Baby Boom

You know how every year it's like you suddenly look up and suddenly the leaves have turned and the air is crisp and the season has changed before you even know what happened?  That's what I'm going through right now, except the leaves are women in my life and the crisp air is babies in their bellies and the season changing is everyone and their mother is pregnant. 

Friends, co-workers, family members, acquaintances.  All pregnant.  That lady in front of me at Chipotle?  Pregnant.  Lady checking me in at the gym?  Pregnant.  Next door neighbor?  Pregnant-ish.  Possibly just a little bloated.  I'll get back to you on that one.  But for the most part there are babies everywhere. 

And the people who are not actively growing babies seem to suddenly have a lot of questions about babies.  Actually, really just one question about babies.  As in, when will you be having one? 

Well, let's see.  We have one car and live in a shoebox and my student loan payments are going to kick back in next month after one year of deferment so now seems like a pretty awesome time to crank one of those things out.

I do want kids.  I just don't want kids right now.  The distinction is pretty important.  That whole house and second car thing feel pretty major.  If possible, I would like to have a place to put the kid and for both of us to be able to drive it places. 

In the meantime, I've been taking advantage of having all these with child ladies around me by asking them lots of questions.  I don't just want to hear about the romanticized this-is-such-a-miracle version anymore, I want to know everything.  All the gory, uncomfortable, I-had-no-idea-that-was-possible details. 

I've even read a couple books on the subject and have traded a few texts with friends in a similar place in life.  I now know more than one probably needs to about basal body temperature and pre-pregnancy vitamins and ovulation.  Which is weird considering I don't intend to do anything with this information for some time, but I plan everything in my life ridiculously in advance so this shouldn't be any different. 

Now hopefully I just don't freak out my pregnant friend at work by following her around taking notes.