4 weeks early!!

My friend Keri, who works at my school, was due on Christmas, but she had her baby...yesterday!!  Now I know that this happens and I know that babies can be born even earlier than that, but this was a little bit of a wake-up call for me.  The last time I saw Keri she was walking into the photocopy room on Monday and complaining that she was feeling really horrible.  On Tuesday she was out of school and I heard that both her & her husband were home with the flu!  I have no idea whether having the flu had anything to do with having the baby early, but I do know that eveyone is doing well now.  I just keep thinking about how she went home from school on Monday, thinking she would be back soon, and now she has a baby!!  Fortunately she already had her sub lined up and she was planning on working until Dec. 21st, so I guess she must have known that this could happen.

 

On the other hand, until this happend, I wasn't really expecting to be surprised. (I guess that is the definition of surprised.)  I keep thinking I'll stop working about 2 weeks before my due date.  I keep imagining that I'll have plenty of time to help the new teacher adjust and plenty of time to "prepare" and the nursery will be already and the clothes will be already and everything will just be all set.  But in my little imaginary senario, I never imagine having all these things done on March 21st!!  In fact March 21st is during my spring break & I actually have been imagining that Matt & I will be visiting family in Albany or maybe be on one last little trip for just the two of us...

 

Okay, so rationally I know that it is very unlikely that I will have a baby on March 21st, but somehow, it seems a lot more likely now.  Each time Keri & I chat about how we are both doing, I keep thinking, okay so that's me in four months...so you can see how my imaginary senario is slightly disrupted.

 

Bottom line, I think I'm now inspired to more seriously think about lamaze classes, breastfeeding classes, furniture shopping, hospital visiting, substitute hiring...and oh, by the way Matt, I'm now officially voting against you presenting a paper at a conference in Chicago on April 4th!!