Pregnancy Times Four

I love my beautiful wife. She's taking one for the team on this one.

Our three previous children made it through their nine months -- excuse me, it's 40 weeks now -- in utero with nary a serious problem. Jeannie cruised through those experiences relatively pain free until it was time to do the serious stuff.

In fact, the only problems I can remember are Coby briefly having the umbilical cord around his neck and forcing some tense moments during delivery. I've been wanting to choke him at times ever since myself (THAT'S A JOKE, PEOPLE...NO NEED TO COMMENT)...

Melody had the most serious in terms of problems at delivery. When she was born I noticed her little chest heaving very heavily throughout the cleaning-up process in the nursery. I also knew enough from childbirth classes that her oxygen level wasn't where it was supposed to be. As it turned out, Mel was suffering from "wet lung," which basically means she had swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid during delivery and it was sitting in her chest cavity. Luckily for us Dr. Tex arrived just in time to control the situation and the baby was resting comfortably later that evening, although her and mommy didn't bond as well in that critical period following birth because of the extra time spent in the nursery.

They're still working on the bonding thing 10 years later (AGAIN, only halfway-kidding...)

The only problem with Abigail was that her father almost missed the birth entirely. We induced a week or so before the due date because a) Jeannie had had enough of pregnancy around the holidays and didn't want to endure a miserable New Year's, and b) daddy needed the income tax break the next child would bring.

Inducing is great. It's like going in for surgery. You have all this time to pack up, get ready physically and mentally for the birth and still get to the hospital without breaking traffic laws.

Only problem was it sped up the labor process fairly quickly. About 1 p.m. or so the nurse gave the laboring mom a checkup and everything was pretty slow, still looking at a few hours before birth. I saw an open window to go have lunch, so I got approval from the wife to grab a much-needed bite.

I sat down with my tray in the cafeteria and before I could take the first bite my cell phone was ringing. The doctor had come in and checked Jeannie and said it was time to have a baby! I hurriedly disposed of the lunch (and no, I didn't dispose of it in my mouth!) and made it back upstairs just in time to watch little Abby come into the world.

The speed of the delivery evidently was a picture of her personality, because Abby's been running around at breakneck speed ever since.

All this makes me wonder what's going on with Lily. She's sure making it hard on Mommy. We're officially down to counting days now -- as of this post we're at 47. Jeannie had to miss most of Melody's softball tournament this weekend because the heat was just unbearable for her to be carrying a two-year old around as well as one in the womb.

All she wants to do is lay in bed or on the couch and take naps, which is totally understandable. But she definitely had more energy with the first three. Lily turns somersaults every half hour or so, and Jeannie's been suffering fake labor contractions for about a month now, and that's something that never happened 1 through 3.

Lily also is apparently getting ready to play on the trampoline in the backyard. Unfortunately the trampoline now is Mommy's bladder, which is taking a serious pounding -- enough to make Jeannie reach and punch, squeeze, pinch Daddy whenever it's time for baby to jump. It's a feeling and pain that only expectant mothers can experience.

The pregnancy this time is different because of all that. I can't say it's been loads of fun for anyone, and yes we are all very ready for Lily to actually arrive. Mommy definitely. What I do know is that it's going to be an experience unlike any other, because that's just the way things go.