Wild Child Emme and Terp Update

Terp's about to pop! Weeks ago she crossed over from the cruising phase of the pregnancy (as if there really is one) to the miserable get-this-thing-outta-me phase. She's having trouble sleeping these days and while she had hoped for an early delivery, she's two weeks from the official due date and not effaced or showing any signs.

We hereby predict that Emme will be a wild child. My prediction is based on the fact that Murphy's Law simply won't allow us another perfect baby like Ava (especially in 2008... Murphy apparently won't be voting with us through 2010). Heather's prediction is based on something slightly more entrenched in the physical universe: Emme's kicking. Emme is a much more active and spastic kicker.

We watched a baby show the other night. Before Ava was born we watched those shows with awe and excitement. About twenty minutes into the show, after both of us had been quietly avoiding eye contact, we looked at each other, shared a moment and said "oh, crap." Now that we know the drill we know that the young baby portion of the show is slightly less enjoyable than the toddler portion.

There's a natural tendency to feel guilty that as parents we're not as hyped about the late night feeding sessions, unpredictable barfing and explosive diarrhea as we were with Ava. But that's just not fair. We're in a different place now. We have different demands on our time... including one named Ava. And we know what's coming down the road.

And since some day Emme will most certainly use this blog post to guilt trip her parents, justify some teenage angst and secure a higher allowance, we must be clear that we are incredibly excited to bring Emme into the world. It's just going to be different this time around. Yes Emme, we're winning the argument and you're not even born yet.

So Emme, our experiences with you will be different, but no less special or spectacular. In fact, I'm sure you'd consider it insulting if we did everything exactly the same as we had with Ava.

But we will give you this little tidbit of angst-justifying information... two weeks before your birth we still don't know what your middle name will be. I'm lobbying for one, mom doesn't like it. My plan is to fill out the form while mom's in a drugged-up post-birth state. By the time she knows what happened you'll have what I believe is a great middle name. Yeah, daddy isn't smart kiddo.

We haven't packed our hospital bags, charged the camera batteries or programmed the gps navigator. But we'll get there. In another week we'll go into high alert mode. Cell phones on me at all times, etc. Heather's getting weekly doctor's checkups so we expect that next week or the week after there will be some sign that it's going to happen.

Emme's head-down these days. Ready to rock and roll.

Ava knows that Emme's coming. Terp brought a pack n' play into the house and told Ava it's for Emme. About two hours later I was walking Ava into the house when she sat on it and said "for Emme." She talks about Emme a good bit and points to Terp's tummy. It's cute. She can't wait to meet her little sister.