My Sister is REALLY Pregnant!

I have been begging my sister for a picture of "the belly". She lives 5 hours away from me so I don't get to see her day to day or even week to week. I know when she appears with this baby I am going to be like...WHAT! if I don't get a visual every so often. So today at 22 weeks she finally got me one! LOVE IT! She looks great! Makes it real for me. She shares her progress on assembling the baby room. She tells how Andy is reading to baby nightly. She has had some goofy cravings...and she is soooo excited for baby to get here! She is going to be an amazing mom and even though I keep telling her to relax and enjoy every moment of this journey; I can't help but want life to fast forward 3 years when we can go camping with them and have the kids run around while we sit back and have a cocktail and reminisce about the good ol' days. But no...I will not wish the next three years to go fast because they will go fast whether we wish them to or not. I see that with my own. Henry is already one and cruising around on his two feet instead of on his knees. Charley leaves me for preschool two afternoons a week and kindergarten will come soon enough.

So I am so glad I got a visual. It makes me realize that there is going to be this little being who is going to be a little bit like his/her mama and a little bit like his/her daddy. Will he/she be a lefty like his/her parents or will he or she challenge them to think like a righty. ha! We were forced to think like a lefty with our Charley.

So I will continue counting the days, the weeks, until this little person comes out of Raina's belly so that she has to share him/her with us. And I will continue buying all the little things I am going to spoil him/her with. And I will keep telling myself not to wish the next 18 weeks to go by quick. Because having been through it...being pregnant is an experience that is an individual journey and a personal one. This is Raina's time to have this little miracle all to herself. She is nourishing it, taking care of it, keeping it warm and safe. It can hear her voice and it feels her feelings. And until it enters the world...it is all hers. Sorry Andy but it is true...but keep reading to that little miracle because your voice is going to be known too...and at 2 am when he/she won't sleep and Raina needs to rest it is your voice that is going to lull that little one back to sleep as you pace back and forth singing a song that is going to work like a charm because that is what a daddy's voice can magically do when nothing else works :)

Be happy my sister! Your days as a mama have begun and the journey is amazing. There is nothing like it. LOVE YOU!