Last night I was at the birth center for a routine prenatal appointment.  The center was abuzz with a kind of contained energy.  Everyone had a smile on her face, and there was a kind of delicious anticipation in the air.

I took a seat in the lobby and a little girl and her mother walked in to check in for an appointment.  The little girl pointed to a lit candle that sat on the counter and asked, “Why is there a candle?”

The woman at the front desk smiled and said, “There’s a candle because there’s a mommy here right now who’s having a baby!”

I have to admit, when I found out there was a woman in the birth center who, at that very moment, was working to bring her child into the world, I caught some of that anticipation.  How exciting to be so close to something I’ve been studying, training for, and preparing to do for so many years!

I was called back to one of the birthing suites, which happened to share a wall with the suite where the laboring woman was, from how it sounded, working to push her baby out.  My prenatal appointment was punctuated by periodic yells and screams from next door and, contrary to how I thought I’d feel, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.

I’ve watched birth videos and heard women screaming as they pushed their babies out, but to hear it in person?  Totally different, and totally awesome.

I came home full of excitement, and it was at that moment that I realized that I’m super excited to have this baby.  Not just to meet him, but to actually be in labor.  I’m looking forward to those first contractions of early labor, and the back-to-back mind-numbingly intense transition contractions, and working with my body to push him out, and that sweet moment of release when he’s out and I realize I’ve done it.

I can’t wait to be that woman in the next room, who’s working hard and accomplishing something incredible.  Wes and I packed our birth bag last night, and now we’re fully ready.  All we have to do now is wait.  I hope we won’t have to wait for very long.