Baby Fever

My best friend Jennifer-Marie welcomed her beautiful baby Jocelyn to the world this past Sunday.  I guess that makes me an Aunt, sort of.  It also makes me officially the only one in my circle of friends who has not tried his/her hand at procreating.  Practicing, yes.  Procreating...not so much.  For whatever reason it seems my husband and I have always found a reason not to have a baby.  Either he wasn't ready, I wasn't ready, our bank accounts weren't ready, our dog may not be ready, our home repairs/updates weren't ready, our relationship as a couple wasn't ready, etc.  At almost thirty we're perfectly content to babysit for friends and family and then send the little boogers home.  We'd done our research on local daycare facilities, talked to my doctor, but really we were just waiting for the right moment when the stars aligned before making that commitment.  I know, I know... if you wait for the right moment you'll never have a kid.  There's never a right moment.  I've heard that a million times.  Although now it seems my mindset is changing.

You see, when all my other friends were having babies I thought "Eh, they're cute but it's not for me.  Not yet anyway.  Someday."  No baby fever, no metaphorical ticking of the old biological clock. But the more I watched Jacqueline for Danielle and the closer my friend Jennifer got to her due date, the more I thought "I could do this.  I could totally rock being a mom."  Strangely this feeling didn't wane after hearing about 14 hours of discomfort, 3 hours of "I can't stand it" pain and all the other unmentionable things related to the phenomenon of birth.  When I held Jocelyn it all made sense.  I get it and suddenly I'm thinking things like "we're not getting any younger," "we both have good jobs," "the upstairs is just about done," and "holidays kind of suck now that there are no little kids in the family." 

There's only one explanation:  I think I've caught baby fever.