating friends nearing the end, I'm thinking of you. Some of you, hormonal; some of you, anxious; all of you, uncomfortable. My friend ESM is due March 10 and since my birthday is the 20th, I keep saying she should go on that day. I would say she no longer finds it funny, but that would imply she once thought it was actually funny. "Why do you want me to go that long?" she texted me one night. I forgot that few things are as unfunny to a pregnant woman in her 3rd trimester as joking about going over her due date.

So, to my remaining friends, online, through the blog, and in real life, if you're due in March or early April, aim for the 20th, but only if it's your due date or earlier. And if you're still trying to find that most beautiful name for your daughter, might I suggest Jessica...