Baby waiting

Spring has come, and my wife has been noticing that several of her friends are having their babies. Babies are everywhere. I have not seen these babies, but my wife swears that she sees their pictures on Facebook. Most of the pregnant friends that I know still remain pregnant, so I am not quite sure what babies my wife is seeing. Maybe she is at a lesser known stage in pregnancy where all she sees is babies. That would certainly make grocery stores and post offices more interesting. Employment would be difficult. Nonetheless, babies and pregnant people abound, and things are about to get crazy.
I never realized that having pregnant friends can make this process much less daunting. It has been quite the blessing. I have enjoyed speaking with others who share in my anticipation and nervousness. They have put me at ease. We have talked about our plans, our hopes, and our respective collections of onesies. This world would be a bit more frightening without friends.
And now that some of our friends are having babies, I can expect the anticipation to intensify even more. The doctor has already said that he might be a week late, so we are prepared for this. In fact, my wife recently said that she feels like she’s been sitting in a restaurant for an extremely long time. We feel like we were brought to our table, and informed of the specials. We ordered, and now we’ve been waiting for nine months. Now, right when we expect our meal, we start to notice that every other table is getting served. Come on, baby. Show up already. We promise not to become the restaurant couple that asks “Hey, didn’t they get here after us?”  After all, we certainly enjoy seeing all the adorable babies. Keep them coming. We’re just realizing how ready we are for this baby to show up.
The restaurant metaphor only goes so far. I have refrained from staring at other people’s passing babies and saying “Mmmm that one looks great. Can we ask for that one instead?” Besides, I think people get uncomfortable when you ask if you can trade for their baby. I’ll just keep waiting patiently for my own.