I went out to coffee (or hot chocolate, as is more my nature) with a few friends last week. One was an old friend who I've known since I was 14-years-old (and we got into an interesting conversation about the first time we met, which included me showing her my thong. That I was wearing at the time. Sadly if you know me you're not surprised.) She's a warm, beautiful woman, and we've had a really special and mutually supportive relationship for years and years. Later in the week I had coffee (insert correction: hot chocolate) with two of my paras - Deb (Bob), and Celia (Baby Doula....Like a "Baby Momma", but not.) Deb and Celia (along with my other three paras) are some of the most talented, loving, funny, and sarcastic women I've ever met (sarcasm being my highest compliment to bestow). In my classroom, I am known as "Baby Boss" and they are known as "The Bitches". Another example of shining professionalism in the public education spectrum at work again...
Like I've mentioned before, all my paras were some of the most supportive people while I was struggling to get pregnant. I usually pride myself on being a pretty steady, emotionally stable person, but the infertility journey was one of the biggest rollercoasters of painful and confusing emotions that I've ever been on. Through it all my girls stuck by my side, and continued to have an uncanny six sense for what I needed before I often knew myself. The top three people I was most excited to tell when I found out we were pregnant were Nick, my parents, and my bitches, because those were the people that were right there through it all.
Nick teases me because all of my friends are nearly twice my age or older. Clearly it means I'm either ragingly mature, or they are ragingly immature. (I know many people likely have strong feelings on that one way or another, but since this is MY blog, I'm going to stick with me being ragingly mature.) Nick says it frightens him because it gives him a clear look into the future of how I'm going to be in ten years, twenty years, etc. (Spoiler alert: things don't look much different.)
Luckily we somehow find a balance, and while I do like to tease that they could be my mother (or grandmother, in the case of multiple teen pregnancy accidents), I love the fact that I have friends from every stage of life. Literally we have moms with grandkids, moms with kids just starting college, moms with teens, pre-teens, and elementary-age kids, and then of course me with Eggy.
Nick and I have so much parenting experience to gleen from our friends, and have talked about how lucky we are to have so many competent and excited babysitters for our little one (and of course by "babysitters" I mean "potential baby-nappers".) There are some conflicts and ugliness surrounding who gets our baby when post-birth (there have already been dates penciled in on the calendar for whose week is whose...Sadly Nick and I aren't on there until about mid-March I believe.) But honestly, what a lucky kid to be born into such an incredible, knowledgable, and loving support system that extends beyond just our immediate family. I've already come to see that there is nothing, nothing more special than seeing your friends love your baby. Makes you love them even more...Even if they are bitches.
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