Week 39….Beyond Ready…by Liimu

So, this is it. My last post before the newest McGill makes his appearance in the world. I have to admit, there is a part of me that is more excited about not being pregnant anymore than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I cannot WAIT to meet my son, and I’m sure that will overshadow all else as soon as he gets here, but right now, with the numbness in my hands and feet, the swelling everywhere including my face, the heartburn and the wheezing, I just feel like a hot, hot mess. I’m just ready to be on the other side of the peak of pregnancy discomfort, on the road to recovery and back to my sassy self. That’s part two of this journey readers, coming back to myself – better than before.

The other thing I wanted to talk about – in the context of being beyond ready – is a little Aha moment my husband and I had with our eight year old. We thought we were ready, she and I. I bragged to friends about how she had decided to move into the baby’s room because she wanted to be there to help in the middle of the night. “No backsies!” I joked. And a joke it was because she was terrified to be in her own room after having had someone in her room since her younger sister was born just 16 months after her. So, this week, we blew up the air mattress and put it on the floor of her old room, now her sisters’ room, and that is where she will sleep until she’s feeling brave enough to try again.

My husband was torn and inclined to tell her to suck it up. But I have been terrified of the bumps in the night, and I know that there are times you need to suck it up and times you need to change the situation to address the fear. Because she wasn’t wanting to sleep with us, her sisters wanted her in the room with them, and she is generally a sweet and adaptable young lady, I fought hard for her to get to change her mind and go back to the safety and security of sleeping with her sisters. So far, so good. We thought we were ready before. Now, we are beyond ready. We are ready to admit mistakes and learn from them, and that (I have found) is the most important factor in really being ready for parenthood. Because the only thing I have found that I knew for sure each time I had a child was that nothing at all is certain.