Having babies...

I'm sure you know this, but having babies is one of my favorite things that I've been able to do in life.  They don't get in very easy, but they come out beautifully! Patrick and I are very confident, and in unity, that we won't do fertility treatments again -- ever.  The toll it took on our family last time was hard. Add to this being older and my body having a harder time with pregnancy -- it's a good and wise decision, we believe.

But this doesn't change the fact that I've had three fantastic deliveries.  And it doesn't make my love of labor and delivery go away!

Last night, a co-worker of Patrick's {and his wife} came over for dinner.  They are just a month away from their due date with their first child.  It was so fun talking with them about babies! We don't have a lot of wisdom and insight, but we have some experience!  They asked so many questions and were so interested in whatever we were sharing.  It was fun to have a very honest and encouraging conversation about having babies.

We talked about end of pregnancy and labor.  We talked about delivery and knowledge and confidence.  We talked about enjoying the hospital stay the first time around.  We talked about how hard the first few weeks are.  We laughed at parenthood and life changes.  And we encouraged them to have low expectations and a positive perspective.  I sincerely hope they left confident and encouraged about having a baby!

After they left, I was just so excited for them {as I am with most people that get to have babies!} and can't wait to hear how their experience goes.  No matter how the baby comes into this world, I know they are prepared and ready -- and have a good bit of healthy-what did we get ourselves into- fear!

This made my heart long to help other women and walk this road with them.  Not because I have any thing to offer, but simply because I LOVE this process and would love to help other women feel confident about having babies! Someday I really think that being a doula would bring such joy to my heart.  If I can't birth babies anymore, I might as well be there when someone else does! :)

I don't know if there was a point to this post, other than to process how much I loved having these sweet folks over and talking about having babies. There have GOT to be other people in the world who could talk about labor and delivery for hours with me!!! :)